Age of Apocalypse #5

By Fabian Nicieza, Iban Coello and David Curiel

The Age of Apocalypse battleworld has wrapped up. One of the main story points from the original storyline is that it was such a depressing look into our heroes’ lives. This mini-series has had a different feel to it, even though it was being written by Fabian Nicieza; he took a little bit of a different approach to it. Whatever happens, this book probably can’t leave you with a darker end tHan its original tale.

Fabian Nicieza is a professional in everything X-Men. He could pick up any character and make them cool and interesting. In this final installment of Age of Apocalypse, Burner, a character who readers didn’t have any previous knowledge of, really shined. Nicieza did a great job of fleshing him out and making you like him. Nicieza is pretty great with all the cast members, but Mr. Sinister has a few funny lines this issue that will crack you up. Dr. Nemesis works well as a believable villain. Compiling over 300 powers from different mutants is downright scary, and being sick and demented doesn’t help either. Since this is the final issue, the script kills off several characters. Nicieza doesn’t pick the characters you would think either, he kills off some people who you may not see coming. He gives us an optimistic ending here though, and it actually fits. Kudos to Fabian for writing a very good finale to a fun mini.

The art this issue is handled by Iban Coello with colors by David Curiel. Coello takes over for original artist Gerardo Sandoval. Iban does a better job than Sandoval did on this series. He excels in his battle scenes. Everything looks good and we don’t lose detail with characters at a distance. There are many cool panels in this issue, whether it is a page of the Summers’ boys staring down Emma Frost or Mr. Sinister with a scalpel. Coello succeeds because he takes his time on his work and it shows. There is an amazing panel of a character getting liquefied and ripped apart. Coello really came on and gave this book a good send off. The colors by David Curiel have been strong the entire series, and this issue is no different. He rocks out a lot of red this issue, and it looks great, as always. This is the best the art has been on this series and sadly, it’s the last issue.

Some of these Secret War tie-ins have had disappointing ends, but Age of Apocalypse is very satisfying. You won’t find many complaints from X-Men fans when Fabian Nicieza is on a book, and there aren’t really any in this issue. The art is better than its ever been and the book looks great. This was a fun book that will leave you feeling satisfied after you read it.