Meanwhile Brand, Beast, and Lockheed battle Death's Head. Their fight is not without semi-pleasant conversation, which seems a common theme with conflicts involving Beast and Brand. After securing Brand's half-brother Lothi, Beast vexes Death's Head to the point of blasting a whole through the ship. Our heroes make their escape into space.

Back on The Peak (S.W.O.R.D.'s headquarters), Gryich unveils his intention to capture bigger fish: Warlock and a member of the Hulk's Warbound.

Brand and company return to The Peak, where Brand negotiates with Death's Head the return of the artifact for which he had pursued Lothi. Beast is contacted by the X-Men and informed of Gyrich's deeds; he in turn reveals this to the uninformed Brand, who storms into an confrontation with Gyrich only to be surrounded by those who would be her captors. Thus ends the issue.

Gillen and Sanders deliver a second helping of fast-paced action, humor, quirky character moments, and even a Transformers joke (Brand refers to Death's Head as “the Michael Bay nightmare in the size 300 clown-shoes”). Most impressive is Sanders's art which, while good in the first issue, takes a step forward this time around. Gillen provides more of the semi-romantic, always-humorous Brand-Beast moments that have become a standard in the series' two issues (as well as Warren Ellis's Astonishing X-Men). I would like to balance things out with a negative point, but I am afraid I cannot.

There seems to be a theme: as long as the books starring Beast and Brand are written by a Brit, all is well.