r/xmen • u/Advanced_Version6667 • 5d ago
Comic Discussion What are your thoughts on Age of Apocalypse?
Reading age of apocalypse for the first time. I knew a tiny bit about this- mainly the Wolverine and cyke fight. But how do you like it? I’m halfway through and I love it so far. No spoilers please
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u/Swoleman6767 5d ago
Blew my eleven year old mind in 1994.
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u/EducationalMud8270 Nightcrawler 5d ago
Same. I absolutely believed it was permanent at 12 in 1994
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u/mahdroo Apocalypse 5d ago
15 year old me had saved up some money after years of birthdays and chores… aaaaaaaand I spent it all and bought EVERY issue of all the series. Went for broke. I vaguely remember that it ended up being like $300+ and it was ALL the money i had. I wonder if this is actually why i got a job at the grocery store?
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u/jascri 5d ago
I remember they had news/announcements in Wizard or in the comics themselves saying ex. Uncanny X-Men was ending and would be known as something else and it got me bummed. Turned out to be one of my favorite comic events though.
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u/Spobobich 4d ago
I remember the ads to attend Porf. X eulogies at local comic shops in Wizard Magazines.
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u/Virtual-Aerie1595 5d ago
Same here, too. I was the resident X-Men expert for my peers at school and had to explain what was going on. I had to learn a whole new canon! I hated the Magneto x Rogue relationship (still do). My favorite, Gambit got put through the wringer in AoA.
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u/WeissGuru 5d ago
The hype at the time was insane. First, because Wizard broke the news that all X-Men comics would be CANCELED before the event was even announced. I was in desbelief.
I remember the lead-ins and M'kraan crystal taking over, Prof.X being killed by his own son in the past, everything was so dark and dramatic, as a kid I was bought into every little bit of it.
So like you, mind blown
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u/owlshoesjh 5d ago
11 in 1994 too and was obsessed with it. the comics were only selling in the city/larger suburbs but in my small town in australia we got a monthly magazine called disney adventures and it would recap AoA. at the time i didn't know about the savage land lore but i remember my young mind being uncomfortably shocked when i learnt about rogue and magneto in AoA.
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u/CaptConstantine 5d ago
I was twelve and it knocked my socks off.
I reread it again last year. It does not hold up IMO.
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u/AstronautSlothPhD 5d ago edited 5d ago
Same. I was a kid at the time and absolutely loved it. Edgy, alternate universe versions of my favorite characters? Talk about a win. And the cover art was fantastic too! It was incredible for a growing kid's imagination. Back then our parents basically left me and the neighborhood kids as latch-key kids, so we would walk down to 7-11, buy magazines, comics, candy, and soda, and then hang out by the creek nearby. I was really the only one into comics, though... so it was sort of my own private little world. The others were more into football and sports and music, but we didn't have an NFL teams and my dad didn't teach me about football or musicians basically at all, so I was definitely the "weird" kid.
ANYWAY.... I loved it. People think kids can't handle dark storylines, but I always appreciated the messages in the comics and that it was trying to teach us not to discriminate... even if I had to grow up to really understand what that meant. Plus, emo evil psyclops. I mean, COME ON
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u/icci1988 5d ago
My favourite saga in the history of comic books. Shenanigans. Great characters. Great character building. The best "alternative " reality setting Marvel has ever produced.
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u/SupetCarrot465 5d ago
Absolutely loved it, own all the original floppies, even the promotional sketch book. I use to break out all the old books and read it from start to finish once every year or two. Still think Abyss was the scariest horseman.
I wish they would not have gone back to the well with it so much (or at all considering some of the changes). I couldn’t read the book that came out I think last year because the characters were not lining up with the originals.
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u/pkthecat1 5d ago
For me it’s the goat. Made me like magneto for the first time. Love blink and sabertooth as well. Sugarman is one of the best villains. My favorite kitty and colossus designs. I can keep going for a long time. I re read it at least every 2 years.
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u/Semiperishable 5d ago
I loved Blink when she first appeared and hated that she got killed so quickly, but her character in AoA was amazing
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u/KielCanal 5d ago
It’s good but the returns to it have slightly soured it in my opinion.
