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Age of Apocalypse (2012) (Collected Editions) #3
X-Men: X-Termination
Collects Age of Apocalypse #13-14, X-Treme X-Men #12-13, X-Termination #1-2, Astonishing X-Men #60-61.
Joining together the teams from ASTONISHING X-MEN, AGE OF APOCALYPSE and X-TREME X-MEN, and spinning out of the pages of UNCANNY X-FORCE comes the X-Event of the year! AOA Nightcrawler just wants to get home, and he'll do whatever it takes to get there. With the fabric of reality at stake, Wolverine calls in a team to confront the doppelganger of their dead friend. But are they ready to do what's necessary?
Joining together the teams from ASTONISHING X-MEN, AGE OF APOCALYPSE and X-TREME X-MEN, and spinning out of the pages of UNCANNY X-FORCE comes the X-Event of the year! AOA Nightcrawler just wants to get home, and he'll do whatever it takes to get there. With the fabric of reality at stake, Wolverine calls in a team to confront the doppelganger of their dead friend. But are they ready to do what's necessary?
184 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 24, 2013
5 people are currently reading
133 people want to read
About the author
Greg Pak
1,643 books583 followersGreg Pak is an award-winning Korean American comic book writer and filmmaker currently writing "Lawful" for BOOM and "Sam Wilson: Captain America" (with Evan Narcisse) for Marvel. Pak wrote the "Princess Who Saved Herself" children's book and the “Code Monkey Save World” graphic novel based on the songs of Jonathan Coulton and co-wrote (with Fred Van Lente) the acclaimed “Make Comics Like the Pros” how-to book. Pak's other work includes "Planet Hulk," "Darth Vader," "Mech Cadet Yu," "Ronin Island," "Action Comics," and "Magneto Testament."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
August 1, 2019
Marvel's attempt to end its low selling X-titles of the time with a big crossover, none of which were very exciting and needed to be put to pasture. It's hard to care much about alternate universes or doppelgangers getting killed off as there's always another universe where the character exists in (which seems to be Marvel's go to move when they actually kill off a character.) There's so much horrendous art as this crossover progresses. It looks like Marvel used it as for tryouts for prospective art. Honestly, some of the art looks like Marvel pilfered it from the spiral bound notebook of a daydreaming high school art student.
April 29, 2022
This volume served as a bit of a wrap-up to the most recent Age of Apocalypse series from Marvel. I say a "bit of" of a wrap-up because it still leaves you wondering exactly what's going on over there in the AOA Universe.
The basic storyline is the fabric between dimensions gets ripped open, and very powerful energy devouring creatures try to literally eat the dimensions when they sneak through the rift. Several groups of X-Men band together and try to save the multiverse.
This wasn't quite as good to me as the two AOA volumes preceding it, but was still a good read. There were some fairly major changes in this one, mostly character deaths which I won't spoil here.
Overall if you read the AOA series, you should pick this one up to complete the saga. As a stand-alone volume, this may be more confusing than anything else, however.
The basic storyline is the fabric between dimensions gets ripped open, and very powerful energy devouring creatures try to literally eat the dimensions when they sneak through the rift. Several groups of X-Men band together and try to save the multiverse.
This wasn't quite as good to me as the two AOA volumes preceding it, but was still a good read. There were some fairly major changes in this one, mostly character deaths which I won't spoil here.
Overall if you read the AOA series, you should pick this one up to complete the saga. As a stand-alone volume, this may be more confusing than anything else, however.
October 10, 2013
This crossover had its high points: it's a nicely epic problem that could bring three teams together, and it's a moving send off to a couple of the volumes.
Unfortunately, it also felt disjoint as people shuttled back and forth between universes until I had no idea who was where or why. The writing was just too muddy. It was also overly decompressed, with 5 or 6 issues spent fighting big monsters.
Personally, I also found the ending for Age of Apocalypse inappropriate, and the X-Treme X-Men just slightly less so.
But none of these three series (Age of Apocalypse, X-Treme X-Men, Liu's Astonishing) was particularly strong, so I'm not going to lose sleep over it.
