krisis's Magneto Rex #3 - Once We Were Kings review

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    Handily returns Magneto to status quo

    I was excited to read the Magneto Rex mini-series, because I had no idea how Magneto came to be the ruler of Genosha at the beginning of Grant Morrison's " E is for Extinction" arc in New X-Men.

    Rex certainly explains how Magneto got there (in combination with The Magneto War), but with this last issue it doesn't bring much more than that explanation aside from a tell-instead-of-show script. 
     
    Does a third issue in a three-issue mini series really need two pages of expository introductions? I don't think there's any use in trying to retain people who are just now jumping on. Must we endure huge panels of pontificating monologues that are completely unlike words that anyone might actually speak? At least it's consistent - Quicksilver has always been longwinded like his father. Also, another earth-moving power, just two issues after a throw-away character used one to save Magneto?

    I can't help but feel that this mini was a squandered opportunity. We never get much insight into Zealot other than that he's... well, a zealot, bent on ruling what he sees as rightfully his. We don't get a sense of the endgame (or even the middle-game) of Alda Huxley, who has been played as an ambitious mastermind for months. And, Magneto ends this run exactly where he ended the first three issues of adjectiveless X-Men eight years prior – dismissing his detractors and hell-bent on domination, but at the mercy of Fabian Cortez to keep his powers functional. Now he just has an island instead of an asteroid.

    Did we really wade through eight years of X-stories to be returned to status quo? 
     
    The sole saving grace is the triple-crossing Amelia Voght, doubtful supporter disguised as Magneto's key agent disguised as Quicksilver's confidant. I feel as though she's the only character who actually gained a layer in this series. Also, a shadowy glimpse of Apocalypse after a lengthy absence is always enough to rile up my inner fan - as is the tantalizing thought of a Magneto vs. Apocalypse throwdown.

    Bottom Line
    This third and final issue was a chance to contextualize the Magneto Rex mini-series as an important narrative in the development of Magneto. Instead, it comes off as editorially mandated moving of pawns.  

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