I’m a big X-Men fan and have been from a young age. I’m currently reading through 2012’s X-Men comics in my family marathon, as well as of course the present day issues.

I loved the Krakoan Era (2019-2024). It took some big swings and while there were a few hiccups along the way, I think that as a whole it did a lot more interesting things than several previous eras. I’ve been fine with a lot of Tom Brevoort’s work editing Marvel books, but the main thing I heard was that he was going to be, “a steady hand” for the X-Men line going forward. A truly double-edged phrase.

From the Ashes has had some good, bad and mainly mid titles in the time since it came out. It hasn’t felt as fully backwards-looking as I feared (it didn’t default to the 90’s cartoon/comic styles and the school), but it also hasn’t really felt propulsive. NYX had a good take on young adult mutants living in New York and dealing with having a land, a culture, a people, and then nothing. X-Force and Phoenix were painfully forgettable. X-Factor was poor man’s X-Statix despite loving the creative team behind it. X-Men and Uncanny X-Men have had some great moments and some poverty uninteresting ones, both released at a frantic pace which feels eager to outdo the output of Krakoa. Exceptional X-Men didn’t feel like a core ‘X-Men’ title and being released monthly made it feel slower than the others, but it was probably my favourite. 

The first event, “X-Manhunt”, felt incredibly disorganised, with little purpose or connectivity to it, aside from getting Professor X off the board. Age of Revelation threatened to be similar, but bigger. The anniversary of the Age of Apocalypse was upon us, so it’s been celebrated with a Giant-Size Age of Apocalypse one-shot as part of another event, X-Men of Apocalypse as a miniseries written by Jeph Loeb who will probably ignore any continuity since he last wrote X-books, and then Age of Revelation.

Doug Ramsey won a contest to become the Heir to Apocalypse, aka Revelation. He’s spent time away from other mutants, hanging with Warlock and Bei of the Blood Moon. Recently, he’s arrived at Cyclops’ Alaskan X-Men base, looking to join them. As they’re let in, we see a glimpse of a dark future.

Cyclops and Beast have been sent X years into the future, where things are pretty grim. The X Virus mutated or killed any humans who came into contact with it. Wildlife has taken over the infected lands. America’s fragmented (more than it already has). Revelation’s powers have allowed him to control people like Wolverine and ‘Babel’ people who he doesn’t like, taking away their ability to communicate or understand others. The X-Men are a resistance force and they’ve brought the minds of Cyclops and Beast to the future to help them.

This all takes the form of four one-shots and sixteen three-issue miniseries. That’s a lot. Age of Apocalypse had two one-shots, two two-issue miniseries and eight four-issue miniseries, by comparison. Age of X-Man had six five-issue miniseries and two one-shots.

I had a mixed reaction to the start of Age of Revelation. A number of the titles had interesting concepts, some felt like odd choices. It all felt like a lot and aside from the design on the sidebar of the comics, it didn’t feel visually distinct. When Amazing X-Men reached its midpoint and revealed that this 54 issue event was just killing time while Future Cyclops was in the present trying to kill Revelation, the wind was taken out of me a bit. This only increased when the first three miniseries ended and my main reaction was, “that was all a bit pointless.”

Let’s have a closer look though. Maybe in rereading them I can see if there’s any connective tissue between the Age of Revelation as a whole and if they actually tell any good stories. [The following is an expanded version of a thread of mine from BlueSky]

Amazing X-Men

By Jed MacKay, Mahmoud Asrar, Matt Wilson & Clayton Cowles

Amazing X-Men feels like the ‘core’ title, especially as it continues directly from Age of Revelation: Overture. A theory I’ve heard is this was a story arc pushed into a massive event.

The ‘truth off’ in issue two is fine, and leads to a fun Cyclops moment. The biggest problem is that we find out that Scott’s been Days of Future Pasted and the actual relevant actions relating to this grimdark future are in the past, so none of this is likely necessary.

The final issue reveals Doug wants to make everyone a hive mind. I think that’s what he did as Truefriend in New Mutants Vol 3. Beast is kind of sus and A arrives with Professor X.

Again, it all feels like parts of a future story in the X-Men ongoing which didn’t need to be all of this.

Binary

By Stephanie Phillips, Giada Belviso, Rachelle Rosenberg & Travis Lanham

Binary’s got an alright concept where Carol’s the Phoenix and using all her powers to keep her hometown safe. The thing is, Phoenix can do vastly more than protect a single town. Also why was Madelyne Pryor suddenly interested in being the Phoenix? Her conflict has always been about being a real person and not Jean.

Does it tell a complete story? Yes. I remember it more than the current Phoenix run which is saying something.

