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This review does not represent the opinions of the general public. It reflects my personal thoughts and opinions on the book.
That said, on to the review!
Empire's End takes the X-Men off to the Shi'ar empire once more. They last went, if you'll recall, during the Mutant Empire Trilogy (courtesy of Siege, Sanctuary, and Salvation). Then, it was for personal reasons. This time, however, the fate of two galaxies hangs in the balance!
This book has its good points and its bad points. Bad points first: it happened again! A truly interesting character, Lord Orien, stepped into the spotlight only to bow out once more. I understand why the authors need to create these characters and why they can't be permitted to continue, but still! Another bad point is the presentation of the Imperial Guard. While their presence in the Shi'ar Empire is certainly undeniable, they hardly appear in the book. Given the history between the Guard and the X-Men, you'd expect them to interact a bit more, right? On the other hand, I like the way the author incorporated Jean Grey's "history" as the original Phoenix, who eventually became Dark Phoenix. With the current Phoenix (Jean Grey) acquiring the full extent of powers that her doppleganger (the avatar created by the Phoenix Force) once expanded to, it was inevitable that she should face those problems again. The only downside to this was most of these "flashbacks" were courtesy of Charles Xavier instead of Jean Grey, or even Scott Summers (a.k.a. Cyclops), who had seen and experienced Dark Phoenix's rise and fall once and should have had fears of his own of it happening again. Sigh.
X-Men--Empire's End isn't really about the end of an empire. Hey, we're talking about the X-Men here, right? But it's a close thing, and who's to say that the Shi'ar empire didn't end, even if the X-Men succeeded or not? Lilandra knows that her throne isn't wholly secure (assassins and the like), but that's a story and problem for another day, I say. But if you don't understand what I'm talking about, well, read the book!
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