As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.

X-FORCE vol 6 #46
“A Tale of Two Brothers”
Writer: Benjamin Percy
Artist: Robert Gill
Colour artist: GURU-eFX
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Designers: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Mark Basso

COVER / PAGE 1. Mikhail and Colossus fight. Not wild about that movie advert banner we seem to be getting on every cover this month, but hey, needs must.

PAGES 2-4. Mikhail appeals to Colossus.

This is where we left off last issue. The black void is one of the dimensional rifts that Mikhail created using his powers; Chronicler sent Colossus here last issue in order to provide him with some sort of resolution after being ordered to move on to writing about a new subject in Orchis.

Mikhail makes a last ditch appeal to Colossus as a brother, which is almost certainly insincere. Bear in mind that in issue #44, Mikhail was completely indifferent to Chronicler’s warnings that Colossus could die if he simply dropped control. Mikhail also seems to misread Colossus’ likely reaction to being told that the Beast had the right idea.

That said… the Beast would doubtless say that “Fall of X” does vindicate him. This is precisely the sort of existential threat to Krakoa that he was working to stop all this time, and as soon as he was taken off the board, look what happened. Except of course that there’s no evidence at all that Beast saw any of Orchis’ angles coming – in particular, he evidently failed to spot the doctoring of Krakoan drugs. But the way things have worked out, the Beast has the opportunity to make the claim and to disavow any responsibility.

Mikhail tells us fairly directly here that Chronicler’s powers are meant to work without Colossus being consciously aware of what has happened to him. This seems to flatly contradict Immortal X-Men #12, where Colossus’s narration – admittedly written for him by Chronicler – does seem to be aware of what’s happening. Perhaps Chronicler was just being meta. At any rate, if it is an outright contradiction, then X-Force takes precedence, because it’s an X-Force plot.

PAGE 5. Recap and credits.

PAGES 6-7. Dr Strange sends Domino and Sage into the void.

Domino and Sage asked Dr Strange for help last issue; it turned out that Mikhail’s reality warping had nothing to do with magic after all, but Strange can still lend a hand, up to a point.

Wolverine (Laura), Omega Red and Quentin are still stuck in the same scenarios within Mikhail’s rifts were we saw them two issues ago.

As if it wasn’t obvious, the rifts are collapsing because they’re sustained by Mikhail’s power, and he’s dying.

PAGES 8-9. Sage rescues Omega Red.

Self-explanatory.

PAGES 10-12. Domino rescues Wolverine.

Mikhail has been using these “nesting doll” creatures, genetically engineered by the Man With The Peacock Tattoo and his XENO organisation, throughout the series.

PAGE 13. Mikhail fights Colossus.

“For a long time, I was the one whose future was stolen from him.” Mikhail was first mentioned in X-Men #99 (1976) as Colossus’ older brother, a cosmonaut who had died in an accident. Much, much later, Uncanny X-Men #285-286 (1992) establish that he actually got sucked through a portal and spent years stranded in an alternate universe. He only becomes a villain after being brought back to the mainstream universe and going mad. With hindsight, he’d probably have been better off where he was.

PAGE 14. Data page: Chronicler muses about why he writes, in a rather meta sequence. Basically, he says that he writes because he feels compelled to create, but over time he kept writing because his power allowed him to steer people to get what he wanted. He implies that he was a high profile novelist at one point, which presumably means that his published books anonymised the events at least to some degree. Of course, the published versions aren’t necessarily the raw drafts that he uses to actually control people – but he seems to imply that he was genuinely doing this as part of his creative process. The suggestion may be that he started off writing characters inspired by people he met, and only realised over time that he was dictating their behaviour rather than just being a really good interpreter of people.

PAGES 15-16. Chronicler and Jun Wei’s rift collapses.

This is where we left them last issue – Chronicler made Jun shoot Mikhail, and then desperately remembered to write something else before she shot him.

PAGES 17-19. Deadpool shows up to help with the nesting dolls.

He mentioned last issue that he was too busy with the Avengers, but apparently he changed his mind. It’s not shown on panel, but he seems to have tailed Domino and Sage to the Sanctum Sanctorum, which makes sense.

PAGES 20-21. Colossus kills Mikhail.

It’s not clear whether Colossus knows at this point that resurrection is off the table.

PAGES 22-23. X-Force, Chronicler and Jun Wei emerge back in the Sanctum Sanctorum.

Self-explanatory. Jun is conveniently unconscious.

PAGE 24. Data page. A farewell from Chronicler. X-Force ask him to stick around, presumably because he’s got useful powers. He’s a victim of Mikhail who didn’t have much choice in matters, but X-Force don’t know that. At any rate, Chronicler insists on retiring to civilian life in Paris. I’m not quite sure how that works, given that he says he’s not planning to use his powers. We’ve got people evacuating to the Shi’ar Empire in Alpha Flight, but apparently France is okay?

Jun Wei is mind-wiped and sent back to Orchis. That might turn out to be significant, since Chronicler is still out there and has some sort of link with her – but this does read like the end of Chronicler’s arc.

PAGE 25. Trailers. The Krakoan reads THE GREENHOUSE.