For a "conclusion" and a "finale," I have to say that I'm left with a lot of question after finishing this issue.
The issue is primarily focused on Alex's battle with Kang. He decides to confront him to save the universe, acknowledging that he may lose his daughter in the process. It would normally have been an exemplary heroic move, the culmination of Alex's attempt to redeem the Unity Squad and undo its failure to unite under his leadership, regardless of the costs. It would've been a nail in the coffin of the old, insecure Alex Summers. However, Alex appeared to have thought throughout the battle that he could somehow either find Katie without Kang or force Kang to reveal her location upon defeating him. Given Kang's ability to hide her pretty much whenever and wherever, it seemed awfully naive to believe that Alex could find her after defeating Kang. Moreover, Kang is Kang, so it seems even more naive to believe that he'd ever tell Alex the truth. Alex accepts the fact that Katie is lost at the end of the issue when he has to tell Jan of her fate, but he clearly held out hope that he could find her throughout the battle. As such, it sold Alex short in the hero department. Rather than Alex accepting the possibility of a devastating personal loss to save children everywhere, he basically pretends that taking out Kang would have no consequences on his ability to find Katie. By negating the consequences of Alex's actions, Remender makes the actions less heroic. It's an odd way for him to have gone, particularly given the fact that his decision to kill off Katie wasn't all that much of a surprise. After all, it seemed unlikely from the start that present-day Alex and Janet would be forced to raise a young child together in the aftermath of this story. As such, why not let Alex just accept the sacrifice and be the hero?
Along those lines, we end this story with Alex and Janet mourning the loss of Katie, making it clear that it's future Alex and Janet still inhabiting present Alex and Janet's bodies. It obviously leaves us with the question of whether present Alex and Janet's minds will be returned to them at some point. I assume that they will be, and present Alex and Janet will no longer mourn the loss of a child that they never knew. In fact, Kang says that he essentially manipulated Alex and Janet into becoming a couple, raising the possibility that the two won't feel the same way about one another once they resume control of their bodies. But, shouldn't that have happened already? The Avengers have clearly prevented the Twins from creating Planet X, so the future where future Alex and Janet existed is gone. Shouldn't they be gone (in the form of their consciousnesses), too?
Beyond the Alex and Janet aspects of this issue, I'm still left with some questions. Kang retreats once he realized that Alex and Sunfire have successfully prevented him from absorbing the dying Celestial's power. But, I'm not sure the implications of his loss. Were the worlds of the Chronos Corps' members restored, since the Earth is no longer destroyed? Presumably, but, given Kang's conversation with Ahab, it appears that they may still be under his influence (if not thrall). Why would they be, though, if they were no longer fighting for their worlds? Moreover, why did Immortus act against Kang? He clearly wanted to prevent Kang from collapsing all realities into just the one that he ruled, but it's unclear to me why Immortus would've wanted to prevent that. Is it simply because it would've reduced his own power? It seems unlikely that he was concerned about the universe laboring under a despotic god.
Turning to the whole idea of it being a "conclusion," Remender leaves pretty much all doors open here. Eimin and Uriel seem to have survived, thanks to Daken and the Grim Reaper, and Sentry takes the body of the Celestial into deep space. In other words, all the bad guys except Banshee survive to be bad another day. I don't necessarily mind that, since the Apocalypse Twins were pretty great (and empathetic) villains. But, it's hard to point to any real outcome of this story, other than Alex's scarred face. If Alex, Janet, Logan, Shiro, and Thor remember their time in the future, then I guess that the story will have impacts beyond just Alex's scarring (something that we all know will get healed at some point). Alex and Janet will need to handle losing a child, Logan and Shiro will have to move past the torture that they suffered at the hands of Eimin, and Thor will have to grapple with the knowledge that his youthful errors once destroyed the world. But, for everyone else, they simply won the day. The Celestial came to destroy Earth and, despite some drama that none of them understood involving Alex, Janet, and briefly Kang, they stopped him. They didn't even destroy too much of New York City in the process. I expected something a lot more emotionally complicated than that, and it's the distance between that expectation and the reality that explains how disappointed that I am with this issue.
I don't want to say that it totally obliterates the amazing story that Remender has told in this series. After all, I loved Busiek's "Kang War" in "Avengers" #41-#55, and everyone pretty much forgot that everyone in Washington was killed by issue #56. Once Remender went down the "X-Men: Days of Future Past" road, it was clear that the heroes were going to ret-con most of this story. But, I expected to be basking in the glory of a unified "Unity Squad," not trying to care about the death of Alex and Janet's child that we saw for one or two issues. Until this issue, it seemed to be the whole point of this arc. After all, time-travel stories generally result in the return of the status quo; it's the emotional toll on the heroes that returning the status quo that makes these stories compelling. Other than the five members of the Unity Squad having to deal with some stuff (if they don't lose their future consciousnesses), the heroes got off pretty light.
I'm not sure where we go from here. We've been building and building to this moment, and it now just feels like we were where we started. OK, maybe it's not that bad. Rogue and Wanda no longer hate one another. But, for 22 issues of stories, that seems like a story that we could've told a little more succinctly.
** (two of five stars)
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