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X-Men: Age of Apocalypse
X-Men: Age of Apocalypse, Vol. 1: Alpha
Fully updated reading order! Charles Xavier is dead — killed twenty years in the past during a time-travel accident — and the world created by his absence is a nightmare! Apocalypse rules with an iron fist, ruthlessly enforcing his dictum that only the strong shall survive. But hidden in Apocalypse’s long shadow are a group of ragtag freedom fighters led by Xavier’s oldest friend, Magneto: the X-Men! When Bishop, last survivor of the true Marvel Universe, explains how the world went wrong, these embittered mutants and their tenuous allies must risk everything to put things right!
Collects Uncanny X-Men (1963) #320-321, X-Men (1991) #40-41, Cable (1993) #20, X-Men Alpha, Generation Next #1, Astonishing X-Men (1995) #1, Gambit and the X-Ternals #1, Weapon X (1995) #1, Factor X #1, X-Man #1, X-Calibre #1, Amazing X-Men (1995) #1
Collects Uncanny X-Men (1963) #320-321, X-Men (1991) #40-41, Cable (1993) #20, X-Men Alpha, Generation Next #1, Astonishing X-Men (1995) #1, Gambit and the X-Ternals #1, Weapon X (1995) #1, Factor X #1, X-Man #1, X-Calibre #1, Amazing X-Men (1995) #1
408 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2015
18 people are currently reading
170 people want to read
About the author
Scott Lobdell
1,620 books230 followersScott Lobdell (born 1960) is an American comic book writer.
He is mostly known for his work throughout the 1990s on Marvel Comics' X-Men-related titles specifically Uncanny X-Men, the main title itself, and the spin-off series that he conceived with artist Chris Bachalo, Generation X. Generation X focused on a number of young mutant students who attempted to become superheroes in their own right at a separate school with the guidance of veteran X-related characters Banshee and Emma Frost. He also had writing stints on Marvel's Fantastic Four, Alpha Flight, and The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix mini-series with artist Gene Ha. He wrote the script to Stan Lee's Mosaic and an upcoming film from POW Entertainment featuring Ringo Starr. He also participated in the Marvel Comics and Image Comics (from Jim Lee's WildStorm) crossover mini-series WildC.A.T.s/X-Men.
He is mostly known for his work throughout the 1990s on Marvel Comics' X-Men-related titles specifically Uncanny X-Men, the main title itself, and the spin-off series that he conceived with artist Chris Bachalo, Generation X. Generation X focused on a number of young mutant students who attempted to become superheroes in their own right at a separate school with the guidance of veteran X-related characters Banshee and Emma Frost. He also had writing stints on Marvel's Fantastic Four, Alpha Flight, and The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix mini-series with artist Gene Ha. He wrote the script to Stan Lee's Mosaic and an upcoming film from POW Entertainment featuring Ringo Starr. He also participated in the Marvel Comics and Image Comics (from Jim Lee's WildStorm) crossover mini-series WildC.A.T.s/X-Men.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
March 15, 2023
Was not expecting to like Age of Apocalypse all that much but this was actually pretty damn fun.
Basically after the events of Legion's Quest we have the world reshaped very differently. All the X-Men and mutants are in very different fractions compared to the regular timeline, the biggest change being that Magneto is leading the X-Men, the rogue group, trying to fight back against the ruler of the world, Apocalypse.
Many characters are here from Cyclops, Wolverine, Storm and so on but very diffferent. The biggest change would be someone like Nightcrawler, who's much more vicious here but also hates religion, which is a complete 180, yet makes him really intriguing for this version.
The way we have characters sometimes act similar to the regular counterpart but look vastly different (The cyclops look is terrible though) and the world itself on the brink of all hell with Apocalypse trying to make his move to stop Magneto while Magneto is trying to build his forces strong enough to fight back.
Overall, this is a big old "What If" but it feels...earned? A little dark, little extreme, yet I'm intrigued by each group of Mutants we go to and why they are the way they are.
For the first major chapter of 3 in the Age of Apocalypse storyline, this was got my attention.
Basically after the events of Legion's Quest we have the world reshaped very differently. All the X-Men and mutants are in very different fractions compared to the regular timeline, the biggest change being that Magneto is leading the X-Men, the rogue group, trying to fight back against the ruler of the world, Apocalypse.
Many characters are here from Cyclops, Wolverine, Storm and so on but very diffferent. The biggest change would be someone like Nightcrawler, who's much more vicious here but also hates religion, which is a complete 180, yet makes him really intriguing for this version.
The way we have characters sometimes act similar to the regular counterpart but look vastly different (The cyclops look is terrible though) and the world itself on the brink of all hell with Apocalypse trying to make his move to stop Magneto while Magneto is trying to build his forces strong enough to fight back.
Overall, this is a big old "What If" but it feels...earned? A little dark, little extreme, yet I'm intrigued by each group of Mutants we go to and why they are the way they are.
