A Era Do X-man: Apocalipse & Os X-Traídos

Age of X-Man (Collected Editions)

by Tim Seeley

Apocalipse luta por mudanças na Era do X-Man! Nate Grey criou uma utopia para os mutantes - uma na qual ninguém conhece o amor. Felizmente, um herói surgiu para liderar uma rebelião contra essa forma opressiva de se viver do X-Man - e para ensinar sobre família e romance. E o nome dele é En Sabah Nur! Junte-se a Apocalipse e seus revolucionários X-Traídos em sua luta para ensinar o mundo a amar novamente! A mais nova missão do grupo é na antiga União Soviética, onde uma criatura chamada pelos nativos de “Língua de Czernobog” espreita. Mas qual é a razão pela qual eles querem encontrá-la? A equipe conseguirá chegar nela antes do Departamento X? E qual é o verdadeiro lugar de Apocalipse no mundo do X-Man?

(Age of X-Man: Apocalypse and the X-Tracts X 1-5, Age of X-Man: Omega 1)

Genres: Comics, Marvel, X Men, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Comic Book, Dystopia

144 pages, Paperback

First published September 11, 2019

About the author

Tim Seeley is a comic book artist and writer known for his work on books such as G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, The Dark Elf Trilogy, Batman Eternal and Grayson. He is also the co-creator of the Image Comics titles Hack/Slash[1] and Revival, as well as the Dark Horse titles, ExSanguine and Sundowners. He lives in Chicago.

Reviews

[Baba · Rating 2 out of 5]

The weakest book of the Age of X-Man event in my opinion somehow sees Apocalypse as the focus point of rebellion against the status quo. What Tim Seely does do well is make much better use of Eye-Boy and Dazzler's powers, which I hope feeds into the mainstream universe. The big downside is what is done to Apocalypse's character throughout; this is Apocalypse for Gawds sake! 5 out of 12, Two Stars.

2019 read

[Robert Kirwan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Worst of the sub-series. Got to issue 4 and wanted it to be finished. Got what they were trying to do but the execution was lacking

[Jason · Rating 2 out of 5]

Having one of the X-Men's most dangerous and uncompromising villains be all about peace and love is a cute idea, but not really one that has the legs to carry a book for five issues (at least not how it was done here). It's also a rather odd team that he's assembled, comprised of Shadowcat, Dazzler, Eye Boy, Genesis, and new character Unveil (who was the best part of the series--I do hope that they find some way for her to carry on as a character, but I suspect with Hickman's massive X-Men revamp now underway, the lackluster Age of X-Man event will quickly be swept under the rug and forgotten). So not exactly a team of heavy hitters (especially since Apocalypse mostly just hangs out back at their hippie home base), which is especially disappointing given how blandly Kitty Pryde and Alison Blair are depicted in this series. If they're not going to be a powerhouse team, at least have them be interesting.

The story has Apocalypse sending his team of "light riders" to Kazakhstan to recover the recently escaped Omega Red before those fascist X-Men can get to him--and when the X-Tracts encounter him they soon realize that not everything is as they were led to believe. Given the make-up of the team and the overall feeling that nothing that really happens in this book is particularly consequential, I found this title difficult to get into.

I will say this--I've seen a lot of people complaining about the art online, but I actually found it well suited to this title. Perhaps people felt that Salva Espin's art was too "cartoony", but I found his linework clean and attractive, and Israel Silva's coloring is a perfect match to it (especially whenever Unveil manifested her powers, which was always beautifully depicted).

The "twist" at the end should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with Apocalypse. The most surprising thing is that he would have ever agreed to take on the role of some peace-loving beatnik. It seems much more likely to me that he would have tried to find someway to overthrow Nate Grey and rule this alternate reality in his stead (I realize we've kind of already seen that story happen, but let's face it, that's what he'd try to do).

It's not the worst title in the Age of X-Man lineup, but unless you're a completist, there's really not much to recommend here.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

This volume focused on the rebels of the Age of X-Man. In this world, Apocalypse is leading the resistance which is presented as a group of beatniks protesting the war. All is not as it seems, and while I didn't love this volume, I seemed to enjoy it more than the majority of readers.

