"Age of Apocalypse"

            This is a review of the Marvel Comics event “Age of Apocalypse” which began in 1995 and continued for several months, and was revisited in 1999, 2001, and 2005. This event in the following review is collected across the span of fifty-one issues of a multitude of series that all worked together to tell an expansive story. For this review, the first issue of each series will be mentioned as the starting point and explain the role of these characters and purpose of said series. I feel this is the best way to explore the reality that is… The Age of Apocalypse!

            Blink: Clarice Ferguson is also known as Blink. She is a member of the underground movement against the High Lord, Apocalypse. Unfortunately, she is a bit of a rebel. When she ignores orders, she decides to go off on her own. She is then teleported to the Negative Zone, but is struck with amnesia. She joins a resistance against the corrupt lord of the Negative Zone, Blastaar and searches for the rightful ruler of the Negative Zone, Annhilus.

            X-Men Chronicles: This is the chronological start of the reality known as “The Age of Apocalypse.” In this series, we learn that Charles Xavier in this reality was killed protecting his friend Erik Lensherr (also known as Magneto) before he could form the X-Men. Magneto then vows to keep Xavier’s dream of peace between humans and mutants alive and forms the X-Men. Unfortunately, the X-Men are unable to prevent the ancient evil mutant Apocalypse from taking over North America. Apocalypse believes in mutant superiority and the survival of the fittest.

            X-Men: Alpha: In this one-shot issue, a time traveler named Bishop finds his way to the X-Men and tells them this reality should not be. Twenty years prior, Charles Xavier’s son David had traveled back in time to attempt to kill Magneto so Charles’s dream of peace and unity between humans and mutants would go unopposed. Unfortunately, David accidentally killed Charles and created this reality. Bishop now feels that this reality should not exist and the X-Men formulate a plan to bring the elements together to travel back in time and save Charles’s life.

            Generation Next: Colossus and Shadowcat have been training a young group of mutants as members of the X-Men. The first piece of the puzzle is discovered. The X-Men need to find a young girl, Ilyanna Rasputin (Colossus’s sister) who may be a latent mutant with the ability to travel in time. Unfortunately, Ilyanna is kept in a prison in Portland, Oregon. The young X-Men are called upon to travel to the Portland Core to rescue Ilyanna.

            Astonishing X-Men: A group of X-Men, led by Rogue Lensherr attempts to defeat Holocaust, Apocalypse’s “son” and one of Apocalypse’s Four Horsemen.

            X-Calibre: Nightcrawler must travel to Avalon, a refuge for both humans and mutants living together in peace and harmony located in Antarctica to find the mutant known as Destiny, a precog, to confirm if Bishop is indeed right about this reality being wrong. The only one who knows Destiny by sight is Nightcrawler’s mother Mystique, who conducts people on the path to Avalon and skims belongings on her travelers and is not truly accepted into Avalon.

            Gambit and the X-Ternals: Gambit and his band of outlaws are called upon by Magneto (an old friend of Gambit’s who had a romantic interest in Magneto’s wife Rogue early on in the Age of Apocalypse) to locate a crystal called the M’Krann that has the ability to transport its holders into another reality to get the X-Men to save Charles Xavier. Unfortunately, the M’Krann is located deep in space. Lila Chaney must teleport the X-Ternals to the edge of space so they can return with a shard of the M’Krann.

            Weapon X: Weapon X and Jean Grey, both former X-Men, now in travel in Europe. The Human High Council plans to detonate nuclear bombs on North America to eliminate Apocalypse. Jean leaves Weapon X, however, to go back to North America to complete a calling.

            Amazing X-Men: A team of X-Men led by Magneto’s son Quicksilver take off to conduct safe travels of humans from North America to Europe on mechanical mutant killing robots called Sentinels, but must first disguise their presence from the Sentinels and defeat Apocalypse’s Horseman, Abyss. The robot Nanny is left behind to protect Magneto and Rogue’s son Charles at the Xavier Estate (the X-Men’s base of operations) but Magneto is captured and brought to Apocalypse to lure the X-Men into a trap after the mutant parasite the Shadow King informs Apocalypse of the X-Men’s plans.

