"The End" Week: Mutant X #32!

We checked out #31 earlier, but here's the double-sized conclusion to the storyline and the series: Mutant X #32, "The End" Written by Howard Mackie, pencils by Ron Lim, inks by Andrew Pepoy.

Alex Summers, Havok, has been trapped for a good thirty-some issues and some annuals in an alternate reality where he led a team of mutants called the Six. It's debatable how much of this is his fault, but this earth is pretty well doomed: Dracula and the Beyonder are after the Nexus of Realities. Alex thought it was destroyed; instead, it's inside him. (I can't remember if that was the same Nexus that Man-Thing guards in a lot of his appearances, but that would've been something.) Most of earth's heroes are already dead, and Dracula's deal with the Beyonder lets him drink the blood of many more: Dr. Doom, the Inhumans, and the Eternals are all killed (and possibly turned?) off-panel...

Using equipment built by the evil Reed Richards, and powered by Strange, Baron Mordo, (evil) Xavier, Magneto, and his (alternate) son Scotty; Alex faces the "Beyonder," who is actually the Goblin Queen. (Possibly for time, the reveal seems stepped on a bit.) The Queen had possessed the alternate-Alex's wife Madelyne for some time, probably the entire series. Freeing Maddie, Alex then casts the Queen into the Nexus, claiming it will destroy her in all realities. Madelyne is returned to her son, who knows his dad sacrificed to save them all. Floating in darkness, Alex grins: "I remember...dying. But mostly...I remember......Living!"

Of course, Alex would turn up in the Marvel Universe proper again; in Exiles and some terrible Uncanny X-Men comics around "the Draco." I think Peter David is going to get another shot at Havok in X-Factor soon as well...

The Mutant X universe didn't go complete apocalypse like Days of Future Past, but I'd say 90, 95% of the heroes and villains' counterparts that we saw, along with a good chunk of the normal population, end up dead. (That was a big gimmick of this book: look, an alternate Fantastic Four! Look, they're evil! Look, they're dead!)

If memory serves, I think Mutant X was cancelled not due to sales (or at least not completely) but as part of a paring-down of X-Men related titles. Yeah, how'd that turn out?

Oh, and Dracula?

Yep, it's just that easy.