Previously On X-Men: ‘Amazing X-Men’ #3 Is The Best Of A Bad Bunch of Books

The best thing we can say about “Age of Revelation” is that at least it’s winding to a conclusion.

Amazing X-Men #3 – Book of the Week

By Jed MacKay and Mahmud Asrar

The X-Men reach their safehouse in Philadelphia.

• This cover feels like an homage to something; possibly the opening splash of X-Men #141.

• Though this is the final issue of the series, it leads directly into X-Men: Age of Revelation – Finale and if you include X-Men: Age of Revelation Overture, this is more effectively issue #4 of 5.
• All the Bei/Topaz/Psylocke stuff is repeated from Overture.
• It’s revealed what Bei told Psylocke in that issue — that Revelation’s ultimate endgame is to transform the world into a being of single consciousness (his) via the X-virus a la Ego the Living Planet. It’s also not too far removed from the goal of Onslaught nor the concept of a Dominion that Sinister was trying to achieve at the end of the Krakoa Era.
• The Seraphim the X-Men fight in this issue all seem to be new/original characters, without any 90s era Glup Shittos like usual.
• More hints that maybe Beast isn’t all he says he is: it’s mentioned he has a noticeably-utilitarian perspective on events (a hallmark of Krakoa Beast), he tells all the X-Men to go to bed then stays up and uses the computer for something, and Future Beast’s time travel solution involved the partial use of a manufactured black hole – and Krakoa Beast died while trying to use a Black Hole Gun.
• Taki aka Wiz Kid was last seen in S.W.O.R.D, and unlike the rest of the characters in this timeline, he more or less is wearing the same thing he did there.
• The remaining Choristers left to Revelation are Chance, Khora and Elbecca (though Taki doesn’t know she’s an agent of Apocalypse).
• This issue seems to suggest either that Magneto’s Resurretion-Linked Degenerative Syndrome (and the whole concept of R-LDS) is nonsense and Magneto is making it up, or else that we’re in an alternate timeline that diverged BEFORE Cyclops and Beast had their consciousnesses brought forward.
• Apocalypse & Xavier step out of the gate at the end of the issue, arriving on Earth.

Very little actually happens in this issue — arguably the biggest thing is the possible jettisoning of the entire R-LDS plotline? — which is more justifiable when this is viewed as the penultimate issue of the story instead of the final issue of the series, but which is still pretty bad. Asrar’s art is nice, though.

Binary #3

By Stephanie Phillips & Giada Belviso

Carol Danvers and Madelyne Pryor battle over control of the Phoenix.

• So Madelyne is back to just wanting the Phoenix Force for herself, which is a pretty sharp regression for her character after she mostly moved past that and embraced being the lord of Limbo.
• Carol doesn’t recognize Maddy as Maddy (though she is aware of Madelyne Pryor), despite fighting alongside Maddy (dressed the same way she is here) in One World Under Doom.
• Also, Jean Grey is back, I guess (the idea is she burnt herself out preventing the virus from spreading off Earth and spent the ensuing nine years resting up, using Carol’s body as a version of the cocoon the Phoenix Force put her into in the original Phoenix story).

• I do kinda like that Madelyne was basically gaslighting the entire town via one idiot dupe who bought what she was selling.
• Belvisa art is the best thing about this issue (and frankly the series). I like it even more than their earlier work on Laura Kinney: Wolverine.
• This gets kind of a bummer ending, with Carol sacrificing herself to save the town and Jean deciding to maintain her protection over Beverly. Which makes zero sense given Carol’s insistence in the first issue that the Phoenix Force was mad she was squadering her power protecting just one town, but is necessary to explain why, now that she’s back, Jean doesn’t just obliterate Revelation and end this whole mess.

In the grand scheme of “Age of Revelation” series, this is in the running for most pointless, taking three issues to answer the question of “what is Jean up to in the Age of Revelation and why didn’t she just stop Revelation’s ascent?” and then nonsensically-negating the answer to that question in its final moments.

Laura Kinney: Sabretooth #3

By Erica Schultz & Valentina Pinti

Laura fights Apocalypse.

• The idea presented here seems to be that when Laura or Wolverine get hurt and their healing factor kicks into gear, it also loosens Revelation’s control over them. Which isn’t consistent with how its been depicted previously, but is at least consistent across this event.
• The rest of the issue is basically one long fight, first of the evacuated mutants fighting in the Arakko arena and then of Revelation’s Laura-led forces fighting the evacuated mutants.
• Arakko continues to be presented differently here than in Al Ewing‘s World of Revelation story, because clearly Ewing is the only one who can be arsed to present Arakko as a rich, complicated society and not just “mutant Klingons.”
• This issue has an utterly bonkers conclusion, with Alex’s powers manifesting for the first time and killing everyone present (except Apocalypse, who tries to enlist him). I guess that’s a payoff to the “is Alex a mutant?” question posed earlier in the season.

An utterly bizarre ending to a series which, in its first two issues, was one of the better “Age of Revelation” books. The final beat — Apocalypse suggesting bringing Alex to Earth — would maybe work a la the “everyone dies” ending of Generation Next in “Age of Apocalypse” if, like that, it was a lead-in to the upcoming finale (and, I dunno, maybe it will be) but that seems doubtful given we’ve already seen Apocalypse arrive on Earth without Alex, and Alex is entirely a non-character outside this book. As it is, it’s simply an abrupt, “everyone dies” conclusion.

X-Men: Age of Revelation #5

By Tim Seeley & Phillip Sevy

Illyana and Darkchild push Belasco & S’ym into conflict with each other.

• This issue shows that there are essentially two Illyanas in this story, the “good” Illyana and the “bad” Darkchild. The idea seems to be that when Illyana died, her soul split in two and Belasco got control of the human half and S’ym the demon half. Now, the two halves are manipulating their masters into open conflict so they can reunite, presumably.
• Unless we truly are dealing with an alternate timeline that deviated well before the events of Overture, there’s a significant continuity error here in showing Illyana interacting with the elder Rasputin sibling, Mikhail, who was believed to have died (but was actually alive in an alternate dimension) before Illyana was even born.
• N’astirh, who served S’ym in a similar fashion to the way S’ym served Belasco and then Illyana (and then played a key role in “Inferno”) pops up.

• The end of the issue seems to be suggesting there is darkness innate to Illyana, even before she is corrupted in Limbo. Which…I guess we’ll see where that’s going.

Well, it’s better than the previous issue, but that is clearing the lowest bar possible. It’s still just rejiggering a story that’s been rejiggered to death, but at least it has fewer insinuations of sexual violence.