Unfortunately, it also felt disjoint as people shuttled back and forth between universes until I had no idea who was where or why. The writing was just too muddy. It was also overly decompressed, with 5 or 6 issues spent fighting big monsters.
Personally, I also found the ending for Age of Apocalypse inappropriate, and the X-Treme X-Men just slightly less so.
But none of these three series (Age of Apocalypse, X-Treme X-Men, Liu's Astonishing) was particularly strong, so I'm not going to lose sleep over it.
November 21, 2013
Indegna conclusione di due belle serie.
August 2, 2019
Maybe I'm just too old to appreciate stuff like this. Random fighting across multiple multiverses with different skin-deep versions of familiar characters. Yawn. Just not enough story. And yes I read it out of order but it should be able to hold together at least somewhat and it really doesn't.
March 13, 2017
X-Men: X-Termination brings together 3 different X-men series (Astonishing X-men, Age of Apocalypse, and X-treme X-men). If you haven't been following at least X-Men: The Complete Age of Apocalypse Epic, Book 1 you're going to be pretty lost since the majority of the story focuses on previous plot points from that series. I picked this one up to finish out the X-Treme X-Men, Vol. 1: Xavier Must Die! series without having read Age of Apocalypse (AoA), so I was confused over several points. (Such as AoA Jean Grey not having mutant powers anymore, AoA Nightcrawler's vengeance mission, AoA's Beast being evil, and the AoA team's dislike of Scott Summers.)
At it's heart, this story revolves around the AoA Nightcrawler's mission of redemption after having been obsessed with revenging his wife's death without considering the consequences his actions have on anyone else. It's also a story arc for AoA Jean Grey who gets tasked with a mission to save the multi-verse. So, if you're reading this as a wrap-up to the X-treme X-men story, like I was, you're going to be extremely disappointed. Those story arcs and characters get shoved into the background or efficiently dispatched to make way for AoA to take over.
Separating this from X-treme X-men, X-termination was an okay story. Nightcrawler is one of my favorite characters and AoA Kurt had a lot of page time here, so I did enjoy that aspect. I also enjoyed his character arc, but I wish I had been following his story prior to reading this volume since X-termination is the wrap-up to a larger plot. Outside of that though, I was too lost to enjoy a lot of what was going on. I didn't understand the dynamics of the AoA team and I wasn't a fan of the main "villains" here since they were just mindless consumers of power.
All in all, a very disappointing ending for X-Treme X-men which had shown so much promise in its first volume. I would recommend this only if you've been following all of the series that come together here.
At it's heart, this story revolves around the AoA Nightcrawler's mission of redemption after having been obsessed with revenging his wife's death without considering the consequences his actions have on anyone else. It's also a story arc for AoA Jean Grey who gets tasked with a mission to save the multi-verse. So, if you're reading this as a wrap-up to the X-treme X-men story, like I was, you're going to be extremely disappointed. Those story arcs and characters get shoved into the background or efficiently dispatched to make way for AoA to take over.
Separating this from X-treme X-men, X-termination was an okay story. Nightcrawler is one of my favorite characters and AoA Kurt had a lot of page time here, so I did enjoy that aspect. I also enjoyed his character arc, but I wish I had been following his story prior to reading this volume since X-termination is the wrap-up to a larger plot. Outside of that though, I was too lost to enjoy a lot of what was going on. I didn't understand the dynamics of the AoA team and I wasn't a fan of the main "villains" here since they were just mindless consumers of power.
All in all, a very disappointing ending for X-Treme X-men which had shown so much promise in its first volume. I would recommend this only if you've been following all of the series that come together here.
July 27, 2014
It's a cross-dimensional crossover for a bunch of C-list X titles, and as far as that goes, it's pretty enjoyable. The premise is that all the hopping the X-men do between dimensions has compromised the walls between them, spurring a group of monsters to emerge to destroy everything in existence.