A good story? Not really, it’s got the hook, but I don’t buy Maddie as the villain.

Does it add much to Age of Revelation? It features Babels, kills Carol and Phoenix is still here, protecting this town. She’ll have to abandon it in order to reach the finale

Cloak or Dagger

By Justina Ireland, Lorenzo Tammetta, Andrew Dalhouse & Joe Caramagna

Cloak or Dagger is a surprising highlight as the pair are married but have a Captain Marvel/Rick Jones thing where they can’t share the same dimension. Also Fenris are here being dickheads, forcing the X-Virus on people. There’s a human soldier who’s helping the pair but immediately sides with Fenris when he becomes mutated. Eventually, Cloak and Dagger’s daughter who’s trapped in an in-between dimension pulls them both together for a time in order to save the say.

The story’s pretty simple and gets rid of the divide for a bit in issue two. This didn’t need to be an Age of Revelation title, and it’ll be interesting if they adopt some of this for the present day.

Still, I enjoyed it as a whole.

Expatriate X-Men 

By Eve Ewing, Francesco Mortarino, Raúl Angulo & Ariana Maher

Expatriate X-Men’s about a flotilla of X-Men trying to get a dark elf looking guy to Limbo for Mystique, only Melee’s going to betray them and needs to leave him behind. She’s also seeing him.

Illyana’s inexplicably a parent now to another child who’s a bit of a nothing character. The ships are wrecked, the team escape and are heading to the finale by train. The characters are fine, this series feels a bit disjointed.

As a story it’s one which feels a bit spotty. It is fairly core to the Age of Revelation world and I assume will tie in to the finale.

Iron & Frost

By Cavan Scott, Ruairi Coleman, Roberto Poggi, Yen Nitro & Joe Sabino

I’m still shocked that those maniacs made me care about Emma & Tony in the Fall of X. Iron & Frost has some alright ideas, but falls foul of being both too short and repetitive at the same time. Emma’s heart is punched out and Tony’s a robot man. She’s trapped in diamond form and looking for a solution while in theory Tony’s after a cure to the X-Virus, but has gone a bit mad. 

It’s a complete enough story with some alright moments. Ultimately the attempts to save Tony and Emma fail, Rhodey’s killed, but a message is sent back in time. Maybe this will result in something?

Is it good? I guess it has its moments and could have been either two or four issues. Is it tied to the Age of Revelation? Maybe, but it could actually end up linked to things in the present.

The Last Wolverine

By Saladin Ahmed, Edgar Salazar, Carlos López & Cory Petit

The Last Wolverine has me more invested in Leonard the Wendigo than any of his present day appearances. Leonard, powerless Kurt and Heather Howlett (?) are going to rescue the brainwashed guy Wolverine. This involves going from Canada to America and finding Logan. Luckily he’s there and pretty much everyone dies trying to get Wolverine his brain back. 

Much to my surprise, someone accomplishes something in an Age of Revelation spin-off!!! Heather hacks off Logan’s arm and they beat him up enough so that Revelation’s brainwashing goes. I don’t know how he’ll stay that way in the finale, though…

Laura Kinney: Sabretooth

By Erica Schultz, Valentina Pinti, Rachelle Rosenberg & Cory Petit

Laura Kinney: Sabretooth is a very thin story. She works for Revelation, betrays him to drop her weird son off to Gabby & Akihiro. She’s brainwashed to hunt them, feels bad and stops, is brainwashed again. Then her son explodes, killing Laura, Gabby & Akihiro.

Did it tell a complete story? Yes. 

A good one? Not really, it was thin, repetitive and abrupt deaths of everyone makes it feel a bit pointless. Like most of the ones above, could have fared better as a one or two issue story to tighten it up or a four issue one to actually gain time to do more.

We did see some of this future world and Arakko, and Alex may pop up in the finale, but probably not.

Longshots

By Gerry Duggan, Jonathan Hickman, Alan Robinson, Yen Nitro & Ariana Maher

For a title called Longshots, the titular hero only appears occasionally with Spiral to provide commentary.

Mojo gets a team together to sort out a power plant which is interfering with his broadcasts. Wonder Man and Hellcat lead the team, while Bishop does some odd time travel until he’s killed. Basically everyone dies, just as Wonder Man and Hellcat hint at reconciliation and a possible future series. While I like Hickman, his humour doesn’t always land and grinds a few axes from his last run.

Does it tell a complete story? Yes.

A good one? Eh, not really.

It’s more connected to AoR than I thought with the Power Plant, but it could have been anything and doesn’t feel like it fits in this world.