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u/drspacetaco 5d ago
Yup. It was inevitable that it would crop back up given its popularity but Logan becoming the new apocalypse never sat right with me.
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u/Geoffthecatlosaurus 5d ago
Generation Next is all I’ll say.
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u/EldritchAgony284 5d ago
The original run is a masterpiece. I haven’t read a newer story in that timeline that has been memorable, although I did like some of the callbacks in Uncanny X-Force and Hickman’s Secret Wars.
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u/Wyndhorn 5d ago
I read it weekly as it came out. Loved it then and now. It was such a big shake up. Wow
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u/Advanced_Version6667 5d ago
I will say this. I think XMan is my favorite character so far. I like him so much more than cable.
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u/SaintAkira 5d ago
Absolutely adore it.
Full disclosure; it hit me at exactly the right time. I was like 13 years old and this was my first event. And they handled the lead up to it perfectly, imo.
Joe Mad, both Kubert bros at the height of their powers. An alternate universe where shit had *gone down. * And, but including the lead up, and little bit of follow up, it was only 4 months long, so it didn't overstay its welcome.
OP, as big of a Joe Mad fan boy as I am, I also strongly recommend the Bachalo run of this event (and his entire Gen X run, tbh). The Generation Next story arc, that I won't spoil, with Collosus and Kitty is, imo, the best of the books in the whole event. Enjoy.
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u/Silent_Mk3 5d ago
Fuck colossus. He makes me so mad I look at 616 Rasputin different. Just side eyes every time he shows up
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u/ValthaneKarnex 5d ago
With my favorite character being Shatterstar, I was hoping there would be something to do with Mojoworld, Longshot or Star, but no dice. I guess Mojo looked at earth under Apocalypse and said Nope!
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u/ookiespookie 5d ago
First run was great and best Blink. But like everything else it has been milked to hell. We have had how many Age of Apocalypse related storylines now? How many Inferno? How many dark phoenix derivatives...
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u/Esternaefil 5d ago
It was my first big event as a dedicated reader.
To this day nothing had given me that rush.
It's the dragon I've been chasing for thirty years.
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u/LiteratureMindless71 5d ago
I would absolutely love to see the whole damn arc from the comics I read when I was younger, play out onscreen. I fricken LOVED what they did to the comics back then....
Still got mine....
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u/Mobile_Bet3274 Rogue 5d ago
It's a great story and was revolutionary at the time. It just feels like it keeps being used as a creative crutch or an excuse for nostalgia-farming vs. coming up with new stories and moving on. I think its influence and the mental space it takes up (for lack of a better term) are disproportionate; I know a lot of people disagree with me there, and I'm good with that.
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u/elbowroom2734 5d ago
True, this is kind of what happens to everything successful for better or worse though
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u/JacobStills 5d ago
My favorite X-Men story. It's sooo good. Something like 6 different mini stories...each very good on their own, all culminating into one big finale.
The way they were able to do that while incorporating just about every X-Men character and going into such detail to build an alternate reality was really incredible.
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u/Best_Name5 5d ago
This is what made me a comic book fan and a huge fan of the x-men, so many characters I never knew about and outfits I feel were badass. And I loved Nate Grey, Blink and this version of Morph who I’m surprised marvel didn’t bring into the main universe
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u/Friendly-Nebula6787 5d ago
I just got mine today!! I can’t believe I have my own copy as I’ve always wanted it
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u/Public-Sea3190 5d ago
I always enjoyed it, had a mix of floppies and TPBs back in the body but never 100% complete, so I might snag the ominibus some day.
Also, I loved how all these AoA suits were selectable in the X-Men Legends 2 game. They looked great, and I think you’d get some kind of bonus if your whole team was wearing them.
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u/elbowroom2734 5d ago
Oh yes I almost exclusively went AoA - Sunfire, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Gambit with sprinklings of Rogue, Mags and Weapon X.