The X-men can't have that, of course, so they fight back, bolstered by a bunch of core Marvel characters from other dimensions, notably the Age of Apocalypse universe, which somehow survived being blown up way back when I was a kid.
The proceedings won't make much sense to anyone who's not steeped in X-men lore. To make it simple, the heroes rally to fight the monsters, turning to the evil power of Apocalypse to give them a chance of winning. Along the way, a bunch of alternate universe characters bite the dust (something that's a beat of a cheat, using our familiarity with the "real" guys to give the deaths importance without actually killing the characters we know). Jean Grey steps up to the plate, again harnessing a dubious but irresistible power. There are speeches, some other poor world is sealed off, and the main Marvel universe keeps on kicking as normal.
It's not bad, but it can't help feeling a bit overstuffed and inconsequential. The narration gets pretty sentimental at the end too. Maybe it would mean more to someone who's been along for the ride with these doppelganger characters, but for me it felt heavy handed. Of course, how can you avoid feeling that way when your universe ends?
The X-men can't have that, of course, so they fight back, bolstered by a bunch of core Marvel characters from other dimensions, notably the Age of Apocalypse universe, which somehow survived being blown up way back when I was a kid.
The proceedings won't make much sense to anyone who's not steeped in X-men lore. To make it simple, the heroes rally to fight the monsters, turning to the evil power of Apocalypse to give them a chance of winning. Along the way, a bunch of alternate universe characters bite the dust (something that's a beat of a cheat, using our familiarity with the "real" guys to give the deaths importance without actually killing the characters we know). Jean Grey steps up to the plate, again harnessing a dubious but irresistible power. There are speeches, some other poor world is sealed off, and the main Marvel universe keeps on kicking as normal.
It's not bad, but it can't help feeling a bit overstuffed and inconsequential. The narration gets pretty sentimental at the end too. Maybe it would mean more to someone who's been along for the ride with these doppelganger characters, but for me it felt heavy handed. Of course, how can you avoid feeling that way when your universe ends?
September 2, 2013
This has all the makings of a five star trade, but the ideas aren't quite as good in execution as they are in theory. The villains of the piece are completely faceless aside from their 'destroy all life' motivation (seriously, they don't even speak), but the multiple teams of X-Men are well realized with some good characterization especially from the two Nightcrawlers. Everyone's used to a good effect bar maybe Karma and Gambit, and it feels more like a conclusion to Uncanny X-Force's one dangling plotline than anything to do with Astonishing X-Men. The Age of Apocalypse and X-Treme X-Men plot threads also come to a satisfying conclusion, and overall I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would, but not as much as I would have liked.
November 27, 2013
Probably not the best X-men crossover story arc. I am going to be honest I really did not enjoy the Age of Apocalypse books but I really do like the new Xtreme X-men books. I know the whole alternate universe ideas here sound intriguing but I just didn't care for the story plot. So I have to give this book a low 3 out f stars.
January 3, 2020
Kind of a hot mess.
This is like a humorless Exiles mixed with the silliest aspects of Secret Wars, but without the care and nuance.
Also, very below average art.
It feels like they just had to do something with the C list X titles, and this is what they decided to go with. Good riddance.
I really didn’t find this fun or enjoyable, and I’ll probably never read it again.
This is like a humorless Exiles mixed with the silliest aspects of Secret Wars, but without the care and nuance.
Also, very below average art.
It feels like they just had to do something with the C list X titles, and this is what they decided to go with. Good riddance.
I really didn’t find this fun or enjoyable, and I’ll probably never read it again.
May 15, 2013
This is a neat way to get rid two titles. Have Age of Apocalypse and X-Treme X-Men collide worlds with Astonishing X-Men.
I was hoping that this would have been a decent X-event but I felt like it just fell flat for me on so many occasions. Even though there was a fair amount of character deaths, I expected too much from Dark Beast, AoA Nightcrawler and Dazzler.
The art was a major let down especially in the last issue, X-Termination 2 of 2. There were so many artists on this story arc, I could not keep track of who was doing what.
