This is
it! Being that this might just be the
end of the world, there are no pleasantries like an origin story, or anything
like that. We jump right into the
action. First things first, we find that
Iron Man was killed in his attack on the Celestials. It took a little longer than expected, but he
succumbed to his injuries. We then see
an awesome double page spread (and there are a lot of double page spreads in
this issue) that shows Galactus facing off with the Celestials. Overlaying that image is text of X-51
basically recapping the series so far. 
As
Galactus begins drilling into the Earth’s core, aware but oblivious to the
presence of the Celestials around him, Namor rockets out of the ocean, free of
the influence of the Skull, and as pissed off as Namor ever is, he calls upon
the creatures of the ocean to attack a nearby Celestial, damaging it, but not
really doing much harm. 
On the
moon, John Jameson has turned into a werewolf and is attacking everyone else on
the moon (including his wife and child).
X-51 uses his teleportation door to send John to Earth, the part of it
that is lit by the sun so John changes back to a human. Of course, at this point, John’s wife gets
angry with X-51 for sending John to a planet that is about to be
destroyed. Women, am I right? Back on Earth, Silver Surfer’s lady friend,
Shalla-Bal (the whole reason he became the herald of Galactus in the first
place) is killed by the Celestials. We
are then shown the true power of Galactus, the Celestial-beating majesty. We are also treated to a conversation between
X-51 and Reed where we learn that Galactus really was turned into a star and
the Galactus that is now on Earth is not the Galactus we all know. 
The
Celestials strike back and attack Galactus, wounding him. However, through the conversation of Reed and
X-51, we learn that the higher form of mutation that everyone is heading
toward, after they all become shapeshifters, is a metaphysical one. A mutation where the individual is basically
what anyone thinks that they are. This
is a great way to reintroduce the Asgardians (the dead ones anyway) led by
Loki. He has made them all believe that
they are not dead (because they aren’t) and they ride in to fight the
Celestials…who promptly cause them to think they are dead again, so they all
just drop into the ocean. 
As the
fight rages, we follow Reed as he teleports to the side of the Inhumans in
order to not only tell Medusa that her husband is dead, but to also show her
that her son, the one they have been looking for this whole time, was the black
knight in Captain Britain’s care. Black
Bolt made Captain Britain promise to raise him and keep him safe until the
return of the Inhumans. 
Back in
New York, Galactus rises and keeps killing Celestials, to the point that they
retreat. We then find out that Galactus,
this Galactus is actually Franklin Richards in a higher form of his
mutation. Reed can’t talk to Franklin as
his son though as that would shatter the illusion that Galactus is Galactus,
thus throwing the balance of the universe in jeopardy. Reed bites the bullet and speaks to Galactus
as the world devourer, asking him to spare Earth. Galactus agrees, does something, then leaves,
vowing never to return. I am not sure if
he killed the Celestial embryo or not, as that’s never explained, but I would
assume so, or else Earth is doomed anyway.
We
travel to the moon, where X-51 has unraveled the mystery of the Watchers. Apparently, as penance for not stopping the
birth of Galactus, the Watchers are forced to be nursemaids to the Celestial
embryos for all time. This is why Uatu
gave Reed the Ultimate Nullifier in the first place, to do away with Galactus
once and for all. X-51 then removes all
of the monitoring devices from Uatu, he can no longer even hear what is going
on on Earth. He is completely blind and
alone.
Back on
Earth, Reed has come up with a way to remove the Terrigen mists from the
air. Each country is to build a giant
torch that basically burns the mists away, making the population of the Earth
human again. There is nothing said as to
whether this will only work on those that received their powers through the
mists or not, as all the mists did was apparently activate a dormant seed
inside humanity, that was activated by other means in other heroes. Not everyone is building a torch though, as
Black Panther would rather have weird animal people because of his religious
beliefs.
Towards
the end, we see Captain Mar-Vell come to Reed in a dream, telling him that he
is coming back from the dead, very Jesus-y, and to prepare for his return. We end the series with Luna, Quicksilver and
Crystal’s daughter gaining her final form, just in time for Cap to light the
torch and remove the Terrigen mists from the atmosphere.
While
this entire series was very well conceived, it got a little long-winded in
places and dragged on at times before getting to the good stuff. The art was great, both in terms of the
character designs as well as the actual narrative art. The colors were dark, muddy and did little to
help the book though. Of everything, the
coloring was the worst part of the book, but everything else was pretty well
done, with the highlight being Cap’s monologue in issue twelve.
Next: We check out the return of Mar-Vell in Universe X!
No comments:
Post a Comment