The X-Axis – 10 November 2025
Okay then…
X-MEN: AGE OF REVELATION INFINITY COMIC #2. By Tim Seeley, Phillip Sevy, Michael Bartolo & Clayton Cowles. Despite the title, the Age of Revelation Infinity Comic is actually covering events shortly after the X-Virus outbreak, not that far into the future. That means it gets to be the one book where we have Revelation as the leader of the X-Men, still recognisable as Doug Ramsey. That’s probably the most interesting thing about this arc, but this chapter (quite understandably) is mostly devoted to setting up Anton Kruch as a major threat for a Cable story, so that Revelation can show up at the end to kick things up a gear. Kruch is a weird choice of villain at first glance – his only previous appearance was in a single Cable & Deadpool arc 20 years ago. But he has the advantage of being a pre-existing character with his own plan to transform the human race with a virus, which works as an opponent for a pseudo-heroic Revelation pretending to have a team-up with Cable, so I can see why we’re using him. Still, this chapter is mainly setting up Kruch so that we can get to the good stuff next time.
ROGUE STORM #2. By Murewa Ayodele, Roland Boschi, Neeraj Menon & Travis Lanham. If I’d had time to do annotations this week, then this is the only book that would have qualified anyway. Some “Age of Revelation” books seem to be having more trouble with pacing a three-issue story than others. For Murewa Ayodele, it seems to suit him quite well – this feels a lot more focussed than the regular Storm story, and the jumping through time frames works nicely in terms of filling in the back story. After giving the first issue to Rogue, this one is from Storm’s perspective, and it basically turns out that her odd behaviour was due to possession from a demon we’ve seen in the regular series. There’s a bit with Doctor Voodoo that presumably plays into the regular series at least obliquely, as well. But mostly, it turns out to be a fairly straightforward story which leans less than usual on overpowering Ororo. Boschi’s art is really good – the demon design, with the grinning mask-like face, suits him perfectly, but he’s also adding a bit of humanity to the cast. I wish somebody would talk Ayodele out of his gimmick of sticking sound effects on literally everything – I’ll just about tolerate “LISTENING” (which isn’t easy to show), or “SLICE!” (since you’d kind of expect a sound effect in that panel of some sort), but when you get to “POUR”, “TOSS” and “CATCH”, that’s just getting in the way of the artist doing his job. On the whole, though, this is clicking better than the regular Storm title, and I think the discipline of three issues is helping there.
IRON & FROST #2. By Cavan Scott, Ruairí Coleman, Yen Nitro & Joe Sabino. This, on the other hand, feels like a book that’s struggling with the pacing – it’s really just one uninterrupted scene, and comes across as a slight story that’s been stretched to fill the length. There’s actually a solid enough concept underneath it, though. Emma is stuck in diamond form because of an injury that would kill her if she changed back to normal – which means she can’t use her telepathy. Tony has been merged with his own armour by the X-virus, and his own personality is subsumed by the armour’s computer. Emma would have to kill herself to free him, but just having her around seems to let him out for brief moments. That’s all completely fine as a high concept, and Coleman’s art gets across Iron Man’s impassivity and Landslide’s panicky reactions. But the pacing is off; as essentially a single scene, it feels too rushed, and at the same time not enough story material to fill the space.
SINISTER’S SIX #2. By David Marquez, Rafael Loureiro, Alex Sinclair & Ariana Maher. Sinister’s mutated mutants (well, mostly) raid one of Revelation’s abandoned bases in the hopes of finding the notes that will let Sinister develop a cure to the X-virus. It’s pretty straightforward but bounces happily around the cast members with their individual thoughts on their situation – which in turn makes it feel more layered than Iron & Frost. And they kick it up a gear to close, by bringing in the big guns from the wider event. (For those really interested in tracking the event, it’s the cast of Book of Revelation.) I’m not sure there’s actually that much to the main story, but the character bits and the general visual polish make it work.
SPIDER-MAN & WOLVERINE #7. By Marc Guggenheim, Kaare Andrews, Brian Reber and Travis Lanham. Spider-Man and Wolverine wind up on a parallel Earth where their counterparts are the same guy and he’s a villain. I’ve not generally been too keen on this title, beyond its primary function as a Kaare Andrews showcase – which is not a bad function to have, to be sure. As a story, though, this is actually alright. If you’re going to do a contrived Spider-Man/Wolverine team-up book then you may as well lean in to the contrivance and have fun with it. And this one does feel fun. There’s even a vague nod that the book might do something with Mariko Yashida because, after all, no one else is. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still an art showcase, but it’s figuring out how to be a romp at the same time, and that’s a step up.
Re: Rogue Storm 2:
“It basically turns out that her odd behaviour was due to possession from a demon we’ve seen in the regular series. ”
I’m not sure about that. It’s clear the demon escaped when Storm lost her powers but it’s not clear that the demon was making Storm tamper with the Earth’s weather or if tampering with the Earth’s weather was Storm’s plan to stop Doug. Ayodele has said that the next issue will show how this series ties into Age of Revelation, so hopefully we’ll get some answers next issue.