At least this story arc gives closure to Age of Apocalypse and X-Treme X-Men. As an X-Men fan, I suggest you toss this in with First X-Men and skip this X-crossover at all means necessary.
I was hoping that this would have been a decent X-event but I felt like it just fell flat for me on so many occasions. Even though there was a fair amount of character deaths, I expected too much from Dark Beast, AoA Nightcrawler and Dazzler.
The art was a major let down especially in the last issue, X-Termination 2 of 2. There were so many artists on this story arc, I could not keep track of who was doing what.
At least this story arc gives closure to Age of Apocalypse and X-Treme X-Men. As an X-Men fan, I suggest you toss this in with First X-Men and skip this X-crossover at all means necessary.
August 23, 2013
This collection ties in the concurrent X-treme X-men, Age Of Apocalypse & Astonishing X-men stories. I've read the first but not the later two collections. It didn't seem to matter much. I had no trouble following the story. I'm a huge fan of the X-Treme X-Men series and I really loved the finale here. This time the thrill, chills and deaths actually effected me emotionally. Not a common experience in comic books for me. My eyes welled up with a couple of tears when a couple of new characters died tragically. I'm sad to see X-treme go; I'll miss it.
April 24, 2016
Collects Age of Apocalypse issues #13-14, Astonishing X-Men issues #60-61, X-Termination issues #1-2, and X-Treme X-Men issue #12-13
I was never bored while reading this, but the story itself wasn't amazing. It didn't come off as epic as I (or the writers) wanted it to be, but I still thought it was a fine conclusion to some of the X-Men Universe stories of its time.
Final rating = 3.5 stars
I was never bored while reading this, but the story itself wasn't amazing. It didn't come off as epic as I (or the writers) wanted it to be, but I still thought it was a fine conclusion to some of the X-Men Universe stories of its time.
Final rating = 3.5 stars
April 15, 2019
Woo! I finished this arc!
I liked getting reunited with the universe hopping team lead by Dazzler, but the stakes got so epic, I felt like the elements I was enjoying about both of those arcs got a little lost in the shuffle. Still, I'm glad for Jean's roll in this arc and I super loved the use of multiversal Nightcrawlers.
I liked getting reunited with the universe hopping team lead by Dazzler, but the stakes got so epic, I felt like the elements I was enjoying about both of those arcs got a little lost in the shuffle. Still, I'm glad for Jean's roll in this arc and I super loved the use of multiversal Nightcrawlers.
July 8, 2020
Vale, a ver. No voy a echar la culpa de la única estrella (¿se puede poner menos?) a ninguno de los tres autores que participaron en la historia, ya que al menos de dos de ellos, hay muy buenas referencias. Marjorie Liu estaba haciendo un trabajo de notable en Astonishing X-Men (cuando no se lo mataba Jefte Palo dibujando), Greg Pak es el autor de Planeta Hulk, World War Hulk y La Canción Final de Fénix... y bueno, a David Lapham le tengo menos localizado, pero en fin, no va a ser responsabilidad sólo de él. Voy a tirar para arriba y creo que es cosa del editor o de la propia editorial, no lo sé. Pero el caso es que es una de las peores historias de X-Men que he leído nunca (y yo leía X-Men en los 90...). Y realmente ya el concepto es un poco triste, ya que se utilizó el evento para dar carpetazo a dos de las tres series que participaban en él, a saber:
En Astonishing, antes de la etapa de Marjorie Liu hubo un pequeño interludio de manos de Greg Pak en el que Cíclope era arrastrado a una especie de mundo decadente donde Xavier manipulaba las mentes de todo el mundo y utilizaba a mutantes con poderes energéticos para mantener el mundo vivo. Allí conocimos a una versión de Lobezno en plan cyberpunk llamado Howlett, un Rondador adolescente... Bueno, pues de este pequeño corte, Marvel le encargó a Marvel una colección que se llamó X-Terminators, donde utilizó a estos personajes, junto a Dazzler y Sabia, además de un nuevo Cíclope y el Hércules de otra dimensión, y que bajo el liderazgo de Dazzler se dedicarían a viajar entre dimensiones... o algo así, porque esta historia no se publicó nunca en España.
