The basic plot is Nightcrawler and Mystique (and they're fully aware that she's his mother in this reality) are traveling to Avalon/savage Land to convince Destiny to come check out this time traveler the X-Men have, who claims this world is wrong. I think it was Bishop, might have been Cable. The dark-haired woman with the Dr. Strange gloves is Damask, one of Apoclaypse's Dark Riders. When the issue starts, she's just finished killing one of her coworkers, named Dani (Danielle Moonster?), much to the consternation of Dead Man Wade. He's practically blubbering, asking why she killed Dani, and the basic response is they don't need her. Then Damask throws in this little jab: "She never liked you anyway.", and smirks at Wade's stunned "What?!" I don't know if she's telling the truth, but either way, she clearly enjoys the pain it calls Wade. So, OK, she's a wretched human being.
They track the heroes to Avalon, and Wade goes on the attack. Everything here is alive, birds, trees, all that stuff, and he hates it. He's going to burn it all down. But Damask has a change of heart. She's never seen a place like this, and she likes it, so she won't let Wade destroy it. Cue her stabbing Wade in the neck, him shrugging that off (because he's freaking Deadpool, getting stabbed in the neck is probably foreplay), then Nightcrawler teleporting his head off his body.
The Age of Apocalypse universe: Where even Nightcrawler casually uses lethal force. No wonder I ignored it.
Anyway, Damask decides to change sides, and when it turns out the Shadow King had hitched a ride in Wade's head, and was now making the residents of Avalon tear each other apart, she helps the other folks on the cover bring him down. She can project these telekinetic - or telepathic) blades, and basically flense someones psyche. Was she supposed to be A0A Betsy Braddock?
What's always bothered me about this is a sense of unfairness. Damask takes away someone important to Wade, not only doesn't feel remorse, but enjoys twisting the knife in Wade afterward. When she finds something she cares about, though, oh no, Wade can't take it away.
No, it isn't the same, since Damask kills one person (a killer like herself), and Wade was out to slaughter dozens of people who only wanted to get away from Apocalpyse and wound up in the same place as someone important to Apocalypse's enemies. Still, something about it feels wrong. She was a villain five minutes ago, a sadistic killer. Now that her interests coincide with the heroes I'm supposed to root for her? It'd be like rooting for Norman Osborn in Secret Invasion because it's as much in his interests to drive off the Skrulls as it is the Avengers'. I don't care, I'm still not rooting for him.
Maybe if I thought she was looking for redemption, it'd be different. I'm usually down for a good "character tries to make up for past misdeeds" arc. But I'm not sure there's much evidence that's happening here. It appears she may have realized she's been lied to for years, lead to believe whatever Apocalypse says is the truth about the world, and this place contradicts that truth. And she's decided she'd rather defend this new truth, rather than the old one. But there's no real sign she regrets what she did in those earlier days. She's still a killer, she's just killing for the other side now.
There's a sense to me it shouldn't be that easy, that she shouldn't be able to say "Oops, I was wrong! I'm on your side now!" and everything is hunky-dory. Maybe that's wrong, and heroes should be willing to extend trust readily, to give enemies a second chance, though I still think there should be some sign the villain really wants to change first. But in an Age of Apocaypse universe, where things are harsher than they are in the everyday Marvel Universe, I would think that sort of leeway would be hard to come by.
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