This might not have been the best of issues but I feel like people are a bit harsh with Hickman, there are A LOT of more bad books in the industry that are getting better reviews here and, for better or worse, he has created something interesting with the X-Men, something the franchise desperately needed.

I'm actually a fan of the world-building. I still have faith in Hickman.

Great slow paced world building that makes you think about more the political side of this mess the X-Men are in now instead of another Oh look BOOM/BUDDA/BLAM explosion issue. Those will come later but for now words needed to be said and feelings had to be shared and they were. Noto is great for this and his art is sharp as always.

Yeah, I think by now we've had enough of Snyder's lunacy, we've indulged him for far too long.

This truly has an "at the end of the world vibe" and I enjoyed it immensely. It's not a deconstruction of tropes but rather an insight into them that I appreciate. Very solid start. The art by Mike Perkins fits the uncanny vibe.

Overall this event was a 2015 Secret Wars parody, that repeated the plot of Convergence and had similar consequences as Doomsday Clock.

This is a better issue, but still not great. It's a shame this title will end on a crossover tie-in.

Let's be honest, the character of Red Hood has always been mishandled by DC, it is his experiment towards what direction some characters will take or what formula works and even so without wanting to build a character with a lot of potential that is not taken advantage of. As for this, it is the result of giving the job to a cartoonist NOT TO A WRITER just because of his race to look good with a group of people, as a result we get something so mediocre where this individual Shawn and his assumption of creed give us this garbage which is about people we care less about Red Hood.
I think I would have let Lobdell finish the series in a decent way or just stop until number 50, because this is an insult to fans of Jason Todd, to take the series from him and give the main one to other characters. more

This whole thing feels unearned and inconsequential with its over-the-top story. It's a discombobulated mess! It leaves one both underwhelmed and unfulfilled by the end :/ Honestly, is Snyder 5 years old? Because the script certainly feels that way. Juvenile and callow. It's a rushed and crammed filled event with no clear goal except to kill off DC, I think. If you're into that kind of thing, great. But if you're a fan of superhero storytelling, yeah, this ain't it chief...

Art is fine. The colors and inks are stellar tho ngl. more

A waste of time.

I don’t hate Bendis usually, but his work at DC save for Batman Universe and the first few issues of Young Justice has been headache inducing. Maybe he can focus back down to one series for a while.

This is basically like Star Trek, but with X-Men.

As someone who isn't familiar with at least half of these characters, it introduces and sets them up quite nicely. Nice to see Manifold getting more leave since Wakanda. Lots of interesting faces to see here, can't was sit to get to know them.

For our first mission we quite literally have a journey into mystery, like I said, very final frontier, good science fiction stuff. The art is great, and the characters are all written well. Mags seems a bit cheerful, but who wouldn't be with such promise.

Theres a lot of X books now, and at this point each one needs to justify its existence. This is a great example of how to still feel fresh and interesting snd make use of the large cast of mutants available to choose from. Down for more. more

Love how Taylor keeps throwing complications into the DCeased universe. This was a pretty kickass read, and I'm looking forward to next month's conclusion.

Damn... Zeb Wells is making me re-adjust my hierarchy of favorite X-Men characters. Psylocke and Havok are already up there, but the rest of the Hellions team are quickly bypassing some of the more classic/traditional X-Men (and I've been reading X-Men since the 80's).

When I care more about Orphan-Maker and his yet-to-be revealed power than I do about whether or not "old school" X-Men like Dazzler or Longshot ever return to the X-Men, that is some GOOD writing.

I even find the total D!CK Empath to be more interesting than half of the members of the current X-Books. more

Batman and Ghost Maker got that shounen rivalry. Soon they'll be screaming:

Ghost Maker: BRUCEEEEEEEEEE!!

Batman: GHOST MAKERRRRRRR!!

There's a lot going on here and I struggle with that a little bit. This is a pretty good issue, but I'm getting increasingly burnt out by this series.

This one actually made sense in a sea of senseless romps. Duggan and Noto are a great team. But having your 19th chapter trying to make sense and tie up loose ends of the other 18 chapters will take away from it. I actually believe Hickman when he said he was trying to get fired but I guess the editors didn't question anything or even took it further than he even dared to go.

Mostly dumb fights to padding

I'm officially done with this trash. Hickman & Co think they're smart and funny, but this is offensive. Stopping all the main stories to show the fans mutants competing in arm wrestling, food competitions and drink games? THIS IS ABSOLUTELY PATHETIC.

This is just so, so, so much. And at the end of the day, this story will be about making DC's continuity a lot more like Marvel's continuity, which is probably a good thing... Aside from the fact that Marvel has always been cohesive and it was more or less about accepting that a lot of goofy shit happened too, whereas with DC, for a long time that continuity just didn't exist and by making *everything* canon, there's so many stories that just can't fit. But... It's probably the best solution DC has as long as they maintain a sense of continuity with the line after this story is over, unlike what they've been doing for 2 years now. And I'd much rather have a discussion about that than read this comic. I don't have the reverence that other readers have for Scott Snyder. So when I see an event like this, when I read a multi-year run sold on being the Biggest Thing Ever™, and it's just so poorly constructed and, over and over again, new plot points are introduced to manufacture the illusion of progression... I just drive myself a little crazy. This is not well written, I don't know what to tell you. I've heard an interesting theory that Death Metal is supposed to be a comedic parody of Crisis events, but I don't buy that because it's not written any differently than anything else I've read from Scott Snyder. I feel like that line of, "This is just for fun" and "Don't take it so seriously", is just there to create an avenue for deflecting criticism. I'm not having fun, and because so much is riding on this event due to editorial meddling, I have to take it seriously. This is such a messy comic, and even the art leaves a lot to be desired... Nothing here stands out beyond the premise of a continuity restoration. The quicker this is finished, the better. more

I would have loved this back in 7th grade.

This is just too much. It feels like all of these past issues has been constant set up and exposition with little happening. The only cool stuff has been in the tie-ins (especially Speed Metal and Multiverse's End).

Snyder tries to fill the book with cool and deep metaphors to add some kind gravity and eloquence to the constant stream of so called edgy in-your-face "dumb fun" (look at Robin King if you think I'm lying).

The worst thing about it; its boring. more

Cons: Too much exposition (Scott should've opted to write a novel) and Lex feels rushed. The writing is just absurd, man. No way this series should've been 7 issues. This should've been 12 issues at least (with no tie-ins).

Pros: Last few pages are pretty awesome (but it all hinges on how the next issue will look like). But, overall, Capullo's pencils are OK--but that's only because Snyder's writing nearly covers every darn panel... Colors, inks, and lettering are on-point.

But man... I've tried having fun, tap into my inner 5-year old self, but this event feels forced. Even for the avid DC fan, this feels more like a cookie-cutter thrash song than the metal ballad it should've been. Stick with DC: Metal and/or Doomsday Clock.

This whole series reminds me of the bad/goofy stories of DC's silver age...

Lost potential all around. more