The world groans under the Darwinian conqueror Apocalypse's rule. Under his thumb, America has become a dark and dangerous dystopia where mutants rule, humankind suffers, and survival of the fittest is all! But in the shadows, the freedom fighters known as the X-Men - following a tenuously thin thread of hope - continue their dangerous and multi-pronged plan to restore the true Marvel Universe. As the X-Men battle Holocaust and the Sentinels, Nightcrawler searches for the seer Destiny, Cyclops and Havok clash in the Dark Beast's slave pens, and young Nate Grey meets his maker.