For the first major chapter of 3 in the Age of Apocalypse storyline, this was got my attention.
July 24, 2018
Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new...
The Age of Apocalypse opens with Legion Quest, and perhaps the most brilliant moment in all of comicbookdom: David Haller travels back in time and kills his father, Charles Xavier, in 1960s Israel, where Xavier had been working with Erik Lensherr and contemplating the idea of building a future world where homo sapiens and homo superiors could live together in peace and harmony. Haller had been planning to kill Magneto, thinking that the only reason his father's plans for peaceful coexistence never came to fruition were because of the obstacles his old friend had placed in his path time and time again, starting with X-Men #1. Instead, Xavier himself dies and with him the idea of the X-Men, barely a glimmer in his mind at that point in his life.
With the death of Charles Xavier, everything he had worked toward over the last 30 years is erased, and all of reality itself is transformed into a hellish new world where most humans have been culled from a North America ruled by Apocalypse; Moira Trask works from Europe with her husband Bolivar to help the remaining humans; Hank McCoy performs sadistic Mengela-like experimentation on mutants and humans alike; Magneto is married to Rogue; Weapon X has never become Wolverine, and John Proudstar heads a Ghost Dance society in New York City. Just about anyone and everyone that you knew from the X-Men universe makes an appearance in the Age of Apocalypse, although most are quite changed, and much of it ain't that pretty at all.
But that wasn't all that changed with Charles Xavier's death. A month later, when you went to your local comics store, everything there had changed, too. No more Uncanny X-Men, X-Force, Generation X, Cable X-Factor...none of it. All the X-titles you knew had disappeared with the old reality, replaced by alternative titles each starting with its own Issue #1. I remember it just blew my mind back then, and it still does thinking about it right now...
Back in the mid-1990s, the X-Men were in their heyday...they were so popular that Marvel had a hard time keeping up with the demand. New mutants, new groups, new titles...I don't know how many X-titles were being published a month at the high point, but I certainly couldn't afford to buy them all, and eventually the brand name got way too diluted, and it all pretty much imploded.
So when I was reading Age of Apocalypse off the shelf, I only focused on the couple of titles I had been keeping up with. This collection fills out my understanding of the story line in its massive entirety, as it brings together all the disparate side stories of all the different X-mags that were out there back then. And that's both a good and a bad thing. As I remember in my mind's eye, the Age of Apocalypse is one of the greatest comic arcs ever written. But in this collection with the myriad subplots and sideplots, it's all too much for me to take, and the brilliant story line I remember gets bogged down and diluted here too, just like the X-Men line itself, collapsing under its own weight of too many titles and too many characters.
The Age of Apocalypse opens with Legion Quest, and perhaps the most brilliant moment in all of comicbookdom: David Haller travels back in time and kills his father, Charles Xavier, in 1960s Israel, where Xavier had been working with Erik Lensherr and contemplating the idea of building a future world where homo sapiens and homo superiors could live together in peace and harmony. Haller had been planning to kill Magneto, thinking that the only reason his father's plans for peaceful coexistence never came to fruition were because of the obstacles his old friend had placed in his path time and time again, starting with X-Men #1. Instead, Xavier himself dies and with him the idea of the X-Men, barely a glimmer in his mind at that point in his life.
With the death of Charles Xavier, everything he had worked toward over the last 30 years is erased, and all of reality itself is transformed into a hellish new world where most humans have been culled from a North America ruled by Apocalypse; Moira Trask works from Europe with her husband Bolivar to help the remaining humans; Hank McCoy performs sadistic Mengela-like experimentation on mutants and humans alike; Magneto is married to Rogue; Weapon X has never become Wolverine, and John Proudstar heads a Ghost Dance society in New York City. Just about anyone and everyone that you knew from the X-Men universe makes an appearance in the Age of Apocalypse, although most are quite changed, and much of it ain't that pretty at all.
But that wasn't all that changed with Charles Xavier's death. A month later, when you went to your local comics store, everything there had changed, too. No more Uncanny X-Men, X-Force, Generation X, Cable X-Factor...none of it. All the X-titles you knew had disappeared with the old reality, replaced by alternative titles each starting with its own Issue #1. I remember it just blew my mind back then, and it still does thinking about it right now...
Back in the mid-1990s, the X-Men were in their heyday...they were so popular that Marvel had a hard time keeping up with the demand. New mutants, new groups, new titles...I don't know how many X-titles were being published a month at the high point, but I certainly couldn't afford to buy them all, and eventually the brand name got way too diluted, and it all pretty much imploded.
