Beginning the second of three books chronicling the final story of Marvel's mutant heroes The Xavier Academy has been reduced to a smoldering crater in a brutal sneak attack, and the casualties number in the hundreds. Now, Cyclops must mobilize the survivors to get to the bottom of who is behind these coordinated strikes on mutants in general and the X-Men in particular. Collects X-Men: The End - Heroes and Martyrs #1-6.
Chris Claremont is a writer of American comic books, best known for his 16-year (1975-1991) stint on Uncanny X-Men, during which the series became one of the comic book industry's most successful properties.
Claremont has written many stories for other publishers including the Star Trek Debt of Honor graphic novel, his creator-owned Sovereign Seven for DC Comics and Aliens vs Predator for Dark Horse Comics. He also wrote a few issues of the series WildC.A.T.s (volume 1, issues #10-13) at Image Comics, which introduced his creator-owned character, Huntsman.
Outside of comics, Claremont co-wrote the Chronicles of the Shadow War trilogy, Shadow Moon (1995), Shadow Dawn (1996), and Shadow Star (1999), with George Lucas. This trilogy continues the story of Elora Danan from the movie Willow. In the 1980s, he also wrote a science fiction trilogy about female starship pilot Nicole Shea, consisting of First Flight (1987), Grounded! (1991), and Sundowner (1994). Claremont was also a contributor to the Wild Cards anthology series.
This series continues to be good, but as Claremont X-Men stories tend to do, it's starting to get confusing. There's some odd revelations made here, but I'm assuming this is basically a "What If' style story anyway.
The first book of the series was frustrating at times due to the lack of backstory; we have a story about future X-Men with no knowledge of things that happened between the 'then' and the 'now'. The second book has the first book to build on, so there is at least some history now for the reader to work with. The second book is also more focused, dealing almost exclusively with the Mister Sinister arc of the story. It does not feel as rushed or overwhelming as the first book. The art is great, the story feels epic and is well done (not perfect, but very good).
Chris Claremont has defined the best of what the X-Men represents. He writes sweeping narratives punctuated by sermonizing speeches that make the X-Men an overt symbol of tolerance for the other whether that be racial equality, gay rights, or any other marginalized group.. In this swan song story, he does what he does best again.
However the story suffers from an overly complicated plot line and the ever expanding cast of characters. Stories... and comic book stories in particular... often can't handle the wait of too large a cast and this is a case in point.
One of the fun parts of this "Dark X-Men Returns" storyline, was seeing the storylines Claremont always meant to write but never did, like Storm's powers wrecking her body and also guessing that some of the ones that ended up in the comics from other writers were Claremont's all along like Emma and Scott's relationship and why Bishop always referred to Gambit as the "traitor". Hard to tell whether I'm just not as invested in these characters as I once was or whether it's all just a little rushed.
I'm really enjoying this series. This volume had some nice nods to the "3rd Summers Brother" trope that plagued almost every new white male mutant through the late 80s and 90s. I also very much appreciate how Claremont isn't even pretending to hide the Kitty/Rachel romantic relationship that he's confirmed in interviews he was always intentionally hintung at as much as possible under the comics code.
Still a fun read that harkens back to old-school Claremont.
Had to order book 3 because I had apparently missed it somehow so it will be a little bit before I can see the conclusion to this story. I suppose that it says something about the story when the wait doesn't bother me.
With most of this taking place around Sinister I found this an easier read than the previous book. However with X-men dropping like flies in worried the only mutant left at THE END will be Jean bloody Grey. On to the next one and then I can head back to the original timeline.
This was a bit better than the previous volume, since it focused on only two or three plots, rather than about ten. There were some interesting turns, particularly involving Gambit and Rogue. Since Gambit is a favorite of mine, these were interesting, and rather well done. The part with Cyclops lamenting Madelyne Pryor seemed a bit forced, since I have recently read the original storyline, and I sort of suspected it was a trap he was making, but that never quite panned out. Other than that, there were some good character moments, though for characters locked in the time of the writing, and a lot has happened to them, since. Hopefully, it will stay this tight through the next volume.
Excellent! They don't call this "The End" for nothing! Characters are dying left and right, and a lot of them are favorites of mine, but all in service of the story. I really enjoy this series and the artwork is amazing!