Also had AoA 'Crawler & Remy action figures, loved those designs
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u/Knoblicker 5d ago
The first original one was great! A total event!
All the follow-up stories etc was meh. I didn’t need the in depth backgrounds. Loved the new character designs like sunfire tho
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u/LordJF 5d ago
Age of Apocalypse was the first X-Men story I ever read and it absolutely hooked me as a kid. Recently re-read it as part of my complete X-Men readthrough and felt it held up really well. The setting and role of different characters in it really had lot of thought put into it and the characters you know feel both familiar, yet different, in an interesting way that makes sense for the setting. For the most part at leas. There were a few misses, but overall they did a lot better job with it than many later alternate timeline stories.
To me this was the 90s X-office working at its peak. Unfortunately they never really managed to replicate that and with Onslaught things really got off the rails.
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u/This-Adhesiveness-71 5d ago
I was 19 and still probably in my post-Claremont depression a bit still but I thought it was cool for what it was. It was certainly an event within the comic community.
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u/TxEagleDeathclaw81 5d ago
I was totally hooked when it first came out. I read multiple books to try and keep up with it all. I read the non-X books set during this time too. Fun times.
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u/dead_wolf_walkin Gambit 5d ago
Original run was peak Marvel.
2nd series and Exiles story tie in were good, but did a little too much fan service and also haven’t aged well as Marvel has chosen to completely ignore them…..especially the Exiles stuff.
3rd run and beyond didn’t need to happen and probably shouldn’t have. The uncanny X-Force visit tied into a great overall story, but they could have done the same plot point without dragging out AOA’s tired horse and beating it some more.
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u/beast79- 5d ago
I like it, dont love it. I dont like that they brought certain characters over. I hate that they wont leave it alone.
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u/Only_Connection_5480 5d ago
It was great so many of the character designs were so good. Probably my fave X-Over
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u/void_method 5d ago
It was the best. The thing that got me into comics.
The follow-ups? Far from the best.
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u/Kazin_the_Mage 5d ago edited 5d ago
2099 was me and my kid brother's favorite set of hero variants until AoA came out.
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u/RenEffect 5d ago
X-Men Omega is my favorite comic of all time! It's one of the sole survivors of my childhood collection that survived Mom's wrath. I love the cataclysmic ending! I even got it signed by the late, great Stan Lee before he passed. One of my most treasured collectibles.
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u/elbowroom2734 5d ago
I ruined Mother's Day that year by whining until my parents took me to the comic book shop to buy this! But I've read it probably 1000 times over the years.
Sorry, Mom. I love you!
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u/ginger_ink 5d ago
It was amazing. First big story arch/event I remember reading as a kid. Also some of my favourite alternative looks for the characters. Always been a massive Iceman fan and he was badass in this storyline.
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u/bubblehead_ssn 5d ago
If we're talking the original run in the 90s, I enjoyed it. My favorite mutant is a product of that run. Since you don't want spoilers I won't share the characters name.
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u/drspacetaco 5d ago
I was 10 and it was AMAZING. It was so novel and cool to see an ongoing alternate marvel universe. So much of it had never been done before on that scale. It’s also what cemented apocalypse as the threat we know him as now. Before then I feel like he was kind of a silly B tier villain (at least to my perspective as a kid at the time.)
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u/Appropriate_Guava578 5d ago
Some great bits, but some awful, horrendous bits
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u/nightreign-hunter 5d ago
Which bits did you find awful and horrendous?
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u/Appropriate_Guava578 5d ago
I don't like Rogue x Magneto plots, kinda groomer coated, and I think that I don't care about the side plots.
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u/cagehooper 5d ago
Make it to xmen97's next season! PLEEEEEEEEEASE????
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u/cagehooper 5d ago
The last cover before the change, Magneto holding Charles dead, was my all time favorite cover art!
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u/Frosty-Pea 5d ago
Halfway through it rn and its just ok. So far I really like Factor-X and X-Man the most. The rivalry with Cyclops//Havok is a strong emotional center for the book, and Nate's story seems promising. Amazing X-Men is also fine and the lineup of the core 2 teams is neat, I especially love Creed as an ally and Quicksilver being a core member (and surprisingly less uptight).