So when I was reading Age of Apocalypse off the shelf, I only focused on the couple of titles I had been keeping up with. This collection fills out my understanding of the story line in its massive entirety, as it brings together all the disparate side stories of all the different X-mags that were out there back then. And that's both a good and a bad thing. As I remember in my mind's eye, the Age of Apocalypse is one of the greatest comic arcs ever written. But in this collection with the myriad subplots and sideplots, it's all too much for me to take, and the brilliant story line I remember gets bogged down and diluted here too, just like the X-Men line itself, collapsing under its own weight of too many titles and too many characters.
August 28, 2018
When Legion attempts to alter the past in order to make the future a better place and fulfill his father Professor Xavier’s dream, he accidentally sets in motion a chain of events that warps the world into one almost unrecognizable. Ruled by the iron fist of one of the X-Men’s greatest foes, this is the Age Of Apocalypse!
In terms of big X-events in the 90s, the ones that always spring to my mind are Onslaught, and Age Of Apocalypse. And since Marvel haven’t reissued the Onslaught trades in a while, I thought I’d start with this in the meantime. I’ve not read a lot of 90s X-Men, since my earliest X-story is probably Messiah CompleX, but you can’t go wrong with the classics, right?
I was surprised by how accessible this was, to be honest; if you know your basic X-Men, you can easily drop into this story with much preamble. After a few short prelude pages from various issues, the trade starts with the four issue LegionQuest story, which has David Haller travel back in time to try and kill Magneto, and inadvertently leads to the creation of the Age Of Apocalypse. The conclusion’s fairly obvious even before we start, but it’s a good example of Xavier and Magneto’s relationship, and while the X-Men are mostly superfluous to the events of the story (literally you could take most of them out of it and the story would play out exactly the same) it’s a good start that brings together all of the relevant players, and serves as a rallying point for the disparate teams of X-Men. I’ve heard that this wasn’t collected in previous Apocalypse trades, which seems like a mistake.
There’s also an issue of Cable that ties into LegionQuest reprinted here too, which takes place between the pages of the final issue. It’s mostly all of the characters saying goodbye to each other, which is pretty depressing, but it definitely adds some emotional impact to the story; it’s not often you see characters just resign themselves to their fate, and accept that they’re all about to die.
Age Of Apocalypse proper kicks off in the Alpha issue, an over-sized look at the new world order, from Apocalypse and his new government to Magneto and his resistance force of X-Men. There’s obviously a lot of exposition in this issue which is necessary, but it’s framed in such a way that the story also moves along at the same time rather than just having characters stop and explain how the world works, which is essential given the expanded page count.
Next is an array of first issues, since all of the X-Men books were replaced by new titles for the duration of Age Of Apocalypse, each of which funnels into the larger story while focusing on a select group of characters.
Generation Next (or NeXt, I suppose, to stick with the theme)shows Kitty Pryde and Colossus ‘training’ a new group of X-Men (although it’s more like kicking the crap out of them and then shouting at them) before Magneto tasks them with finding an unexpected way to travel back in time that Apocalypse might have over-looked. I get that some characters are going to be different as part of an alternate universe story, but Kitty and Piotr are just really mean here, so I didn’t enjoy this that much.
Astonishing X-Men seems to be the ‘lead’ book of the event, with Magneto taking half of his X-Men to stop a mass human culling. This first issue is a bit of a talking heads-fest, since the characters are all debating which team to join and whether they’ll see each other again. If it wasn’t part of an event, I doubt it’d be that compelling– as it is, there’s a very dismal feeling over the proceedings, since we all know that this isn’t going to last, and there’s no doubt that at least some of these characters are going to get killed off.
Gambit floats in and out of the first few issues of the trade before heading off on a mission from Magneto in Gambit & The X-Ternals, which combines Gambit, Lila Cheney, Jubilee, Strong Guy, and Sunspot into an intergalactic team of thieves. There’s a lot of background going on with these characters, which is no doubt going to explode later on, especially with regard to Gambit and Magneto.
Factor-X is probably the most intriguing of these series for now, since it’s told from the perspective of Mister Sinister and follows some of the villainous characters like Cyclops and Havok, so it offers a different point of view than the other series and shows us how ‘the other side’ live during the Apocalypse regime. Meanwhile Wolverine and Jean Grey are the stars of Weapon X, but this one’s mostly about moving the characters across the world so that they can play a part in one of the other story developments teased in the Alpha issue rather than really focusing on them as characters. Wolverine’s Wolverine whatever reality he’s from, apparently.
X-Man, the only series to survive the Age Of Apocalypse, introduces us to Nate Grey (although we won’t learn his last name for a while yet) and his band of outlaws. It’s not clear from one issue how this series is going to play into the larger narrative of the event, but there’s a lot of questions to be answered right off the bat, so this one grabs the attention quite a bit more than some of the others.
X-Calibre’s mostly about Nightcrawler’s quest to find Mystique, while yelling at everyone in sight. The subplot about Avalon, the AOA version of the Savage Land is a little more compelling, but I expect it won’t be long before the two converge.