Omega Kids

By Tony Fleecs, Andres Genolet, Fernando Sifuented-Sujo & Travis Lanham

Omega Kids is a mixed bag as Quentin Quire tries to handle teaching kids who only know this version of the world and while they speak about things like gendered terms, they’re also dead-eyed extremists, killing for Revelation.

Quire’s conned into a psychic illusion by them, manages to stop it and an assassination attempt on Revelation, then kills the kids. A weird mix of interesting that Quire’s contending with newer forms of his old ways and their casual extremism.

It did tell a complete story and delved into some of the AoR society, but didn’t go far enough about the radicalisation of the youth into willing and (over)eager enforcers of Revelation’s will. Adding consideration about things like gender and ability to them muddied the message, too.

Radioactive Spider-Man

By Joe Kelly, Kev Walker, Chris Sotomayor & Joe Caramagna

Radioactive Spider-Man feels like a “What If…?” story extended into three issues. Spider-Man’s doused with radiation, living with Cecelia Reyes and his aunt transforms into a murderous monster she doesn’t remember and can’t control. She’s accidentally let out of stasis and Spider-Man tries to save her despite everyone saying he can’t. Ultimately, he can’t.

It is a complete story that barely feels part of AoR. As I said, should have been a What If story, It also gives Miles the terrible name “Spin”.

Rogue Storm

By Murewa Ayodele, Roland Boschi, Neeraj Menon & Travis Lanham

First of all, Roland Boschi’s full page spreads are astounding. I kind of like the Superman Red/Blue thing with Rogue as it’s a rare moment of acknowledging that there would have been X years of superhero bullshit going on.

I had to reread it a couple of times. Storm’s been causing (more) climate catastrophes as she’s containing Eēgūn. Akujin, a new character, convinces Rogue Red and Uncanny X-Force to hunt and kill her five years into AoX and three reads in I cannot tell you why. Maybe I’m being dense.

Uncanny X-Force die five years into AoX, as does Rogue Red, but Storm brings her back. This is a story missing pieces, with some cool visuals. I assume Gambit’s getting Rogue Red back for the big finale, I’m not sure why, as Unbreakable was off on its own.

Sinister’s Six

By David Marquez, Rafael Loureiro, Alex Sinclair & Ariana Maher

Hellions was good, but what about Second Hellions? That’s Sinister’s Six. The team’s made up of Havok and a few others infected with the X-Virus despite being mutants, another doomed alternate reality Alex Summers child, Venom and apparently it’s a surprise Revelation made the X-Virus. I did check and it’s not said overtly before this, but I think it was entirely able to be guessed.

There’s a cure to the X-Virus, but everyone dies. Lorna’s Venom and the crystal body of Havok might be doing weird things, or it might be Sinister doing things at the very end. Ultimately this all felt a bit pointless.

Unbreakable X-Men

By Gail Simone, Lucas Werneck, Carlos Villa, Mario Santoro, Davide Tinto, R.B. Silva, Alessandro Cappuccio, Ramón Rosas, Luciano Vecchio, Tiago Palma, Espen Grundetjem & Clayton Cowles

Unbreakable X-Men feels self-contained, with Rogue sacrificing herself to stop Galactus, Gambit losing his sight, Shuvahrak wakes up and the former Outliers have to get back together to stop her. The art’s nice, but shifts through a few artists I assume to keep up with the schedule.

Is it a complete and good story? Yes, although it feels disconnected. It’s a nice look at a potential future life for the Outliers. It’s also a rare happy ending. Like Radioactive Spider-Man, it feels like this could have been a What If story.

Undeadpool

By Tim Seeley, Carlos Magno, Guru-eFX & Joe Sabino

Undeadpool’s pitch of a sane(ish) mind in a slasher monster body sounded alright. He’s trying to help the one member of the Alpha Warriors he didn’t kill & eat to reach the X-Men.

Cable appears a few times, infected with the T/O virus and fighting Deadpool until Fearless boosts his powers, revealing she’s an aspiring chorister who could have fixed Deadpool. Luckily he kills her before she kills the X-Men, but his powers go into overdrive, killing him.

Was it a complete story? Yes. It was fine, although I’m not a Deadpool fan. It felt pretty futile, ultimately, but the presence of the Expatriate X-Men made it feel a little more grounded in this world.

X-Vengers

By Jason Loo, Sergio Fernandez Dávila, Aure Jimenez, Rain Beredo & Joe Sabino

X-Vengers is a terrible name, and is an insulting name the public have given the team. The surviving Avengers are mutants now: six-armed Hawkeye, weirdly variable Scott Lang, water-based Black Widow, Warlock-Vision and Shang-Chi who can shatter everything. Cannonball’s also there and Moonstar’s leading the team. They fight the Kree who invade for some reason and then there’s a weird techno-virus thing to deal with. Also there’s a lot of Revelation here.

