X of Swords, the first crossover event for the X-Men following the comic book line's "Dawn of X" relaunch, finally reaches its epic conclusion with its 22nd installment depicting the final battle between the mutant nation-states of Krakoa and Arakko. And as Jonathan Hickman, Tini Howard and Pepe Larraz close out the storyline with an oversized finale issue, the big question is if the Dawn of X event truly delivered: In short, the answer is yes, with this installment setting up plenty of intriguing directions for the Children of the Atom to go next though there still is a lingering feeling that the event could have benefited from a much tighter, less sprawling focus.

After a series of high-stakes duels between Krakoa and Arakko, the final showdown between Apocalypse and his long-lost wife Genesis unfolds with the fate of two worlds hanging in the balance. As the battle is joined, Saturnyne reveals the true scope of the contest of champions while a new status quo for both mutant nation-states and wider Marvel Universe are set up by the time the dust settles, with not every fan-favorite character slated to return home by the conclusion.

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By and large, this oversized finale is a fight issue but writers Hickman and Howard -- who previously co-wrote the opening and midway special issues -- weave in plenty of consequence and impact on the Krakoan status quo between all the super-powered sword fights and punching. Saturnyne's usual grandstanding and monologuing can come off as a bit overly pretentious and long-winded...but that's also who the character has always been. And while some of the fan-favorite characters and titles get lost in the shuffle, how Hickman and Howard tie together most of the preceding chapters, especially in regards to Excalibur and Cable, and deliver a relatively neat finale is one of their more impressive feats across the entire run of Dawn of X.

Pepe Larraz and color artist Marte Gracia really set the visual tone of the entire crossover event, with its opening and middle installments, reuniting for this finale. Some of their previous work had been a bit dark for the sequences set on Arakko but, here in this issue, the action is quite easy to follow and genuinely thrilling in its delivery. And with an increased scope, escalation of action and the full implications of the many tie-ins culminating here, Larraz and Gracia deftly pull off weaving all these seemingly disparate elements to craft a conclusion that really does feel like all those preceding chapters were leading to this moment.

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Ultimately, did X of Swords need to run for 22 issues? While it seems like a cop-out answer, yes and no. The various creative teams did take full advantage of the increased real estate to really explore the extensive cast of characters and their role in the story; most issues actually felt pretty vital to the proceedings, especially once the story really got rolling. And, in a way, Dawn of X was always interconnected across the line, X of Swords just made those connections more palpable. It'll be interesting to revisit the crossover storyline all at once when it's inevitably collected, but the creative team certainly pulls out all the stops in this final issue to make it feel like a triumphant conclusion while setting up plenty of ways for Marvel's Merry Mutants and the wider Marvel Universe to go in the immediate aftermath.

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