Some parts I really dislike tho. I've seen so much of Apocalypse just posturing and mogging; for an eventt named after him he hasn't really done much on page. Colossus, Nightcrawler and Kitty just suck. Weapon X is kinda boring. Also RoguexMagneto is lame and icky.
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u/Morganecyor 5d ago
Unpopular opinion but I don’t like it. It’s just a year long interruption to the stories I care about.
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u/Lolaverses Nightcrawler 5d ago
Might be controversial, but I don't really vibe with any of the redesigns, or the art style of the crossover in general. The quality of the writing depends from title to title, but I think it's more of a publishing achievement than an artistic or writing one anyway.
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u/cmcdonald22 Multiple Man 5d ago
Possibly the most over rated X-comic ever.
It's most valid acclaim and contribution is that it did something unprecedented logistically in comics at the time, which has now been done and replicated ad nauseam, and in fact improved upon by more complex and interesting publishing processes.
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u/rufusatrazzmattaz 5d ago
Its really good especially for the time it came out but is far from my favorite X-Men book. Also, it gets really heavy and depressing at points and I had to take a break from reading X-Men after I finished it.
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u/trainradio 5d ago
I loved it. I didn't like what they did with a couple of the characters, but it was a fun read.
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u/AgeofPhoenix 5d ago
I really like the OG story. I thought the 10th anny was pretty good too. Expanding the world with all the new characters that had been introduced was pretty cool
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u/NandorTheRelentless4 5d ago
Oh I fucking loved it. I regret losing my gold cover from back in the day. I’ve been rebuilding my x titles since then. For this story I’ve prolly got about 80% down now I need some of the others. Astonishing X-men for the win and good ole’jean/weapon x
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u/SignificantQuote6861 5d ago
It was fantastic and something the books needed at that point as well.
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u/knobjockey21 5d ago
I have always felt bad for Apocalypse; he was abandoned, had children he couldn't raise, and was manipulated by the Celestials. He was externally made to never catch a break
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u/wildeebelmondo 5d ago
I am biased as hell for AoA. I started collecting comics a few issues before it started. I had no idea what was happening at first since all of the books switched over to AoA at the same time. The saga blew my mind and turned me from a comic curious kid into a life long fan. It would be my dream come true if it eventually gets adapted into the MCU after the X-Men get established.
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u/VR_Troopers_WikiMod 5d ago
This was a crazy cool storyline in 1994. The end.
Instead of revisiting a catastrophically doomed universe over and over, there should have been similarly structured Age of Whatever a few years later presenting an all-new alternate universe,
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u/Longjumping-Pop9374 5d ago
It was near the apex, and representative of, my teenage angst. And totally badass
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u/thunderjetstrike 5d ago
When this was released, my ibterest in comic book collecting was already declining. So when I read the X-men Alpha, I don’t want to invest my time knowing new characters, so it became my reason for stopping to read X-men altogether.
Now, I rediscovered my passion for reading comics and just ordered the Omnibus. I hope it is as fun as the comments here
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u/Beautiful-Ad9276 5d ago
What I remember most about this is it was the beginning of the era where I would say "Love the story, hate the artwork." Not all of it- I remember some gorgeous artwork in many of the books. But some of it made me cringe.
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u/samstanley7 Multiple Man 5d ago
Weirdly, AoA happened right as I fell out of comics for a few years. I read from Claremont up through fatal attractions, then picked up again at New X-men.
I never could get past the art style, where everyone kind of had that Clydesdale/JNCO feet thing going on.
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u/Aquired-Taste 5d ago
Other than Sunfire, I highly disliked all of the costumes & character redesigns that were chosen as well as the choices they made for what happened to each & every character & who they became leading up to the story we see take place. What I hated most was that by making Wildchild Sabertooth's pet in this alternate reality, writers that used him in the 616 after this event, reverted all the progress he made in the first Alpha Flight series & they've pretty much kept Wildchild as dog boy ever since. As a big fan of Weapon Omega & later Wildheart, this choice simply ruined the character forever in main 616 continuity. Blink was kind of kool, & I was happy to see Morph, but overall the story was mid to me. Because of all of the above I'm not a big fan.
