Joe Madureira Returns To Marvel Comics By Ushering Back The Age Of Apocalypse
by Tony Thornley
He was one of the most exciting artists of the 1990s, and to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of one of comic’s greatest crossovers, he’s coming back.
Joe Madureira’s run on Uncanny X-Men changed the industry, bringing a heavy manga influence to comics. One of his biggest impacts was as the artist and one of the primary designers of the Age of Apocalypse. His cover to X-Men Alpha is still popular today, and his dynamic style made his Astonishing X-Men work the standout part of the story to this day.
With the thirtieth anniversary of the event this year, Marvel is celebrating with a limited series — X-Men of Apocalypse from Jeph Loeb and Simone Di Meo. The publisher has revealed that Madureira is going to be creating a variant cover for each issue of the series (as well as revealing the first on featuring Weapon X),
“I am beyond excited to be dipping back into this corner of the X-Men universe,” Madureira said. “I was literally a kid when I drew the Astonishing X-Men — it feels like several lifetimes ago, and I want to bring something new to these characters on my covers. Hopefully I can do justice to Simone’s incredible, explosive pages!”
“I met Joe Mad during the original 1995 Age of Apocalypse,” Loeb shared. “His style and storytelling brought a revolutionary look that is still influential today. When Marvel and I first started talking about this project there was no way we couldn’t ask Joe to do his distinctive, incredible covers (pencils, inks, colors) to the book. We were so thrilled when he said ‘Yes!’ I should point out that despite our friendship/partnership and overlooking his role in designing these characters, his real reason for joining was he’s a huge fan of Simone Di Meo! Uncanny!”
Check out Madureira’s first cover and watch for more about X-Men of Apocalypse soon!
