So, who’s wrapping all this up? Anyone from the preceding issues? Nope, it’s the brand-new creative team of Joe Casey, Terry Shoemaker, Scott Hanna & Mark Bernardo. Again, I wonder why this happened. Whose idea was it? Did anyone think a Juggernaut one-shot was gonna move units? Well, anyway, Juggernaut is kind of the star of this, as I recall, as the title would suggest, but we begin with the heroes strapped to the God Machine and recapping, recapping, recapping. Also, that regular guy is strapped in too, and I’m NOT crazy, his name is Dr. Mann. How did Mackie wind up calling him “J. Vernon?” Very confusing. As everyone recaps, Stonecutter teleports them to the North Pole, as advertised last issue. The Exemplars keep ooooon recappin’ as Stonecutter gets ready to turn on the machine and begin the whatever and such, at which point all humanity will lose free will and then the Exemplars will battle. Right-o, what’s the good guys doin’?
Cyttorakk continues beating up on Juggernaut in his mind for a surprisingly excessive 2 more pages, while in the real world, Inferno thinks he might be dying. The heroes do a bunch of empty telepathic jabbering at each other, then it’s time to explain why these other 7 jobbers waited so long to show up…
Ok, fine.
So Chuck thinks the way to help Cain defeat Cyttorakk is to make him super angry, and so they fight in his mindscape, each growing older, but then Bedlam senses their connection and severs it. Professor X thinks he felt Cain asserting control again as he was kicked out, but he can’t be sure. The heroes are still trapped, the gods are still itching to start fighting early, Juggs is still fighting Cyttorakk in his mind, then that stupid Fast Lane insert interrupts the book. Ugh. Then Cytorrakk uses his Crimson Bands against Juggernaut (Has that ever happened?), but for no apparent reason, Charles is right, and Juggernaut now overpowers the ancient god trying to control his mind. I mean, why? How? It doesn’t really land.
And now we got a fight. Iron Man and Thor engage a couple of ‘em, Spidey gets a page of humiliating action…
Juggernaut takes out Decay, Thor explicitly does not defeat Tempest, but isn’t fighting her next time we see him (?) and Iron Man defeats Inferno. Things are looking better for the home team. Stonecutter almost gets the machine turned on, but Thor simply throws his hammer through the controls, problem solved. Bedlam begins frying the 3 heroes’ brains, but Xavier engages her in a psychic battle.
Juggy wins his fight, but then is attacked by Carnivore. Every team has to have a Wolverine. Juggernaut is winning that fight when Bedlam shows up and starts torturing both of them as Stonecutter arrives.
This book has recapped the whole wager thing like 3 times. I get it, dude. Juggernaut and Stonecutter battle for a page, the heroes show up and then immediately realize they should probably leave…
Yes, as that caption indicates, this business ramps right back up in the pages of Avengers just 2 months after these 4 were published. And guess who shows up in part 2 of that 2-part Avengers story? I have no choice… But not yet…