X-Statix #25 wraps up the Avengers storyline, leaving the way clear for cancellation.

Running five issues of the Avengers seemed an odd move for this book, which has always been more about eccentric satire and black comedy than superheroes in any traditional sense.  But in fact it's worked out surprisingly well.  The trick of making it work was to play the Avengers basically straight (so far as the tone of the book allows, at least).  This isn't a story that exists to laugh at the Avengers, so much as to confront X-Statix with a bunch of real superheroes.

Of course, that doesn't prevent Milligan and Allred from acknowledging the sheer silliness of the whole set-up - hence the Spock's Brain plot, or Thor being pestered by Asgardians to run for President of the Asgard Benevolent Society for Distressed Chosen Slain.  ("The mighty Thor meddleth not in such matters.")  It's unashamedly ridiculous, and that's why it's so entertaining.

Ultimately, in the way of such stories, the Avengers decide that the upstart X-Statix are basically okay after all.  Needless to say, the X-Statix take this as a mortal insult - if they're basically a normal superhero team, what on earth is the point of the exercise?  It's Milligan acknowledging that the idea has run its course, and he's probably correct.  This way the book is going out on an entertaining high, while it's still on top.

Milligan is coming to X-Men soon, which should be an interesting experience.  I'm not counting my chickens just yet, when it comes to that book.  The problem is that there are two sides to Peter Milligan - the hugely inventive and entertaining one that produces eccentric stories like these, and the more conventional, professional one that tries to play to a more mainstream audience.  To get the best out of Milligan, he needs to go some way off the beaten track, and I'll be surprised if we get that from him on X-Men.

Anyway - X-Statix has been one of the high points of the X-books from recent years.  It's one of the cleverest and most entertaining books in the Marvel line and I'll be kind of sorry to see it go.  But it's run its course, and it's for the best to call it a day at this point.

Rating: A

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