[Guilherme Smee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finalmente chegamos ao final da saga A Era do X-Man, que apresentou uma realidade utópica, onde os mutantes vivem em paz. Em paz? Mais ou menos, porque as ideias e os ideais do ameaçador Apocalipse sobre amor livre e relacionamentos sexuais põe em risco aquela realidade construída sobre alicerces de paz. Com esse mote A Era Do X-Man: Apocalipse & Os X-Traídos poderia ter tido uma inspiração nas campanhas de "faça amor, não faça guerra" dos anos 1960, mas o autor Tim Seeley prefere ir por outro caminho. Ele coloca os X-Traídos em rota de colisão contra o Ômega Vermelho e demais mutantes russos, perdendo a oportunidade de ir além de uma trama genérica de super-heróis. Os desenhos de Salvador Espin, são bonitos, mas os conceitos desenvolvidos por ele parece não dar conta de tantos personagens. Assim, Apocalipse, Ômega Vermelho e a drag queen mutante que faz uma vernissage parecem ser o mesmo. O desfecho de A Era do X-Man, Age of X-Man: Omega, edição que também é incluída na publicação, deixa bastante a desejar. No cômputo geral, talvez Apocalipse e os X-Traídos tenha sido a minissérie de A Era do X-Man mais fraca de todas.

[Kris Ritchie · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF, a big bunch of meh.

Sometimes tie-ins to an event can give you very interesting character development, what-ifs, or alternate versions of your heroes and villains. This tried to do all of that, but failed on every front for me.

[Duncan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very groovy color art splashed all over the pages of this book. A new X-men character (to me) called Unveil who is a black chick w/a big beautiful fro and radiates a psychedelic mist that clouds men's minds. She's part of a crew of "light riders," minions of the leader of a religious cult called En Sabah Nur who it turns out is really the longstanding X-men villain, Apocalypse. Others in his crew are Eye Boy (new to me), Dazzler, Kitty Pryde and En Sabah Nur's son, Genesis. They are later joined by Colossus, who is a part of the ruling X-Men elite who rule this alternate world ruled over by the X-Man, Nathan Grey (another new X-Men character to me, possibly Jean Grey's brother, son?) I don't know. I'll never know all these X-Men characters there is so many. Anyway getting back to this story, what's going on? Well, I really don't know, there is some fighting w/a bad guy called Omega Red out in Tazakhstan and some baddies enter into it for a couple of pages led by a bad guy called The Siberian but they are quickly dispatched. En Sabah Nur, or Apocalypse is possibly a bad guy posing as a good guy or a good guy posing as a bad guy - it wasn't too hard to follow for me, I think it was sorta hard for the writer to make any sense though.
Israel Silva did the beautiful, rainbow-tastic color art.
Salva Espin did the perfectly professional superhero pencils and inks.
Tim Seeley did the fairly incoherent writing.
Perhaps I'm just a rube who doesn't appreciate the sophisticated machinations of Age of X-Man alternate world story, that's definitely possible. Hey, I did dig the far-out colors though, man.

[Gavin Wask · Rating 3 out of 5]

The final link in the Age of X-Man story, well the final one for me, not really sure if it matters what order you read them in.
This time, we have Apocalypse leading the X-Tracts, who consist of Kitty Pryde, Dazzler, Eye-Boy(he's passed me by, must have been in the years when I stopped reading the X-Men), Unveil(yep, not a clue) and Genesis(who is having a bit of Daddy issues) and Colossus pops up as well, well where there is Katya there is Piotr. The X-Tracts think they are rebelling against the X-Men, but with Apocalypse things are never that straightforward.
Again,the story is interesting enough and it is always good that other X-Men get a look in rather than the same old ones. Enjoyable enough read.

[B · Rating 3 out of 5]

Apocalypse leads a hippie/beat cult against X-Man's anti-love society. Separately, Omega Red kills Evan.

This whole thing is pretty goofy. It largely doesn't work, but seeing Apocalypse in that sweater is hillarious every time.

The big secret is that Apocalypse is in league with X-Man and has agreed to stand in as the villain.. But why? Doesn't X-Man have enough power to make that happen without a secret deal?

