X-Men: Gold #36

For a final issue, X-MEN GOLD #36 is a bit of a letdown. While more successful than most of the series' past issues, this final installment doesn't have enough time to deliver an impactful story. The strong focus on Kitty only reminds readers how strong a focus the entire series has had on the character. Read Full Review

On a technical level, it's solid, but it feels like a strange note to go out on. Read Full Review

A tale that includes all the hallmarks of what the X-Men is all about, without any hint of the heart and soul that gave previous incarnations of the team the life and energy we love. For the first time ever I am relieved to see the end of an X-title, which saddens me greatly. Read Full Review

No, not really. Guggenheim is going for some emotional heft with both the lingering fate of Brian Morrison and the doctor's face turn, but he does nothing to earn either. Instead we're left with a rushed effort to cram unsatisfying finishes for three different stories into a shakily drawn and poorly scripted book that leaves reader with a poor taste in your mouth. Classic Guggz indeed. Read Full Review

The run ends dedicated to Chris Claremont. Guggenheim's final note calls his book a love letter to that monolithic run "at the expense of some originality" that could never reach "the stratospheric heights Mr. Claremont reached in even his most mundane of issues." In that, Guggenheim himself has given what should be the last word on his run. Read Full Review

CesarCastanha

Sep 21, 2018

I'll just get this out of my way: Marc Guggenheim's run was... not very good. But this finale was almost perfect. This is what the X-men are about. They are not a military legion like Avengers, or free entrepeneurs of science and adventure, like the Fantastic Four. They have been persecuted and their cause often seems pointless, and that's what make them such a good team to follow. It's not about being a hero, it's about their (often unbearable) struggle for solidarity.

CrazyforRAMU

Apr 06, 2019

The whole Gold team congas through the regrets they've accumulated in this series, then everybody hits the field to deal with an emergent omega mutant. The script concocts a decent scenario around that, but it fails to provide a satisfactory resolution - which makes it a match to the regret conga that precedes it. Top it with another serving of fundamentally sound but dispassionate art and you have the perfectly mediocre capstone for X-Men Gold. The dedication to Chris Claremont at the end is, of course, haplessly tone-deaf. It reads so much like a memorial that you'll probably want to double-check Mr. Claremont's continued aliveness. Newsarama's Matthew Sibley points out the coffin-nail stuck in Mr. Guggenheim's farewell letter: By its author's own admission, this series at its best wasn't as good as Claremont at his worst. I find the accuracy amusing, but not nearly as much as the unintentionality. Marc Guggenheim accidentally deprecating himself harder than he intended is another brilliant bit of last-gasp irony. more