Previously On X-Men: A Stunning “Age Of” Revelation In ‘Amazing X-Men’ #2

The second month of “Age of Revelation” begins with a middling batch of #2 issues — and one mystifying revelation about the nature of the overarching story.

Amazing X-Men #2 by Jed MacKay & Mahmud Asrar

Cyclops throws down with Darkchild in a battle of truths.

• AS established in Age of Revelation #0, Illyana died freeing Cortez from jail, but in some capacity Darkchild remained. It is said this happened roughly one year into the future of the present day books, or nine years ago from the “Age of Revelation” present.
• Darkchild uses the term “Witchbreed” for mutants, a now-common term amongst magic users (it was used a lot on Otherworld during the Krakoa Era), though it originated in the 1602 miniseries.
• Darkchild’s realm is more or less powered by ordinary humans essentially working in cube farms, choosing a life of mundanity (ie our lives) over dealing with the sci-fi shenanigans affecting the rest of their world, which is a fun premise.

• Darkchild saying Cyclops abandoned his wife and child is a references to X-Factor #1, when editorial mandate required Cyclops to act wildly out-of-character, abandoning Madelyne and his infant son the moment he learned Jean Grey was still alive, and then taking way to long to try and contact them and tell Jean he was married. To his credit, he acknowledges this as a shitty thing.
• The truth that Cyclops hits Darkchild with — that Darkchild exists to protect Illyana — is more or less consistent with the recent Ashley Allen-penned Magik series, which established Darkchild as an aspect of Illyana’s personality rather than a separate demonic manifestation. This of course would mean the Darkchild of this story is still in Illyana’s body and Illyana didn’t physically die even if her personality did.
• The big revelation (no pun intended) in this issue that the X-Men’s mission is really about sending their Cyclops back in time in the “Kate Pryde from Days of Future Past” role to change the future while they, essentially, babysit the past Cyclops really calls into question the whole point of this event. It basically means we’re getting a three month interruption of the regular books, with dozens of tie-in issues, just to tell the “X-Men infiltrate Sentinels headquarters while they wait to see if Kate succeeds in changing the timeline” portion of “Days of Future Past” — and without showing us any of the “changing the future” part of the story.
• Obviously, this also confirms that neither the AoR Cyclops nor Beast are in fact Babels, as we all suspected.
• The truth Psylocke learned from Bei in Age of Revelation: Overture involves Revelation’s plans to destroy the world for some reason.
• Glob killed Topaz in that same issue.
• Beast continues to make me suspicious he’s not the Beast from the present day X-Men title; at the end of the issue, he notes that he’d forgotten how good Cyclops is at leading the X-Men; why would he say that if he’s the same Beast currently on a team of X-Men led by Cyclops?
• The map of North America in the Age of Revelation that appears on the Bullpen Bulletins page has been updated to reflect info revealed in the first month of titles.

In a vacuum, this isn’t a bad issue – the “truth battle” is a clever spin on typical superhero dust-ups/duels, and Asrar’s art continues to be really enjoyable. But it doesn’t make much sense, pacing-wise, to hand over nearly an entire issue of the only series that seems concerned with advancing the overarching narrative of the event to one scene — especially when we’ve only got three issues to work with. And the reveal that this entire event is just the “B-side” of the story — while giving us nothing of the A-side, at least thus far — is both befuddling and maddening.

Avengers #32 by Jed MacKay & Farid Karami

As the Avengers fight zombies, the Twilight Court returns.

• The four beings shown sensing the shuddering of the cosmos are Galactus, Doctor Strange (presumably from Asgard), Clea, and Phoenix.
• Black Panther became the Wakandan “King of the Dead” in Fantastic Four (vol. 3) #608, part of Jonathan Hickman’s run on that book, though it doesn’t directly have anything to do with these zombies (rather Sam seems to be ribbing T’Challa).
• Gigantus, whom Magik and Juggernaut defeat with the X-Men serving in the Avengers’ stead, is a Kaiju-like being from Marvel’s sci-fi heavy Atlas days.
• Garokk, meanwhile, is an old X-Men foe who usually menaced the Savage Land.
• The Twilight Court first appeared in Timeless (vol. 2) #1 and were seemingly destroyed by Kang/Myrddin in issue #31. This group looks slightly different; I’m guess the idea is going to be that Kang didn’t create the Court out of whole cloth and these are the real deal whose identities he usurped for his creations, but we’ll see.