And then Amazing X-Men brings up the rear, giving us the other side of the story that Astonishing X-Men started. Magneto’s the star, of course, but the other characters that make up this group of X-Men are just as interesting, and the fact that they’re fighting to protect humans is about as far from most Magneto stories as you can get.
There’s also an Age Of Apocalypse Ashcan that’s never been reprinted before, but it’s mostly just old articles and promo stuff from when the series was originally released. It’s nice to have, but not essential.
There’s a definite sense of a big, cohesive universe from these issues – each one feeds off of or is a direct result of something that happened in one of the others. Some take president, like Astonishing and Amazing, but the smaller books are just as compelling for the most part, with X-Calibre and X-Man the dark horses of the group. There are a hell of a lot of moving parts, but I can see them all moving in the same direction.
The 90s were not a good time for comic book art in general in retrospect, but I’ve always really enjoyed the silly style of it all. It’s fun to see current ‘big name’ artists like Terry Dodson, Joe Mad, Andy Kubert, Ian Churchill, Tony Daniel, Chris Bachalo, and Ron Garney in their earlier phases here and compare them with how far they’re eventually going to progress. They all have a very similar house style, which is just a symptom of the 90s in general, but it does mean that things are very visually cohesive overall, even if the quality’s not always great. Anatomy wasn’t such a big concern back in then, for example.
This first volume of Age Of Apocalypse gets the ball rolling nicely, and establishes everything you need to know going forward. There’s a lot of exposition and world building, and each individual series only getting one issue before we move on to the next doesn’t build momentum very well, but it does build intrigue, and I really want to know where this is all going now.
In terms of big X-events in the 90s, the ones that always spring to my mind are Onslaught, and Age Of Apocalypse. And since Marvel haven’t reissued the Onslaught trades in a while, I thought I’d start with this in the meantime. I’ve not read a lot of 90s X-Men, since my earliest X-story is probably Messiah CompleX, but you can’t go wrong with the classics, right?
I was surprised by how accessible this was, to be honest; if you know your basic X-Men, you can easily drop into this story with much preamble. After a few short prelude pages from various issues, the trade starts with the four issue LegionQuest story, which has David Haller travel back in time to try and kill Magneto, and inadvertently leads to the creation of the Age Of Apocalypse. The conclusion’s fairly obvious even before we start, but it’s a good example of Xavier and Magneto’s relationship, and while the X-Men are mostly superfluous to the events of the story (literally you could take most of them out of it and the story would play out exactly the same) it’s a good start that brings together all of the relevant players, and serves as a rallying point for the disparate teams of X-Men. I’ve heard that this wasn’t collected in previous Apocalypse trades, which seems like a mistake.
There’s also an issue of Cable that ties into LegionQuest reprinted here too, which takes place between the pages of the final issue. It’s mostly all of the characters saying goodbye to each other, which is pretty depressing, but it definitely adds some emotional impact to the story; it’s not often you see characters just resign themselves to their fate, and accept that they’re all about to die.
Age Of Apocalypse proper kicks off in the Alpha issue, an over-sized look at the new world order, from Apocalypse and his new government to Magneto and his resistance force of X-Men. There’s obviously a lot of exposition in this issue which is necessary, but it’s framed in such a way that the story also moves along at the same time rather than just having characters stop and explain how the world works, which is essential given the expanded page count.
Next is an array of first issues, since all of the X-Men books were replaced by new titles for the duration of Age Of Apocalypse, each of which funnels into the larger story while focusing on a select group of characters.
Generation Next (or NeXt, I suppose, to stick with the theme)shows Kitty Pryde and Colossus ‘training’ a new group of X-Men (although it’s more like kicking the crap out of them and then shouting at them) before Magneto tasks them with finding an unexpected way to travel back in time that Apocalypse might have over-looked. I get that some characters are going to be different as part of an alternate universe story, but Kitty and Piotr are just really mean here, so I didn’t enjoy this that much.
Astonishing X-Men seems to be the ‘lead’ book of the event, with Magneto taking half of his X-Men to stop a mass human culling. This first issue is a bit of a talking heads-fest, since the characters are all debating which team to join and whether they’ll see each other again. If it wasn’t part of an event, I doubt it’d be that compelling– as it is, there’s a very dismal feeling over the proceedings, since we all know that this isn’t going to last, and there’s no doubt that at least some of these characters are going to get killed off.
Gambit floats in and out of the first few issues of the trade before heading off on a mission from Magneto in Gambit & The X-Ternals, which combines Gambit, Lila Cheney, Jubilee, Strong Guy, and Sunspot into an intergalactic team of thieves. There’s a lot of background going on with these characters, which is no doubt going to explode later on, especially with regard to Gambit and Magneto.
