This conclusion was competent and complete, but as the ending of an important series, it felt a little rushed. Read Full Review

Vecchio delivers some fantastic art throughout the issue. The story is filled with amazing moments that can only be experienced visually and those moments are stunning to witness, especially the final showdown with Enigma. Read Full Review

Rise of the Powers of X #5 is mostly effective in doing the impossible and closing the book on the Krakoan Age. It ends in an epic battle against a threat that could only be matched by the impossible power of the Phoenix, but also with a strategy that only Charles Xavier could muster. However much you may wish the Krakoa age would continue, it's hard to deny that it ends on an extremely high note in the categories of epic storytelling and a peaceful final justice. Read Full Review

Rise of the Powers of X #5 is unfortunately a mixed bag for being the penultimate chapter of the latest X-Men crossover. Kieron Gillen could not avoid falling into the trappings of how convoluted things were to tell a fully satisfying final battle involving Phoenix, Enigma, Charles Xavier, and Moira X. The way things end leaves a lot of responsibility on Uncanny X-Men #700 to ensure the Krakoa Era gets the great ending it deserves. Read Full Review

What the heck did I just read? While Fall of The House Of X showcased the X-Men at their heroic best, the final fight of Enigma went out with a whimper and Moiras final fate is just utterly perplexing. The ending does leave a bit of a cliffhanger about Xavier to be resolved in X-men 35 (presumably), but for an ending to a huge part of the Krakoan storyline, this whole issue can be summed up in one word: WHAT?! Read Full Review

Sound meets fury in Rise of the Powers of X #5 signifying nothing except the end of one Marvel Comics brand soon to be replaced by another. Read Full Review

Underrated conclusion IMO. Gorgeous artwork

I am a little shocked by this issue's mixed reception because I thought it did an incredible job wrapping things up. Stuff like Jean/Phoenix becoming the ultimate mutant circuit to destroy Enigma or Xavier's plea to Moira really worked for me. The latter of which showcases Xavier's potent optimism that was effectively crushed during this era, despite it at one point being one of his defining traits. The former is a really good bookend to what the Krakoan era promised. An era where mutants were a united front. The pacing here didn't bother me. I didn't feel the rush that I've seen complained about. In fact, given how slow Fall of X has been, and given just how expansive this last event has been, I found it refreshing that this fight didn't play out over a whole miniseries. Gillen managed to give us a satisfying final battle that embodies a lot of the themes this era was defined by. That's a solid win in my book. I know a lot of people are down on Fall of X as a whole and this won't suddenly change their mind, and I'm sure they'll have lots of fun wondering what Hickman might have done. For me, though, I have long since stopped caring about the Hickman What-If. At this point, invoking it almost seems like critical shorthand. I think Gillen, Ewing, Spurrier, and even Duggan, managed to mostly keep the ship upright, and tell some incredible stories. The big issue with this event falls to editorial and (probably) marketing mishandling. There's a version of this event with all the same players, and all the same stories, that is much better received because of *how* the event was published.

I said in my Fall of the House of X finale review that that issue was the simplistic action-figures-fighting finale, and that I was hoping for a more cerebral finale for this miniseries. And we did get that. Yeah, there's lots of fighting, but it's all backed with a lot more meaning. There's technically a few more issues to go, but story-wise, it all comes down to X-Men #35. I wonder if they'll be able to end the era on a high note. more

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daspidaboy - May 29, 2024

I am pretty sure u probably don't care about my opinion, and I'm not trying to be passive aggressive. But I'm happy that you enjoyed this event. Because it's neat for me to read different opinion and see different perspectives. Maybe if this story comes out in collected edition I may change my mind. But I do hope the final krakoan x men issue ends on a good note

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This is a very abstract issue, and its not as good as the previous, but it 8s much much more epic. And its hard to not appreciate that.

Some serious Phoenix power glazing here but thats nothing new. Onto 35.

Count me among the ones who loved this issue, though I wish more of the considerable gristle of Fall of X had been pruned to make room for it; it's strange to drag a story out over a weary march through dozens of titles over the course of almost an entire year and still somehow have the best parts of the ending feel rushed

It was a quick resolution that did way more than it should've had to do to offset the whole Fall of X failures. Guillen does a much better job than Duggan to tie his story threads from Immortal/Forever together but a little too neatly and the whole Moira/Xavier dynamic being rushed far too fast to make any sense within the Krakoan age post Hickman but overall he did a good job. I wish RB Silva was here to finish this book because he was the core of this book and his amazing art made this book shine. But Vecchio is a great back up artist who delivered some outstanding pages with so many mutants crammed everywhere. Nice work but how does RB Silva not finish this is a failure from this X-office.

Glad to say that things are getting better as this event is closing out. It would have been cool of Silva was on this issue, but Vecchio does a great job and I think his art really fit here, especially with the more abstract scenes. The story here was good as well, with a lot of focus on Jean, Charles, and Moira. I do wish the Krakoa era was continuing for longer, but I'm still interested to see how everything wraps up with X-Men #35.

I won't say this event as a whole has been great, but I've enjoyed it. It wasn't going to be easy to reset the X-Men to the underdog status in the first place, so I won't complain about some messiness in the execution of Fall/Rise. This issue was fun and satisfactorily wrapped everything up, even if it was a little rushed feeling. The art was great and the contrast between the two wars going on, Phoenix vs Enigma and Xavier's plea with Moira, was good story telling. I enjoyed this event for the most part, but I'm glad it's over and we can move forward. I'm incredibly excited about the new batch of books starting up.

