The Sage Saga part IV: Taking A Big, Steaming Info Dump On The Living Computer

Meet Albion, a Brian Braddock from an alternative reality in which World War I didn't end in 1918. Instead, the conflict raged on well into our modern day, ending only when this Brian was given powers by Roma and Merlin. With his superpowers, he managed to end the global conflict, but after decades of brutal and exhausting war, Earth was decimated. This drove Albion over the edge, swearing vengeance on Roma, Merlin and all the alternate Captain Britains because, well...

I dunno, its as good a reason as any to drag him to the 616-reality. Upon his arrival, he caused considerable trouble and Sage devised a way to stop him: by going undercover.

Dying her hair blonde and creating the new identity of Diana Fox, Sage went to join up with Albion and his forces so she could help defeat them from the inside. Smart thinking, but she soon discovered there was something odd about the costume Albion gave her...

A costume that not only shapes your body to be the ultimate weapon, but also mindcontrols you into believing it? If I had one of those, I'd never have to go to the gym again. Still, Sage's computermind sort of kept her own identity intact. But that caused another problem: the Diana Fox persona became a seperate personality in her own mind.

Still, that's not half as bad as it sounds, right? Its not like Sage would do anything rash or give in to the murderous rage and bloodlust all of Albion's other corpsmen seem plagued by...

... Well, maybe yeah, maybe not. Sage, or Britannia as Albion called her, got in a fight with the alternate reality X-men team known as Shadow X... and she didn't think twice to decapitate Cyclops. Oops. After that, Sage pretty much lost control, giving Diana Fox/Britannia free reign. It was only after Captain Britain gave her a stern talking to that she came to her senses again.

"You are Sage". 

That proverbial splash of verbal cold water reset the computer and Sage was Sage again. It was also near the end of New Excalibur, the book got cancelled due to poor sales. The remaining storylines were dealt with in a miniseries called X-men: Die By The Sword and featured a team up with the Claremont-penned otherdimensional Exiles. 

Now, I would be committing a crime against all that is decent and holy if I took the time to provide a full recap of that five issue catastrophe of a miniseries. All you need to now: Mad Jim Jaspers, an old foe of Captain Britain's, had returned to life and was using his reality warping powers to cause incredible destruction in the Omniverse. 

The Exiles and New Excalibur teamed up to stop Jaspers and his allies, but not before one of the bad guys fatally injured Roma, the guardian of all that is, was and will be. Luckily, Roma was able to pass on her knowledge right before she died. 

Who? Ow, three guesses and the first two don't count...

Roma used her final moments to transfer all that she knew about everything that ever was, is and will be in the entire Omniverse... into Sage. Sure, she may have a computer-like mind and can store and analyse data faster than anyone else... But even living computers can be overwhelmed... 

Uploading an Omniverse worth of data into your skull is like force feeding your Windows 3.11 computer the entire internet. Needless to say, Sage didn't react too well....

With New Excalibur coming to a close, Claremont had Sage jump ship so she could join his New Exiles. Her exploits with that team will be the focus of the fifth and final part of the Sage Saga.