Factor-X is probably the most intriguing of these series for now, since it’s told from the perspective of Mister Sinister and follows some of the villainous characters like Cyclops and Havok, so it offers a different point of view than the other series and shows us how ‘the other side’ live during the Apocalypse regime. Meanwhile Wolverine and Jean Grey are the stars of Weapon X, but this one’s mostly about moving the characters across the world so that they can play a part in one of the other story developments teased in the Alpha issue rather than really focusing on them as characters. Wolverine’s Wolverine whatever reality he’s from, apparently.
X-Man, the only series to survive the Age Of Apocalypse, introduces us to Nate Grey (although we won’t learn his last name for a while yet) and his band of outlaws. It’s not clear from one issue how this series is going to play into the larger narrative of the event, but there’s a lot of questions to be answered right off the bat, so this one grabs the attention quite a bit more than some of the others.
X-Calibre’s mostly about Nightcrawler’s quest to find Mystique, while yelling at everyone in sight. The subplot about Avalon, the AOA version of the Savage Land is a little more compelling, but I expect it won’t be long before the two converge.
And then Amazing X-Men brings up the rear, giving us the other side of the story that Astonishing X-Men started. Magneto’s the star, of course, but the other characters that make up this group of X-Men are just as interesting, and the fact that they’re fighting to protect humans is about as far from most Magneto stories as you can get.
There’s also an Age Of Apocalypse Ashcan that’s never been reprinted before, but it’s mostly just old articles and promo stuff from when the series was originally released. It’s nice to have, but not essential.
There’s a definite sense of a big, cohesive universe from these issues – each one feeds off of or is a direct result of something that happened in one of the others. Some take president, like Astonishing and Amazing, but the smaller books are just as compelling for the most part, with X-Calibre and X-Man the dark horses of the group. There are a hell of a lot of moving parts, but I can see them all moving in the same direction.
The 90s were not a good time for comic book art in general in retrospect, but I’ve always really enjoyed the silly style of it all. It’s fun to see current ‘big name’ artists like Terry Dodson, Joe Mad, Andy Kubert, Ian Churchill, Tony Daniel, Chris Bachalo, and Ron Garney in their earlier phases here and compare them with how far they’re eventually going to progress. They all have a very similar house style, which is just a symptom of the 90s in general, but it does mean that things are very visually cohesive overall, even if the quality’s not always great. Anatomy wasn’t such a big concern back in then, for example.
This first volume of Age Of Apocalypse gets the ball rolling nicely, and establishes everything you need to know going forward. There’s a lot of exposition and world building, and each individual series only getting one issue before we move on to the next doesn’t build momentum very well, but it does build intrigue, and I really want to know where this is all going now.
December 20, 2024
Interesting view of this world w/o Charles Xavier to hold it together. There's a lot going on here, but it's (mostly) all good.
November 11, 2016
Loved it.
An astonishing accomplishment. Now I can understand why X-Men Age of Apocalypse is so wonderful. It took a bit of work on my part as a reader. Since this past summer I've been working my way through Uncanny X-men and related titles to fill in my Gap Years, those I'd never read after dropping comics as an older teen-ager/college student. Roughly spanning 1981- where we are now in 1995 with this volume.
Let me first admit, I attempted reading A of A a couple of years ago and couldn't get past dated-ness of the whole thing. And it also seemed a bit difficult to get into. What a fool I was.
X-Men: Age of Apocalypse Prelude, the book, got me over the difficult to get into thing. The dated-ness fell apart having read the preceding 14 years of the X-Universe.
And wow! What a creative explosion of talent: in a couple of senses.
It's an enormous Marvel event quite unlike anything that's come before it. It's utterly, wholly original. There's also a bevvy of new artists. Artists who are now among Marvel's upper echelon. 5 years into the decade and the 90's have finally arrived. We're finally really and truly reaping the benefit of computers in art, lettering and most of all color. There's a color explosion going on. A huge stark contrast to 80's books that seemed to want to use as few as colors as possible.
X-Men: Age of Apocalypse, the main story is told now across three trade paperback. They are lovely editions and a slight improvement on the earlier one. In the trades Dawn and Twilight you get the extras but you can skip them if you wish. Dawn has the Blink mini-series and I'd recommend it.
The main story is an epic feast that you'll want to rip through like any good page turner. I do recommend starting with the OOP X-Men: Age of Apocalypse Prelude. It's a much better beginning to the story than what you will find in either the trades or the Omnibus.
Oh, yeah. I totally loved it. Especially Blink, Creed and Morph. Now I get why the Exiles are so beloved. Well, other than being stars of a great series of their own.
An astonishing accomplishment. Now I can understand why X-Men Age of Apocalypse is so wonderful. It took a bit of work on my part as a reader. Since this past summer I've been working my way through Uncanny X-men and related titles to fill in my Gap Years, those I'd never read after dropping comics as an older teen-ager/college student. Roughly spanning 1981- where we are now in 1995 with this volume.
Let me first admit, I attempted reading A of A a couple of years ago and couldn't get past dated-ness of the whole thing. And it also seemed a bit difficult to get into. What a fool I was.
