A
street battle between the Avengers and the Masters of Evil has the city transfixed
as the adventures of the beloved heroes make for great theater. The Fantastic Four
also thrills the populace. Phil Sheldon snaps the pictures and pitches a
book about the Marvels to a publisher. But then the X-Men appear, with a report
that they tried to kill a man; Phil hears later that they may have been trying
to save him but the crowd grows ugly and turns on the mutants, with Phil,
caught up in the moment, hurling a brick at Iceman; he hears Cyclops say that
they humans aren’t worth it before they go. Phil turns over the mutants in his
mind, along with the reports that they are homo superior, mankind’s
replacement. He worries over his kids’ idolization of the Marvels, he attends
Alicia Masters’ art show and sees the FF and Tony Stark, Reed Richards and
Sue Storm announce their engagement. But the anti-mutant sentiment grows. Phil
returns to his quiet suburban neighborhood to find his neighbors have formed a
mob, pursuing rumors that mutants have been sighted in the area. Phil goes in
and finds his kids have been sheltering a little mutant girl named Maggie. And
seeing her, Phil realizes the mutants are not a menace….
Reed
and Sue’s wedding is the biggest event of the year but soon everyone is watching
a debate on the mutant menace between Charles Xavier and Bolivar Trask; during
the debate, Trask unleashes his Sentinels to hunt down mutants and the city
goes crazy, anti-mutant riots breaking out everywhere, stopped only by the
Sentinels spreading through the skies. Phil rushes home to find Maggie has
left, not wanting the Sheldons to be endangered any longer. Phil’s daughter
wants to know if Maggie will be all right but he doesn’t know….