I do not envy Gillen being tasked to wrap up Hickman's abandoned plotlines and bring things to an editorially-mandated reset/outcome. I think this was about as good as could be done with this mess, and while maybe a bit rushed and cosmically/temporally vague, in another writer's hands it could have been just a big knot of fight scenes or worse. I wish more of Krakoa's potential had been explored, but Shared Universe Nonplasticity is the real antagonistic Dominion here and Editorial is its hand.

Art: 4/5
Story: 3.5/5
Total: 7.5/10

Though the whole third act of the Krakoa era has been a disappointing mess, Gillen was the one strong writer of this phase and did his best to find a clean conclusion that tied up most the ongoing plot points and honoring where it all began in House/Powers of X.

R. B. Silva did an amazing job on art and there were so many unbelievably detailed panels.

This was okay. I'm glad it's over. Not Krakoa; Krakoa was interesting--but Fall of X has been an unholy mess.

It wasn't really that bad, just really wanted more out of the end of Rise/Fall. It had some good moments, but they didn't justify the end of this era.

Now that I’m recovered from the seizure this issue’s art induced, I need to ask what the hell did I just read? This was a hot mess of over-indulgent panels (that individually looked really neat), trying to distract us from the fact that Enigma was a poorly developed villain & that we gave Xavier one last taste of feeling good about himself.

If you hadn’t read Gillen’s X-MEN: FOREVER, you were probably blindsided/confused by this issue’s story. Why these were separate titles when the finale of one was so dependent on the other is beyond me. Gillen spends far too many pages reminding us how powerful the Phoenix force is, likely at the request of Marvel to lead into her new ongoing series in From the Ashes. The ease of which Phoenix defeats Enigma is laughable. Enigma is now 0-2 in battles he’s participated in. Remind me what he actually did or why he was such a threat?

The Charles/Moira story was far too rushed to have the intended payoff & the final infographic which was meant to serve as a callback to HoX/PoX only reminded me how convoluted the whole thing became. Things happened because #plot.

Luciano Vecchio does an admirable job filling in for R.B. Silva (how did Marvel not secure Silva for the finale??), but as a mentioned it all felt a bit too showy. Panel after panel felt like it was trying to one up what was on the previous page & it caused the visual pacing to be disjointed. Individual pages were beautiful, especially with David Curiel’s eye-catching colors, but the sum wasn’t greater than its parts.

Two issues to go in the Krakoa Era, but July’s relaunch can’t get here any sooner. more

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daspidaboy - May 29, 2024

It's a shame. Because even though hickman is not my favorite writer and I am wary of him. Objectively speaking he's the best modern marvel writer of all time. If marvel just trusted hickman and actually proceeded with his plans instead of staying behind for two years then rushing it this could have been better. Kieran gillen is a good writer, but this was hickmans story to tell. This felt like someone telling another person's vision of their story. Like playing telephone.

daspidaboy - May 29, 2024

I wonder what would have been hickman endgoal was. Would his vision for Moira Xavier destiny mystique and nimrod be the same. Would he have introduced Mr righteous or enigma. Only time will tell

derbycomics - May 29, 2024

Recent interviews from X-Men editors seem to indicate that Hickman had different ideas than where things netted out, especially as to who the big bad was (it apparently wasn't going to be Moira).

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If there's one thing to summarize this event. It felt rushed. The ending was bland with Jean grey becoming Phoenix force to one-shot enigma and nimrod. Xavier and Moira were written not as well. The art was bland. Overall I wished hickman finished his vision. Because this is game of thrones season 8 of comic book stories. The fact that u has to pay extra for x men forever to get the full story is kinda sad.

The dialogue was confusing for me due to the quantum dimensional cosmic dialogue. Overall as a person who hopped on the krakoan train this year I wanted this story to end on a high note.

Tl dr; can be summed up as the embodiment of 'not sticking the landing' or 'a testament to the failure of the x-men'.

Rise of Powers of X was no doubt the better book between this or the Fall. Fall was a total wash of incompetence. This had some good ideas though. At least in issue 1. Things got rocky and then we end with this. This is a total failure. For those who rate this above a 5... or 6 if we are being generous. Do you actually realize the book has massive gaping plot holes, very poor art (when it isnt the big action scenes), totally ignore previous concepts. The fact that this all ended with an uppercut against a foe that was established as being more powerful then any of then is so sad. Just deus ex-ma china after mcguffin. All the cheap poor writing tricks. I expected better from Gillen, but they clearly had no idea what they were doing for the ending.

Relying on Phoenix for everything and just having it absorb those waiting to be resurrected is such a cheap cop out. Phoenix is like a crutch almost all x writers use. 'Oh it can do this now, oh its this powerful now, oh it cant do this now ect ect ect. While not my biggest gripe, this book drips 'lets move on' energy.

If you like the rule of cool and want to see the X-men win even if they dont deserve it, then sure its a fun book. If you like X-men lore, like the idea of a heroes journey, expect plots to be resolved, expect the writer to consider the implications of what they have done or decent art then look elsewhere. This book fails to deliver any of it. It was like watching an athlete try to stick a landing but break their ankle instead. Just painful and cringe.

3 out of the 3.5 score is because Gillen tried to put the 'toys back in the box again' which I can appreciate. more