X-Men: Age of Apocalypse Prelude, the book, got me over the difficult to get into thing. The dated-ness fell apart having read the preceding 14 years of the X-Universe.
And wow! What a creative explosion of talent: in a couple of senses.
It's an enormous Marvel event quite unlike anything that's come before it. It's utterly, wholly original. There's also a bevvy of new artists. Artists who are now among Marvel's upper echelon. 5 years into the decade and the 90's have finally arrived. We're finally really and truly reaping the benefit of computers in art, lettering and most of all color. There's a color explosion going on. A huge stark contrast to 80's books that seemed to want to use as few as colors as possible.
X-Men: Age of Apocalypse, the main story is told now across three trade paperback. They are lovely editions and a slight improvement on the earlier one. In the trades Dawn and Twilight you get the extras but you can skip them if you wish. Dawn has the Blink mini-series and I'd recommend it.
The main story is an epic feast that you'll want to rip through like any good page turner. I do recommend starting with the OOP X-Men: Age of Apocalypse Prelude. It's a much better beginning to the story than what you will find in either the trades or the Omnibus.
Oh, yeah. I totally loved it. Especially Blink, Creed and Morph. Now I get why the Exiles are so beloved. Well, other than being stars of a great series of their own.
August 12, 2017
Ok confession time, I couldn't quite finish this volume. It came really close, but didn't quite finish it. This wasn't because it was bad, or uninteresting, but because it is one REALLY LONG what if.
To sum it up, What If Xavier was killed before forming the X-men, creating a Magneto that had a huge desire to fullfil Xavier's goal of a world made better by mutants. For some reason, Apocalypse wakes up when Magneto fights in the past a powerful mutant, setting off the coming of Apocalypse early, allowing him to conquer large parts of the world.
This was really well written, and very interesting, but I just didn't want to invest the time it would take to read thru this and the next three volumes to get to full story. I wanted to read X-men, not bizarro world X-men.
This would be highly enjoyable for someone wanting to shake up the classic X-men storyline, but not a great choice for people like myself trying to dive deeper into the older X-men story arcs.
To sum it up, What If Xavier was killed before forming the X-men, creating a Magneto that had a huge desire to fullfil Xavier's goal of a world made better by mutants. For some reason, Apocalypse wakes up when Magneto fights in the past a powerful mutant, setting off the coming of Apocalypse early, allowing him to conquer large parts of the world.
This was really well written, and very interesting, but I just didn't want to invest the time it would take to read thru this and the next three volumes to get to full story. I wanted to read X-men, not bizarro world X-men.
This would be highly enjoyable for someone wanting to shake up the classic X-men storyline, but not a great choice for people like myself trying to dive deeper into the older X-men story arcs.
June 26, 2017
Gigantic!
This is the first volume of the complete Age of Apocalypse cross-over. Starts with the amazing Legion Quest , which kick-starts the whole thing. There is not one main title here, the story follows many the characters from a few different titles. Really fantastic team of writers - Scott Lobdell, Mark Waid, Warren Ellis, Jeph Loeb to name a few. The story is complicated and it's extremely good.
The art, however, is just decent most of the time.
This is the first volume of the complete Age of Apocalypse cross-over. Starts with the amazing Legion Quest , which kick-starts the whole thing. There is not one main title here, the story follows many the characters from a few different titles. Really fantastic team of writers - Scott Lobdell, Mark Waid, Warren Ellis, Jeph Loeb to name a few. The story is complicated and it's extremely good.
The art, however, is just decent most of the time.
July 28, 2025
I don’t know how much of this statement is objective truth and how much is nostalgia, but the ‘90s was and still is — hands down — the greatest and perfect era for X-Men comics.
They had superstar artists and bold and innovative stories with their writers. The characters and their costumes were some of the best, and yes, they are of the time and look it; they remain iconic.
The Age of Apocalypse saga was a world you loved to be in. It isn’t the future the X-men always feared; it was the present made real. It was futuristic looking but an utter dystopia.
This story was born of a time when alternate timelines were fresh and interesting instead tired and lazy.
Every title in this series had its own unique story but an overarching connecting story. Yes, I know that’s not new with big event stories, but the X-books had a magic that made you want to read all the titles; there were no throw away stories.
This is a HIGH recommendation.
They had superstar artists and bold and innovative stories with their writers. The characters and their costumes were some of the best, and yes, they are of the time and look it; they remain iconic.
The Age of Apocalypse saga was a world you loved to be in. It isn’t the future the X-men always feared; it was the present made real. It was futuristic looking but an utter dystopia.
This story was born of a time when alternate timelines were fresh and interesting instead tired and lazy.
Every title in this series had its own unique story but an overarching connecting story. Yes, I know that’s not new with big event stories, but the X-books had a magic that made you want to read all the titles; there were no throw away stories.
