Now that I’m recovered from the seizure this issue’s art induced, I need to ask what the hell did I just read? This was a hot mess of over-indulgent panels (that individually looked really neat), trying to distract us from the fact that Enigma was a poorly developed villain & that we gave Xavier one last taste of feeling good about himself.

If you hadn’t read Gillen’s X-MEN: FOREVER, you were probably blindsided/confused by this issue’s story. Why these were separate titles when the finale of one was so dependent on the other is beyond me. Gillen spends far too many pages reminding us how powerful the Phoenix force is, likely at the request of Marvel to lead into her new ongoing series in From the Ashes. The ease of which Phoenix defeats Enigma is laughable. Enigma is now 0-2 in battles he’s participated in. Remind me what he actually did or why he was such a threat?

The Charles/Moira story was far too rushed to have the intended payoff & the final infographic which was meant to serve as a callback to HoX/PoX only reminded me how convoluted the whole thing became. Things happened because #plot.

Luciano Vecchio does an admirable job filling in for R.B. Silva (how did Marvel not secure Silva for the finale??), but as a mentioned it all felt a bit too showy. Panel after panel felt like it was trying to one up what was on the previous page & it caused the visual pacing to be disjointed. Individual pages were beautiful, especially with David Curiel’s eye-catching colors, but the sum wasn’t greater than its parts.

Two issues to go in the Krakoa Era, but July’s relaunch can’t get here any sooner.

Rating: 5/10