Author: Alex Ross

If the Marvel Universe were to end today - and some pundits have cried for that - Earth X would be the most appropriate ending to a 60 year history of superheroes.

We're twenty years in the future. Something has triggered the X factor gene in all humans and now everyone has super powers. The world has gone to hell very quickly. The old guard heroes doubt themselves or were killed off. Into this mix comes a double threat: a new Red Skull - a boy with incredible mental powers - and the Celestials. Skull is controlling everyone and only Captain America can battle him. The Celestials have a previously unsuspected agenda.

At its center, Earth X is an old fashioned "all the heroes band together to save the universe" story. But there is much more to it.

In Earth X we get answers. To everything. Including questions we didn't know to ask. It's wonder and mystery offer biblical context to the Marvel Universe. The answers do not diminish that wonder but only add to it.

We learn who the Celestials are. Who the Watchers are and why they watch. We learn a great deal about the Inhumans. We discover why Namor has behaved as he has over the years. We learn the nature of the Olympians and the Asgardians. And we learn something about the Marvel Universe.

To say the story is moving and powerful does not do it justice. This is truly a tour-de-force. It is a culmination of effort, imagination, dedication, and an incredible love of comics. We all knew that Alex Ross loves comics. His Marvels was the high point of comics' first century.

As a bonus, though, you get Alex Ross's covers reprinted and you get his pencils for certain characters at the back of each chapter.

Speaking of which, it's very interesting how they do that. After 22 or so pages of art and story you are given a dialog that goes on for four or five pages. This dialog furnishes additional information, gives a bit of a summary of what has happened, and sets us up for the next chapter. The best part about getting the trade paperback is that you just go through it like any other book without ads to distract you.

Cover Price US$24.95 Lotsofcomics Price TT$200.00