X-Men: The Hidden Years #20: Worlds Within Worlds

Magneto seeks the help of Namor, king of Atlantis, to start a war.

In Illinois, Professor Xavier is still worried over the loss of telepathic communication with his X-Men. In addition, he senses a darkness looming over the fate of humanity in the mind of Magneto.

Meanwhile, Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Iceman and Beast are captured and brought to meet the Mole Man. The Mole Man insists he will defeat the X-Men, and despite being nearly blind, he manages to tackle Cyclops and Iceman (Beast is still unconscious). He is no match for Marvel Girl’s telekinesis, but the Mole Man takes out all the X-Men with his “mind-numbing glare of the Valley of Diamonds”. Iceman notices running water in the chamber and regains his ability to turn back into ice form with enough humidity, and creates an ice shield covering the diamonds. The Mole Man moves onto his next plan and unleashes underground monsters on the X-Men. Beast finally awakens and rushes to assist his team mates.






Angel is obliged to help the woman, named Lucy, who freed him from Messenger. He flies the X-Men’s ship to Lucy’s former home. Her older son was killed in the Vietnam war, but she is certain her younger son still lives in the same house. On arrival, she mistakes her grandson to be her son, Mike. An aged man, her son, greets her on the porch. Lucy tries to mend things between her and Mike, but Mike grows increasingly angry with Lucy’s ignorance, her abandoning her family and the fact that she is a mutant. He had thought her dead for years, and cannot bring himself to accept that his mother is younger than he is.

On the ship, Angel relates his own story about having lost his own mother a few days ago, but he never felt close to his parents, being away from them all the time. Lucy admits that she used her powers to convince Angel to help her when Angel asked why he helped her first instead of his friends. But she didn’t use her powers on her son because she needed to know how he felt truly. Returning to matters which concern him the greatest, Angel plans to rescue his team mates.

Mrs Martin interrupts Xavier’s telepathic search for his X-Men with a disturbing news broadcast on television. Doctor Reed Richards confirmed that the Fantastic Four “came under attack from a mysterious magnetic wave” which was traced back to “the undersea kingdom of Atlantis”. While Mr Fantastic plans to counter attack the “Atlantean warships”, Xavier projects his astral form, allowing his psyche to leave his body, so he can learn more about Magneto’s secret alliance.


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