Comic Info
Comic Name: Age of Apocalypse
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Fabien Nicieza
Artist: Gerardo Sandoval/Iban Coello
# of Issues: 5
Release Date: 2015
Age of Apocalypse #1 Variant
Reprints Age of Apocalypse #1-5 (September 2015-December 2015). Mutant Kind is dying and Apocalypse seems to be doing nothing to stop it. Unable to appeal to Doom, the X-Men find they are the last hope despite the tide of humans turning against them. With the Legacy Virus threatening to wipe out all of mutantkind, the only hope could be Jean Grey, but she’s dead…or is she?
Written by Fabien Nicieza, Warzones!: Age of Apocalypse is a spin-off five issue limited series from Secret Wars and is based on the 1995 crossover event. The collection features art by Gerardo Sandoval (Age of Apocalypse #1-3) and Iban Coello (Age of Apocalypse #4-5).
I was pretty deep into Marvel in 1995 when the original Age of Apocalypse was released. I was never an Image fan and DC Comics weren’t really on my radar either. Though it was sprawling, I think I ended up with all the Age of Apocalypse storyline (mostly due to a used bookstore nearby). Today, I recognize that the Age of Apocalypse isn’t that great of a story, and the Secret Wars return to the world wasn’t one of the comics I was that interested in reading. Despite that, it was a nice flashback to simpler comics and a time when I did care about the X-Men.
I didn’t keep up with Secret Wars so that aspect of the story is rather forgettable (and I found the whole Battleworld/Warzones comic book set-up kind of confusing). You don’t really need much background on Secret Wars for the comic, but if you don’t have much background in Age of Apocalypse, this volume is rather pointless.
Age of Apocalypse #5
The story feel and looks like an Age of Apocalypse story. It is dark and broody with over-the-top 1990s villains. In that sense, it is a fun comic because it feels more reflexive in its presentation. The comic is taken seriously however and isn’t really a parody of the period (it would be interesting to have an almost Savage Dragon approach to the storyline).
The bottom line however is that it ends like a lot of X-Men storylines. The Phoenix saves all…the only wild card is if Jean lives or dies. It is kind of like the magic bullet solution to any X-Men problem, kind of like a Flash rewrite of the DC Universe. If we don’t like how a storyline is going the Phoenix aka “magic” can change it with little rhyme or rhythm.
Warzones!: Age of Apocalypse is a like the other Warzones! titles. It was more of an obvious choice when they were rolling out spinoff titles since Age of Apocalypse was a major event comic that had a similar structure to the Secret Wars spinoffs. If you a fan of the original storyline, it might be a nice return, but skip it if you didn’t like it the first time around.
Related Links:
Battleworld: Master of Kung Fu
Warzones!: Deadpool’s Secret Secret War
Warzones!: M.O.D.O.K. Assassin
