The End of the Uncanny X-Men, All-New X-Men, and Extraordinary X-Men

Finally made a point last night to sit down and read all of my X-Men comics. I had two from last week—Extraordinary X-Men #20 and Uncanny X-Men #19—and then All-New X-Men #19 released yesterday, March 29th. I knew something new was on the horizon with the teases of X-Men Prime within the comics, but I had no idea that Marvel Comics was simply going to end all three comic series.

All of the X-Mens are getting reshuffled once more to form new teams. New subscriptions to buy. Heroes who were gone are coming back. Other heroes are just leaving. X-Men Prime #1 also released yesterday, so I will have to check that out when I can. I hope, at the very least, it addresses all of the open ends left at the end of these series, because this was a big mess.

I suppose, let’s start with the least open-ended comic, Extraordinary X-Men. The team cleans up after the war between the inhumans and mutants, slowly sending groups of refugees home from X-Haven. As Storm watches their compound in Limbo become quieter and quieter, she becomes more and more depressed. She has no idea where the team can go from there, which puzzles me. Why can’t you go back to what you were doing? Teaching gifted youngsters? Protecting human- and mutant-kind? What the X-Men have done since 1963? I really don’t understand why she is all mopey, but I guess I can learn in X-Men Prime.

At least we’re treated to this bit of hilarity from Old Man Logan:

And then the issue ends with a baseball game? Oookay, moving on…

On to Uncanny X-Men finale, where Psylocke is stalking Magneto. She swore she would kill him if she thought he was “going down a path from which mutant-kind cannot return.” Siding with Emma Frost to kill all inhumans and not let everyone in on the fact that Blackbolt did not kill Cyclops marked him for death. The battle between them is incredibly intense, which of course ended with Psylocke walking away before Magneto’s heart stopped beating. As such, it’s no surprise that Magneto was magically rescued.

What is weird is how this team has officially broken up. I’m not surprised that Xorn decided to leave the planet after the accident on New Attilan. I’m sort of surprised Archangel is guarding over the Sleeper mutants as their lord and savior. Psylocke said, “Sooner or later, that’s going to come back to bite us.” An heir to Apocalypse who may or may not remember who he really is guarding over weaponized mutants? What could go wrong?

No, the strangest part was Monet and Sabretooth. We knew that Sabretooth was keeping her vampirism a secret and helping her when she had to feed. Then there was a crazy incident with Monet hunting refugee children in Limbo, and Sabretooth helping her again, but nothing was really discussed. I always assumed that once the war was over, attention would turn to Monet’s little problem. Maybe it will be resolved in one of the next series, but this is all we have now.

Finally, let’s look at the craziest ending of them all, All-New X-Men #19. I’ve seen some lazy writing in comics, including the X-Men. How Grayson ended, for example, was some of the laziest stuff I’ve ever read. I let it pass because it was quite obvious the comic team was told, “Oh by the way, the New 52 is ending in two months, so wrap it up, mmmkay?” I wonder if the All-New X-Men team was told the same thing, because how that ended might just top Grayson.

Hank combines the magic he learned from Dr. Strange with his tech and took all of the original X-Men back to the past to show them something. And here’s the explanation of why they can’t go back, as well as why it’s not that big of a deal Angel now has wings of fire:

The universe righted itself, is what Hank said in other panels. It made it like they didn’t leave, so they can’t go back, as that would disrupt this timeline. Let’s ignore all the logistical plot holes that opens and move on, all right? Yes, let’s move on to a dance party right before the The End. Makes complete sense.

I can’t pretend to understand what Marvel was hoping to achieve with these endings. It’s all reshuffling to X-Men Gold, X-Men Blue, and various other series surrounding one or a few characters.

I’m just going to smile, nod, open some wine, and determine if I want to stick around for what’s coming next. I’m not sure I can deal with this constant shifting of titles.