David Lapham había sido el autor de una serie limitada un tanto alargada más allá de lo necesario en la que Marvel había vuelto a la tierra de la Era de Apocalipsis, el megacrossover mutante que había sacudido el Universo mutante allá por los 90, y donde incluso se habían suspendido todas las colecciones para dar salida a colecciones nuevas en las que, en un mundo sin Xavier, los mutantes habían conquistado el mundo bajo el liderazgo de Apocalipsis. Y uno de los personajes mejor recibidos de la saga fue Kurt Darkholme, el Rondador Nocturno espadachín que lideraba X-Calibre, el trasunto apocalíptico de Excalibur.
Y bueno, pues por último, teníamos Astonishing X-Men, que es donde se publicó este cruce en España. Kurt Darkholme había conseguido llegar a nuestro universo, formando incluso parte por un breve periodo de tiempo de X-Force, pero ansiaba volver a su propio mundo, por lo que tras asesinar al hombre que había matado a su esposa y traicionar a la Patrulla-X, se alió con la Bestia Oscura, y ambos decidieron utilizar al Celestial Durmiente de San Francisco para abrir un portal que les llevaría a su universo. Lobezno movilizaría el equipo urbano de la Patrulla (es decir, a los protagonistas de Astonishing) para seguirles, pero finalmente Darkholme y la Bestia Oscura consiguen abrir el portal a su mundo... provocando una problema dimensional que hace que haga su aparición el equipo de Dazzler, seguido por tres... anticelestiales o algo así, que no queda muy claro. pero son criaturas que se alimentan de energía y materia y que amenazan con destruir tanto el Universo de la Era de Apocalipsis como nuestro mundo, teniendo que aliarse los tres equipos de héroes para conseguir la Semilla Celestial del mundo de Apocalipsis y utilizarla para derrotar a los anticelestiales... Pero no todos sobrevivirán (evidentemente las muertes recaen todas en el lado de las colecciones a cerrar), y la historia se centra básicamente en ver como los personajes reciben ostias y pasan de un lado a otro, con muertes aleatorias aquí y allá para que se salven los de siempre...
Y en fin, básicamente esto es X-Termination, que además, para empeorar el tema, está fatal dibujado (quizá se salva un poco David Lopez, pero tampoco firma aquí su mejor trabajo). Así que nada, muy prescindible.
En Astonishing, antes de la etapa de Marjorie Liu hubo un pequeño interludio de manos de Greg Pak en el que Cíclope era arrastrado a una especie de mundo decadente donde Xavier manipulaba las mentes de todo el mundo y utilizaba a mutantes con poderes energéticos para mantener el mundo vivo. Allí conocimos a una versión de Lobezno en plan cyberpunk llamado Howlett, un Rondador adolescente... Bueno, pues de este pequeño corte, Marvel le encargó a Marvel una colección que se llamó X-Terminators, donde utilizó a estos personajes, junto a Dazzler y Sabia, además de un nuevo Cíclope y el Hércules de otra dimensión, y que bajo el liderazgo de Dazzler se dedicarían a viajar entre dimensiones... o algo así, porque esta historia no se publicó nunca en España.
David Lapham había sido el autor de una serie limitada un tanto alargada más allá de lo necesario en la que Marvel había vuelto a la tierra de la Era de Apocalipsis, el megacrossover mutante que había sacudido el Universo mutante allá por los 90, y donde incluso se habían suspendido todas las colecciones para dar salida a colecciones nuevas en las que, en un mundo sin Xavier, los mutantes habían conquistado el mundo bajo el liderazgo de Apocalipsis. Y uno de los personajes mejor recibidos de la saga fue Kurt Darkholme, el Rondador Nocturno espadachín que lideraba X-Calibre, el trasunto apocalíptico de Excalibur.
