Amazing X-men #1

The humans are gathering in Maine because word has spread that they may be able to escape America thanks to the plans of the Human High Council. Unfortunately for them, Apocalypse's forces are always watching.

Copycat (a lesser known mutant usually making appearances in X-force around this time) pretends to be one of them in order to gain some information on the coming rescue, and reports back to her team. But the humans still have a small glimmer of hope thanks to the X-men, who plan to hijack a sentinel and import him with a virus that will see them as friendlies and therefore allow them to aid in the rescue. This portion of the team is made up of Quicksilver, Storm, Iceman, and Banshee, who we've seen to varying degrees already, as well as Dazzler and Exodus making their first appearances here.


We have further proof that this version of Iceman is far more advanced than his normal counterpart in that he seems to have a way of converting other people into moisture, thereby allowing him to freeze them and transport them from place to place. I can't imagine why they never tried to bring that into the main universe. However we don't get to see an example of how this works now because Magneto reveals to Exodus that he in fact has the ability to teleport people and he should use that now. Despite having never done it before, he brings them all exactly where he needs to be.

This is the second time that Magneto has hid someone's powers from them, the first being Lila Cheney over in Gambit and the X-ternals. Here he says he never told Exodus because he was afraid his powers would corrupt him. I guess this is all supposed to be a reference to how Exodus acts in the main timeline (he's a bad guy and pretty devout follower of Magneto), but as it is it's quite silly.

Storm heads out to the ocean and brings up a hurricane to try to mask the oncoming sentinels from Apocalypse's forces. It's difficult, and we're told Storm does something she normally doesn't do - pray. Then she says "thank the goddess" not long after. I guess the situation is getting her in touch with her religious side?

Storm's interference works and the Sentinels show up. The X-men enact their plan to hack into the sentinels, and while they at first think it works, a sentinel then completely obliterates Iceman.  But hey, no worries, remember Checkov's Iceman's special ability? The characters assure us he can rebuild himself even from that state. As they ponder why their hacking didn't work, it is immediately explained to them by this world's version of the Brotherhood.  Their programming was switched so that the Brotherhood is protected from the Sentinels while the X-men are still seen as foes.

This issue is pretty firmly average. We've got a decent amount of set up, but not much else. We have conflicting writing with that Storm moment. The misdirect is well handled, and Iceman being destroyed did shock me initially, but having it all solved so quickly kind of spoils the suspense.

You may also notice that there are no scans for this review.  That's because there's nothing really interesting worth showing.  They will return as needed.

Weapon X #1

 

This should be obvious, but this title replaced Wolverine's solo series.

The last we saw of Logan and Jean, they had just brought some information from Sinister to the Human High Council in England, informing them that Apocalypse intended to betray their truce.

Gambit and the X-ternals #1

I think this was the replacement title for X-force, though the only common thread between the two is the appearance of Sunspot.

We start off by meeting this reality's version of Jubilee, whose early life is even worse than the one she had in the main timeline. Though she does get to hang out with Gambit most of the time now, so she really shouldn't be complaining too much. I wouldn't.

X-Calibre #1

This series replaced Excaliber, which starred Nightcrawler and a bunch of other mutants that you won't see here.  There's something so very 90s about the spelling of this title that always makes me shake my head. Fortunately, the actual story inside is better than that.

Astonishing X-men #1

[Before I begin, I want to apologize for some of the blurriness in these scans. Judging by the ginormous ink smudge on one of the pages, I didn't get the best printing of this issue.]

We start with Magneto once again calling together his people to send them on missions they may not return from. The X-men don't really see a difference between this and every other mission they've been on in this dangerous world.  The title of the issue is "Once More With Feeling." Beyond making me think of Buffy, I can't really see why they chose that name.  Banshee makes his first appearance in the Age of Apocalypse in this issue on page 3. And then is never seen again for the rest of it.

Generation Next #1

Generation X was still a fairly new series when the Age of Apocalypse happened.  They were a team of young mutants lead by Banshee and Emma Frost, training to be the next X-men.  With the exception of Jubilee who left the X-men to join, these were all new recruits and not many of them have gone on to be major players.  The closest they ever got to mainstream was that horrible movie adaptation.  Jubilee is not a member in this AoA version, but many of the other kids remain.

