X-MEN: AGE OF REVELATION INFINITY COMIC #1. By Tim Seeley, Phillip Sevy, Michael Bartolo & Clayton Cowles. Huh, turns out we’re not finished with these after all. This is very much in the margins of the crossover proper. It’s a Cable story set “shortly after the X-virus outbreak”, when Revelation hasn’t become established yet, and the plot involves Anton Kruch trying to take advantage of the situation in order to push his own agenda of eradicating discrimination by making all humans identical. Honestly, he’s an established villain. He was in the first arc of Cable & Deadpool back in the day. In itself, it’s a decent enough story, with the usual solid art and Seeley bringing a bit more personality to the bit players. But there’s also some interest coming from Cable not knowing what’s going on in this time period, and the Revelation-led X-Men hovering around on the fringes of the plot, still apparently meant to be the heroes. I’m kind of interested to see that part of the back story filled out, actually.

AMAZING X-MEN #2. (Annotations here.) Cyclops faces off against the Darkchild in a battle of home truths and comes out on top. It’s a very good scene, and it looks great. I’m left wondering about the pacing of some of these “Age of Revelation” titles, though – this is only a three issue miniseries, surely? But then again… no, no, it’s not, because there’s a finale issue, and there was also the Overture one-shot. So this particular issue is really #3 (of 5) and it makes a bit more sense that way. And there’s also the swerve that the A-plot is meant to be happening back in the present day, with future Cyclops trying to nip Revelation in the bud – which I kind of saw coming, but there’s nothing wrong with that. Getting the hints confirmed can be satisfying too. I’m still left a bit confused about what sort of satisfying ending we might get out of the “Age of Revelation” phase of the story, though.

BINARY #2. (Annotations here.) I don’t think this one’s working. Giada Beluiso’s art looks nice enough but I don’t really buy Stephanie Phillips’ take on Carol Danvers here. The broad idea is that Carol has been saddled with the responsibility of Phoenix by being the only potential host around when Jean died, feels overwhelmed by that, and has responded by digging in to defend a single town instead of using the power for something more. I think. And I kind of like the idea that Carol, as a soldier, might lack the psychic finesse or empathy that Jean brings to the role. That’s fine as far as it goes. But the plot isn’t really built around that. Why is a soldier just defending her home town rather than fighting back, despite having cosmic power at her disposal? If she lacks Jean’s finesse, how on earth has she sustained a virus-proof bubble around the town, complete with some sort of quarantine arrangement? Who on earth is there to deal with outside the bubble? Why does Jean die anyway? If Jean is supposed to have sacrificed her life to quarantine Earth, why have we got no less than four other tie-in books involving people being able to travel to and from Earth? I sort of see the idea that Carol, as an inferior Phoenix, has wound up doing a cut price version of the genuinely cosmic stunt that Jean pulled off – and I don’t particularly have a problem with going against Carol’s normal hyper-competent presentation in this context. But if the Phoenix power can create a virus proof barrier around the Earth, why didn’t Jean just quarantine it on Earth? Too much of this feels handwaved through and the emotional beats aren’t really landing either; if the high concept here is to put Carol Danvers into a Jean Grey story complete with Madelyne Pryor as villain, then Carol is coming across as a random inclusion more than an interesting contrast. There isn’t much plot momentum here, either: we haven’t really established what Madelyne wants or what the stakes are, and there’s only an issue to go.

LAURA KINNEY, SABRETOOTH #2. (Annotations here.) There’s a similar point here – this doesn’t feel like a story which is two thirds of the way through. What there is of it is fine enough, and I think the way Laura rationalises her way around accommodation Revelation’s directions is quite nicely done. The art feels a bit awkward to me, and the kid still doesn’t look great, and having Laura as “Sabretooth” doesn’t really seem to play any part in the plot. But I can buy Laura convincing herself that this is where she wants to be, and occasionally having doubts as her mind tries to work its way free. That’s the good bit. The problem is that a lot of this issue is devoted to a protracted fight scene that a three-issue mini surely doesn’t have space for. I suppose the next issue is going to be Laura somehow making her way to Arakko to be freed from Revelation’s influence – I can’t see how else you could possibly tie up the story – but the plot feels sketchy in the extreme.

LONGSHOTS #2. By Gerry Duggan, Jonathan Hickman, Alan Robinson, Yen Nitro, Mattia Iacono, Carlos Lopez & Ariana Maher. The random absurdist comedy book that doesn’t really have anything to with “Age of Revelation”, and… uh, yeah, it’s certainly a thing. I do like the art, and having the X-Babies host the podcast about the comic we’re watching is a nice idea. And yes, I’ll go for the jokes about nobody caring about the Celestials. But writing Longshot as a character who feels threatened by the new people taking his spot in Mojo’s stories feels pointless, and a lot of it still falls into the category of “no such thing as nearly funny”.