X-Men: Age of Apocalypse 1

X-Men: The Age of Apocalypse is like watching a montage of deconstructionist mumbo jumbo in the form of unknowable frame-to-frame sequences mixed with excellent colors provided to us by Edgar Delgado. I have to say that the art by Chris Bachalo is sometimes exceptional, clear, and precise, but these moments are mired by the often unknowable frames. There is often an overload of confusion akin to that which comes from reading my often massive, comma infused sentences. While the story itself is good (written by Akira Yoshida), or at least good enough to urge the reader to check out issue two, it cannot be said that it is stellar, nor can it be said that it is profound.

As the 10 year anniversary of the original Age of Apocalypse is now upon us, this book has been released as a sort of sequel which details the goings on of the world, and in particular, the X-Men. The premise is altogether too simple. Despite their original misgivings, the members of the press who are attending the press-conference, which acts as the bridge between the original AOA and this new addition, are too easily convinced and won over by a “wag the dog” style operation sported by our heroes and championed by their new leader Magneto. This causes a bit of ho-humness, on the part of the reader, which is only magnified by the formerly pious Nightcrawler’s too clever lines and his strange new personality. I should say that the personality shift apparent in Nightcrawler and others is not pointed out as a change, but I suppose it is to be simply accepted without question by the X-Men fan in all of us.

These complaints sound harsh, but hear me out. The book does have a great story which is fully equipped with a decent plot, intrigue at least in the mind of the reader, and controversy especially amongst the X-Men themselves concerning their new role as Edgar Hoover-style policemen, hunting down the mutants who co-conspired with, or who were forced into service by big daddy Apocalypse.

The area of story involving Wolverine and the person sent by Magneto to draft him into this new army of sorts (Canada and drafts, hmmm) is entertaining, but a bit confusing. If you were hoping for, or if the writers intended to include X-23, then they failed to recall that she lacks that Wolvie trademark third claw. But, I suppose that, being so many years in the future, she could have grown another claw. Most likely is that she is not X-23 at all, but a daughter of Wolverine’s that he has been heretofore uninformed about, and probably a product of some lovin’ and leavin’ he committed in his long past. One complaint about this part is the Darth Vader/Luke Skywalker style sword fight moves featured in their brief combat. Tell me, when have you seen two clawed muties do battle fencing style?

All in all, I did like this book enough to peak my interest. I have to say that like Ultimates 2 and Phoenix:Endsong, the colorists shine out the best. I should say that despite the confusion which lies within the action of the frames, I do appreciate Bachalo’s way of integrating the new (often cell-shaded) genre of American/Japanese Graffiti art style with a gritty-cyberpunk aspect. This makes me a fan of his art, and inspires me to hope that he will continue to develop his, in the words of Strongbad, “skills of an artist.” I know you all already bought it, so what the heck else should I say?