This is a HIGH recommendation.
March 18, 2025
Not the normal way I read this event, but my floppies are in storage so I am attempting the all-series-at-the-same-time method you always see in the read orders as well as the way they print the event.
I have crafted my own reading order that I suggest for people, and with this volume covering Legion Quest (the precursor and cause of AoA), Alpha, and all the #1 issues of the 8 four-part mini-series, I would still recommend my way of reading the event. But it is interesting to experience it more as published.
AoA has a specially placed in my heart for it being this thing I knew of and craved at a point when I wasn’t reading comics (nor was anyone I knew), but the gold foil volumes at Borders intrigued me to no end. When I would get into collecting in college, this was one of the first things I targeted to collect.
I have crafted my own reading order that I suggest for people, and with this volume covering Legion Quest (the precursor and cause of AoA), Alpha, and all the #1 issues of the 8 four-part mini-series, I would still recommend my way of reading the event. But it is interesting to experience it more as published.
AoA has a specially placed in my heart for it being this thing I knew of and craved at a point when I wasn’t reading comics (nor was anyone I knew), but the gold foil volumes at Borders intrigued me to no end. When I would get into collecting in college, this was one of the first things I targeted to collect.
February 11, 2020
This sets up the entire series of the Age of Apocalypse. You start with Legion Quest and that follows by the creation of a world where Charles Xavier is no more and Apocalypse is a terrible leader. You follow all the X-men in their own issues one by one. To be honest, there were a lot, maybe too much for my taste. I haven't read a whole lot of X-men before so this was quite confusing from time to time. Also because they expect you to already know all these X-men. Even though I did not know a lot of the characters, a lot of stories were very compelling. The one I liked least was X-Factor and the one I liked best was X-Man. I am excited to see how they would accomplish defeating Apocalypse and am eager to continue reading.
February 22, 2020
Really liked the first half, with the team going back in time to try and stop Legion, and the rest of the X-Men coming to a realization back in our time, their acceptance and goodbyes. A good chunk of the middle of the volume is spent establishing where the X-Men are in the new timeline, which is to be expected, because they are setting up the new universe. I will say I struggled to finish the back half of the volume, because as interesting as the apocalypse world is, I found myself missing the original X-Men. Side note, this has the romantic relationship of Logan/Jean, which is my least favourite X-Men pairing ever!
April 2, 2020
The thing that sets Age of Apocalypse apart from really any other cross over is the sheer ambition of the project. Popular titles like Uncanny X-Men, Wolverine and X-Factor were shelved to make way for an all new, darker timeline in a world without Charles Xavier. I am normally not a fan of 1990s super hero comics which is at least partially why I'm so late to the party with Age of Apocalypse but from art to story it is really, really good.
July 19, 2023
The original shocking creation of the Age of Apocalypse was a massive success in my eyes when it happened. I loved the journey into another world and, much like the Claremont/Byrne future, it was a world where anything could happen.
It has been many years since i read this and it is almost as good as was back then. I only say almost because i am not as immersed in the X-Men world as i was back then so it doesnt have the same effect on me that it did with those original monthly issues.
It has been many years since i read this and it is almost as good as was back then. I only say almost because i am not as immersed in the X-Men world as i was back then so it doesnt have the same effect on me that it did with those original monthly issues.
May 25, 2018
this first volume is pretty boring. artistically is good, but the story seems all over the place, with characters changing loyalties and no consistent uniforms.
I had to keep going to remind myself of what happened, only to find it didn't matter.
I had to keep going to remind myself of what happened, only to find it didn't matter.
May 1, 2023
Found this collection for sale at the 99 cents store. The Age of Apocalypse was one of the seminal storylines in my comic book fandom in the 90's. As a reread it's still entertaining and does an amazing job of world building in this alternative universe.
December 19, 2024
Rereading my ALL TIME favorite X-Men Multi-title crossover event: The Age of Apocalypse! Amazing storytelling in the groundbreaking Marvel Universe shake-up.
I have every issue in storage but living in the future makes it easy to tote around all of them in a digital copy!
I have every issue in storage but living in the future makes it easy to tote around all of them in a digital copy!
October 7, 2017
Realmente no me gustan los comics.
March 3, 2020
interesting! the first major alternate reality event, it feels a little disjointed, but overall i like the style of taking different perspectives of it from different comics
April 23, 2021
Still one of my favorite stories of all time. Featuring legendary artists Joe Madureira and the Kubert brothers.
Read
May 4, 2021Read
January 3, 2024
Story is kinda cool. They’ve rebooted everyone so it’s different. Not in love with it yet but it is entertaining
January 9, 2024
Let the good times begin! Not all series are great but reading it in order is fun.
December 1, 2025
I enjoyed the first third, liked seeing the reimagining of certain characters. Hard to really have an opinion since the story isn't complete.
