X-Men: the End

[Soundwave]

Well, since Marvel foolishly cancelled XMF, I'm simply re-reading Claremont's slightly older work. After XMF2 I re-read New Mutants Forever which was pretty great, too. (Nova Roma, Magma, Selene, Doug Ramsey, Red Skull..)
Another series that Marvel is ought to renew.


And recently, X-Men: The End in its entirety in a couple of days. It was excellent, I liked most of it. Reading all the issues at once was better than the original read. It was a saga, so many characters, and Claremont's ability to juggle them all, with some playing deeper roles. It was interesting to see where they all ended up 15 years from now, and what happened next.
Including New characters (the X-Men's kids), some loose ends from some of his previous work tied up, and even a glimpse of "burnout."

I won't say it was all perfect, I didn't like where one of the characters ended up after the first 15 years; the personality was still right though. But otherwise it was really, really good. XtE is kind of a contradiction -- it was really grand and epic, but yet very personal.
I even loved the issue showcasing the X-Force.

Any fans of GeNext? The continuation of XtE. It was a fun series, and I can totally see it as an animated series. (It'd be refreshing to see an X-show not based on the same characters fighting Magneto and others again. The last one wasn't too successful (Wolverine and the X-Men.) They should try something new. And hey, they already did a direct-to-DVD animated film about the Avengers kids.)
Anyway, GeNext is another series I'd like to see more of. And there are sill loose ends.

[changertheelder]

GeNext was fun. Even though, it was quite obvious with the first book when Claremont had to take a break because of the stroke. GeNext: United was a lot more coherent and planned out. Still, I'd like to know a bit more about the characters - makes me wonder what's No-Name all about or who's Tempest's father. Even though, her attitude and appearance in the second book (as well as the information when was she supposed to be born) does leave some clues.
I hate the open ending though. It's like the writer's getting a habit of leaving things unfinished. Happened with Exiles, happened with Forever, happened with GeNext.

As for END, all that really left a mark were the parts of Kitty's speech in Men & X-Men. Claremont's peak has always been in voiceovers and it showed there. But true, it's three years since I read that.

[Soundwave]

Yeah, more information about No-Name would be nice... identity of parents; connection to the Neo; how was she able to pull off Kitty's planetary anchor trick with seemingly no mutant powers manifested yet; what info did Shadow X want from her mind (-- and how those survive New Excalibur,) etc.
The first issue of the first GeNext series had some good focus on Rebecca but she kind of took to the sideline after that.

I've decided that I'm glad XMF2 didn't have a definite ending. So Chris could go back to it some day when Marvel appreciates quality books a little more.