The inmates at the Danger Room Prison have all realized that the world that they live in is a false one. They’re all understandably upset. The superhuman power restraints have been loosed and now they’re able to confront the guards. Things are about to get ugly in the final issue of Age of X-Man: Prisoner X. Writer Vita Ayala wraps-up a series with a satisfying crunch that is brought to the page by artists German Peralta & Matt Horak. With all of the heavy, oppressive drama out of the way, the series settles-down into an action conclusion in which mutants frantically search for an escape.

It isn’t just that the world turned out to be false. It isn’t just that memories have been casually scrubbed away by authorities. Once the restraints come off, it becomes apparent that psycho psychic Legion is one of the inmates who might just turn out to be the one who is really in charge of all the oppression in prison. Now it’s up to Bishop and his allies to track down the madman in hopes of survival. It’s not an easy thing to get a ragtag group of people together, particularly as they don’t know who to trust. 

Ayala paces the final chapter of the series with careful attention to detail as life and memory come crashing-in around Bishop and company. Ayala has done an impressive job of allowing the action to take the center of the panel for the big climax without compromising the drama that has been the heartbeat of the whole series. If there’s any profound issue with the overall story that Ayala has developed here, it’s the fact that the ending isn’t nearly as powerful as it needs to be. This has been an entire issue encased in a single prison. The last installment needs to be explosive if it’s going to be any kind of a satisfying payoff. Ayala might have come close here, but it’s not quite as cathartic and escape as it could have been.

Peralta and Horak continue to render a prison world that feels every bit as drab and institutional as a maximum security prison is going to feel. It’s ugly. It’s overwhelmingly gray and oppressive, but thanks to Peralta and Horak, there’s a strong visual pull to the crazy winding corridors of a prison as a bunch of prisoners in green jumpsuits desperately try to claw their way out. 

The big finale to the series feels a bit abrupt when it all comes to rest in the final panel, but it IS leading to the significant conclusion in the last issue in a very compelling way. Taken as a part of the larger run of the Age of X-Man, Prisoner X might emerge as the most satisfying corner of the event, but on its own, it feels more than a little lacking. With Prisoner X Ayala, Peralta and Horak do an excellent job of telling a solid story that almost has an ending. Too bad the story isn’t over at issue’s end. It feels too modular to be 100% satisfying.

Grade: B+