For all intents and purposes, Uncanny X-men was the very first comic I ever read and collected. Oh sure, I was given Disney comics as a kid to read through and then destroy by bending pages, writing on the cover, coloring in different characters that I thought did not look right as colored by the original colorist. However the very first comics that were kept nice and in a box, without bags and boards of course, were the X-men. #212 was the first I purchased and of course it was because of the cover which had a kickass picture of Wolverine and it read “Wolverine vs Sabertooth Round1”. I mean come on, wouldn’t this get you collecting, or at the very least reading?

So starts my obsession with all things mutants…December 1986, a month that will live on forever in my heart. From that point on until life got complicated, I had every issue up until a few years ago when I just became too busy to stop in to the Comic Store every month. Well, the fact the artwork took a turn for the worst and the fact there were just too many X-titles to collect contributed to my decision. Of course, just like most of my decisions, it was a bad one. I should have kept going through X-Men Legacy, New X-Men, X-this and X-that because now I have to go back and buy all the back issues which is going to end up costing me more than if I would have kept going to the shop.

Regardless of my collecting habits, the end of an era is near. With the crazy events of Decimation, House of M, Messiah Complex, Second Coming, and every other multi issue crossover including most importantly Schism, the world of the X-Men is being divided. Cyclops who was the most forthright and true of the X-men has finally decided enough was enough and basically said F You to everyone. He militarized the X-teams and Wolverine, who was the most out of control and animalistic of all seems to be the level headed one. He now wants to start the school up again and train kids and let kids be kids which, now that there are only 200 or so mutants left, seems really important.

The two come to blows on Utopia while being attacked by the monstrous new killer Sentinel made by the new Hellfire club mini’s. back and forth more talking and bashing and finally the kids save the day and the two separate. Now we have two teams, Cyclops and his army and Wolverine and his students. All of the characters have to pick sides and Schism ends with both leaders going in different directions (in more ways than one).

Flash forward to the final issue…WTF? I liked the first page with a representation of the original comic, but the artwork is just not my thing. I am not sure if I’ve seen any of his stuff before, but Greg Land just does not do it for me. I really can’t place the reason, it just strikes me as generic or stock. Like there is no history or past life in the characters. I’m not sure if this was a true finale either since finale’s typically resolve or close a story. SPOILER ALERT – – SPOILER ALERT: I do not understand why Mister Sinister was there, nor do I get why he was writing the lives of the X-men. In the grand scheme of things, how does Sinister rate above Apocalypse or Holocaust or Magneto or ???. I know he was a big player in the Age of Apocalypse, but it was the age of Apocalypse, not the age of Mr. Sinister. Maybe in this new Regenesis he becomes a bigger player and we find out he is pulling the strings. Until then, I see him as a part of the villains of the X world.  I really did not get the whole part where he dematerialized and then was reborn…what was that? He didn’t look any different than before. Of course I can’t blame the penciler for the story so the negative comment there must fall on Kieron Gillen.

I guess it all seemed very anti-climactic to me for some reason. I know they had to have the conversati0ns with all the original characters that were left, sans Angel, but to me it seemed more like a very average segue to the reboot. A series finale for the Uncanny X-men has to be bold, exciting, intriguing, earth shattering. I mean come on, this book has been going strong since 1963 and you give me Iceman hitting Cyclops with a snowball? Meh…I love the X-men, and I will continue to collect it but overall I was sadly disappointed with the issue and I truly hope the forthcoming number 1’s will be much more exciting and worth the immense investment, not only myself, but every single other fan has put in to this comic. I really do hope that Uncanny X-Men 1 is not going to be a dud like the damn #1 with vampires from June of 2010. I guess it was the beginning of the Heroic Age but to me, it seemed like Marvels inept attempt to cash in on the Vampire craze.

I want it to go back to the times of X-tinction Agenda or the Mutant Massacre or even Fall of the Mutants. As much of  a step back they are in the artwork sense, the stories were great and had awesome character interaction, extravagant battles and more importantly a direct storyline. I am not a fan of all the X-books out there right now. There should be 4 tops. Regardless of what you think of my ramblings, you can at the very least know how passionate I am about the history of the X-men and would love to see it go back to the glory days of old. My rating for the finale… 2 stars.