            Factor X: Apocalypse’s Horseman Sinister leaves his control of the Slave Pens and Breeding Grounds to Sinister’s adopted son Cyclops, but Cyclops’s brother Havok tries to prove Cyclops a traitor so Havok can gain control of Sinister and the Dark Beast’s operations.

            X-Man: Nate Grey is a powerful telepath/telekinetic who travels with his mentor Forge and a troupe of mutant performers throughout the Midwest. Nate must control his powers to hide the troupe from Apocalypse’s forces, but the mysterious Essex attempts to sway Nate to his side, away from Forge, trying to convince him to take on Apocalypse.

            X-Universe: The humans in Europe attempt to defeat Apocalypse’s Horseman Mikhail and get the humans from North America to Europe both to escape Apocalypse and the nuclear bomb the Human High Council of Europe’s plans to destroy Apocalypse’s kingdom.

            X-Men: Omega: Everything leads up to the confrontation between Apocalypse and the X-Men as they attempt to defeat Apocalypse and travel through time and space to prevent the Age of Apocalypse from ever coming to be.

            X-Men: Prime: In the main Marvel Universe, things are mostly back to normal, but the Legacy Virus (which is a parallel to A.I.D.S.), thought only to be a mutant killing disease, is discovered to also contagious to baseline humans. Several of the Age of Apocalypse denizens are also able to travel to the Marvel Universe after Ilynna and the M’Krann prevent the Age of Apocalypse.

            X-Men: Age of Apocalypse: The Age of Apocalypse is revealed to be a pocket reality, and a year later, things are not going well for the X-Men, and survivor’s battle to maintain the balance of baseline humans and mutants.

            Now, this is a review, and those who have read one of my reviews before know I do a few things to conclude my review; my personal comments, the accessibility to the level of fandom, and, of course, my numeric score.

            First off, the original Age of Apocalypse was very much to my liking. Alternate realities, are of course, tricky for fans of the main Marvel Universe. The changes are sometimes welcome, and sometimes undesired. Characters that are good become bad, characters that are bad become good. This what if tapestry was very compelling to me. A world without Xavier as a backbone proves that one man CAN make a difference, and this major change of Xavier never forming the X-Men was definitely welcome for me. More to that in a couple paragraphs.

            Accessibility: I mean this as if you know TONS about the Marvel comics, LITTLE about the Marvel comics, or NOTHING about the Marvel comics how easy it is to pick up this story and actually follow and understand the story. I give this a VERY high accessibility rating. As this is another universe with an established origin story, I feel anyone can pick up this story and completely understand it. A few notes: if you know nothing about the X-Men, don’t attempt to read X-Man #53-54 and X-Men: Prime #1. X-Man #53-54 is a merged reality and really has little to do with the main story of Age of Apocalypse, X-Men: Prime #1 only ties into Age of Apocalypse with the refugees and honestly has no impact on the Age of Apocalypse, so they can totally be skipped. Otherwise, if you haven’t read Age of Apocalypse before and you like this review, I totally think you should pick this up.

            Okay, now the final piece of this tapestry: my numeric score. All said, this world was very engaging for me. The changing of history was very different from other Marvel Universes and did not attempt to follow or recreate or reboot other storylines in a similar style, such as Ultimate Comics (with the exception of Gambit and the X-Ternals that had a very similar story to the X-Men Phoenix Saga) which I truly appreciated. What if stories can be either hits or misses. For me, this was a hit. BUT! It did have some elements I didn’t fully like, but they would contain spoilers and I totally WANT you to read this, so we won’t go there. So, on a scale of one to ten (one meaning this should never have been written, ten being they totally should still be writing this) I give it an eight. It wasn’t PERFECT, but it was still a GREAT read.

            And those of you who have ever read my blog know how I sign off, but for those who haven’t, I conclude with three words: Tim Cubbin… out!