Y bueno, pues por último, teníamos Astonishing X-Men, que es donde se publicó este cruce en España. Kurt Darkholme había conseguido llegar a nuestro universo, formando incluso parte por un breve periodo de tiempo de X-Force, pero ansiaba volver a su propio mundo, por lo que tras asesinar al hombre que había matado a su esposa y traicionar a la Patrulla-X, se alió con la Bestia Oscura, y ambos decidieron utilizar al Celestial Durmiente de San Francisco para abrir un portal que les llevaría a su universo. Lobezno movilizaría el equipo urbano de la Patrulla (es decir, a los protagonistas de Astonishing) para seguirles, pero finalmente Darkholme y la Bestia Oscura consiguen abrir el portal a su mundo... provocando una problema dimensional que hace que haga su aparición el equipo de Dazzler, seguido por tres... anticelestiales o algo así, que no queda muy claro. pero son criaturas que se alimentan de energía y materia y que amenazan con destruir tanto el Universo de la Era de Apocalipsis como nuestro mundo, teniendo que aliarse los tres equipos de héroes para conseguir la Semilla Celestial del mundo de Apocalipsis y utilizarla para derrotar a los anticelestiales... Pero no todos sobrevivirán (evidentemente las muertes recaen todas en el lado de las colecciones a cerrar), y la historia se centra básicamente en ver como los personajes reciben ostias y pasan de un lado a otro, con muertes aleatorias aquí y allá para que se salven los de siempre...
Y en fin, básicamente esto es X-Termination, que además, para empeorar el tema, está fatal dibujado (quizá se salva un poco David Lopez, pero tampoco firma aquí su mejor trabajo). Así que nada, muy prescindible.
June 11, 2024
A crossover event for Marvel is not new news, however, this one is a bit strange because... I don't really remember any hoopla around it at all.
WHich is really weird because usually these event books are forced into other titles, and become kind of the focus for Marvel at the time of publishing. Furthermore, it's even stranger because the event itself is not half bad. It involves beings that are trapped within the walls between universes, who are let out and want to consume ... well, everything really. And while the villains were kind of - generic and "by the numbers", it kind of worked to the story's advantage because there are 3 different X Men teams, all with different members, and each having their own history and interpersonal relationships with each other, I could see how adding yet even more characters, would have been a bit of an overload.
Greg Pak does a great job of handling all of the members of each team, and does well when making them interact with each other. The art was good too, doing the grandiose story justice by giving us some epic and solid artwork. This was really a culmination of the X-Men teams during that time period, and all of the creative teams did a good job of giving us an entertaining storyline.
I would highly recommend this to X-Men fans who like adventure and danger as the centerpoint.
WHich is really weird because usually these event books are forced into other titles, and become kind of the focus for Marvel at the time of publishing. Furthermore, it's even stranger because the event itself is not half bad. It involves beings that are trapped within the walls between universes, who are let out and want to consume ... well, everything really. And while the villains were kind of - generic and "by the numbers", it kind of worked to the story's advantage because there are 3 different X Men teams, all with different members, and each having their own history and interpersonal relationships with each other, I could see how adding yet even more characters, would have been a bit of an overload.
Greg Pak does a great job of handling all of the members of each team, and does well when making them interact with each other. The art was good too, doing the grandiose story justice by giving us some epic and solid artwork. This was really a culmination of the X-Men teams during that time period, and all of the creative teams did a good job of giving us an entertaining storyline.
I would highly recommend this to X-Men fans who like adventure and danger as the centerpoint.
July 18, 2018
Continuing the great x-read of 2017/18...
This wasn't a bad crossover at all - I've read much worse. It was just, well, a bit of a mess. With all of the jumping around, I started to lose track of who was where and what they were doing. And in the end, most of that didn't matter anyway.
It also ended a bit... oddly. I'm sure the writers are laying down breadcrumbs that they hope are continued by other writers eventually, but a lot of the purposeful loose ends left just seem like they will never go anywhere.
And as much as I loved the original AOA crossover, I hope this is the last time that Marvel returns to that world as each time they go back, it seems to be more ridiculous and less interesting.
