These altered states of America have become a staging area for Apocalypse's next, best nightmare-the corruption of the entire world. The troubled dissident movement within American has, until recently, been fighting a losing battle, outmatched and riven by internal dispute. Now, with the discovery of Bishop, a man purported to be from an alternate timeline, they move with new purpose.
Warren Ellis is the award-winning writer of graphic novels like TRANSMETROPOLITAN, FELL, MINISTRY OF SPACE and PLANETARY, and the author of the NYT-bestselling GUN MACHINE and the “underground classic” novel CROOKED LITTLE VEIN, as well as the digital short-story single DEAD PIG COLLECTOR. His newest book is the novella NORMAL, from FSG Originals, listed as one of Amazon’s Best 100 Books Of 2016.
The movie RED is based on his graphic novel of the same name, its sequel having been released in summer 2013. IRON MAN 3 is based on his Marvel Comics graphic novel IRON MAN: EXTREMIS. He is currently developing his graphic novel sequence with Jason Howard, TREES, for television, in concert with HardySonBaker and NBCU, and continues to work as a screenwriter and producer in film and television, represented by Angela Cheng Caplan and Cheng Caplan Company. He is the creator, writer and co-producer of the Netflix series CASTLEVANIA, recently renewed for its third season, and of the recently-announced Netflix series HEAVEN’S FOREST.
He’s written extensively for VICE, WIRED UK and Reuters on technological and cultural matters, and given keynote speeches and lectures at events like dConstruct, ThingsCon, Improving Reality, SxSW, How The Light Gets In, Haunted Machines and Cognitive Cities.
Warren Ellis has recently developed and curated the revival of the Wildstorm creative library for DC Entertainment with the series THE WILD STORM, and is currently working on the serialising of new graphic novel works TREES: THREE FATES and INJECTION at Image Comics, and the serialised graphic novel THE BATMAN’S GRAVE for DC Comics, while working as a Consulting Producer on another television series.
A documentary about his work, CAPTURED GHOSTS, was released in 2012.
Recognitions include the NUIG Literary and Debating Society’s President’s Medal for service to freedom of speech, the EAGLE AWARDS Roll Of Honour for lifetime achievement in the field of comics & graphic novels, the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire 2010, the Sidewise Award for Alternate History and the International Horror Guild Award for illustrated narrative. He is a Patron of Humanists UK. He holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Essex.
Warren Ellis lives outside London, on the south-east coast of England, in case he needs to make a quick getaway.
This was my favorite of the Age of Apocalypse mini-series. It really is not about a team, but more about Nightcrawler in this reality. This version is not tied to religion to bring him peace, but is driven by vengeance and violence. He lacks the charm and suaveness of his 616 counterpart, but is still a pretty interesting character. The team only comes together for a little more than one issue, but the story telling is wonderful (compared to the other minis). There is a lot of creativity and twists that are very much Warren Ellis. The only thing that could have made it better would have been Brian, Rachel, Meggan, and Kitty (and maybe Pete and Kylun for good measure)...
This is probably my least favorite miniseries in the main set of Age of Apocalypse miniseries, but I still had fun reading the adventures of Nightcrawler and his very short-lived alliance (I'd hardly call it an actual team): X-Calibre, which took the place of the Excalibur title when Legion killed Professor Xavier twenty years in the past and Apocalypse took over North America in his absence. With so many changes to the world at large, it makes sense that the X-Men's central characters could and would be drastically altered, too. In the case of X-Calibre, Nightcrawler (Kurt Darkholme) is not the man of faith that we've come to know and love in the main universe, but is instead a much more violent, rough-around-the-edges hero who will stop at nothing to follow Magneto's plans to retrieve the seer known as Destiny from the land of Avalon and bring her back to New York so that she can help restore the proper reality. This book involves more than one penciler, the transitions between them causing a bit of a jarring transition since they happen midstream and then switch back later in the miniseries. Other than Nightcrawler and Mystique, much of the cast of this book is comprised of lesser known or brand new characters, several of whom lack the same spark that the cast of books like Astonishing X-Men, Amazing X-Men, and even Generation Next and Factor X have. Still, if you're a fan of the Age of Apocalypse (as I certainly am), you've got to read X-Calibre to get the full grasp of the plot of this saga!
For Age of Apocalypse, the series Excalibur turned into X-Calibre... Yep, not a great title, made worse when they try to explain it within the comic itself.
Warren Ellis is still a writer I am trying to get a gauge on. But this is his early work. Plenty of people love him now, but I have limited exposure to him. And he had only recently taken over Excalibur before AoA.
Nightcrawler is the lead to this book. He's dark and disgruntled, so the opposite of his 616 personality. He gets his own little private mission from the man in charge of the X-Men which takes you through another dark side of this new reality.
Ellis also makes some obvious efforts to encounter faith in this story, twisting Nightcrawler's previous religious leanings. I really don't feel he says anything important by it, though. He also goes for some afterlife metaphors. Same thing though, didn't do anything for me.
Overall the story seems fairly rushed together just to show a classic X-Men setting.
Although it's been done countless times in superhero comics, the idea for the Age of Apocalypse is a pretty good one. Familiar characters that are a little different to what we're used to in a setting that's completely differenet to the normal one. It gives writers a chance to do things with the characters they'd otherwise never be allowed to do and artists get a chance to redesign everything. Of course the problem with all of the Age of Apocalypse stories is they're about as 90's as comics get in both story and art. Tries to explore religion through Nightcrawler and the others but doesn't do more than touch on the subject. The story itself is one of the worst of the minis.
Hace más de quince años leí y me compré el #1. Me gustó pero no tanto como para comprarme el resto enseguida. Década y media después sigo sin tenerla completa y ni siquiera recuerdo si conseguí al menos el #2. Actualizaré cuando tenga los datos a mano.