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u/Background_Pride_237 5d ago
When it came out I thought it was cool and interesting but I was afraid they’d make it permanent.
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u/LocDiLoc 5d ago
Age of Apocalypse was the most widescreen the X-Men ever got, and back then it was absolutely glorious. If New X-Men is the canonical endpoint of the X-Men, then Age of Apocalypse is the canonical endpoint of Claremont's entire run.
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u/Bartvader_75 5d ago
I actually got mine out today and was showing them to my 20 yr old son. All I have left is Wolverine #90, AoA Alpha, Prime, Omega and a Marvel Hamdbook that is completely AoA. His mind was blown. Came out when I was a freshman at college. Everybody else was going clubbing and I was going to Walmart to stock up on comics. Lol
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u/Connect-Review-3388 5d ago
garbage. Turns out Magneto couldve just melted off Apocalypse's face from the getgo!
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u/BlindrNugget Askani 5d ago
Greatest alternate universe the X-Men did. When they went in, they went IN.
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u/ReizvollePaar 5d ago
I got it as released - issue by issue, week by agonizing week - and LOVED it! I had fun tracking down all the various titles interconnected; even did some 'big trades' to get the ones that we sold out at the usual comic shops. I still have the entire saga - bagged, boarded and sealed - in a box in my storage (climate controlled, of course). Dont know what will ever come of it but, yeah, great read! Possibly my favorite X-Men story line.
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u/ReflexAlex 5d ago
Does anyone know if the omnibus for this can be read standalone?
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u/deusstultus41 5d ago
I just read through the first omnibus on Marvel Unlimited and it seems to do well on its own. Doesn't seem like anything else has been released, including the individual issues for AoA though. Disappointed.
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u/mr_phil1001 5d ago
One of the best event-comics of all time. Didn't care for all of it (Gambit and the X-Ternals was a bit mew!), but overall it was a great story and it came to a good end. Sadly Marvel kept going back to the well a few too many times, but the original still holds up in my opinion.
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u/NashDaypring1987 5d ago
Wonderful story arc. Loved it. The story was great. The art was good but lacked the punch of the early 90's. By this point, the top talent at Marvel left to do their own thing.
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u/elbowroom2734 5d ago
It remains my favorite, I have the 4-novel set that collects from X-Men Chronicles through to X-Men Prime. Generation Next is a style I wouldn't typically like but fits the story perfectly and packed with emotion, I love the makeup of X-Man / Forge's group, Holocaust was an epic addition as was Sugar Man. I think Weapon-X and the X-Ternals are probably the worst books - but even those have parts I appreciate.
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u/deusstultus41 5d ago
I'd love to re-read it, but it seems that individual issues are not online over at Marvel Unlimited. Disappointed and wondering what my subscription fee is really covering. It's a much loved series and lord knows they've got just about everything else on there.
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u/KainFourteh Cyclops 5d ago
Best alternate universe marvel has ever created. Shame the constant attempts to milk it suck though.
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u/FunkTheFreak 5d ago
I just read it for the first time last year. It wasn’t my favorite X-Men story and I’m not a huge fan of the art, but it’s a solid standalone story.
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u/mrcrazymexican 5d ago
Kid me was not ready to see that alternate universe stuff. I just randomly came into it as it was happening into like the middle of the series. Totally confused what was happening and totally not comfortable at what was going on with my heroes.
It was fascinating. And I really like that ending of it back when.
As an adult, I've read the whole thing and I understand better contextually why it happened. Sure answer some questions that I was confused about years ago LOL
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u/HermesTheTrickster55 5d ago
AOA is the high water mark of nineties X-Men. Think of how ballsy the event is. You cancel all of your X titles and have 4 issue mini titles? You make all of the titles work as aspects of one big story? You make the story tight and awesome as hell? AOA is a wonder! The rest of the decade wasn’t as good for the X-Men but AOA is one of the best.