It’s tough to judge this issue without knowing what’s coming; on its own, it’s mostly a rehash of the previous issue, with the Avengers continuing to fight some Marvel Zombies — but the Twilight Court twist may prompt a re-evaluation, depending on what it turns out to be.

Binary #2 by Stephanie Phillips & Giada Belviso

The townspeople make their move as Carol struggles to live up to the responsibility imparted to her by Jean Grey.

• The opening flashback here establishes that the X-Virus was released nine years ago (aka one year in the future of the present day books), which seems really early in the timeline.
• It also reveals that Jean died trying to keep the X-virus on Earth, which doesn’t make sense much sense. For one thing, doing it that soon after its release wouldn’t really require a planet-wide ban since even in the current timeline it’s still limited to the eastern seaboard. For another, the idea that even trying to establish such a quarantine would kill her when the series has shown her casually performing vastly more large scale cosmic feats and the Phoenix Force itself continues to exist is silly.
• It’s also not clear if Jean succeeded or not – we’ve seen plenty of extraterrestrial travel already throughout the story so if she did succeed, it was on some level beyond blocking travel off-planet. It probably doesn’t matter, ultimately.
• At the very least, this all suggests why Carol hasn’t tried to stretch her barrier beyond the confines of her hometown, since the effort of doing so killed Jean.
• Belviso’s art is much stronger in this issue (more rich and detailed).
• The plot involving the townspeople (none of whom are actually realized enough characters to be distinguished from one another) rising up against Carol is deeply tiresome. At this point, let ’em out and getting eaten by Babels or whatever, I say.
• Jean appearing to Carol seems to be a manifestation of the idea from Rise of the Powers of X that Jean and Phoenix are the same, so even though Jean’s physical body is gone she still exists as part of the Phoenix Force. Why she’s only appearing to Carol now, nine-ish years after Carol became Phoenix, is unclear.
• The issue-ending cliffhanger confirms the mysterious redhaired woman from last issue is indeed Madelyne Pryor.

The benefit of these series all being just three issues long is that they’re relatively briskly-paced. So mysteries like the identity of the red-haired woman from the first issue don’t have much time to linger (an ongoing problem of the “From the Ashes” line). On the other hand, it means none of these stories have much room to develop – both the external threat to Carol and her internal struggles with the Phoenix Force feel undercooked, and we’ve now got only issue to resolve it all — plus deal with the Madelyne Pryor of it all.

Laura Kinney: Sabretooth #2 by Erica Schultz & Valentina Pinti

Laura is caught in the middle between Revelation and her family.

• The coloring of Revelation’s word balloons in his opening conversation with Laura suggest he’s using his power on her, though she seems unaware of this and by the end of the issue, is questioning whether she’s in her right mind.
• Vanisher is the second villain the X-Men ever fought, debuting in the second issue of the original X-Men series. He had a run as part of the “Cyclops Murder Squad” iteration of X-Force, from which his current look is taken. In Age of Revelation #0 it was established that he teleported the nuclear bomb meant for Revelation to Washington, D.C.
• Revelation once again insists that things are bad for mutants outside his territories, though that seems to be a fiction he’s perpetuating as an act of control (things seem fine in Vancouver in The Last Wolverine, for example). He mentions the “rootless lands” as well; no idea what those are at this point.
• “Teresia” is Sage’s given name.
• Laura says that Wolverine’s healing factor prevents him from being mind-controlled and thus, she should be immune as well. For one thing, that’s not really how Wolverine’s healing factor has ever worked (he’s been mind-controlled plenty, like when he got brainwashed into being a Hydra assassin in the “Enemy of the State” storyline or, you know, all those years he had no idea which of his memories were real or implants). For another, it seems weird that Laura would look at the silent killing machine at Revelation’s side and think, “yeah, Wolverine is totally in his right mind” no matter how much she may think Revelation is the best option for mutants.

• We previously saw Apocalypse and Arakko in one of the World of Revelation stories; it looks like this series will at least play some role in setting up the inevitable meeting between Apocalypse and his heir.

