New X-Men: Childhood's End, Vol. 4: Mercury Falling

New X-Men: Academy X (Collected Editions)

by Craig Kyle, Christopher Yost, Paco Medina (Artist)

X-23's past returns to haunt the New X-Men. Sure, the team needs a break after the horror and insanity of the last year, but too bad When Wolverine brought X-23 back into the Institute, only Emma Frost tried to stop it. Here and now, you'll find out why she was right.

The fallout from X-23: Target X begins here...

Collecting: New X-Men 33-36

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Marvel, X Men, Graphic Novels Comics, Superheroes, Comic Book

96 pages, Paperback

First published June 13, 2007

Reviews

[Baba · Rating 3 out of 5]

What's not to like with this concept? Essentially this is a sequel to X-23: Target X, with Mercury targeted. To keep this spoiler free, there's little more I can add, but this is a key book for X-23 and mutant-dom in general. Yost & Kyle really made something of this series whilst supposedly sitting in the shadows of Astonishing X-Men Omnibus and X-Factor's Peter David, they didn't just sit-back, but produced one of the better young X-Men serials. A solid 7 out of 12

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this one, although it's a good job I'm a fan of X-23 as, since Craig Kyle took over as writer on this book it's basically become 'X-23 and Chums'.

[James DeSantis · Rating 4 out of 5]

These poor kids do not have it easy.

X-23, Laura, is my favorite mutant of all time. She gets the spotlight in this volume which makes it my favorite volume so far. Just when you think they're after her again they go after Cassidy instead. The evil group takes her and begins torturing her to the point of nearly killing her all so they can use her skin to make these monsters even stronger. So what happens when a pissed off killer like Laura teams up with a strong ass psychic? Well, not good news for the bad guys.

Good: The fights are great, the art overall is good, and I love the dialog. The teens act like teenagers, joking, love issues, and just general problems. The adult situations these kids are thrown in is hard for them to cope but they do their best. The ending leads to the final chapter, which I hope is as good as the rest.

Bad: Just odd that the two people who go out for dinner decide to get attacked. But it has to happen somewhere.

overall really solid, fun, dark tones, and interesting character moments. Giving this a nice high 4 out of 5. X-23 fans will love this.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a nice coda to the original Childhood's End story, spinning out of its events, while still giving the storyline room to breathe. Though it's not as intense as the previous 13 issues, it still feels like a darky, grittier New X-Men.

The focus on X-23 is great, with some of the events and characters continuing straight on from her final solo appearances, which offers some nice continuity — and which makes this volume a critical add on to the recent X-23: The Complete Collection. It's also great to see X-23's relationship with Hellion, and how that might be changing her.

Beyond that, the volume feels like somewhat more standard superhero fare than the volumes that preceded it, but still part of a great X-Men run.

Oh, and we get the intro of Predator X, who would continue to devil the X-Men for years afterward despite his stupid name. Great to see his (very interesting) creation.

[JCRD]

He dicho ya alguna que otra vez que me gusta mucho Cessily, y creo que la razón por la que disfruto tanto cada vez que aparece es que aunque nunca sea prota del todo es un personaje creíble y que se siente real. Era animadora, sus padres la querían y apareció el Gen X. Empieza a convivir con más gente como ella, conoce a Kevin; tiene amigos. Y ocurre el Día M. Kevin se marcha, sus amigos empiezan a morir y tiene mi viñeta favorita del Día M: ella, gritando frente a un espejo, preguntándose por qué no ha podido ser ella una de los que han perdido sus poderes. Mercury aquí tampoco es que tenga un papel protagónico al 100%, pero cada pequeña interacción que ha tenido con Laura me ha dado años de vida.

Y a lo tonto Laura y Julian forman una buena pareja. Que Julian tenga que ser el bueno es un contraste interesante respecto a como le he ido viendo en la etapa de DeFilippis y Weir. Y aunque veo que Kyle y Yost han aprovechado para poner traumas de Laura aquí creo que se siente bastante orgánico (y a lo tonto es una serie fundamental para Complejo de Mesías y su posterior serie en X-Force si quieres pillar el 100% de la movida).

