"X-Men: Second Coming" is a 2010 comic book crossover storyline published by Marvel Comics that ran through most of the X-Men comic books published from March to July 2010.
Publication history Second Coming is the final part of a trilogy of stories that began with "Messiah Complex" and continued in "Messiah War". It is intended as a conclusion to Cable's efforts to save Hope Summers from Bishop, who has hunted her since her birth. The series also builds on the "Utopia", "Nation X" and "Necrosha" storylines of 2009 in the X-Men books. The story centers on the return of Cable and Hope Summers to the present day and Bastion's final campaign to destroy the X-Men.
Plot Cable and Hope Summers return from the future to the present, sparking action from Bastion and his allies Stephen Lang, Bolivar Trask, William Stryker, Graydon Creed and Cameron Hodge. Bastion tells them that the Mutant Messiah has returned and gives them orders to kill her. As the Alpha Team (Wolverine, X-23, Angel, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Psylocke and Magik) battle Stryker and his Purifiers, Magik makes her way toward Hope under orders from Wolverine to teleport her to Utopia. Cable remains behind with some of the X-Men after learning from the New Mutants that he was being tracked, while Rogue, Nightcrawler and Hope leave. Meanwhile, the New Mutants arrive at Cameron Hodge's facility. Hodge impales Karma's leg in the battle, leading to the leg being amputated. However, Hodge's army of "Smileys" are killed by Warlock, who absorbs their life force. The New Mutants warn Cyclops of Bastion's powers. The Alpha Team is attacked by armoured soldiers, and in response, Psylocke telekinetically sends X-23 to the jet and commandeer it. Nightcrawler, Rogue, and Hope arrive in Nevada. There, Bastion appears and brutally beats Rogue. He is about to kill Hope when Nightcrawler teleports between them and is impaled in the chest. Nightcrawler teleports Hope to Utopia and tells her that he believes in her before dying. Three and a half miles away from San Francisco, the X-Club investigate an oil rig and discover a ticking timer. Suddenly, it explodes, and Cyclops is certain that the X-Men's jets, the Blackbirds, have been decimated. Donald Pierce is found standing amid the debris and rues that he will not live to witness the decimation of the mutant race. Cyclops eliminates him with an optic blast and alerts the X-Men to expect an attack. With no means of transportation, Cyclops announces that they are trapped on Utopia. Meanwhile, the X-Club Science team are stranded just outside San Francisco and Utopia. An offshore explosion rocks Utopia, sending the X-Men reeling. After gathering near the Bay, they find an energy dome enveloping San Francisco and Utopia. Namor appears and informs Cyclops that the energy dome also descends into the ocean floor, making it a sphere. When the X-Men investigate, a group of Nimrods emerge from the sphere. Beast explains that Bastion has created a portal powered by an energy source of unknown origin that connects to another time period. Cyclops begins to formulate a new strategy which hinges on Cable using his last time jump to take X-Force to the future to deactivate the Sentinels. Cyclops sends all battle-worthy mutants to the portal and tells them to prepare for another attack. The X-Men then engage the Nimrods in battles all around the city. A Nimrod approaches Utopia and breaches its outer wall. Cyclops quickly shuts down several levels of the complex except for those most crucial and the resulting explosion destroys the Nimrod. Within the city and at the Port of Oakland, Storm, Surge, Iceman, Psylocke, Fantomex, and Namor manage to destroy several Nimrods through coordinated efforts. Though at low power after a recent coma, Magneto defends the island against many Nimrods to buy Beast time to treat the wounded. In the future, X-force fights it way into a Sentinel Processing Centre, where Cypher takes over the programming of Master Mold and they shut down all of the Nimrods in both the present and future. Their mission completed, X-Force retrieves Cable and Cypher, going to the time portal to escape back to the present. However, X-23 is brutally burned while attempting to cross through the portal. X-Force comes to the conclusion that only inorganic matter is able to pass through the portal. With no other alternative, Cable sacrifices himself to hold the portal open and allow the others to return home. Bastion appears with the reanimated Graydon Creed and Stephen Lang commenting that while the Nimrods are gone, mutantkind is still trapped and that he will deal with the remaining mutants himself. After witnessing Cable's sacrifice, Hope kills Lang and Creed. With the assistance of the X-Men, she eradicates Bastion and shatters the dome surrounding the city. At a celebratory bonfire, Emma Frost notices the flames around Hope take the shape of the Phoenix. Frost runs to warn Cyclops, who tells her that Cerebra has found five new mutants around the globe.
Tie-ins and one-shots As part of the cross-over, a number of tie-in mini-series and one-shots were released.
Revelations: X-Factor - Written by Peter David and drawn by Valentine De Landro, this story arc, starting with issue #204, features the reanimated leader of the Mutant Response Division, Bolivar Trask, as he tries to kill every member of X-Factor. Revelations: Hellbound - Written by Chris Yost and drawn by Harvey Tolibao and Sandu Florea, the three issue mini-series features Magik being banished to Limbo by a weaponised spell where she is conspired against by an old enemy. Cannonball leads a team which includes Northstar, Trance, Dazzler, Gambit, Pixie, and Anole on a mission to rescue her. Revelations: Blind Science - Written by Simon Spurrier and drawn by Paul Davidson and Francis Portela, this one-shot features members of the X-Club trying to unravel a trap set by Bastion.
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