Previously On X-Men: ‘Cloak Or Dagger’ #3 Concludes The Surprise Winner Of “Age of Revelation”

Thanks to the randomness of scheduling, the last full week of “Age of Revelation” features the final issues of series which at least attempt to connect to books outside themselves, generating something approximating the feeling of original “Age of Apocalypse” miniseries building to a climax ahead of the event-ending one-shot.

How effectively those issues pull that off — and conclude their own miniseries — is, per usual, a mixed bag that too often lands on “not well.” But at least they’re trying!

Cloak or Dagger #3 – Book of the Week

By Justina Ireland, Lonrezo Tammetta & Edoardo Audino

Cloak and Dagger defeat Fenris.

• Audino has to fill in for a few pages from Tammetta, and while the art is fine, it’s not on the same level as what Tammetta is doing. It’s nice that Tammetta at least gets to handle the final page.
• Given their whole deal is “touching each other to activate their powers” it takes Cloak and Dagger entirely too long to settle on the “let’s teleport one of the Fenris twins away from the other” plan.
• This is the rare alternate reality happy ending story, where the villain gets defeated, the status quo restored, and the heroes poised to live happily ever after (at least unless/until Revelation turns the planet into one single organism).

Easily the best of the ancillary tie-in books, thanks to a clear plot, strong artwork, and a refreshing presentation of its title characters. The stakes are low throughout, but Cloak and Dagger are so well-rendered that it’s fun to just hang out with them each issue.

Expatriate X-Men #3

By Eve L. Ewing & Francesco Mortarino

The X-Men battle Darkchild amidst various revelations.

• Providence/the Limbo Lands appear much more demonic/Limbo-esque here than when the other X-Men visited in Amazing X-Men #2.
• The Lyrebird twist that Darkchild hired him to lure the X-Men to her domain explains why he had to be rescued in issue #1 despite having offensive fire powers — that, along with Mystique having hired the X-Men to rescue him, was all a ruse orchestrated as part of his plan to meet the terms of his deal with Darkchild.
• Less clear is why Darkchild wanted these X-Men brought to her; that never gets explained.
• Also less clear is why, if Melee’s mysterious secret employer was 3K and they wanted Melee to smuggle 3K tech into Providence (as established here), not allowing Lyrebird into Providence was part of the deal.
• The reveal that Lyrebird and Illyana had a daughter together before Illyana died and was replaced by Darkchild doesn’t really make sense given what was established in the Illyana story in the Age of Revelation Infinity comic, as it doesn’t allow for much time between the “present” and her death to meet Lyrebird, get pregnant, and have a child — unless this is meant to be another indication that “Age of Revelation” is an alternate reality that deviated from the “prime” reality well before the Cyclops mindswap that kicked off the story.
• Nika, their daughter, adds yet another “child of two characters who probably shouldn’t exist/be this old in a story only ten years in the future” to the list of such characters introduced in this event. Also, like Laura Kinney’s son, Nika is another child of two parents where one of the parents doesn’t exist yet in the present day.
• Melee being correct that Kitty Pryde is alive, stuck in intangible form, and operating as the “Ghost of Philadelphia” (as established in Book of Revelation) is a fun twist, given characters are usually wrong about that stuff.
• The previous time Kitty was stuck being intangible that Melee references is from the aftermath of “Mutant Massacre,” when Kitty almost phased out of existence before being saved by the Fantastic Four/Doctor Doom in the Fantastic Four vs. the X-Men miniseries; after that, her default state for awhile was being intangible; she had to consciously will herself solid.
• It’s not entirely clear, but presumably the cast is heading to Philadelphia (aboard a pirate train now) to find out the truth about Kitty, which coincidentally will allow them to be on hand for the finale of the event (assuming they appear in that final one-shot).

What a hot mess. This completely comes apart under the weight of its various plots and machinations, as if Ewing is trying to say, “see, this is what happens I can’t devote six issues to developing one plot at a time.” Cramming all the reveals of who hired whom to keep what in and/or out of the Limbo territories into one issue is bad enough; the fact that little explanation as to WHY any of those various deals were struck — and that so much of it hinges on the reveal of a random child of two characters who aren’t even in the book’s cast — is even worse.

