Our issue begins in the middle, in Sullivan County, Texas,
where a bewildered Beast finds himself staring in disbelief at a traveling
circus. Banshee is acting as the carnival barker and the rest of the X-Men are
presented as freakshow attractions for the public to scoff and marvel at. Storm
and Nightcrawler are presented as a goddess and a demon, Wolverine as a savage
man-beast, and Colossus as a strongman. Beast continues to wander around the
circus, in order to gather more information. He doesn’t know the new X-Men very
well and so can’t be absolutely certain that it’s them yet. He thinks about
what led him here, having gotten a message from Lorna Dane that Havok had gone
missing. When Lorna couldn’t reach the X-Men, she called Beast, who
investigated the mansion and found that it had been deserted for weeks. He used
Cerebro to track the X-Men, leading him to this circus, though he still can’t
help wondering if it possibly made a mistake.
He then comes upon a trapeze show, with Jean Grey as
the apparent star, using the stage name Miz Destiny. After missing her
performing partner’s grab, Beast is first shocked, before witnessing “Miz
Destiny” float safely down to the ground. Beast goes to her dressing room
afterwards to try and get some answers. She has no idea what Beast is talking
about when he tries talking to her, and Cyclops appears to escort Beast out.
Beast decks Cyke out of the trailer, where he then calls for help, causing the
entire circus to attack Beast. Beast avoids the other circus workers, ducking
into the freakshow tent holding Wolverine to regroup and figure out what to do.
Beast has reasonably assumed that something is affecting the X-Men’s minds and
plans to call his other Avengers teammates to come help.
Just then, however, he gets hit from behind by
Colossus. Too groggy from the punch, Beast quickly gets overwhelmed by the rest
and dragged off to meet their boss. It’s there that Beast discovers that
Mesmero is behind everything. Turns out he had ambushed Jean at Grand Central
Station, before she led him back to the mansion, where he was able to brainwash
the others and set them up here. Back with Wolverine, he struggles against his
chains, something instinctual within him rebelling against the mind control.
With great strain, he finally frees himself and intimidates a worker into
telling him what’s going on. Wolverine then breaks through the wall of Jean’s
trailer, clocking Cyclops when he tries to grab him. Hoping that a primal,
instinctual reaction will break her control as it did with his, he slaps her
repeatedly, until she finally reacts, transforming into Phoenix and blasting
him across the room. Now back to her senses, Jean checks on Wolverine and he
tells her that they need to free the others from Mesmero’s control.
Speaking of whom, Mesmero tries to mind control Beast
as well, who does an admirable job of fighting him off. When one of the workers
storms in to tell Mesmero that the X-Men are free, his control slips, allowing
Beast to break free. Before he can capitalize on it though, Beast is knocked
out by an unseen assailant, someone who Mesmero reacts in surprise to seeing.
Outside, the X-Men make quick work of the circus workers, before heading for
the man in charge. The X-Men confront Mesmero, who then falls over unconscious,
to their shock! Then, from the shadows, we see his attacker, and the X-Men
react in shock and worry, as none other than Magneto reveals himself, here to
settle his unfinished business, and announcing that the final victory shall be
his! To be continued!