Marvel Just Gave the X-Men an Enemy Unlike Anything They’ve Faced Before and It Might Be Unstoppable

The X-Men have had some of the most powerful villains in Marvel Comics, and many of them have been around since the team’s original formation. The first major villain the X-Men faced in comics was Magneto, and that was arguably one of the best first villain appearances in comics when it comes to heroes and their arch-enemies. Magneto then spent the next year or two building up his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, which started out with Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, Mastermind, and Toad. They also recruited Blob, which was easier when the X-Men also recruited him, but in a more demanding and bullying style.

This week saw the release of Bishop #2 by Saladin Ahmed, Mario Santoro, and Reese Hannigan. In this issue, Bishop is on the run from villains from his future timeline called the Final Brotherhood, with the first attacker, Flamequake, descended from the mutants Avalanche and Pyro. In this issue, Bishop’s sister Shard saves him, despite the fact that he watched her die in his future. However, their reunion is short-lived when a villain named Skippingstone attacks them.

Marvel Combines Blob and Toad Into Skippingstone

The first villain who attacked Bishop is Flamequake, and she claims that he has to die because he will be responsible for the death of countless mutants. However, before she can kill him, Shard protects her brother, arriving as an agent of X.S.E. As a reminder, X.S.E. is a law enforcement team of mutants called the Xavier Security Enforcers. Debuting in Uncanny X-Men #282 by John Byrne and Whilce Portacio, the X.S.E. was formed to keep Professor Xavier’s dream alive, and the M that the government branded mutants with was turned into a badge of honor. Bishop was, at the time, the youngest graduate from the X.S.E. Academy, and his sister Shard graduated even younger than him. The rest of the team included names like Hecat’e, Amazon, Recoil, and Sureshot.

The Final Brotherhood made their debut in the first issue of Bishop, and they said they were there for one reason. They want to stop what it is that Bishop does to prevent the tragedies that will happen in his original timeline to mutants. Flamequake said that Bishop coming back in time starts the Age of the Sentinels, and thousands of mutants will die. The Final Brotherhood was sent back to kill him, and his sister was sent back, right before Bishop watched her die, to save the Brotherhood’s target, not realizing that it was her own brother before she got there.

After dealing with Flamequake and sending her back to the future, they ended up being attacked by a new mutant from the Final Brotherhood. After delivering an explosive blast, Skippingstone announced his arrival. At first, Bishop wasn’t impressed and asked if he was a Toad knockoff. However, when Shard said he also has an X-Gene from “some guy called The Blob,” he became deadlier than Bishop ever expected.

Toad debuted in X-Men #4 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby as one of the first members of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Blob debuted one issue earlier, and eventually also joined the Brotherhood. As two of the first X-Men villains ever, Blob and Toad are mainstays in the mutant world, and Skippingstone has both of their powers. He has Toad’s incredible leaping abilities and Blob’s immovable, power-based attacks. This makes every jump an earthquake waiting to happen. Each of the Final Brotherhood has the combined powers of two former Brotherhood members, and Skippingstone is the strongest so far.

Bishop Dealing With New Revelations From His Original Timeline

The issue with Bishop and Shard is hard for the X-Men member to deal with. He watched her die horribly before he ended up as a refugee on modern-day Earth-616. Shard was sent back right before this happened, and now Bishop has a tough decision to make. If he tells her she is going to die, it could break the timeline, and he has no idea the damage that could cause to the future. If he doesn’t tell her, she will leave him and die anyway. This is not something that he will be able to deal with well.

There is also the fact that Bishop was told his time travel to Earth-616 would cause the death of thousands of mutants, and that is why the Final Brotherhood was sent to kill him. However, for anyone who knows Bishop’s history, this is the most ironic thing that could have happened to him. That is because Bishop went back in time to kill Hope Summers, the Mutant Messiah who caused his entire timeline to end up a dystopian nightmare. He ended up fighting with Cable, who swore to protect Hope, and Bishop’s only goal was to kill her and stop the deaths in the future.

The fact that the Final Brotherhood and mutants like Skippingstone were sent back for the same reason Bishop himself went back in time is a cruel irony. Bishop wanted to kill a child to prevent the death of thousands of humans that would destroy his world. The Final Brotherhood now wants to kill him to save the lives of thousands of mutants. It is a full-circle moment for Bishop, and it might be his best story in years.

Marvel Just Brought Back It’s Best Team But We Still Need an MCU Version