Death of X #4 (of 4)

   From time to time the major comics companies will put out a comic that arrives, basically, as a heartfelt "UP YOURS" to longtime comics fans.

   Here's one now.

   The final issue of Death of X is meant to seal the deal, to show us why the Inhumans and the X-Men must fight (in an upcoming Event mini-series, natch).

   And we get a little bit of that. The Inhumans set loose on the world two clouds of Terrigen Mist (exposure to it reveals a small number of normal people as Inhumans and gives them some kind of power).

   But exposure to the mists has terrible (often fatal) effects on mutants - so the X-Men decide to destroy those clouds.

   Of course, instead of sitting down and talking about solutions, the two opposing forces instead fight to the death - even though there's no reason for the fight to escalate that far.

   The story rather casually, almost as an afterthought, takes out a character who I've been a fan of since my earliest days as a reader (we're talking early '60s here), and it's terribly wasteful and pointless.

   It does have this effect: I'll be avoiding the mini-series that follows, along with the spinoff storylines. Perhaps if they ever get around to correcting the numerous (and egregious) harms they've inflicted on both the X-books and the Inhumans (numerous deaths and ongoing character assassinations), I'll return.

   But I'm not holding my breath waiting.

Grade: D

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Posted in: Reviews