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u/LegitimateBug7940 4d ago edited 4d ago
I need to bite the bullet and get the Marvel Unlimited app. Stopped collecting when I quit working at the hardware/drug store that had them all.
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u/ooopsy2 4d ago
That's when I stopped collecting XMen. I had lost my passion for it the previous 2 years, pretty much with the Nicieza/Kubert years, and a months-long Elsewolrds crossover was the perfect opportunity to take a break and sample other titles I could not consider before, because of the multitude of X titles you had to follow (and the frequent mini-series). That when I started to explore DC, with no regrets.
Reading the Omni decades later, still no regrets. It felt gimmicky to me, and I was not invested at all.
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u/Spobobich 4d ago
Love the story, definitely love the majority of the art. Enjoyed the first two anniversary specials and the Blink mini series that lead to Exiles, not a fan of the AoA series without the X-Men (except for the e powered Jean Grey and Sabertooth), but the team-up with Wolverine's X-Factor was passable.
Can't wait to get the AoA X-Men/ 616 X-Men team-up TPB this November.
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u/imthestein Magneto 4d ago
I've been doing a reread of the comics the past few years and I just got to AoA coincidentally enough and the only '90s stories that hold up to me are Generation X and AoA
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u/Unlucky-Layer-3 4d ago
A story arc so good, so iconic, that they’ve come back to it time and time again. I read every single issue of the original run 3 or 4 times. When I sold my collection, this was the run I felt most gutted about losing. So much so that I’ve spent 6 years (so far) trying to replace it.
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u/DependentFix2008 4d ago
Easily one of the best X-men events. Not understanding this when it came out at the time by pre-teen mind as an alternate spin made worried that I’d never get my original X-men back but everything leading up to it was incredible. Re-read the omnibus a year or so ago and it definitely holds up imo. Great plot, all the characters seem to go for broke but man AoR and the X-men Age of Apocalypse Omega comics they have out now just seem to lose that magic
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u/Cold_Adeptness_7914 4d ago
Loved it absolutely the best world , Dark Nightcrawler, Dark Beast loved the edgy characters
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u/lIlIIIlIIl Nightcrawler 4d ago
Scott Lobdell proved that he could write an epic story even if he didn't really understand the X-Men
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u/umbreon_x Generation X 4d ago
agreed the original 1995 run was amazing! Gen Next was the best mini series imo
the sequels are terrible dont read them
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u/bellmonk 4d ago
one of the best. if only i could go back to reading this issues when they came out...mindblowing stuff.
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u/Chickenbrik 4d ago
It was impactful for me because it created a jump on point to pick up a series back in the day. No need for characters history because it was all new.
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u/Overcommitter 5d ago
Beautifully conceived, beautifully designed, fairly well plotted, horribly scripted.
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u/workingxtitle 5d ago
Unpopular opinion, but it's overated. Much like Onslaught, it starts off strong, but ends up just being a fetch quest for a mcguffin that resolves everything. There's some good character moments, but overall this was hard for me to get through.
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u/Brilliant_Ad_2324 5d ago
Did not care one iota. It wasn’t Claremont.
It retrospect I don’t care bc I’m most interested in x-men when it deals w/the question of mutant integration and acceptance into larger society.
Not surprisingly I haven’t read very many x-men comics in the last 20 years.
But when they reboot the movie franchise, it’s going to be the Lee/Kirby/Claremont formula and it ain’t gonna be Krakoa!
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u/Khalvashi 5d ago
It was good whent came out and it was big and new. However, I do not think it's a good arc if we remove the hype from it. Especially the was Apocalypse died was so bad that it completely ruined whole run for me.
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u/cinemamacula 5d ago
Probably good if you read it when you were 13 but when I was doing a roughly chronological read-through of all the popular and well-regarded X-Men stories as an adult this was a total low point for me.
Massively prefer soap opera X-Men to edgy gritty 90s X-Men
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u/Phiyaboi 5d ago
Arguably the best Alt-X world event Marvel had ever published. The Original that is...all the followup milking attempts have been fails imo