X-Men spin-offs, story splits, mini series, and completely conflicting plots are numerous in today’s comics. The story of the X-Men has become so split-up in so many different stories, it is often hard to tell who’s dead, who’s new, who’s good, who’s evil, and where the story generally is. That is why I like the idea behind this series. The End. At least this story cannot go further than this series, I mean, when it’s over, it’s over. So you can read and enjoy it without fearing its effect on the overall plot.

Chris Claremont’s writing is clear and direct. He tells you what you need to know when you need to know it. He doesn’t tell you everything, but neither does he leave important things out, expecting you already know them, or repeat himself a lot. These are all very good traits to have. The dialogue is interesting and is never cheesy or cornball. One-liners have no place in this serious and emotional story. The art by Sean Chen is fairly good, though the movement is sometimes awkward and some faces have too much detail. The art, however, is consistent, and the cells are neither cramped nor confusing. (You might also notice that the cover is done by Greg Land and Matt Ryan, the current artists for Phoenix Endsong, along with colorist Justin Ponsor who is sadly never mentioned on any covers).

The End #1 tells of a worldwide attack on mutant organizations, including the complete destruction of Xavier’s School. The X-Force is completely destroyed, including Cable, and its only survivors are Domino, Feral, and Rictor. Gambit is taking orders from Sinister again and kidnaps Rogue and Emma’s children. Beast returns to the X-Men despite his dislike for Vargas, and Hub teleports an entire mobile hospital to the site of the school and then collapses. Yes, it’s chaos world wide, but things keep getting worse.

Domino and Feral are attacked by a Wolverine look-alike, and are apparently both dead. The President of the U.S. decides that normal people must take action to defend themselves and it looks like he might abandon the X-Men. Scott is found holding a dieing Northstar. All the while, Sinister seems to know that the world as the X-Men know it is coming to an end, and it seems that he might have had Gambit kidnap those kids for a good reason, but I doubt it.

Then, just when I think Xavier really is dead, he appears. Talking with Jean/Phoenix, he discovers that she doesn’t know who’s causing this, but it might be an alien race called the Shi’ar. Domino stops in for a visit, but Callisto senses that she is a fake. Callisto proceeds to launch a ridiculous amount of knives at the faux-domino, but to no avail. It returns fire, and it looks like Callisto is dead. The “Domino” moves in towards Xavier, but he pulls an asp and beats the crap out of her. He then discovers that he is unable to hold the thing with his powers, and it reveals itself as a green alien thing with a plan to destroy the X-Men.

You may not know a lot about X-Men, but that’s ok. This series is about their ending, (or really just a possible ending) and therefore does not require any foreknowledge. So, jump right in, 'cause it looks like things are going to get messy.

-Fumanchu