Customer Reviews

X-Men: The End Book One: Dreamers And Demons

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Marvel's merry mutants are now the lastest victims of Marvel's popular "The End" series, and who better to script the final days of the X-Men than their legendary scribe Chris Claremont. The first of three X-Men: The End mini's, Dreamers & Demons picks up a few years into the future, introducing us to the daughter of former X-Man Bishop and the Queen of the Shi'ar, Deathbird. Scott "Cyclops" Summers and Emma Frost are now happily married with children, and run the school, while Storm is completely paralyzed with Wolverine watching over her. And oh yeah, the Phoenix is coming back (yet again). There's plenty of supporting X-characters and villains that we've all come to know over the years as well, all of which come into play as Mr. Sinister hatches a plot, which includes a horde of War-Skrulls, that many of the mutant heroes will not survive. By the end of the story, most of X-Force is dead, not to mention the X-Men are decimated, all of which will leave the reader looking forward for the first issue of the next mini. Claremont's dialogue techniques aren't anything to write home about, and his story can become quite jumbled in all the action going on, and new readers won't have a clue as to what's going on with so much going on at once. The art by Sean Chen is great, and his renderings of Emma and Rogue are unbelieveably mouth watering. All in all, this is the beginning of the end for the X-Men, and so far, it's a satisfying one.

Synopsis: The X-Men have enjoied relative peace for a good long while, but this sense of security rests on tentative soil as a myriad of forces conspire to exploit a breed of X-Men no longer as militant as previous incarnations. A cadre of X-Men defend the now massive Xaviar institute, under the leadership of Cyclops in the field and Wolfsbane in the classroom. The XSE, headed by former-foe Vargas that works for the US Government and fills the role of mutant strike-force. X-Force fills the role of cannon-fodder, and when Cable isn't busy fighting for freedom he seems to be romantic with... Apocolypse? Sinister plots, and Phoenix is back from the dead... again.

Artwork: Pretty good, clean and in a realism style that should satisfy the main-stream comics fan. The near-future renditions of the characters stay thankfully true to form, which helps aleviate the difficult to follow story.
Story: Extremely confusing, even to a hard-core fan who has nearly every issue from waay back to Uncanny X-Men #94 up to current issues, yet still X-Men the End panders to the delight of long-time fans.

Cons: The only severe point of contention I have with the story is the lack of explination, quite a lot is going on and far too many "foot-note" characters show up with no quick reference as to who the frick these people are or why villians have become heroes or heroes villians, or on one page an X-Man is a villan then a few pages later is a hero again with no explanation as to why (read-Tessa/Sage). However, the confusion with the over-all plot is mostly cleared up with the second story-arc in the series. Also, Magneto is probably in about one or two pannels of the whole series thus far (he is not in the second series at all), and Xaviar appeares only slightly more often than Magnus. If this truly is the End for the X-Men, the two individuals most responsible for the shaping of the whole X-Universe should be given at least as much attention as, say, the Skrulls, who are really more Fantastic Four villans than X-Men foes.

Pros: Despite all of this, the story is a fun read and as I said above very rewarding to long-time readers in its scope. I appriciate how the story is not so much of a rehashing of reoccuring major story-lines of past X-Men sagas but still throwing hints of these milestones into the fray. The main opposition to the X-Men comes in three forms: alien (Shi'ar, Khan, Skrulls, and Brood- as a fan of Marvel's sci-fi this element is what sold me), Mr. Sinister, and the X-Men allowing themselves to settle in too comfortably with their mostly non-"super-hero" lives and thus their slip-up in vigilance opens the door for their enemies to hit harder than they should have. The old threats of Phoenix, Apocolypse, and human disdain for mutants lurk omniously behind the more overt threats of alien assassins and Sinister's minions, thus keeping true to the previous major-arcana of threats to mutantkind with out seeming like just the latest rehashing of classic stories from the X-Men's publishing past.

If you are an X-Men completist, then look for a used, cheap copy of this TPB. I hated it, and unfortunately I bought it new at my local bookstore, full price. I am still kicking myself.

Sean Chen's pencils are amateurish, and the colorist and inker rely on making all of the metallic costumes look "extra shiny" to make it more dynamic. That doesn't disguise how poorly drawn this book is.

I am unsure of why there is a "The End" story needed here, unless Marvel is getting tired of producing all of the X-titles.

Basic synopsis: Someone has it in for the X-Men (again). Hint: Could be Sinister. Could be Apocalypse. Could be the Shi'ar. Question: Do we really care? I sure didn't after reading this. X-Men: The End pulls in characters from the entire X-Men canon (that was the selling point listed on the back cover), but it never fleshes out any of them to my satisfaction. Too many mutants spoil the broth here. You can't tell if the story is supposed to follow the current Earth 616 timeline, or any number of alternate timelines (i.e., Cable's, Rachel's, any of the Phoenix's timelines, etc.).

