The “tester run”: it’s about the first 5 or 6 issues of a series. The time it takes to give a book every last chance to get going — and to be judged as a continued investment. Age of Apocalypse (Apokalypse??) — the idea — had a good resume. Going as far back as Days of Future Past, and of course, the original Age of Apokalypse event a ways back.

Dystopian twists are always exciting in the beginning, but have always ended in disappointment, because they are “teaser stories” that never change the status quo.

At the end of my “tester run”, there were several disappointments: 1. This series was never going to mean anything in the greater context of the Marvel universe. It was another impotent “teaser story”. 2. The art was hard to take in. Too messy, despite the intention of a post-apocalyptic, messy, broken world. It was messy in a different way: it was muddled and scratchy and too busy. 3. It wasn’t tethered to any other x-men/x-factor storyline in any meaningful way (which brings to bare point #1).

This is the last issue. I know there’s another one after this. But, what’s the point? Everything blew up in this issue, and there’s no relevance to much of anything in the Marvel or X-men continuum. So why bother?

Overall, the series is 3/5 story, 2/5 art.