[b:X-Men: X-Termination|17277838|X-Men X-Termination|Greg Pak|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1375060419s/17277838.jpg|23891209] brings together 3 different X-men series (Astonishing X-men, Age of Apocalypse, and X-treme X-men). If you haven't been following at least [b:X-Men: The Complete Age of Apocalypse Epic, Book 1|276464|X-Men The Complete Age of Apocalypse Epic, Book 1|Scott Lobdell|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1404629819s/276464.jpg|268104] you're going to be pretty lost since the majority of the story focuses on previous plot points from that series. I picked this one up to finish out the [b:X-Treme X-Men, Vol. 1: Xavier Must Die!|16002137|X-Treme X-Men, Vol. 1 Xavier Must Die!|Greg Pak|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1351213726s/16002137.jpg|21764114] series without having read Age of Apocalypse (AoA), so I was confused over several points. (Such as AoA Jean Grey not having mutant powers anymore, AoA Nightcrawler's vengeance mission, AoA's Beast being evil, and the AoA team's dislike of Scott Summers.)

At it's heart, this story revolves around the AoA Nightcrawler's mission of redemption after having been obsessed with revenging his wife's death without considering the consequences his actions have on anyone else. It's also a story arc for AoA Jean Grey who gets tasked with a mission to save the multi-verse. So, if you're reading this as a wrap-up to the X-treme X-men story, like I was, you're going to be extremely disappointed. Those story arcs and characters get shoved into the background or efficiently dispatched to make way for AoA to take over.

Separating this from X-treme X-men, X-termination was an okay story. Nightcrawler is one of my favorite characters and AoA Kurt had a lot of page time here, so I did enjoy that aspect. I also enjoyed his character arc, but I wish I had been following his story prior to reading this volume since X-termination is the wrap-up to a larger plot. Outside of that though, I was too lost to enjoy a lot of what was going on. I didn't understand the dynamics of the AoA team and I wasn't a fan of the main "villains" here since they were just mindless consumers of power.

All in all, a very disappointing ending for X-Treme X-men which had shown so much promise in its first volume. I would recommend this only if you've been following all of the series that come together here. ( )