Judgment Day: An Eternal Related to Thanos Easily Defeats a Planet Full of X-Men

Marvel’s big event series for 2022 has arrived in A.X.E.: Judgment Day, and it officially kicks off with The Eternals on the offensive. Judgment Day brings together many plotlines from Avengers, Eternals, and X-Men, as the Eternals see mutants as a form of excess deviation, which they are programmed to eliminate. Earth’s Mightiest Heroes find themselves in the middle of a war between the two factions, along with Earth as the battlefield. Druig, the Prime Eternal, is plotting behind the scenes against the X-Men and plans to unleash a secret weapon against mutants. This Eternal has ties to Thanos and is even more frightening than the Mad Titan.

WARNING: This article contains spoilers for A.X.E.: Judgment Day #1, on sale now. Continue at your own risk!

A.X.E.: Judgment Day #1 comes from the creative team of Kieron Gillen, Valerio Schiti, Marte Gracia, and VC’s Clayton Cowles. ComicBook.com had an exclusive preview of Judgment Day #1, but for our purposes now the central focus should be on Druig. He’s aligned himself with Moira MacTaggert, a former friend and now enemy of the X-Men. She’s revealed to him how the mutant resurrection machine works, where the mutant island-nation of Krakoa is weakest, and how Arakko (formerly Mars) is not to be underestimated. Druig has carefully-laid plans on how to deal with each task, and has a particular Eternal in mind to deal with Arakko.

Uranos the Undying has been a prisoner in The Exclusion, aka the Eternals’ prison, for “hundreds of thousands of years,” according to Druig. He’s releasing Uranos to unleash havoc on Arakko with one caveat: Uranos is only being let out for one hour. After his hour is up, the machine (Earth) will send him back to The Exclusion. As the Eternals use the Uni-Mind to take out Krakoa’s Quiet Council telepaths, an army of armor-clad warriors descends on the island to distract the mutant defenders. Back on Krakoa, Nightcrawler, Magneto, and Cable attempt to alert the Great Ring of the coming war when Uranos shows up off-screen. 

The Eternals’ army almost took out The Five – five mutants who serve as the catalyst for the resurrection machine – but are stopped by Wolverine. Just as the attacking forces retreat, Nightcrawler BAMF’s his way to Arbor Magna with distressing news from Arakko. After The Five resurrect Cable, we flashback to Arakko, where Uranos is surveying his path of destruction. We find him holding Cable’s skull, which turns to dust, along with the remains of Magneto and others. A wider shot reveals just how much damage Uranos unleashed in his hour, as Arakko’s surface is razed, and smoke and ash block out the sun.

Druig is pleased with his living weapon, but Uranos believes Druig will be forced to free him again in the near future. To his credit, the Prime Eternal is saving that card for a rainy day. After all, he has the Hex, a group of monstrous mechanical-looking Eternals that rise out of the ocean on the western U.S. seaboard. If Uranos was given free rein on Earth, civilization as we know it might not exist ever again.

Of course, with this in mind, it’s only a matter of time before Uranos escapes The Exclusion. It has the feeling that another player will discover Uranos and let him free, though who that could be at this moment remains unknown. Hopefully, the next issue of X-Men Red will give readers a view of what happened when Uranos arrived on Arakko before Judgment Day continues with Issue #2.

What did you think about A.X.E.: Judgment Day #1? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!