What does the final issue of X-Men look like to you?

[akiresu_]

Found myself thinking about the nature of telling stories in this endless medium and all those meaningless, AU attempts to finish the franchise (The End) or to show its future (GeNext, 2099) are held back by not actually feeling the weight of ending such a significant franchise. So, got to wondering, what does your ideal finale issue look like?

This could be a speculative issue of your own imagination or a previously published one that you think serves well as a jumping off point (sometime I feel like Uncanny #600 was the end and we've just imagined every issue since).

I think it raises a lot of interesting questions, really makes you think about the defining characteristics of the franchise and how they should be paid off (if they could be).



inb4 Storm gets so powerful that she not only replaces the in-universe Gods, but crowns herself Marvel's Editor-In-Chief in the real world

[Ambaryerno]

Dunno about individual character beats, but at the very least it will involve mutants achieving the Dream.

[phoenixzero23]

The X-men fail to acomplish the dream but keep trying just to make the world a better place. They all die of old age and Wolverine outlives everybody.

[Runarc]

Mutantkind (lead by the X-men) save the Earth from a massive disaster. Several common mutant abilities are key in this victory, and acknowledged as such by the people of Earth.

Payment for this victory is that the X-gene is invariably corrupted, leading to the inevitable end of the mutant species. Humanity finally realises what it has lost, and that they took mutantkind and their life-saving abilities for granted.

Final shot is the birth of a new mutant-like human in a colony on Mars a century from now. Humanity has learned from it's mistakes, and accepts the child as one of their own.

I'm not one for sappy win-win-win endings.

There is a price to pay for mistakes, even if we regret them later on.

[Runarc]

Edit: double post.

[Anduinel]

Apocalyptic event in which the X-Men manage to save most of humanity, but the world itself is all but flattened. Mutants will be essential to rebuilding and survival. Jump to epilogue XXX years later, and the dream of co-existence has been achieved; for once, the future isn't a dystopia. End series.

[FIGHT]

No x-men or mutants will be in it. It will be a news broadcast going over how humans gained the upper hand in the fight against mutants and killed them all. The X-men failed, humans won. Insert scenes like the x-men losing a big battle, Xavier being hanged, the last mutants being gassed to death while people cheer, etc. Get George R. R. martin to get off his fat ass and write it.

[SonOfPsylocke]

Isn’t it sad that the X-Men will continue their stories long after we all die?
We’ll never know what happens to the team after we’re gone.

Nothing makes me sadder.

[thechronic92]

I can't picture an ending. Equality is a never ending battle

[akiresu_]

I can't picture an ending. Equality is a never ending battle

“There is no final victory, as there is no final defeat. There is just the same battle. To be fought, over and over again. So toughen up, bloody toughen up.”

[phoenixzero23]

Isn’t it sad that the X-Men will continue their stories long after we all die?
We’ll never know what happens to the team after we’re gone.

Nothing makes me sadder.

It depends of how long Marvel comics has left. the characters will live in other media, games, series but who knows how long the comicbook industry has left.

it could be a century, it could be a few decades but they certainly won't last very long, nothing last forever.

[SonOfPsylocke]

It depends of how long Marvel comics has left. the characters will live in other media, games, series but who knows how long the comicbook industry has left.

it could be a century, it could be a few decades but they certainly won't last very long, nothing last forever.

do u promise

[FUBAR007]

“There is no final victory, as there is no final defeat. There is just the same battle. To be fought, over and over again. So toughen up, bloody toughen up.”

Pretty much this.

I envision a single-issue story set thousands of years in the future on some distant, colonized rock in a far away galaxy. Out in the barren wastes far from the colony's central city, a small band of outcasts lives in a cloaked facility patched together from the remains of a crashed starship. The bulk of the story would consist of an argument between the leaders of two factions: one who wants to attack the city and take it over versus one who wants to work to protect the city as a whole. Over the course of their debate, we see brief flashbacks giving us a summary of the outcasts' origin and all the things they've had to endure. On the last page, their facility is attacked and we see the two factions banding together and suiting up to defend themselves. Each and every one is wearing an X-Men badge somewhere on their clothing.

The cover would consist of a close-up of an X-Men badge wedged diagonally into to rocky ground against the backdrop of a clear, starry night sky. The badge is tarnished and scuffed but otherwise intact. At its top edge, one spot of it shines just a bit in the starlight.

[gurkle]

I always think that X-Men would end when "mutant" stops being a meaningful category. Let's say because so many people have super powers that no one can tell the difference between a mutant and a regular superpowered human, and comic book science casts doubt on how to define the "X-gene," and because people in general just stop caring. People who hated and feared mutants transition into hating and fearing superpowered people in general. Maybe Sentinels will be reprogrammed for that.

In other words, I think the end of the franchise comes when the famous question - why does the world consider mutants so different from the many other humans with superpowers - can be answered, "They don't."

If they're still alive by then, this would be bittersweet for both Xavier and Magneto, since both of them based their plans on the idea that mutants would always be this distinct category of people who were above and beyond humanity, and they disagreed on whether mutants should use their superiority to help humanity (Xavier) or pre-emptively defend themselves against humanity (Magneto). But if mutants are considered just the same as any other type of person with superpowers then in a weird way they are both wrong.

[Askani's Flame]

No x-men or mutants will be in it. It will be a news broadcast going over how humans gained the upper hand in the fight against mutants and killed them all. The X-men failed, humans won. Insert scenes like the x-men losing a big battle, Xavier being hanged, the last mutants being gassed to death while people cheer, etc. Get George R. R. martin to get off his fat ass and write it.

I like this.

Mine has similar themes. A few years from now there is essentially an all out battle of "good" vs "evil". All of the Marvel heroes vs all of the Marvel villains and the loser are sent to a Negative Zone type prison where you cannot escape. Villains lose due to mutants might. Earth expediences a small golden age of peace and for a slight time people support mutants. Small crimes still happen, but the World Council decrees that villainy is something to be exterminated. Mutants begin to grow in society again, but lack of power control causes accidental deaths and destruction. Humans view them and anyone with an enhanced genome to be threats to the prosperity and peace. The "Gene Wars" begin after a similar Stamford incident ignites public outcry against mutants, Inhumans, and mutates. The Avengers, now the right hand of the World Council, begin the apprehension process. Enhanced Sentinels are deployed. Genomes are sterilized to prevent any evolution in the population. After fighting back for their right to exist, the above are eliminated ruthlessly and systematically. Magneto is held captive to witness the last
mutant to be brought to a gas chamber, inspired by the Terrigen cloud. He is then executed after watching the destruction of the mutant race. Any Avengers or heroes unwilling to fight are sent to the "Negative Zone" prison.

Years later the human race is dying as sterilization has had an unwanted effect on the genome, making our dna deteriorate at rapid rate. Galactus comes through and consumes Earth. The Phoenix Force hovers and watches its destruction before wandering the stars for its next host. The universe uses Earth's demise as a story for millennia to come.

I can't picture an ending. Equality is a never ending battle