May 11, 2016
Charles Xavier, better known as Professor X, has a mutant son maned David Haller. Haller is better known as the villain Legion, so named because he has multiple personalities who all have different mutant powers. Legion has been in a coma for years. Unfortunately, the coma has been quite restorative, reintegrating his various personalities and powers in one semi-sane person. And he's woken up. After considering the situation, Legion decides that his father's dream (of mutants and humans living together in harmony) has been frustrated by Erik Lehnsherr, aka Magneto. To fix the situation, Legion goes back in time to when Charles and Erik first met with the intent to kill Erik. In the fight, he kills the wrong guy, thus generating a world in which Charles Xavier never had a chance to work on his dream. Erik, strangely enough, picks up his friend's idealism and leads a group of mutants in the new version of the future/present.
And the new future is pretty terrible (outside of Quantum Leap, has time travel ever fixed anything?). Apocalypse has organized his own group of mutants and taken over North America. Humans are either eliminated or sent to work camps or gathered for genetic experimentation. Mutants are either recruited or eliminated. Magneto leads the X-Men in the fight against Apocalypse. But it's an uphill battle. Apocalypse has plenty of evil henchmen, like Cyclops and Beast (who were good guys in the "normal" reality), aiding his plans to expand his empire outside North America.
The book is an interesting "what if" scenario that is played out on a grand scale. In addition to completely altering the history, the story also changes the allegiances and appearances of many characters. Jean Grey and Wolverine (who is know as Weapon X since he was never recruited away from that program) are a couple who run missions for Magneto. Rogue is Magneto's wife and they have a son, Charles, who is a toddler hidden at the ruins of Xavier's Westchester mansion. The shifts for the characters are fun but without some extensive knowledge of X-Men history it can be hard to follow. The other challenge is keeping track of the various plotlines. And the story doesn't end with this fairly thick volume. I'm interested enough to keep going.
And the new future is pretty terrible (outside of Quantum Leap, has time travel ever fixed anything?). Apocalypse has organized his own group of mutants and taken over North America. Humans are either eliminated or sent to work camps or gathered for genetic experimentation. Mutants are either recruited or eliminated. Magneto leads the X-Men in the fight against Apocalypse. But it's an uphill battle. Apocalypse has plenty of evil henchmen, like Cyclops and Beast (who were good guys in the "normal" reality), aiding his plans to expand his empire outside North America.
The book is an interesting "what if" scenario that is played out on a grand scale. In addition to completely altering the history, the story also changes the allegiances and appearances of many characters. Jean Grey and Wolverine (who is know as Weapon X since he was never recruited away from that program) are a couple who run missions for Magneto. Rogue is Magneto's wife and they have a son, Charles, who is a toddler hidden at the ruins of Xavier's Westchester mansion. The shifts for the characters are fun but without some extensive knowledge of X-Men history it can be hard to follow. The other challenge is keeping track of the various plotlines. And the story doesn't end with this fairly thick volume. I'm interested enough to keep going.
October 21, 2015
I thought this was a really good collection and a fun re-imagining of the x-universe. I thought they generally balanced the references to the old world and building the new world, with the caveat that the characters were well modified, the world didn't quite make sense. There is no real idea about what apocalypse's power is and if he used nuclear, how are people moving all over america? Why a wall for Canada if your plan is world domination and there are just puny humans there?
When the marvel universe manages to do something like this you've just got to be happy for the imagination and not sweat the small to medium stuff!
When the marvel universe manages to do something like this you've just got to be happy for the imagination and not sweat the small to medium stuff!
June 24, 2016
Another trip down memory lane. 90's comics get a lot of bad reviews, but since I grew up in this decade I'm blinded by nostalgia. Rereading this saga brought back a lot of good memories. A huge storyline like this was a big deal back then.
In todays comics you have important moments, death, reboots, fresh starts and big reveals galore, and it doesn't really get me thrilled to read 'em anymore. The '90's were a high point in X-Men history (with the awesome tv-show) and this story is worth checking out.
In todays comics you have important moments, death, reboots, fresh starts and big reveals galore, and it doesn't really get me thrilled to read 'em anymore. The '90's were a high point in X-Men history (with the awesome tv-show) and this story is worth checking out.
November 29, 2022
I've been meaning to read this for the longest time and finally got around to purchasing it last month. For a 90s comic, I really enjoyed it. There were a couple issues/books that were a miss but the main titles were fun and had cool art.
Don't get me wrong, it's nothing ground-breaking. It's the junk-food equivalent of literature. But sometimes, that's all I need. Can't wait to read the next volume.
Don't get me wrong, it's nothing ground-breaking. It's the junk-food equivalent of literature. But sometimes, that's all I need. Can't wait to read the next volume.
February 1, 2016
Lot of X-Men to keep track of!
May 23, 2016
The art is really not to my taste...but it was of the time.
But they story is strong and pulling me in.
But they story is strong and pulling me in.
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