With The End, an occasional series of spotlight storylines, Marvel writers get the chance to bring about a dramatic conclusion for their favorite characters in an outside-of-continuity, "What If?" style. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. For the X-Men, who extended their final chapter into a triple miniseries extravaganza that was packed into three separate graphic-novel collections, the result is a mixed bag of good, bad and ugly.

The good thing about the series is the overwhelming tsunami of action that will keep hearts jackhammering in the chests of true X-fans. While The End doesn't always bring about a true conclusion in some books in the Marvel series, the X-Men are certainly getting hit where it hurts from beginning to end -- and fans must be prepared to watch their favorites fall in a variety of horrible ways.

It's all-out war on mutants, generated largely because of a conflict among alien races the X-Men and other mutant groups have confronted over the years. And that means pulling out all the stops, with overwhelming forces that simply cannot be halted with fisticuffs and a quick quip. Deaths range from the personal level -- for instance, the heroic final seconds of Rahne "Wolfsbane" Sinclair as she's engulfed in a fireball -- to the widescale destruction when the Xavier school is destroyed in a huge explosion that leaves scores of mutants dead.

It's certainly a different face on comics, where regular readers know their favorite characters are never in any real danger. (Actual deaths are rare, after all, and are almost always foreshadowed far in advance as "events" that usually aren't permanent anyway.)

Because the action of this series takes place several years in the future from "current" X-titles, it's fun to see what the characters' future selves are up to. Some are married to unexpected partners, for example, and little Kitty Pryde is running for mayor of Chicago, of all things. Neat!

But there's badness here, too, particularly for those of us who aren't diehard X-readers. Sometimes it feels like this is a "cast of thousands" production and, often, I found myself wondering who the heck some of these characters were. It's hard to get wrapped up in the fates of strangers, and the absence of much real backstory on them makes for bewildering reading. While I understand there was no practical way to squeeze hero biographies into the flow of the story, I can't help but think a couple "cast of characters" pages at the beginning of the first volume would have helped immeasurably.

Even worse, however, is the pace with which X-Men: The End unfolds. While nonstop action -- filled with major developments, sudden twists and tragic deaths, no less -- can be a very entertaining storytelling technique, there are some limits that must be observed. In this case, things happen so quickly that readers don't have much time to digest one turn of events before they're on to the next. Writer Chris Claremont juggles numerous threads so wildly that it's easy to get confused, and the potential impact of the big stuff is diminished accordingly. Did someone just die? Oh well, I'll worry about it later.

Among the various bad guys at work here, however, the prominent use of Charles Xavier's evil twin -- yes, you read that right, his evil twin -- is a weak choice. And, by story's end, some readers might feel the tone is getting a little too preachy, as X-books are prone to do, as Xavier's "why can't we all just get along and leave in peace?" agenda is pushed.

No matter what, X-fans are going to want to read this trilogy, if for no other reason than to see how Claremont offed their favorites from the team. It falls short of greatness, but it's good, solid storytelling that takes risks you'll rarely see in mainstream books.

by Tom Knapp
Rambles.NET
10 March 2007