Writer Chris Claremont
Pencils Sean Chen
Inks Sandu Florea
Colors Avalon’s Ian Hannin
Letters Dave Sharpe
Part Six of Six or 18 of 18
Cover Dated August 2006
Inside front cover ad is for Adam Sandler’s Click. I still haven’t seen it.
The End Trilogy is best read when it first came out in 2005 / 2006, as Claremont really took the time to take what was happening in the current titles – then added twenty years.
Reading the final issue of the saga, it just reads like some odd choices but it made sense at the time.
Issue opens on Chandilar, the thorneworld of the Shi’ar Empire. Cassandra Nova has killed Xavier and Jean, so she has his powers as well as the power of the Phoenix.
Last issue, the gathered X-Men hit her with their best shot – here, she laughs it off. I’ve said this before but I’m not the biggest fan of the X-Men in space so a lot of this didn’t hold my interest.
The Earth sections, I really dug.
Wolverine in the Xavier Institute Emergency Medical Unit, is going into cardiac arrest.
In Chicago, at the Belles of Hell – the acting campaign headquarters for Kitty Pryde’s run for mayor. Kitty has collapsed, and the people around her are freaking out.
In space. The Imperial Guard are about to attack Cassandra Nova and she straight up kills him.
While she is gloating, Dazzler blasts a hole through her head.
Cassandra Nova gets better and appears to kill Storm and X-Man.
There is an ad for the Blade TV series, that I missed out on.
Bishop and his daughter attack and are defeated.
Cassandra Nova wants new opponents but sees the nearby sun and decides to explode it. Before she can, Madelyne Pryor shows up. She seems to merge with Jean and bring the dead X-Men, including Cyclops, back. This is the part that seems to be overly complicated.
There is an ad for X-Men The Official Game, that is repeated on the back cover.
Jean takes the power of the Phoenix back. They enter Cassandra Nova’s mind. Then the worst happens. Jean gives this two page speech that boils down to how since Xavier viewed the world as the humans hating and fearing them, he forced his students to view the world the same. If only Xavier loved more when he was younger, the world would be better now. So Xavier and his twin sister decide to restart and love each other now.
With that, all of the present mutants on the planet go to heaven.
There is a bulletin page, called the Pulse – the ad page for the Daily Bugle. Civil War was on issue three. Spider-Girl turns 100.
20 Years Later. The good stuff. We see that Kitty Pryde is the President!
I love that Lockheed is chill laxing in the Oval Office.
Kitty has three children. The oldest, Meredith, and the twins who are ten years younger – Doug and Sara. I only ‘get’ the naming of Doug. No idea who the father is.
Alice Tremaine, who was a real jerk to Kitty back in Mekanix, is the Speaker of the House.
Through Alice, we learned that Kitty became the mayor of Chicago. Next, the Governor of Illinois and now, the President of the United States.
Kitty gives a big ol’ speech. Today is the one hundredth anniversary of Xavier’s birth as well as the twentieth anniversary of his death. So he was 80 when he died and when he would have been 90, Kitty was giving birth to twins.
The cool thing about this two page spread is that the page is spilt with the dead X-Men in fiery heaven and the living listening to Kitty’s speech.
Instead of The End, we get – The Beginning!
The dead are – from what I can tell – Angel, Storm, Jean, Cyclops, Xavier, Nate Grey, Colossus, Captain Britain, Rogue, Gambit, Juggernaut, Domino and Warpath.
The living – Iceman, Callisto, Wolverine, Beast, Mystique, Emma Frost and Nightcrawler and his family.
. . .
The reason I reviewed this issue is that it features children of Kitty Pryde – or as I like to call them – Pryde’s Pride. Today, our son – Walker Dennis Klein, is one years old! Happy Birthday, Walker!
I show only three other comics with her children, so I am not sure what I will do after that but that is something Future John has to worry about.
Shadow and Flame with Magik 