A Good, Layered, Set-Up Issue
This fifth issue of X-Men: The End continues the advancement of Claremont's plot through its many winding avenues. In this issue, Claremont introduces the audience to a number of important mutants' current whereabouts, such as Wolfsbane, Sage, X-23, and Monet. As the last issue was focused on X-Force, this issue seems to focus more on the New X-Men quite a bit more, which is interesting. While Claremont does not reveal any aftermath of the X-Force issue, the (seemingly) main plot with Sinister, or the Aliyah plot, he introduces multiple new layers to the story.
What was good?
The three fight scenes in this book are all entertaining. The Storm/Wolverine/Yukio one is especially good because Claremont and Chen do a spectacular job at showing just how defenseless Storm really is (and how she gets out of the situation). Kudos as well to the Irish pub scene with the cops and firemen taking a stand against Ahab; that was a good "hell yeah!" moment. That scene gets additional kudos for Lockheed, as well. The revelations toward the end of the book do not disappoint either; the concept of a "Summers Family Reunion" is equal parts deadly and awesome.
What was bad?
This series appears to be working off of two main plots at the moment: Aliyah Bishop and the return of the Phoenix, and Mr. Sinister and his plans for, well, his usual stuff. Barring that, there are almost an innumerable amount of subplots, which Claremont does a decent job handling, but it would be nice to see a little more explanation. Reading this, this was the question going through my mind: what are the warskrulls even doing here?
What was ugly?
When Storm fought off the warskrull by freezing it, I was surprised and disappointed that when Iceman did it less than a page later, that warskrull seemed to effortlessly break out of it. I would like to hope that Iceman is better at freezing stuff than Storm, I mean c'mon. Also, the page with the Irish pub scene is backgrounded in white, while the rest of the comic is in black. That is really distracting and makes that page stick out like a sore thumb.
What's the verdict?
3.5/5. This issue is by no means bad, but it is too damn complex and presents so much information that it can be confusing. It, however, does work excellently in the capacity for a set-up of the Book One finale, which is no small feat. All in all, this is great, but pair it up immediately with issue six.
Death toll: 11