Review: ‘X-Men’ #35 Ends An Era

After nearly five years, one of the most interesting and exciting eras of X-Men comics comes to an end. And while we have lots of thoughts about the end of the era as a whole, how was the actual final issue?

This massive issue was written by Gerry Duggan, Al Ewing, Kieron Gillen, Chris Claremont, Gail Simone and Jed MacKay; drawn by Joshua Cassara, Phil Noto, Lucas Werneck, Leinil Francis Yu, Walt Simonson, Mark Brooks, John Romita Jr., Scott Hanna, Jerome Opeña, Luciano Vecchio, Stefano Caselli, Sara Pichelli, Salvador Larroca and Javier Garron; colored by Romulo Fajardo Jr., Phil Noto, David Curiel, Laura Martin, Sonia Oback, Marcio Menyz, Matt Hollingsworth, Matthew Wilson, Guru-eFX and Morry Hollowell; and lettered by Clayton Cowles.

Months ago, Orchis attacked the X-Men, and they forced mutantkind to retreat. Some stayed behind to resist. Others ended up scattered across the Krakoan gate network. But the vast majority were trapped in the White Hot Room. Now, with Orchis defeated and the X-Men regrouping, that last group has made their miraculous return.

This is the story of the end of the First Krakoan age.

This issue is so much a microcosm of the X-Men line since Jonathan Hickman left the X-Writers room. In the main story, there’s a lot of good, there’s some bad, but most of it is just fine. I liked the reappearance of Kafka, I loved that the Genoshan mutants returned, and a lot of the character interplay was fantastic. The Apocalypse fight went on too long and his heel turn was “eh” at best (though the interaction between him and Storm near the end of the fight was great). The ending was slightly saccharine, but it was honestly a bit better than when Rise and Fall left everything last week.

A highlight absolutely was the interplay between Charles Xavier and Magneto (which also finally firmed up the Max Eisenhart name). It was a much needed punctuation to the end of this entire era, despite the fact that Moira was now gone from it. The epilogue of Charles now at peace despite being locked away was nice.

The art throughout was fantastic though. Cassara and Noto did most of the heavy lifting, but I genuinely can’t think of a sour note in the entire issue outside maybe a few pages blending together stylistically. I do wish the sequence of single page splashes had lasted longer, but otherwise, I have no complaints there.

As for the two back-ups, the Claremont/Larroca story was weird. The characters were out of character, the art was better than Larocca’s has been recently, but it wasn’t anything more than fine. Then the bridge to From the Ashes stories was fine, with good art. It was weird that it directly conflicted with the epilogue from the Krakoa team, but otherwise, it was fine.

X-Men #35 is available now from Marvel Comics.