Warning: contains spoilers for X-Men #18!
They may be stuck partway through a seemingly impossible mission, but Wolverine's unkillable X-Men team just got a huge power-up. Over a year after X-Men #5 first placed Wolverine, Darwin, and Synch into the Vault, X-Men #18 reveals what happened once they entered. Time passes differently in the Vault and several hundred years of relative time will pass for the trio before they escape - if they ever do. But while they're trapped in enemy territory and facing some impressive opposition, a sudden power boost for teammate Synch may have just tipped the odds in their favor.
Written by Jonathan Hickman with art by Mahmud Asrar, X-Men #18 shows Wolverine, Synch, and Darwin inside the Vault: a sealed location in Ecuador that houses the Children of the Vault. These individuals are mechanically enhanced beings - post-humans, not mutants - with super powers that were created to oppose the X-Men. After freeing a Child named Serafina from Orchis, the X-Men tracked her to the Vault and sent in an unkillable reconnaissance team to gather information. Now, Marvel is finally beginning to show the reconnaissance team's story.
The main challenge with this mission (aside from the shift in temporal flow) is the potential amount of foes that the team may be forced to encounter. The Children have various abilities and occupy a vast city, but this is not a destruction mission. The main job is to collect data and information to get a better idea of what the X-Men are facing. The predominant problem is staying alive long enough to collect the data, and there is a high risk of encountering hostiles. The team was assembled with temporal survival in mind, which is why Wolverine (with her incredible healing factor), Darwin (with the power to adapt to any situation), and Synch (who can replicate the powers of mutants around him) were selected. While this team is great for long-term survival and information collection, they weren't one of the heaviest hitting teams the X-Men have ever fielded. But after a shift in Synch's abilities occurs, that may be changing.
Synch's original role on the team was to double up Darwin's information collection, while being as tough as Wolverine in a fight. But a medical report for Synch is included this issue that reveals Synch has experienced a power increase. Rather than being something he can switch on and off, Synch's powers are now continually seeking out a connection. In X-Men #18, the effects of this increase are seen in action, when Synch is suddenly able to replicate the powers of the non-mutant Children of the Vault. Additionally, his power level is so high that he manages to kill most of Serafina's post-human team before they can fight back. Fans already knew the team would be stranded for centuries, but now it's clear they may not spend all those years at the mercy of their enemies.
Instead of simply duplicating the effects of his teammates to ensure survival and increased surveillance, Synch can also serve as a primary fighting force against further post-human threats, even as they're upgraded by the Vault, finally offering a glimmer of hope for the team's ultimate fate. Additionally, in X-Men #5, another medical report stated concern over Synch's psychological condition in terms of self-consciousness and adaptability. This sudden power boost may be exactly what he needs to feel on a more even playing field with his community. Instead of feeling like others are "passing him by," he can focus on adapting to his new ability and feel more like a contributing member than just the "redundancy" he was described as when first selected for this mission - something which may help in the hinted possibility of romance between him and Wolverine, aka Laura Kinney. The X-Men chose a team who could survive any expanse of time in order to report back - now it's up to these three mutants to live up to that promise.