X-Men: The (fan fic) Series

And Astonishing X-Men leave us, not with a bang, not with a futile attempt at over-existentializing, but with grace and dignity.

I mean, a lot of comics and tv shows, when they end, try to do things up with big, massive, world-ending stuff that’s wrapped up in a few panels. Others try to get a bit too deep, like the characters inside are actually ‘dying’. Then some just leave us on some WTF cliff-hanger.

Astonishing takes the inspired way out and simply doesn’t end. Not in the ‘wait, what the heck happens next’ kind of way Gambit ended, but in the ‘these characters are going about their lives, I’ve simply stopped being the one telling the story’.

It is kinda annoying we don’t know the legal state of Jean-Paul and Kyle, but in the way that’s kinda better because otherwise the whole issue could have devolved into legal mumbo and socio-political boxing. Which wouldn’t have been bad if it wasn’t the final issue. I’m sure this isn’t the last we’ve heard of this situation, though I’m not sure of the how/where for now.

So, yeah, the biggest lesson from this finale is that life goes on. It may seem difficult and lost at times… but it always finds its place.

Damn, I’m gonna miss this title.

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That moment when the comic book writer uses fan fiction to get the comic back to its roots of being an analogue for the human struggle…

Seriously, when I first started reading the panels I was thinking “am I reading a fan fiction?” and it turns out, I was. It was a self-insert fan fiction of real celebrities, well, real seeing as it’s from the perspective of a character in the same universe. Liu has always had a way of looking at the reality of the situation, and she does it again by pointing out that in a world full of mutants and superheroes, there are going to be bloggers, tumblrs, and all sorts of individuals expressing a desire to be part of that world.

And that’s exactly what happens. The girl who feels all alone dreams of being swept up into something amazing, and it actually happens. Not only that, but she saves the day because she has such trust and belief that the aliens are ‘oh, okay, these guys are cool, our bad’. So yeah, it’s a comic about a girl’s fan fiction coming true.

But the big message here is about ‘not being alone’. It’s telling the reader that they are an ‘x-man’ just as Wendy is, and they are never alone because, well, they aren’t. They’ll always have the X-Men or whatever character they relate to the most with them. With is made all the more poignant by this title ending next issue.

Damn I’m going to miss this title so much…

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Is there a ship name for Gambit and Cecilia Reyes? Cause as much as Romy is my OTP, I can totally ship these two when Romy isn’t an option.

Beyond that, we’re seeing the aftermath of what happened with Bobby’s ‘big freeze’. The ice is melting and  people are trying to get back to normal, instead of, you know, things suddenly being normal without any thought to the consequences of such an environmental catastrophe. Cecilia, as a doctor, has been doing her best to help people who had been caught up in the tragedy. And it seems the storm shook something loose and the X-men are going to have to deal with it.

First though they need to deal with themselves, they kinda forgot what that meant in the chaos that has been the last year of Marvel doing their best to just jack everything up. I think a lot of healing is needed, and we aren’t seeing enough of that in the other titles.

Overall, I’m really going to miss this title when it goes.

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X-Termination: Part Five

Mostly a lot of talking in this issue, just getting us from Point A to Point B… telling us that there is only one way to stop the invaders and that is by sacrificing the Age of Apocalypse world.

Really? After all that time and effort put into the Age of Apocalypse title, which did have some measure of fan base, and all you’re going to do is destroy it completely?

What a crock.

If I had been a fan of the title then I would have totally yelled foul. In fact, I’m not a fan and I’m going to yell foul anyway.

Can’t really blame Liu for that though because she is writing inside of a pre-defined story structure… of which whoever came up with it is an idiot.

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