That’s not the only thing that was unclear about this issue’s plot. Why did Akujin betray them?
And how can Gambit deflect arrows when blind? Has he been taking lessons from Matt Murdock?
Re: Sinister’s Six 2:
We’re all agreed- Venom is Lorna, right?
A lot of Hellion’s fans were angry that he was on the cover but not in the issue.
Re: Iron & Frost 2:
There seems to be a redhead in Tony’s lab. I think that’s Firestar.
You’d think, as Earth’s de facto mutant leader, Revelation wouldn’t have so many D-listers in his Seraphim. Dragoness. Strobe. Chrome, the Acolyte who died two issues after he was introduced. Radian from Quentin’s Omega Gang. Thunderbird III would have been a step up.
The X-solicits for February are out:
It looks like we’ll find out who’s in charge of ONE. It’s a good thing they didn’t drag that out.
The solicit for Uncanny X-Men 23 reads “A forgotten vow from one of the team comes back to haunt them all”. Looks like Sadurang is coming back for his Eye.
One thing to note- Storm’s new series by Ayodele is a 5-issue limited series, not an ongoing as had been assumed previously. That makes sense, as sales on Storm’s series have been lackluster. It looks like Ayodele’s run is ending. Our long national nightmare is over in June.
But out of all the From the Ashes books, only X-Men, Uncanny and Wolverine survived. (Not counting Spider-Man/ Wolverine which was a joint venture between the X-Office and the Spider-Man office.) Magik was the most successful but she’ll probably be reduced to a succession of limited series because Breevort inexplicably decided to kill her series’ momentum by not giving her a series during Age of Revelation. Breevort’s attempt to create solo X-titles and his strategy of flooding the market with X-titles and seeing which ones survived were both disasters.
In other news, Moonstar had a new book announced in the Echo: Seeker of Truth one shot but it’s not anywhere in the February solicits. (Eve Ewing’s new book isn’t there either but it’s going to be announced next week.) So it looks like Moonstar’s new book was either cancelled, delayed, is a continuity implant limited series or is going to be one of those Marvel Voices one shots.
In other news, Stephanie Phillips will be the new writer on Daredevil. My condolences to Matt Murdock fans.
This may have been the worst week for comics all year. I didn’t find myself enjoying any of the X-books, even the ones that intrigued me last month (Sinister Six and Iron & Frost). I skipped Storm entirely, and Ultimate Wolverine decided that in advance of the end of the Ultimate universe, they were going to kill all the interesting cast members (besides Magik and Colossus) and leave us with just Wolverine.
I guess every week can’t have a winner but with a lineup this big, you’d think there would be one.
@MasterMahan- It’s been mentioned that there are people like Boom-Boom and Sunspot in his Seraphim. Remember. Doug needs to defend an area as large as half of the United States. If there’s hundreds of Seraphim Doug would need SOME D-listers to fill out the ranks.
@John: I didn’t buy a single X-book this week, unless you count Ultimate Wolverine. I don’t think it was an amazing week for comics, most I read were decent enough but unexceptional. On the other hand, We’re Taking Everyone Down With Us 6, Power Fantasy 13, and FF 5 were all good.
Hellboy and the BPRD: The Ghost Ships of Labrador #1 was a stand-out comic this week, for mine. Usually Mike Mignola’s comics feels like they’re going through the motions at this point, after the high-point of Mignola ending the Earth, but this was a simple ghost story and worked very well. I do sort of wish it was another one-shot instead of a two-parter, as I’m not sure where the story is going, but I might be in for another pleasant surprise with the second part standing strong.
Death to Pachuco is a comic series I would recommend. It’s a detective story based on true events.
Fantastic Four #5 was fun. Not one of North’s stronger FF issues, but better than the first three issues of the relaunch.
Those are the comics I bought this week. If I’m looking for interesting comics, I certainly don’t turn to any X-books in the present.
X-Men: Age of Doug Infinity #2 – nothing to add. I guess if they’re not cancelling this strip, it will undergo another revamp after AoR? Will probably stop being the Gen X reunion book?
Or the AoR tie-in is its swansong and it’s cancelled after all.
Rogue Storm #2 – I liked the picture of Storm on the title page. There’s something of Mignola in it.
I also liked that Ayodele remembered Storm’s relationship with Gambit. It’s one of precious few bits of characterization that make his Storm at least somewhat recognizable.
I’ll ask no questions about Gambit motorcycling across a continent and deflecting arrows while both blind and blindfolded. It’s straight from the hippo zone, it’s just this book being this book.
Iron & Frost #2 – decent idea, lackluster execution. I doubt the finale will change much, but who knows?
Sinister’s Six #2 – decent enough. I thought the first issue promised something more interesting, but it’s fine.
—————-
All in all, Age of Doug is uneven. To be expected with this number of tie-ins, but of course the number of tie-ins is one of the drawbacks of this whole enterprise.
“I’ll just about tolerate “LISTENING” (which isn’t easy to show).”
