E is for Extinction #4 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

I've previously mentioned that one metric for assessing "Secret Wars" tie-in series is whether they portray a realistic future of a previous event.  Burnham and Culver definitely accomplish that here.  Even better, they also satisfy another metric, using the "Secret Wars" setting as an excuse to kill off some major characters, maximizing the issue's impact.

We learn that Cassandra and Jean were both reading Professor X's mind when he shot himself all those years ago.  As a result, Jean "died" and formed the Phoenix Egg that we've already seen in previous issues.  However, it also meant that Cassandra and Charles' consciousnesses joined hers in the Egg.  The twins battled for control for years of Jean's mind for years until Cassandra finally won.  As we saw last issue, Charles then took control of Quentin's dead body to try to warn the X-Men.

In this issue, Cassandra has taken over some of Magento's students, and the X-Men and the remaining students have to hold off her army while Charles tries to defeat her.  However, as we've seen, the X-Men aren't as strong as they used to be, and Burnham and Culver use some of the Professor's cheesiest lines to show that he's not really in touch with this reality.  ("Hold the line, my X-Men, while I fight this battle on the psychic plane!")  "Jean" kills Scott when he tries to connect with her telepathically, Martha quickly takes out Glob Herman, Emma allows Sooraya to kill her as she grieves for Scott, Angela and Beak's kids are implied to have killed them (since they can't muster the will to fight them), the Stepford Cuckoos kill Hank, and Basilisk kills himself when he tries to kill Ernst.  It's a pretty efficient slaughter.

In the end, Logan convinces Charles to possess him, creating Weapon X.  It's Logan that gets to Jean's consciousness (since, unlike Scott, he still loved her), and they kill each other, ending Cassandra and Charles' lives as well.  In the end, it's seemingly revealed that the entire sequence of events was part of Xorn's plans to balance the cosmic scales.  (We seem him not wearing his helmet, with the Phoenix effect serving as his head.)

For me, the best part of this issue was the trolling of Charles' self-centered recklessness and Scott's eye-rolling earnestness.  It makes you realize just how better off the X-Men are without them.  (Sacrilege, I know.)  The ending is a little ambiguous, but, in a way, the authors are (good-naturedly) trolling Morrison in leaving it that way.  After all, does anyone really know anything about Xorn?  Is it surprising that he (and his origin and powers) are again an enigma here?

If I were Grant Morrison, I'd be really happy with this story.  I wasn't into the original version of it and this series took me a while to like.  But, the slow burn was worth it, because I think it's one of the more solid "Secret Wars" tie-in series by the end.

**** (four of five stars)

E is for Extinction #3 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Given how meandering the plot of this series has been, it's sort of surprising that we find ourselves in a place that makes sense, even if it's an entirely different place from where the first two issues implied we'd be.

It turns out the army of Beasts is under the sway of Sublime.  Magneto had realized that he was resident in the Phoenix Egg and tried to control him, but he was able to spread himself to the four corners of Battleworld and infect the Beasts.  (We're not told why he chose the Beast in particular as a host, though it seems to be for his intellect.)  Sublime arrives to take control of the Egg, but a revived Professor X has taken control of Quentin's dead body and saves the day.  (Again, we're not told how Xavier survived death.)  Jean finally hatches, only for Xavier to reveal that she's under the control of Cassandra Nova.

Again, this series has been erratic at best.  Xavier and Nova were dismissed in the first issue as characters that merely set the stage for the drama between Magneto and the "classic" X-Men.  It's not necessarily an unwelcome development for them to rear their heads here, but it's one that feels as random as most of Morrison's original version of this story felt.  I guess Burnham is doing a solid job, by that measure.

*** (there of five stars)

E is for Extinction #2 (HERE BE SPOILER!)

I have officially lost the plot with this one.  Magneto was using Jean (cocooned in the Phoenix Egg) to manipulate the new X-Men and limit the powers of the old X-Men.  (I think?)  But, Quentin in this reality has a moral code and helped attract the attention of the old X-Men when he discovered Magneto was keeping Jean prisoner.  (Maybe?)  And, Magneto was going to use Esme and Quentin to hatch the egg prematurely to get...power?  (Or was it going to give birth to Jean?)  Unfortunately for him, Quentin bonded with the egg, but it didn't matter, because Xorn is the one that eventually merged with it.  (Who is Xorn, exactly?  He's clearly no longer Magneto.)  Also, Hank found a human version of himself dead on his doorstep of a "viral strain" that led him to the School.  When Magneto is crushed under the egg, Beast declares that its powers have gone dormant.  But, then a bunch of Beasts arrive declaring that Magneto was right that the egg still has power?  Maybe?  Possibly?

** (two of five stars)

E is for Extinction #1 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Although Burnham does his best, this issue did little more than remind me how unlikable all the characters from the Morisson era of the X-Men were.  It's oddly Emma, Logan, and Scott -- three of the most unlikeable characters in 2015 -- that provide the emotional core of this issue, as they struggle with their waning powers.  Meanwhile, the brats that Morisson introduced -- Angel, Basilisk, Dust, and Quentin -- have thrown in their lot with Magneto, becoming the dominant X-Men team.  Scott seems determined to dethrone Magneto, though I'm not entirely sure why.  After all, Magneto has renounced his segregationist ways, successfully convincing humanity that mutant abilities are simply a genetic advantage, like being good at math.  (I loved Beast essentially running a fertility clinic.)  Sure, he and the brats kill people on occasion, but his school is clearly the wave of the future.  Scott seems more motivated by a need to find faded glory than anything else.  I'm giving this issue two stars, but it's really a comment on Morrison than it is Burnham.

** (two of five stars)