There's one more story arc coming, but this issue is in many ways the end of Grant Morrison's X-Men run, paying off all the plotlines and characters that he's developed in his two years on the book. Phoenix and Wolverine, Magneto and Xorn, the three-way relationship between Cyclops, Emma and Jean, the fate of the special class, the fate of humanity and the extinction that Cassandra Nova foresaw for them, all of these stories come to a head this issue, and while Morrison isn't quite as definitive about some of them as I would have liked, there's definitely a feeling of crossing T's and dotting I's here. With Jimenez providing some pretty spectacular artwork for this super-powered showdown between the X-Men and their long-time foe.
Mind you, there are still some questions left at the end of this issue. Minor ones, like why didn't Wolverine smell Magneto when he was posing as Xorn, are not likely to be answered, and really, aren't all that important in the grand scheme of anything anyway. Larger ones, like what exactly is going on with Magneto/Xorn's identity crisis or who Cyclops chose, are either rendered moot by the end of the issue or left deliberately vague. I'll be honest, I was hoping for more definitive answers on a couple of scores, but in general I think this is just a really great finale, a true testament to the two-year mega-arc that Morrison was writing even as he broke it up into smaller arc-sized chunks.
This issue is the big blowout, a big fight scene with some surprisingly violent uses of the powers of Cyclops, Wolverine, Magneto, Esme and others. Jimenez and Lanning deliver some pretty disturbing and exciting visuals, fired by Morrison's ideas so that we see unusual moments like Cyclops blowing Magneto's helmet apart or Esme's own jewelry used as a weapon against her. Heck, there's even a decapitation, although it's kept mostly off-panel. The issue is full of visual spectacle, and the level of violence gives this the feeling of being a climactic, final battle for the X-Men rather than just another fight with Magneto.
Amidst all this violence, though, Morrison still finds plenty of time for neat ideas and character moments. The Beast and Emma bickering about who saved who as Beast tries to write things down by scratching his claws into the ruined hull of their jet. A battered Beak returning to tell Magneto that the X-Men are going to kick his butt. Cyclops gets to be an active, vital character again instead of a whipping boy. Even Fantomex, the character that I (and many others) have mostly hated, gets to be cool, although his role is largely in playing the Matrix-like action sequences for all they're worth.
Given that the next story takes place 150 years in the future, it seems odd to think that it is going to resolve some of the final questions raised in this issue, including whether or not the death we see in this issue of a couple major characters "counts" in continuity. However, while I'm looking forward to seeing what Morrison has in store for his big future arc and how it ties in, most of all I leave New X-Men #150 completely satisfied with a slam-bang super-hero read full of big ideas, the kind of thing that Morrison has been delivering on this book for most of his run.
