The end is here. Sacrifices have been made. The most dangerous and successful attempt at the extermination of mutants is upon us. Who will walk away?
What did we at Multiversity think about the end of the latest and greatest X-Event? Find out after the cut!
Matt’s Thoughts: Second Coming has been an absolute powerhouse of talent and storytelling. The way the artists and writers have been trading off has been nothing short of dynamically brilliant and engrossing for the reader, and this has been an absolutely dynamite follow up to Messiah CompleX.
That being said, the ending is a tad… well, underwhelming isn’t the word, but predictable is.
The problem with the ending to Second Coming is nothing happened that we the reader couldn’t infer from before the story began. To me, the only really surprising change was the change to X-Force in status (though the roster was pretty predictable given the clues). With the big deaths over and done with and Bastion out of the way, all that was really left with this issue was to tie up loose ends and set things up for what is to come in the different X-Books.
(Just as a reference, some spoilers are discussed.)
Chapter 1 was written by Zeb Wells, and this was easily the darkest of all the stories. Showing us the infirmary, we get a first look at all the injuries done and limbs lost, as well as a very dark moment for Hope and a quiet but subtle moment from Magneto. Wells is quickly rising in the ranks of my author list due to his ability to really tell quality stories in such short moments, and the final line of this chapter was excellent. I also loved the taste of Roberson on art and am incredibly looking forward to what is to come from the New Mutants book.
Chapter 2 was Mike Carey’s turn, in which he set up the new status quo for X-Men Legacy. Carey dealt with a lot of the sadder moments of the story, including Nathan’s funeral. Nathan’s funeral was both an odd moment and an incredibly sad one, especially from Scott Summers. Cyclops has been the rock of the X-Men for a while, unwavering in his decisions and emotions, but to see him break down was pretty sad. His lecture to Rogue was also intriguing, considering his own actions, but it’s one of those things that you know isn’t exactly going to have a bearing in a couple issues anyway, so it’s hard to get really moved over that.
Chapter 3 was the finale to Yost and Kyle’s excellent run on X-Force. This was both some of my favorite and least favorite moments of the issue. On the positive side, I like how open ended they left everything for Remender to come in and do his thing. It also pushes Laura (X-23) in the direction she needs to go for her own solo series and effectively closes their loops while allowing others to be elaborated on. There are two things I didn’t care for, though: the first detraction for this part of the story was Greg Land. I don’t hate Land’s art like some people do, but I think he focuses on two things way too much – posing and beautiful people. I didn’t even recognize Logan and Laura in one sequence because Land spent the entire time having them posing, and both were far more attractive than they should be. Plus the final X-Force pose was incredibly cheesy, and I swear to God Deadpool’s stance and equipment… I thought we were past that era of comics? On top of that, the writing for the scene with Wolverine and Storm didn’t quite make sense to me. It seemed odd that Wolverine would be so chastised for murder… as if this was something new.
The final chapter, and the one that is arguably the most important to the ongoing saga of the X-Men, is written by Fraction and arted by Terry Dodson. I’ve been a big fan of their work together, but their part of the story is the most predictable unfortunately. Beast leaves, Hope shows something off, and the Five Lights are shown. The sequence is incredibly important because it’s the first new mutant sighting since M-Day and Hope’s birth, but in all reality – we saw this coming. What will be interesting is to see what happens next, but with just this little bit of story we aren’t given anything new.
Continued belowSo Second Coming wrapped up, and I have to say that all in all I loved it. This is how crossovers should be done, and the X-Books haven’t been this universally great since Messiah Complex. It’s very cool to see this era end, and I can’t wait for what is to come next, although it does look rather dark for our heroes. Either way, I can’t remember the last time I was this excited about X-Books, and with Second Coming now at a close, I can easily say that I want to follow every single book with our mutant heroes in them (well, minus that one book with the vampires).
Here’s hoping that the future of the X-Men is as good as Second Coming was.
Gil’s Thoughts: And it ends. I will say, looking back, this was one of the best events the X-Men have done in a long time. I don’t remember so many WTF moments since Onslaught. I winced, I cried, I saw some amazing storytelling. There were some hiccups along the road (namely the Nightcrawler death, which I found poorly executed) but for the most part it was fantastic. I just wish this issue served as more than a simple epilogue teasing the next year worth of stories. Don’t get me wrong, it all looks good, but I feel like I paid 3.99 for an advertisement. Oh well.
Walt’s Thoughts: Let me put this in context for you readers: I have never been a big X-Men fan. When I got into comics, I read Grant Morrison’s New X-Men and Joss Whedon’s Astonishing, but that was about it for a while. After a year or so, I figured it was time to get caught up, so using the internet for research and a hefty stack of trade paperbacks, I slowly started getting caught up. I was a little bit past Messiah Complex when I realized that this Sunday that Second Coming, being the end of the chain of events going through the X-Books over the past few years, was most likely going to be our book of the week. Therefore I read about one hundred and twenty issues worth of comics in the span of two days to catch up in time.
Yes, I’m slightly unhinged.
As you can imagine, I had high expectations for this finale, as I had devoted two full days to preparing for it (having a messed up toe that was difficult to walk on helped me stay “dedicated”). If it turned out to be lame, I would have been very irked.
Luckily, this ending left me very satisfied. I was surprised at how many plot-threads were tied up in Second Coming from across all the X-Books, and even more at how well the various writers were able to form one solid storytelling voice. No punches were pulled, beloved characters were killed, and we were given what was probably the best X-Crossover in a long time, and there have been some good ones lately.
Most of the action came to a halt in last week’s X-Force, so this final issue was more resolution than anything else. Cable’s funeral was much more touching than Nightcrawler’s, though that may be because it was set in the aftermath rather than the heat of the action. I was worried that Cable’s death would overshadow Nightcrawler’s sacrifice from earlier in the story, but I was very pleased to find that he was given plenty of respect, paricularly in Yost and Kyle’s part of the issue. We also finally got a slightly clearer description of how Hope’s power works, and it’s quite interesting, to say the least.
By far my favorite thing about this event, however, is the way that Cyclops has been developed. We saw a lot of development over the course of Utopia and Nation X, as well as in his background role in X-Force, but this event and this issue in particular really shows how much things have changed for Scott. And best of all? It wasn’t all for naught. If you haven’t read it yet, you’ll see what I mean.
All in all, this was a great end to a great even, with solid writing from everyone involved, and solid art from everyone but Greg Land (seriously, there was no emotion in that supposed-to-be-emotion-paced scene with Logan and Laura). My biggest fear when entering this event was that everything would be returning to something resembling the standard X-Men status quo, but in the end there was nothing of the sort. Actual, sustained development in a superhero comic? You better believe it (well, for now at least).