Así que eso, me lo sigo pasando bien. Me gustaba más el costumbrismo superheroico de la anterior etapa que ésta, más de acción y tensión, pero es un cambio bienvenido. Y ahora, a por el último arco y me despido de estos chavalines a los que tanto cariño he cogido :_)

[Christopher Mclean · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent "filler" type volume that didn't live up to the previous few books.

I enjoyed getting some more time with Mercury, who has previously always been in the background, and there can never be too much X-23.

Overall there wasn't enough here to make this a stand-out but it was a nice break between major arcs.

[C · Rating 4 out of 5]

Continuing the great x-read of 2017/18...

I am still really enjoying this series. Good action with steady character development and some fantastic character moments.

I will say that I miss the New Mutants characters being mentors to these kids, but they are quickly becoming a force to be reckoned with nonetheless.

[Judith Groen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this story, it had the right amount of excitement and suspension. It was fast paced and had a good story. It made me very curious to the backfround of X-23, and I am probably going to read it now. I never thought I would like the New X-Men as much as I do. Sad it's almost over... :(

[Rohail · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the focus on X-23 in this volume, the plot also had time to breathe and there was no senseless Stryker character. These poor children are growing up in the worst way possible. Loved it.

[Luna · Rating 5 out of 5]

SERVE SERV SERVE laura’s development and hellion AHHH

[Tor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Re-read!

[Lilli W. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the focus on X-23 and Hellion, totally ship it.

[Jeff Harris · Rating 2 out of 5]

Craig Kyle continues the writing and Paco Medina's polished pencils are also present once more in this latest installment of New X-Men. The focus is predominantly on X-23 and Mercury, who are both targeted by a set of mysterious and nefarious assailants who are after one of the girls' abilities for a sinister project (and no, it's not related to MISTER Sinister). Honestly, I preferred the previous storylines, especially the Nimrod arc, better than this one, but I do like that Mercury gets a little more attention, even if she is really put through the wringer in this storyline. Medina's art is still spectacular, but the creepy plot just isn't my preference, especially when the young X-Men-in-training have already had to deal with so many grave threats and horrible tragedies, one after the other. Can't this group just get a little break?

[Adam Stone · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's pretty rare when a writer works on a mainstream title for more than a year that they don't have at least one portion of the story that isn't filler. This is the Childhood's End filler volume. It's fine. Some backstory about Mercury is welcome, but the X-23 portion of the storyline, and the effort spent setting this firmly in the Decimation/O*N*E* era of the X-Men detract from the development of most of the characters in this title. The very few scenes we get with Elixir, Prodigy, Dust, Surge, Anole, and Pixie are good but there aren't enough of them.

The overall story is fine but a bit of a letdown after the previous three volumes.

I recommend it for X-23 fans, people who've never liked Emma Frost, and Hellion/X-23 shippers.

[Callum · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series continues to excel and its willingness to be brutal at the appropriate moments yields well deserved catharsis as well as meaningful commentary on the world we live in and the pains in coming of age in it. Here's hoping it will continue and that as its main characters graduate to the core X-Men team new young students are introduced eager to be the best they can be for mutant-kind.

[Ernest · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was generally fine, although some of the editing and pacing choices seemed strange-there were noticeable times where a single page had few panels that didn’t seem to advance the story much. I personally would have preferred a more compact story, but this nicely fits into the larger 616 universe.

[J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid enough, but not quite as good as the previous volumes. Pretty standard.

[Jase · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cessily's skin's been graphed and made into new Predator X hunters. Team takes on the Purifiers to retrieve their teammate.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

X23's past catches up with her and harms her friends in the process. A good story with some very nice character moments, especially with Emma Frost.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mediocre effort compared to other similar titles that I have recently read. Medina's art is also a little less polished than usual.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very enjoyable, and I love Rockslide. His dialogue is some of the best I've seen in a long time. So funny. :D

[Steven · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite story arcs in the series.

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some pacing issues, but X-school books are just such a good set-up. Plus unexpected Kitty awesomeness is always welcome.

[Roman Colombo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always liked Cessily, and it was nice to see a story that featured her. It was a little too short, but still really good.