WARNING: The following contains spoilers for X-Men #17 by Jonathan Hickman, Brett Booth, Adelso Corona, Sunny Gho, Tom Muller, and VC's Clayton Cowles, on sale now.
The X-Men are one of the most iconic super teams in the Marvel Universe, and the team includes a bevy of fan-favorite characters. All of these heroes are capable of standing out on their own, but it's when they come together that truly remarkable and jaw-dropping things happen. And when they combine their powers, the X-Men are at the forefront of Mutant Technology, where mutants combine their powers to far greater effect than either would have on their own.
And in X-Men #17, the X-Men's two greatest leaders, Cyclops and Storm, just showed the Marvel Universe how dangerous they can be when they work together.
Things haven't settled down much for the mutants of Krakoa since the end of X of Swords, on Earth or in space. When Cyclops, Jean and Storm receive a distress call from their allies in the Shi'ar Empire, they're happy to make the trip. Someone has kidnapped the young Empress Xandra, daughter of Lilandra and Charles Xavier, and the internal investigation hasn't turned up much. Once the X-Men arrive on Chandilar, Deathbird gathers together everyone that was on call in the palace on the night of the abduction, and Jean telepathically determines the kidnapper.
Once discovered, the kidnapper bellows out a death threat to the Empress and charges in an effort to make a last stand. The villain fails miserably and is unceremoniously obliterated by the combined power of Cyclops' optic blast and a spiraling bolt of lightning courtesy of Storm. Even the two X-Men are taken back by what just happened, neither of them quite sure which one took out the target, though from the looks of things they both hit the bullseye.
This new maneuver drums up memories both old and new of the classic Fastball Special, as both are equally effective and awe-inspiring upon first viewing. The Fastball Special has been around for a long time, and it's been done and redone by various heroes throughout that deep history, though it largely depends on who is putting it together when it comes to efficiency. Cyclops and Storm's combo is, in that vein, much closer to the recently unveiled Warlock power armor that Warpath showed off during a recent training session in New Mutants #14, with both requiring more a much more specific setup than just someone strong and someone sharp. Making sure that the next generation of mutants are well versed in coordinating and combining their powers is probably the smartest thing that their mentors could be doing.
With every threat they're facing from both outside and within, the X-Men are going to want to put those skills to good use much more frequently.
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