There are odd couplings: Kurt ends up with Kymri, a character introduced in Excalibur that only made appearances in two issues. Cyclops is still with the White Queen, which just chaps my hide. Emma also has an unexplained (and out of character) friendship with Rogue. Characters that have been killed before get killed again in this one (I think Claremont must just hate Northstar, frankly...).

Overabused plots resurface, as well as overused villains (Technarx, the Brood, Super-Skrulls).

Costumes are poorly rendered. Madelyne Pryor's black suit looks horrible, even on the splash page.

Characters that were supposed to have been killed prior to this story never offer any explanation as to their demise. (i.e. Havok and Annie)

This book was just a mess. The sequel, Heroes and Martyrs, isn't any better; the only thing it offers is some insight to Gambit's ongoing dealings with Sinister. But it still made me want to swat myself over the head with a rolled-up copy of it after I finished reading it.

The good thing about the series is the overwhelming tsunami of action that will keep hearts jackhammering in the chests of true X-fans. While "The End" doesn't always bring about a true conclusion in some books in the Marvel series, the X-Men are certainly getting hit where it hurts from beginning to end -- and fans must be prepared to watch their favorites fall in a variety of horrible ways.

It's all-out war on mutants, generated largely because of a conflict among alien races the X-Men and other mutant groups have confronted over the years. And that means pulling out all the stops, with overwhelming forces that simply cannot be halted with fisticuffs and a quick quip. Deaths range from the personal level -- for instance, the heroic final seconds of Rahne "Wolfsbane" Sinclair as she's engulfed in a fireball -- to the widescale destruction when the Xavier school is destroyed in a huge explosion that leaves scores of mutants dead.

It's certainly a different face on comics, where regular readers know their favorite characters are never in any real danger. (Actual deaths are rare, after all, and are almost always foreshadowed far in advance as "events" that usually aren't permanent anyway.)

But there's badness here, too, particularly for those of us who aren't diehard X-readers. Sometimes it feels like this is a "cast of thousands" production and, often, I found myself wondering who the heck some of these characters were. It's hard to get wrapped up in the fates of strangers, and the absence of much real backstory on them makes for bewildering reading. While I understand there was no practical way to squeeze hero biographies into the flow of story, I can't help but think a couple "cast of characters" pages at the beginning of the first volume would have helped immeasurably.

Even worse, however, is the pace with which "X-Men: The End" unfolds. While nonstop action -- filled with major developments, sudden twists and tragic deaths, no less -- can be a very entertaining storytelling technique, there are some limits that must be observed. In this case, things happen so quickly that readers don't have much time to digest one turn of events before they're on to the next. Writer Chris Claremont juggles numerous threads so wildly that it's easy to get confused, and the potential impact of the big stuff is diminished accordingly. Did someone just die? Oh well, I'll worry about it later.

Among the various bad guys at work here, however, the prominent use of Charles Xavier's evil twin -- yes, you read that right, his evil twin -- is a weak choice. And, by story's end, some readers might feel the tone is getting a little too preachy, as X-books are prone to do, as Xavier's "why can't we all just get along and leave in peace?" agenda is pushed.

by Tom Knapp, Rambles.(n e t) editor

Marvel's merry mutants are now the lastest victims of Marvel's popular "The End" series, and who better to script the final days of the X-Men than their legendary scribe Chris Claremont.

Love the book. Great story line. This item came in perfect condition. I got this item super fast. Great story line. Im happy.Im a big X-Fan for over 28years

While this installment of the long-running X-Men saga is dynamic and contains a great deal of action, readers that are not familiar with the previous stories will find it very difficult to follow. The story is based in several locations and the contexts are complex. You need to understand the powers of the many X-Men characters, how they have interacted in the past, villains such as the Skrulls and Kree, the role of Charles Xavier and the continuing saga of the Phoenix.
Fortunately, even if you do not understand the entire backdrop, the action is intense and the book ends with a major cliffhanger that leaves you frustrated. This is X-Men action at its' finest, where the heroes are forced to step up and defend Earth and themselves against mighty powers that want to sweep them away.

A hypothetical end to the X-Men we all know and love. Don't miss out on the first of three books that tell you one way that it could all go down. Don't miss out :)

At the time this was created this book did not make any sence, after SECRET INVASION, it does. read it!

If you love x-men then you'll love this comic. Its one of the best comics I've read. Now I need the next two lol.