The villain turns out to be MODOK who’s trying to get the humans and mutants to fight… for some reason. It’s kind of a complete story, but aside from the New Mutants reunion I don’t care.

World of Revelation

By (1) Al Ewing, Austin Alessio & Travis Lanham (2) Steve Foxe, Jesús Merino, Wil Quintana & Travis Lanham (3) Ryan North, Adam Szalowski, Chris Peter & Travis Lanham

World of Revelation is an anthology one-shot. In a rare move for one of these AoA type events, Professor X is alive! Also Al Ewing gives us a fun mostly prose journey through Arakko before their appearance in third issues of some other titles. 

Apparently Doug babels people by yelling, “Babel!” Also we get Franklin weirdly mutated, recording history and then dying. Eons later, the timeline still isn’t fixed and HERBIE has all his records. Two mostly alright stories showing the passing of the age of heroes.

The first story’s the closest there is to anything which feels useful to read for the wider Age of Revelation, but you can kind of guess that Charles and A are returning from all the other series.

X-Men: Book of Revelation

By Jed MacKay, Netho Diaz, Sean Parsons, J.P Mayer, Fernando Sifuentes & Clayton Cowles

Book of Revelation is the other ‘core’ feeling title, unsurprisingly also a Jed MacKay joint. It’s an evil palace drama with Doug and his choristers, a ghostly Kitty Pryde and Elbecca, a new Chorister trying to survive. Also to kill Apocalypse! 

The Elbecca treachery’s kind of fun, watching her take down Fabian Cortez, a man who is only good when he’s being clowned on.

Elbecca reveals her treachery to Revelation and gets stabbed. Revelation reveals he’s been hoping for an infiltrator as summoning Apocalypse to Earth is part of his plan to merge everyone into one being. I guess we’ll see how that goes soon.

So… there are some positive moments in the event, it’s not all bad, but I do have some issues:

• Aside from some key players, most characters look the same as they do in the present, and act like they just skipped from there to X years in the future with nothing in between.
• There’s not really a consistent art style aside from the cover design. Age of Apocalypse was wild jRPG glam and Age of X-Men was funky retro. This is just more of the same.
• The stories are too thin in three issues and have enough room to repeat themselves. Most of them accomplish nothing. As I’ve said earlier, if they were one or two issues they’d be a tighter story and at four they might have had to develop characters and arcs.
• Everyone’s said this, but 52 issues is too many. Sixteen miniseries is too many. A lot of them also deal with the same things. Find a cure, kill Revelation, but none accomplish it. Too many are torn apart by bickering, treachery and ultimately futile missions. Worse, Amazing told us this was all worthless as Future Cyclops is the one fixing things in the past.
• There were already too many new characters and issues in From the Ashes, like they’re doing their best to outpace the Krakoan Era. This adds even more new people, I assume in the hope of finding a Blink. Let’s do a round-up:
  • Akujin is Diet Spiral and a traitor without any discernible reason behind her actions.
  • Alex Creed-Howlett didn’t do much.
  • Zane Creed died off-panel.
  • Fourier was nothing.
  • Chris Summers was yet another doomed Alex Summers child. 
  • Curtis, Nell, Ayla and Bailey didn’t leave a distinctive impression to learn about them individually.
  • Fuze didn’t do much.
  • Cecelia and Hank share names of other, better characters.
  • Elbecca/Virta was a little interesting.
  • The Alpha Warriors were some potentially fun ideas, insulted and killed.
  • Rift was just a guy in a bike helmet with energy powers. 
  • Lyrebird was a dark-elf looking guy who inexplicably somehow had a kid with Illyana and was a traitor
  • Nika was another kid who didn’t really do much, although this one was a captive and then dead.
  • Captain Jenson’s the mutated ex-military traitor Man-Bat type.
  • Flex & Scritch are a couple who are helping Cloak & Dagger, and they don’t do much.
  • Ayla is Cloak & Dagger’s daughter who’s less dull than the other children, but keeps making me think about the Legion of Super-Heroes.

So far a lot of the Age of Revelation series didn’t feel too necessary. They did all read a lot better in three-issue chinks rather than individual issues. The style is pretty similar to the current era and it feels like this has mostly been to trick fans with broken brains like mine into buying 52 comics instead of just having a four to six issue storyline in Adjectiveless X-Men.

This is being published before the final issue, so we’ll have to see if it can stick the mediocre landing, surprise me by being good or be the reason I won’t continue my daily X-Men marathon beyond this point.