I’ve decided to take the time to review one of the major alternate realities in the Marvel Universe: The Age of Apocalypse. For those that don’t know this was an alternate timeline created within the mainstream Marvel Universe by the death Charles Xavier (this alternate timeline was portrayed in the regular monthly titles). An attempt to kill Magneto in the past to prevent him from being a mutant terrorist is disrupted when Xavier jumps in to save him, dying in his place. Mutants are not as unified by Xavier’s ideals and the rift between mutants and humans grows which Apocalypse takes full advantage of, resulting in his conquering of the United States in a dark and apocalyptic (no pun intended) setting where humans are slaughtered like cattle and Europe is the only free place for humans left after the destruction of much of the rest of the world.
What I liked most is really how dark this series was. More graphic and realistic in the sense that no one was safe, anyone could dies and heroes didn’t always win, AoA as it is referred to had a completely different feel to it than mainstream Marvel. There were few happy moments, even in victories and everyone was constantly divided not only with others but with themselves. The feeling at times is a bit akin to the Terminator future: dark, desolate and violent with only glimmers of hope where war is constant.
Also many characters were flip flopped, such as Cyclops and Havok both being agents of Apocalypse and Magneto being the last thing standing in front of Apocalypse’s rule of the Earth. It was interesting to see such established characters in a new light, and what it would be like if someone like Magneto was a force of good rather than evil. It’s really something us as readers always wondered: “what if this character was on the other side” and this series answers some of those. Though you could normally see hints of the characters regular personas for the most part the characters were a fair amount different not only because they had switched allegiances, but also because the world they lived in was so much harsher (a bit of a spoiler, do we honestly ever think Night Crawler would deliver a killing blow to a bad guy with no remorse?).
The art too I thought was very good. Led by artists like Ian Churchill, Steve Epting, Salvador Larrocca and Adam and Andy Kubert just to name some, I would say the art was all in all fantastic for the series. I know we all have our own tastes and not everyone can be impressed, but all things considered I can’t see people not liking the art. If you're a fan of detail heavy art, this is definitely for you.
The one thing I didn’t like about this series was the end. What happened wasn’t bad, but how fast it happened was. It seemed like all of a sudden things came to a head all too quick and people started dying left and right. It really should have been drawn out over another month at least to really get a good fulfilling ending in. This was also a bit of a problem for the whole series. It jumped around a lot, often months or sometimes years passing between issues. Though I realize they didn’t want to drag this on forever, at points you really feel gypped of a good story.
All in all this was a very good series. It is more adult oriented and mature and the writers get the despair and darkness of the world across very good. I picked up the series in the four volume trade paper backs and thoroughly enjoyed everyone, included the special “Chosen” issue where you see Apocalypse’s profiles on the more prominent characters of the series. If you got some spare cash (about $25 US for each) I suggest this series.
What I liked most is really how dark this series was. More graphic and realistic in the sense that no one was safe, anyone could dies and heroes didn’t always win, AoA as it is referred to had a completely different feel to it than mainstream Marvel. There were few happy moments, even in victories and everyone was constantly divided not only with others but with themselves. The feeling at times is a bit akin to the Terminator future: dark, desolate and violent with only glimmers of hope where war is constant.
Also many characters were flip flopped, such as Cyclops and Havok both being agents of Apocalypse and Magneto being the last thing standing in front of Apocalypse’s rule of the Earth. It was interesting to see such established characters in a new light, and what it would be like if someone like Magneto was a force of good rather than evil. It’s really something us as readers always wondered: “what if this character was on the other side” and this series answers some of those. Though you could normally see hints of the characters regular personas for the most part the characters were a fair amount different not only because they had switched allegiances, but also because the world they lived in was so much harsher (a bit of a spoiler, do we honestly ever think Night Crawler would deliver a killing blow to a bad guy with no remorse?).
The art too I thought was very good. Led by artists like Ian Churchill, Steve Epting, Salvador Larrocca and Adam and Andy Kubert just to name some, I would say the art was all in all fantastic for the series. I know we all have our own tastes and not everyone can be impressed, but all things considered I can’t see people not liking the art. If you're a fan of detail heavy art, this is definitely for you.
The one thing I didn’t like about this series was the end. What happened wasn’t bad, but how fast it happened was. It seemed like all of a sudden things came to a head all too quick and people started dying left and right. It really should have been drawn out over another month at least to really get a good fulfilling ending in. This was also a bit of a problem for the whole series. It jumped around a lot, often months or sometimes years passing between issues. Though I realize they didn’t want to drag this on forever, at points you really feel gypped of a good story.
All in all this was a very good series. It is more adult oriented and mature and the writers get the despair and darkness of the world across very good. I picked up the series in the four volume trade paper backs and thoroughly enjoyed everyone, included the special “Chosen” issue where you see Apocalypse’s profiles on the more prominent characters of the series. If you got some spare cash (about $25 US for each) I suggest this series.
No comments:
Post a Comment