[Willow · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was my lest favourite of the series in Age of X-Man. It was too beholden to being a Bit Important Plot Point to actually let the characters breathe and interact in interesting ways. I did like the resolution at the end with how Apocalypse seeing the ... fake? new? this? this Evan grow up good too makes him question his actions and purpose and methods completely. I suspect/hope that will lead in to House of X/Powers of X and the Dawn of X era in interesting ways

[Sean · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was insanely bad. The Age Of X-Man books as a whole are awful, terrible in concept and execution, and that continues here. This world makes little sense, is incredibly unimaginative, and just is not compelling. The group presented here was amazingly ill-conceived but even more so was the antagonist (s). The art was also a poor match for the book. Overall, this shouldn't have left the brainstorming stage.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe not the best of the Age of X-Man minis, but one I was more interested in. The last issue, with the revelation of Apocalypse actually being changed by being a parent, was an interesting change to a character that hasn't changed much in the past. The art made too many characters look like children, but it had a trippy, 60s-go-go vibe to it.

[Kyle And · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not the strongest X man team

This book is hampered by asking the reader to see the X-men as the bad guys. Apocalypse is some sort of cult leader that opposes them. The features 4 of my favorite characters but they mostly argue about the philosophy of the book rather than do anything that xciting.

[Myles Likes Tacos and Rice · Rating 2 out of 5]

The concept here is good: a hippy Apocalypse and his crew in the strict no love world of X-Man, but the execution is poor. Its kind of a big mess and it feels like something I would've put together on my commute to work, rather than a pro writer working on a big X Event.

Some good stuff
- Kitty and Apoc's chemsitry
- Dazzler's outfit
- The colouring

[Viridian5 · Rating 3 out of 5]

This shouldn't work as well as it does. But I also have to say that I didn't put much weight on anything that happened here because this is a temporary big event arc and I know that very little would stick longterm.

[Tim B · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting take on what happens when Apocalypse gets what he wants. Now that mutants are the only species, he tries to bring them together. A fun read with enough story to carry it. The twists are fine, but semi-predictable. Enjoyable, but not enthralling.

[Daniel Butcher · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's just an event that I did not enjoy.

And I fell like if I had read this before the main event, which I believe the issues are ordered to do, that there is a pretty big impactful spoiler.

[ellis · Rating 2 out of 5]

not really stand-out good.

[Garrett Ballendine · Rating 1 out of 5]

The only good thing here is Trevor "Eyeboy" gets some spotlight.

[Alli · Rating 4 out of 5]

This wasn't my favorite installment of the series (though beatnik Dazzler is A++), but it leads the most relevantly into the conclusion and OMG, how dare you make me feel bad for Apocalypse.

[Nate Deprey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the best of the Age of X-Man series but that's really not saying much.

[dogunderwater · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn't quite hold together and for a book where everyone's supposed to be of disparate ages the art sure doesn't convey that idea. Kitty also looks like Kim Possible the whole time. Eh!

[Adan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was pretty dumb. Apocalypse as a hippie loving father was gonna be a hard sell from the word go. Eye Boy was pretty badass, though.

[Dbetts12 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very Good reading

Well the storylines are very interesting and different. I can't wait till i reach the end of Age Of X-Man.

[Grumpy Grump Grump · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. Just meh. Really boring and doesn't tread any new ground.

[Babs · Rating 2 out of 5]

Appreciate this is an important part of the overall story but just felt....a bit weak. and wtf with old fish lips looking like a background character from Archie??!

[natrosette · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5 stars

[J.C. Greene · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another part of the Age of X-man event. It was slightly interesting, I appreciated the inclusion of Eye Boy, Genesis, the new member Unveil, and an unexpected antagonist. I liked the whole 70's vibe aesthetics they were going for but overall the story came across as filler for a filler event.

[Sesana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dull and not particularly well plotted. This could have been two tight issues, but instead it's a meandering five. Also, I'm sick to death of the Kitty and Colossus thing. The wedding that wasn't should have put this shambling zombie to rest, but we hash it out yet again here, in the most shallow and boring way possible.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boring end to a boing story. The artwork of Unveil is the only thing I liked