We're dumped straight into the middle of the action where a boy who identifies himself as Chamber narrates for us.  He looks an awful lot like Gambit here, or perhaps Havok with brown hair. The Havok comparison is probably better. In the main continuity, Chamber was named because he has a big gaping hole that starts around his mouth and goes all the way down his torso because he's not immune to his own energy blasts. That happened to him the first time he ever used his powers. Apparently in this reality they found him a little earlier and gave him that suit to use so that he's just got a smaller hole in his chest instead. Really, his origin in the normal universe doesn't make sense. Havok explodes energy from his body, but he has no holes. Cyclops has incredibly forceful blasts streaming out of his own eyes at all times, but his eyelids are perfectly capable of holding them in. So it seems like Jono here really got the short end of the stick when it comes to mutation.

X-men: Alpha

While the two X-men Chronicles issues cover events that take place in the past, X-men: Alpha was the real introduction to the Age of Apocalypse, being released before all the other issues. This was the first thing that the current readers saw at the time to introduce them to this world.

X-men Chronicles #2

 

This issue was actually published toward the end of the Age of Apocalypse event, and seems to be designed to help answer some of the questions people may have had while reading the various series. The main one apparently being "How did Magneto and Rogue end up together?"

X-men Chronicles #1

 

While the primary Age of Apocalypse issues were set in the "present day" part of the timeline, they did think to provide us with a prequel to those stories in the X-men Chronicles series. This title replaced X-men Unlimited, which was basically just a series where Marvel was squeezing even more money out of us X-men fans by providing outside-of-the-main-storyline character pieces in double sized issues. In all fairness, a lot of these stories were really high quality in large part due to that longer length.

One Man's Worth (Reboot) - An Introduction

Are you overcome with a strange feeling of deja vu? Don't worry, it's not a glitch in the Matrix. While this series was once posted on the Second Time Around blog, I decided to include it here on this site with my other X-men reviews.  To make it more appropriate to this blog, it will be in marathon form!  There will be some repetition of content in the beginning, but I will also be taking an editor's pen to my old reviews, as well as adding or eliminating some of the images to make everything more consistent. My original introduction is below, and the first issue will be out this afternoon.


Like many of my generation, watching the X-men cartoon that premiered in 1992 led me to picking up the comics and becoming a full fledged, dedicated reader, visiting my local comic book shop every month to get the latest issues. Being judged by my peers as an outsider and a weirdo, the X-men and their "hated because they are different" themes appealed to me in many ways. Having very few friends of my own, I thought of them as my friends; characters I went on adventures with by reading their comics and watching the cartoon. As such, I'll never forget the day I walked into my comic shop in early 1995. The store was run by an elderly couple - he was the sports card expert, and she knew the comics. She also knew who of her customers read what, even without them having a pull list. So when I walked in that day to buy my comics, she pulled me over to the counter to show me a press release. She did not look particularly happy about it. I've scoured the internet to try to find a copy of that press release, but apparently no one has uploaded it to the internet, so I'll do my best to paraphrase:

"The end of Legionquest will have disastrous effects throughout the world of the X-men, and as such, changes to the current titles are being made. As of March 1995, Uncanny X-men is cancelled. In its place will be Astonishing X-men..."

What followed was a brief description of the title, and then it continued on to every single X-book at the time (and given that this was the 90s, that was a lot.) Over and over again I saw the words "cancelled" and "replaced." There was no mention that this was just going to be a four issue limited story arc before everything returned to normal. They presented it as the end of the X-men I had come to know and love. Mock me if you will, but I got misty eyed reading it, thinking that my characters were going to be taken away from me. I did eventually find out that it was going to be temporary, but at the time I still wasn't entirely pleased with the idea. I bought the issues anyway and in time I came to enjoy it. It was a lot of fun scouring the issues for easter egg references to the heroes I knew, now drastically changed in this post apocalyptic world. And then, poof!, it was gone, and everything was largely back to normal.

Of course, comics business being what it is, this isn't the last we ever actually saw of the Age of Apocalypse. One shots, mini-series, and more have continued the story. However, I personally like the idea of this not being an alternate universe but rather a twisted version of the X-men's main continuity. Their own version of "The Wish" or that version of 1985 where Biff Tannen controls Hill Valley. For this marathon I will be sticking to the original event only. Since this series was held over multiple titles, I'm using the guide on the fantastic UncannyXmen.net to review them in the proper chronological order. Check out their page if you'd like to do your own reading including the later released issues. As for what you'll see here, this is how it will go: