Mike Carey’s Age of X crossover running through X-Men: Legacy and New Mutants wrapped up today. Most of the pieces of the X-Men’s world seem to have been put back where they belong after being warped into a dark reflection of the Marvel Universe. The action in the concluding chapter is straightforward, but there are some tense moments where it’s unclear if anyone can save the mutants from the brink of destruction in a world where they’ve been hunted nearly to extinction. The fallout from what these characters have been through promises to be interesting going forward, but the resolution we see here is a satisfying end to a great story.

Spoilers for the issue and series will follow.

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Mike Carey’s wild ride through the Age of X is coming to a close at the end of the month, and Chapter Five (also known as X-Men: Legacy #247) was firing on all cylinders. We get a lot of answers, but it’s still unclear exactly how the mutants are going to set things right. At the end of this issue, Carey talks about his deliberate pacing of the series, and as far as I’m concerned he got it just right. Every issue has left me anxious to know more and this one is no exception. There’s a lot to like here, and these final issues have brought everything together to set the stage for a thrilling finale. So let’s get to it.

Spoilers for the issue and series will follow.

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I was looking forward to this book, but my level of enjoyment still took me by surprise. Writer Simon Spurrier did some great X-Men work recently on the Smoke and Blood one-shot during the Curse of the Mutants vampire event. That issue featured the X-Men’s science team (the X-Club) and as I really enjoy those characters I was predisposed to enjoying the story. It’s great to see Spurrier in this case taking more recognizable characters from the Marvel Universe that I’m not nearly as invested in and making me care about their plight. Seeing the Avengers as government sanctioned mutant hunter/killers is provocative on its own, but the twisted nature of the Age of X helps. It isn’t as simple as the characters we know being given a gruesome mission, in this case the characters entire histories are gruesome tales. The creative freedom to make these changes that Spurrier mentions in his comments at the end of the issue makes for a great read. I’ve actually grown to really enjoy those commentaries as they give a nice insight into both the creators and the book they’re working on.

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Age of X: Chapter 4 hit the shelves yesterday and it’s another fantastic installment of Mike Carey’s mysterious X-Men saga. Within its pages, we finally learn what happened to the world we know, but the revelation is so over the top crazy that it only raises new questions about who could have done it and how. With two chapters remaining in this crossover, the timing and nature of the reveals here are pitch perfect as things really start to escalate.

Spoilers for the issue and series will follow.

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Marvel’s Age of X hit the midway point this week with the release of X-Men: Legacy #246. The mystery of this strange new world deepens and we see some heavy hitters step into the foreground. The book is a solid 4 out of 5 and writer Mike Carey’s latest X-Men masterpiece is really commanding my attention.

Spoilers to follow.

The issue sports another great Lenil Yu cover featuring the Age of X versions of the New Mutants (Cypher, Magma, Karma, Dust, Moonstar and Eclipse/Sunspot). The team spends most of the issue hunting down Legacy (Rogue), who has learned that all is not what is seems in their world. While the suspense and action is great here, what struck me most about the book is how much I’m enjoying the small details that seem to reflect moments from X-Men history.

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