It spanned three issues each of The Uncanny X-Men #225-227, X-Factor #24-26, and New Mutants #59-61; unlike most crossovers however, the various titles' storylines did not intertwine, but were instead linked thematically as each team underwent major ordeals and drastic changes in their status quo.

Marvel distributed postcard-size mock advertisements supporting the act in comic book stores as well as their various titles cover dated "November 1987".

The X-Men head to Dallas, Texas in search of their missing and de-powered leader Storm, herself seeking the mutant inventor Forge to restore her powers.

Upon arrival, they encounter Freedom Force, a government-sanctioned strike team of reformed villains led by Mystique, who are under orders to arrest the X-Men for refusing to comply with the Mutant Registration Act, and a fight ensues.

Storm, still hating the man she once loved (as Forge invented the Neutralizer gun that removed her mutant powers),[1] spends most of the year in solitude until she is finally ready to make her peace with him.

Forge meanwhile had been developing technology from the ground up, eventually creating the tools — and with circuitry sourced from dismantling his bionic arm and leg — enabling him to build a device that restores Storm's weather manipulation powers.

However, in his naiveté, he did not realize that the spell required the souls of his nine comrades and unleashed a horde of demons he had no way to control, including the Adversary, the creature responsible for the chaos they now found themselves in.

Millions watch the television broadcast (including a horrified Kitty Pryde) as Forge casts the spell, using the souls of the nine X-Men (Storm, Wolverine, Colossus, Longshot, Rogue, Dazzler, Psylocke, Havok, and Cyclops' estranged wife Madelyne Pryor) to fuel it.

However, the goddess Roma, who had also become embroiled in the day's events, takes pity on the X-Men for their noble sacrifice and returns them all to life, additionally commenting to them that as foul and evil as the Adversary is, he should not and cannot be locked away forever, since from the chaos he creates positive change and growth occurs.

She additionally made the X-Men invisible to all forms of surveillance save plain sight, thus allowing them to continue with their operations while the world assumes they are dead.