To be fair, the panel in question shows nothing but a human ear, and those are historically famous for not doing much else…
Agreed on all the more positive comments about the Rogue Storm art. It is a bit Mignola-y, and at points reminded me of the recent “Into the Unbeing” series. I liked it a lot.
Maybe aptly, this made me finally go and read the first few launch issues for the Age of Apocalypse.
I do wonder how folks here feel about them and that crossover in general – when I got into reading X-Men comics on a regular basis, the Portuguese publisher had just started doing Onslaught…
@Michael – I’m pretty sure the Moonstar thing is just a Marvel Voices one-shot; that’s how it was presented in the original “coming up” spread.
@Chris V- It’s interesting that everyone acts like Felicia has never killed anyone before when she did kill a guy working for her back when she was the Queenpin. I guess that everyone is trying to ignore that because everyone agrees that it was horribly out of character.
(This also could have been better coordinated with Amazing Spider-Man. In Amazing Spider-Man, Ben Reilly explains to Felicia that he can sense Peter’s alive but he doesn’t know where Peter is. This issue she knows Peter is in space. I guess Ben got flashes of stars or something and told Felicia.)
Spider-Man and Wolverine wind up on a parallel Earth where their counterparts are the same guy and he’s a villain.
Isn’t that the high concept behind Weapon VIII in Spider-Verse.
Bleeding Cool’s Weekly Bestseller List is out. Spider-Man & Wolverine came in 9th. None of the Age of Revelation issues made the top 10. All of them were easily beaten by Fantastic Four 5. Breevort’s stewardship of the X-Titles has been a disaster.
Maybe bringing back Brian Bendis, SHIELD, and Nick Fury Jr. will turn things around.
“I do wonder how folks here feel about them and that crossover in general…”
My knowledge of X-Men at the time AoA came out was from the 3 or 4 TPBs I’d managed to get at that point (Dark Phoenix was one), Secret Wars I & II, and however much of the cartoon had already aired. A lot of the fun of reading it was seeing who I recognised in their alternate versions and trying to work out what was going on on top of that. It seemed to me at the time like each title had a decent reason for existing within the overall story (bar maybe Generation Next), which isn’t the case with AoR, and it made me interested to see what effect it would have on the ‘real’ universe afterwards, even though I wasn’t reading anything leading in to it. So a big success for me.
@Dave- Generation Next introduced the Sugar Man and featured the rescue of Illyana, so it had an impact on the overall story.
I only just realised that the Cable story is calling Anton Kruch “prime minister” not because his organisation runs a Westminster democracy, but because he’s a church-type minister and he’s the primus.
It probably sounds fine to American ears.
“Maybe bringing back Brian Bendis, SHIELD, and Nick Fury Jr. will turn things around.”
Oh dear no.
So, Armageddon is coming – is that the name for the Chip Zdarsky event? And it’s clearly a single series story arc being blown up to crossover size once again. Since that worked so well for, well, One World Under Doom and Age of Revelation, just so we keep the references contained to this one year alone (!).
If that wasn’t enough we get to see the gears shifting basically as that happens, since the SHIELD revival was not supposed to be a SHIELD revival – Marvel already promoted the concept art for the various national Captains that are now being replaced in the story with the new SHIELD guys.
I believe Zdarsky will wrangle a good story out of this mess anyway. I don’t believe it will warrant a whole event centered around it.
Armageddon (or “Mount Megiddo”, the prophesied place of the final battle) is basically a synonym for Apocalypse, which can be translated as “Revelation”. Nice of Marvel to work with this type of marketing synergy.
Are you tired of the seemingly never-ending “One World Under Doom” and “Age of Revelation”? Good news, Marvel will begin the build to “Armageddon” immediately.
It looks like Marvel has lost faith in Brevoort’s X-Men revival, as they are attempting to reposition the Avengers as the company’s top franchise again. How? In the exact same manner as they did the first time, apparently, bringing back Brian Bendis and billing “Armageddon” as the equivalent of a new “Avengers: Disassembled”, except this time with more SHIELD.
It even looks like Wolverine may be rejoining the team, as Wolverine will play a role in the lead-up to “Armageddon”.
Marvel Comics: The House of Three Ideas (and we reuse them over and over again).
Well, why make stories good when you can make them big instead?
Marvel seems dead set against learning anything from recent successes like Fantastic Four or Magik for some reason.
I’m interested to see what Zdarsky does with Wolverine, but this “constant crossover” strategy seems both short-sighted and giving diminishing returns.
Ayodele just posted today that contrary to Marvel’s announcement last week, Storm’s new series will be an ongoing, not a 5-issue limited series. I have no clue what’s going on here. On the one hand, it’s possible that last week’s solicitation was an error. If so, that’s a pretty big mistake to make. On the other hand, it’s possible this is a situation like Casey’s Weapon X-Men, where it was approved as a 5-issue limited series with the option for more issues if sales were good. Casey then claimed it was an ongoing in hopes of keeping sales high. (Although Breevort hinted the situation was more complicated than that.) Whichever is the case, this confusion over whether it’s a limited series or an ongoing can’t help sales.
I’m choosing to see the Bendis news positively.
In the sense that it’s going to save me money, obviously.