Undeadpool #3

By Tim Seeley & Carlos Magno

Deadpool & Fearless reach the Expatriate X-Men, but Cable arrives with a revelation of his own.

• Fearless offering Deadpool a chimichanga is a reference to his long-established love of the fried burritos, first established back in the Cable & Deadpool series (where he said he liked the way they word sounded more than the food itself) but brought into prominence during Daniel Way‘s run and as a result of the movie.
• Generally speaking, “Age of Revelation” isn’t an event which requires a lot of “chronology effort” (ie “this issue takes place before that issue because X happens in it”); this book and Expatriate X-Men (and to a lesser extent, adding Amazing X-Men to the mix) are one of the few exceptions. Given the Expatriate X-Men’s appearance here and in their own book, it seems like the events of this miniseries must take place before the entirety of Expatriate X-Men, since that opens with them on a mission that leads directly to the end of the book, at which point they’re heading to Philadelphia, which will coincidentally have them on hand for the climax of the event.
• Fearless turning out to have power-enhancing abilities and her whole journey to the X-Men being a try-out to become a Chorister is a fun twist, one which repositions Deadpool as the hero of his own book by the end.
• Deadpool’s healing factor getting super-charged and killing him makes this another “everyone dies” book.

I’d never have guessed that the Deadpool book would end up being one of the more successful “Age of Revelation” entries, but here we are. The marriage of a 70s horror tone with the Magno art — and the consistency of both throughout the three issues — proves a winning combination, with the Expatriate X-Men tie-in making it feel part of the broader story in a way far too few of these series do.

X-Men: Age of Revelation #8

By Alex Paknadel & Edoardo Audino

After being trained in self-defense by the Punisher, Glob steals his guns and sets out to get vengeance.

• Jason Aaron‘s 2022 Punisher series (the last regular series to star Frank Castle prior to the current Ben Percy-led one) concluded with Punisher giving up his usual mission in favor of one geared more towards protecting children; that seems to be what Paknadel is drawing on here, as this is less about Punisher training a successor now that his hands have been mutated such that he can’t wield guns, and more about Punisher trying to teach Glob self-confidence and self-defense, which Glob then takes further on his own.
• Pretty sure that’s former Acolyte Chrome punching Punisher as a Seraphim of Revelation in the flashback.
• Chase Stein is one of the cast members of Runaways (he is a Tony Stark-like engineer who builds tech, so human and susceptible to the X-Virus, though it’s not clear how the LA-based Stein got hit when the virus hasn’t spread that far). His presence here is a bit random.

About as good as a “Punisher trains Glob Herman” story can be. The twist, that Glob is using Punisher more than Punisher is using Glob, helps sell it.

X-Vengers #3

By Jason Loo & Sergio Dávila

The Avengers battle MODOK while trying to avert a war between the US and Revelation.

• Sunspot joined the Avengers at the start of Jonathan Hickman’s run, and then stuck around as an ancillary Avenger more or less til the start of the Krakoa Era.
• MODOK turns out to be the villain responsible for the various threats in this series, and while it doesn’t come entirely out of nowhere (an AIM signal triggered the techno-organic virus last issue, and MODOK once led that group), it does still feel a bit random given this issue was supposed to be about allaying tensions between the US and Revelation.

Loo has said his pitch for this series was Doug’s former New Mutants teammates reunited to confront him about his actions as Revelation, but Marvel insisted it be an Avengers book, which is how we ended up with this weird mishmash of both. Loo’s idea is the one I’d more like to read, but there also is some juice to be squeezed from the idea of how the “Age of Revelation” would change the Avengers. I’m just not sure doing both at the same time fully works — as evidenced by this issue, which punts on the more interesting initial premise in favor of a standard super-villain fight with MODOK. Still, this isn’t the worst tie-in, and I’d love to see Dávila get another shot at either an Avenger or X-book in the future.