Oddly enough, I just clicked on COMM to see that tommyrot made a Riefenstahl joke elsewhere (I know not the context) very recently. Synchronicity or the first warning sign of the Apocalypse? We retort, you decide.

Context says, it is all but certain to be the apocalypse: tommyrot "Natter 45: Smooth as Billy Dee Williams." Jun 19, 2006 12:38:55 pm PDT

That was absolutely terrifying.

DC Comics seeks an Assistant Editor for the DC Editorial department.

I nominate Plei!

New Astounishing tomorrow.

I must confess, I quite enjoyed seeing Cassandra Nova transplanting what appears to be Daffy Duck's personality into Logan. Far too often he's portrayed, in Kirklike fashion, as the one person who keeps his wits or isn't affected by the psychoactive drug/mesmerism/whammy when this is exactly the sort of thing that he should have little defense against.

I do worry that Cassandra will be essentially unstoppable without a Xavier or Jean Grey-level telepath coming to the rescue. Though it has been a while since the latter began her dirt nap, so maybe she's due for a wake-up call...

I SO enjoyed that too Matt (you're first comment). Now I'm waiting for an "Of course you know, this means war." from Kitty (which we sorta got).

I'm still trying to figure out if Emma has really gone bad. She doesn't seem terribly happy that everything is going as planned. On the other hand, she also seemed to really enjoy messing with Scott's head. On the other other hand, Cyclops is a dick, so who wouldn't.

I get the feeling that Emma doesn't want to betray everyone, but if it's a choice between betraying them or getting chewed up by Cassandra she's going to look out for #1. Still, Kitty may have been invited as her ace in the hole to mess up the plan.

I was impressed by the fight between Peter and Sebastian Shaw, where the latter was showing some effects from the punches even as he absorbed their force. I don't know if that means Peter's gotten stronger, Shaw's gotten older, or if they're just inserting it as a heretofore unseen indication that his powers don't absorb quite 100% of the energy directed against him. Not sure I liked the droplet of liquid metal trickling down Peter's lip, though.

After posting last night I started wondering if the mysterious hooded figure might turn out to BE Jean. It would be another callback to the original Hellfire Club storyline, which Joss and John seem to be echoing quite consciously in that last panel. And whoa, if we think Scott is messed up now...

Matt, I'm not familiar with the storyline you referenced in the at the end of your post - is there someplace online I can find out about that, or is it brief enough that you can explicate (in white font if need be)?

As to the last part of your first comment, that's almost how I read the end of the issue, but I went back to double-check and thought otherwise - maybe my initial read will be right after all. It probably would be a help if I knew more about these Hellfire Club folks - I'm not sure what everyone's powers are.

I was referring to X-Men issues 129-135, which has a storyline way too convoluted for me to explain. A brief overview can be read here. The final panel of Kitty was a homage to a final panel featuring Wolverine in that run of comics .