While not devoid of the inconsistent worldbuilding/shoddy editorial oversight that characterizes much of this event, this is another strong issue of one of the stronger AoR books because, once again, its rooted in internal character conflict. Laura believes in Revelation’s (stated) mission to help mutants, but is finding it increasingly difficult to reconcile the discrepancies between that and his actions/the truth before her eyes. That conflict makes the story compelling even the details surrounding are still a bit muddied/poorly executed.

Longshots #2 by Gerry Duggan, Jonathan Hickman & Alan Robinson

Mojo’s team of reality stars run into a threat they can’t overcome.

• Having the Mojoverse’s version of Rotten Tomaties be “Rotten D’bari” (a reference to the asparagus/broccoli-like alien race destroyed by Dark Phoenix) is one of the few legitimately funny gags in this issue.
• Wonder Man’s comment about Bishop’s Winter Soldier arm actually being Cable’s arm, and therefore he’s time-traveling, is presumably a reference to the ill-advised time when Bishop was chasing Cable across time trying to kill Hope, though the bionic arm Bishop had that enabled time-travel was something he stole from Forge, not Cable.
• This is now the third “Age of Revelation” tie-in to feature Warlock/the Technarchy in some capacity (after Cable in Undeadpool and Vision in X-Vengers) which…can’t be a coincidence, right?
• Wonder Man saying it was “inevitable” is presumably a reference to the MCU Thanos.
• The whole gag with the Celestials subbing in for Galactus and no one liking the Celestials is similarly a reference to both the poorly-received Eternals film and the more recent Fantastic Four: First Steps
• Though the gag that Galactus is now too big a star to appear in this book is undercut somewhat by the fact that he’s featured over in Unbreakable X-Men.
• Major Domo shooshing out the X-Babies wearing Galactus merch before Mojo could see was also kinda funny, I guess.

• Alan Robinson’s art — the style of which approximating a sort of less Art Adams-ish Nick Bradshaw — is the saving grace of this book.

It’s not that funny, it has nothing to do with “Age of Revelation”, and Longshot — the only character who needs to be written somewhat consistently in Mojo stories — is being written wildly out of character. Other than some nice art, what is even the point of this?

X-Men: Age of Revelation #1 by Tim Seeley & Phillip Sevy – Issue of the Week

The X-Men’s Infinity series catches up to the “Age of Revelation” transformation with a story set in the earliest days of the timeline.

• Anton Kruch first appeared in Cable & Deadpool #1, and was the villain of that series’ first story arc. The leader of the One World Church, he wanted to use the Facade Virus to make everyone in the world blue, thereby eliminating prejudice (which is basically what his deal in this story is).
• Graymalkin II, Cable’s second space station headquarters, first appeared in Cable vol. 4) #11, as part of the story that transitioned the character from the teen version to the traditional older man version.
• Belle is the name of Cable’s current AI assistant, who first appeared in Uncanny Avengers (vol. 3) #2.
• The images of Cable’s past with the New Mutants are pulled from a pinup which appeared in New Mutants #92, New Mutants #89 (when Cable joined the team by helping them fight Freedom Force) and, I believe, the Madripoor story in New Mutants #93-94.

• The pinup is shown here to be an in-universe image akin to a team photo or something like that, which is funny because it features Rusty and Skids alongside Cable, and they were never on the team together (Rusty & Skids were rescued/brainwashed by the Mutant Liberation Front the same issue as Cable’s debut). The pinup as it originally ran was either from Rob Liefeld‘s files, or something he drew when he still intended to get back to the Rusty/Skids plotline (he never did).
• Cable notes that historical records of the Age of Revelation are incomplete, part of a general blackhole of mutant history following the fall of Krakoa, which is one of those fun excuses for why a time-traveler from the future can’t just tell everyone in the present what is going to happen.
• The image of 3K is taken from the Hellfire Vigil one-shot.
• The story is set early enough into the “Age of Revelation” that Doug still looks like Doug and not Revelation (though Psylocke says Doug is team leader, so he’s already whammied Cyclops into letting him take over, so he’s close to it).

In a week which establishes everything we’ve read thus far in “Age of Revelation” isn’t even the main story, this issue gets us, however briefly, as close as anything yet to what we now know is the “A-story” of the event. Plus, I’m a sucker for Cable doing timey-wimey stuff as well as New Mutants nostalgia porn.