This wasn't a bad crossover at all - I've read much worse. It was just, well, a bit of a mess. With all of the jumping around, I started to lose track of who was where and what they were doing. And in the end, most of that didn't matter anyway.
It also ended a bit... oddly. I'm sure the writers are laying down breadcrumbs that they hope are continued by other writers eventually, but a lot of the purposeful loose ends left just seem like they will never go anywhere.
And as much as I loved the original AOA crossover, I hope this is the last time that Marvel returns to that world as each time they go back, it seems to be more ridiculous and less interesting.
September 24, 2019
Three separate x-teams. From different dimensions. Jumping back and forth between dimensions. Multiple Nightcrawlers, none of which is the one I'm used to. Age of Apocalypse characters I'd never heard of. And just really, really bad art.
Saving graces: the evil Xaviers. James Howlett and Hercules as a couple. The young Nightcrawler. And that's about it.
Saving graces: the evil Xaviers. James Howlett and Hercules as a couple. The young Nightcrawler. And that's about it.
January 20, 2018
Took some time to get my bearings as I hadn't read the previous stuff but I was super happy to get more of the X-Treme X-Men team!
(Fingers crossed for a follow-up of Howlett's adventures in *spoiler*!)
(Fingers crossed for a follow-up of Howlett's adventures in *spoiler*!)
May 13, 2022
Incoherent. I hate when a crossover kills a supporting character in a book outside of the series they're part of. A sad, pitiful ending to X-Treme X-Men's characters. Makes no sense with no knowledge of the other series it's cleaning up.
June 24, 2025
I really enjoyed Greg Pak's X-treme X-Men and was super annoyed when Marvel shoved in a crossover event at the end, especially one so confusing and multiverse-spanning. I also didn't enjoy that they killed Hercules and young Kurt. :(
September 25, 2022
A mess but still kinda fun. Wish we got a book of Howlett going to Hades.
May 3, 2024
This is what you get when all of the most-forgettable and uninspired X-books have a crossover with a generic and uninteresting villain.
July 21, 2024
Good story, nice end to the arc.
May 14, 2018
This was a messy crossover and, as a huge fan that was highly affected and still has a great affection for the original story, I hope this is the last we see of the Age of Apocalypse.
October 5, 2025
Original 2019 Review: I can't rate this book, as I do not own/have not read two of the three series involved in this multi-X-verse book. I know that I think the run of Astonishing X-Men that leads to this volume is atrociously bad. But I did not read the X-Treme X-Men series or the Age Of Apocalypse books that factor in.
Probably because of this, I couldn't manage to focus on what was happening. It was too many Other Universe X-Men that I wasn't familiar with. I don't remember how Sage or Dazzler from Earth 616 ended up in the mess. I have only a vague memory of this particular version of Nightcrawler, and I know this is the Sabretooth from the Exiles run, but, ooooof, it's too much.
Maybe at some point, I'll be able to get my hands on the X-Treme and Age Of Apocalypse runs to make more sense of this, but for this go-round it couldn't hold my attention.
***
Updated Review During 2025 X-Reread:
I still haven't read two out of the four series that lead into it but this time I didn't feel remotely lost. This wraps up some Uncanny X-Force, Vol. 7: Final Execution, Book 2 plot threads and deals with some of the Astonishing X-Men, Vol. 11: Weaponized stories better than any other part of the back half of the series.
This is purely an action flick centered on multiverses, so if those aren't you're thing, you're not going to enjoy it. But it's a solid enough story if you enjoyed X-Men: The Complete Age of Apocalypse Epic, Book 1
Probably because of this, I couldn't manage to focus on what was happening. It was too many Other Universe X-Men that I wasn't familiar with. I don't remember how Sage or Dazzler from Earth 616 ended up in the mess. I have only a vague memory of this particular version of Nightcrawler, and I know this is the Sabretooth from the Exiles run, but, ooooof, it's too much.
Maybe at some point, I'll be able to get my hands on the X-Treme and Age Of Apocalypse runs to make more sense of this, but for this go-round it couldn't hold my attention.
