Here's a few things you can learn from reading Giant-Size Astonishing X-Men:

John Cassaday is the best artist in comics today.

Joss Whedon should be writing Spider-Man.

If beer was a woman, Wolverine would so tap that s--t daily, nightly, and ever so rightly.

There's nothing quite so scary as a big Communist made of metal telling you he's going to rule your planet.

A scientist blue tiger and a green haired Machivellian?  Not as incompatible as you'd think.

Emma Frost can cry.

Kitty Pryde is hardcore.

She's also more or less gone.

It'd be criminal not to deem this story terrific across the board.  There's really nothing here I could complain about.  I dug pretty everything.  I liked the resolution of the Breakworld with Krunn and Aghanne.  I liked that Beast and Brand are, of all things, a couple now.  I liked the solution to the bullet.  I liked how thinbs came full circle with the reverse of the series' start, Kitty gone and Piotr still here.  I really just liked everything Whedon and Cassaday pulled off here.  The emotions were rich.  The action was intense.  The plotting was well done.  There's really not much else you can say other than this was a really really good end to a really really good series.