Written by Rick Remender
Illustrated by Billy Tan
– Return to the Age of Apocalypse as the AOA X-Men make their final stand against Weapon X!
– Introducing new Age of Apocalypse super hero team The X-Terminated!
– The stage is set for Age of Apocalypse #1, the new ongoing series set in the Age of Apocalypse!
Uncanny X-Force has been the constant throughout the Marvel Universe in the past year. While other books have been up and down, and some have even been nothing but “down,” UXF has taken the place as the best book in X-Universe, even beyond that of X-Factor Investigations, and has even secured its place as best book coming from Marvel Comics.
This issue is a bit different, though, as it takes a cue from Amazing Spider-Man and presents a Point One issue that sets up a spin-off from the book. However instead of Venom, this time it’s the Age of Apocalypse. How does it stand up, however?
You’ll just have to see beyond the jump!
The Age of Apocalypse is an interesting event in the history of the X-Men. By all accounts, it was not THAT good of a book (not one I’d expect to be as popular as it was, anyway), but it endured and found itself among one of the more popular events to have been released in the past 25 years. Everyone looks back fondly when they think of this event, so much so that Remender spent nearly a year exploring the universe as part of his collectively lauded Dark Angel Saga. But now that that arc has completed, how will we continue our adventures in place where Apocalypse won?
That would be where this book comes in. Used as a backdoor pilot to a new ongoing starring characters fighting for humanity against the mutants who are the evil ones this time. The first character we’re introduced to happens to be a darkly heroic William Stryker, who reminds one of a version of Batman’s Azrael visually combined with the new Red Hood design in Red Hood and the Outlaws. It’s a striking design that makes his a visually arresting character, ever so brilliantly handled by the extremely talented Billy Tan. Tan, who you might remember from the Shadowland Event, along with the main Daredevil book at ran concurrently, fits really well with this new universe, with his pencils illustrating the bleak status quo that dominated life there. One of the most welcome sights in the book is his use of movement to tell a story while pitting man against a giant machine. Staticism is a problem with a lot of “pretty” books these days, with the gorgeous visuals rendered at the cost of those same pictures looking like paintings as opposed to something that would present very real characters in the same way an action film or television program shows how quickly their characters move. The entire book looks stunning, but in a very different way from anything you’ve seen in a book like Uncanny X-Force.
Rick Remender, who isn’t going on to pen the Age of Apocalypse book (David Lapham is) tells a great set-up for the upcoming title, making a unique team you wouldn’t see any time soon in the “real” Marvel Universe. In fact, it almost seems intentional to have put together a team of characters that are either dead (Jean Grey), evil (Donald Pierce), or both (Sabretooth). The line-up ensures a team that works like no other. That uniqueness strengthens the book and makes it more engaging because it’s truly independent of every other book out there, even the one it’s spinning off of.
If there’s one criticism of the book, it’s the strength of an ongoing book set in the AoA-Reality. This may be just as much of a strength as a weakness, however. I don’t see a permanent place on the shelves for a book set in a reality different from our own, as in the end the heroes will win, restoring order to the world or will fail and, well, die. The fact I see a destination may mean it has a creative lightning rod, however, as the upcoming team can tell a story with a beginning, middle, and end, just set in a different reality from the one we’re used to. Only time will tell.
In the end, this book is a lot of fun, and reads like a great sci-fi action flick in comic form. Remender and Tan are on point, and at some point, I’d like to see them work together on an ongoing or at the very least, an arc in Venom, Uncanny X-Force or Secret Avengers. I want to see more of this fantastic team together as soon as humanly possible (or in this case, as soon as mutantly possible!)
Final Verdict: 8.0 — Buy