***
Updated Review During 2025 X-Reread:
I still haven't read two out of the four series that lead into it but this time I didn't feel remotely lost. This wraps up some Uncanny X-Force, Vol. 7: Final Execution, Book 2 plot threads and deals with some of the Astonishing X-Men, Vol. 11: Weaponized stories better than any other part of the back half of the series.
This is purely an action flick centered on multiverses, so if those aren't you're thing, you're not going to enjoy it. But it's a solid enough story if you enjoyed X-Men: The Complete Age of Apocalypse Epic, Book 1
August 4, 2015
Are you eager to learn the fate of Age of Apocalypse Nightcrawler, trying to make right after his choices in the latest volume of Uncanny X-Force?
If you answered "no" to that question because you had no idea what any of it meant, the X-Termination crossover will only further confuse you. If you want a new-reader friendly introduction to Nightcrawler, try Jason Aaron and Ed McGuiness's Amazing X-Men instead.
If you answered "yes" to that question as a fellow obsessive X-Men reader, you will still be disappointed by X-Termination. Besides big explosions and the zany fun of the issues written by Greg Pak, this collection only excels at providing examples of common crossover problems. Art of wildly inconsistent quality? Check. Writing that mostly (go Greg Pak!) loses any distinctive voice in the cacophony of multiversal collisions? Check. A too large cast of characters that become little more than exposition-spouting action figures? Check. There's fun to be had here, but the fun is hidden in a lot of nonsense.
If you answered "no" to that question because you had no idea what any of it meant, the X-Termination crossover will only further confuse you. If you want a new-reader friendly introduction to Nightcrawler, try Jason Aaron and Ed McGuiness's Amazing X-Men instead.
If you answered "yes" to that question as a fellow obsessive X-Men reader, you will still be disappointed by X-Termination. Besides big explosions and the zany fun of the issues written by Greg Pak, this collection only excels at providing examples of common crossover problems. Art of wildly inconsistent quality? Check. Writing that mostly (go Greg Pak!) loses any distinctive voice in the cacophony of multiversal collisions? Check. A too large cast of characters that become little more than exposition-spouting action figures? Check. There's fun to be had here, but the fun is hidden in a lot of nonsense.
February 12, 2017
Or 3.5; started slow, but picked up.
June 25, 2014
There's a just a lot of stuff here.
The writing is good enough to make it seem like there's something but there isn't. It's just a lot of stuff ultimately to admit that this "new" Age of Apocalypse was not very interesting and should go away forever.
But, like, what about Mystique? Why do all the humans have crazy powers? Can Apocalypse really be more powerful than an army of beings that eat Celestials? Can that one guy really figure out how to seal that whole army there? And the whole army is there? Why does Wolverine think Hercules has not been destroyed?
The writing is good enough to make it seem like there's something but there isn't. It's just a lot of stuff ultimately to admit that this "new" Age of Apocalypse was not very interesting and should go away forever.
But, like, what about Mystique? Why do all the humans have crazy powers? Can Apocalypse really be more powerful than an army of beings that eat Celestials? Can that one guy really figure out how to seal that whole army there? And the whole army is there? Why does Wolverine think Hercules has not been destroyed?
October 3, 2013
This kinda sucked.
In comics, everyone has to live forever, but everyone is willing to sacrifice themselves. Therefore, if you want to show that they would be willing to sacrifice themselves, you have to make Ctrl-C copies of those heroes that are interesting enough to read about, but dispensable enough to sacrifice.
Marjorie Liu's writing makes this not a total waste, although she didn't write most of it, so I am hoping to get back to a volume that features only her.
In comics, everyone has to live forever, but everyone is willing to sacrifice themselves. Therefore, if you want to show that they would be willing to sacrifice themselves, you have to make Ctrl-C copies of those heroes that are interesting enough to read about, but dispensable enough to sacrifice.
Marjorie Liu's writing makes this not a total waste, although she didn't write most of it, so I am hoping to get back to a volume that features only her.
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