Eve Of Destruction was a X-Men storyline by Scott Lobdell with artwork from Leinil Francis Yu, Salvador Larroca, and Tom Raney that ran through the months of March and June of 2001 in the pages of X-Men vol. 2 #110-113 and Uncanny X-Men #392-393. It was meant to bridge the gap between Lobdell's previous storyline and Grant Morrison’s revamp of the line which began later that year.
With the curing of the Legacy Virus, a fully recovered Magneto makes moves to announce Genosha as a new global superpower for mutants. He attacks the mansion and kidnaps Xavier, crucifying him and neutralizing his powers with plans to execute him. A simple plan for the X-men to rescue him right? The problem is half the X-Men just left to seek the remaining Destiny’s diaries, to find out how to utilize them and more of them left on personal journeys of self-discovery. That leaves Jean Grey to recruit a last minute rescue team comprised of whomever she can find while Cyclops and Wolverine go in on a stealth mission alone. What can go wrong?
X-Men: Eve of Destruction provides examples of:
- Bittersweet Ending: Xavier is saved but Wolverine is forced to gut Magneto leaving the people of Genosha to their own devices. Dazzler is still very much traumatized by her experiences in Mojoworld and she and the mutants that Jean recruited all depart leaving the X-men just as fractured as they were when the story began. Another glimmer of hope is that Genosha is still free and a safe haven for mutants.
- The Bus Came Back: Dazzler returns in this story after a while away with Longshot. She doesn’t explain where Longshot is or what happened to make her return distressed but it’s implied to be bad.
- Closest Thing We Got: Storm, no longer trusting Charles took Rogue, Beast, Psylocke, Thunderbird, and Bishop on a mission to decipher Destiny’s diaries. Gambit followed them. Colossus has died. Nightcrawler left to pursue the priesthood. Kitty is in college. And Bobby, Warren, and Marrow are somewhere unknown. That leaves Jean’s team mostly comprised of who she can find. She tries to contact Sunfire and his sister answers the call. She has to recruit Hector Rendoza, a man with translucent skin with no experience and only vague control over his ability to transfer his affliction to others, and Paulie Provenzo, who was trying to join the mob but had super strength and invincibility that was useful. She has to brainwash Frenzy who at the time was Magneto’s most loyal soldier. Her best recruits were Northstar and Dazzler who just happened to drop by the mansion.
- Heel–Face Brainwashing: Jean does this to Frenzy turning her into a creepy perpetual smiler.
- History Repeats: A telepath (Jean) goes and recruits a group of mutants on an immediate rescue mission when most of the X-men who would regularly be deployed go missing. This is just like when Charles Xavier did the same in Giant-Sized X-men. Jean even recruits Wraith by telepathically freezing an angry mob the same way Charles did for Nightcrawler.
- Rag Tag Bunch Of Misfits: With most of the X-Men missing Jean is left to recruit a skinless Nervous Wreck who has no business fighting anyone let alone Magneto, a homophobic jerk who was making moves to take over the Italian mob just before being recruited, an arrogant French Canadian jerk who is not a team player, an arrogant nationalist hothead Japanese former X-man’s equally hotheaded sister, a shell shocked former X-man who just escaped from an alternate dimension, and a brainwashed Acolyte who is normally loyal to Magneto. Jean really must have had very few options here.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: The whole team really but especially Omertà and Northstar due to the latter being gay and the former being a virulent homophobe.
