X-Men Legacy #230 - Marvel

This was an ok story. I just have to ask myself . . why is Emplate showing up now? Yes, I know he needs a new food source . . that's why he swipes Bling. But . . I'm not really sure why he put so much at stake. He had to have known that the X-Men weren't just going to let him take off with one of their kids. At least, not without a fight. He could've just picked up a mutant anywhere on Earth, without drawing the attention of the X-Men. I don't know. It just doesn't seem very well thought out to me. Anyways, Rogue borrows Trance's powers and goes after her. She thought she'd just be in astral projection form in Emplate's dimension, but . . of course things don't always work out as planned. However when Emplate tries to take her down . . he has to make contact with her and now Rogue also has his powers. While she and Emplate are going at it, Rogue gave his compass creature a new headed when she came across it last issue. She has Emplate's house and little island headed right back towards Utopia. The problem is . . there's a glass moon in the way and Emplate is more concerned about what is living in there than having to deal with the X-Men. Anyways, Scott gets Nemesis to whip up a little containment field so that when Emplate does show up they can keep him and his island contained. For a little while at least. It turns out it uses an awful lot of power. It was kind of neat that Bling showed a little bit of her moxy. Some of the other mutants are ready for a crack at Emplate, but Rogue holds them back. 'What you owe him is nothing compared to what Roxy owes him. We don't move until she's done.' And she gives him a world of hurt . . right before they send him back, alone, to his own dimension. He lands right in the middle of the glass moon and all the snake, or demon-like creatures. Pretty much the whole issue was spent on this story. It's not until the Epilogues that we even get a hint at anything else happening on the island. First we find out a little more about Bling. She's got a mad crush on Rogue, and . . she didn't have a very normal child-hood. 'I was never so scared in my life. It was like some of my parents' parties back when I was a kid. You knew anything could happen, and not in a good way.' Oookay! Anyways, Rogue decides that she's going to stay on the island. He wants her to be a teacher / mentor to some of the new kids. And finally we see that Remy got something new to deal with. He holding one of his cards, concentrating on it and he switches to his Horseman identity. It turns out his card is a alive. And it starts talking to him. This issue was written by Mike Carey. With fantastic art by Daniel Acuna. He's another artist that just gets better and better all the time. In the back-up story about Hope, we see another lesson taught to her by Cable. She still doesn't have any powers yet, but I think he's just trying to make sure that when they do manifest that she doesn't rely on them. He really wants to make sure she has a good head on her shoulders before that happens. It's by Duane Swierczynski and Steve Dillon.