Theron Couch
“There’s also a conversation that we had about Generation X, which had just started and it would have been only up to Issue 5 going into Age of Apocalypse. We realized that if we don’t do anything with Generation X, just ignore AoA and kept it going, then we run the risk of saying, this book isn’t an important part of the X-Universe.” –Scott Lobdell
Age of Apocalypse Turns 30 Part 0: Legion Quest
Age of Apocalypse Turns 30 Part 1: The Alpha…
Age of Apocalypse Turns 30 Part 2: Mobilization
Generation Next #1
W: Scott Lobdell | P: Chris Bachalo | I: Mark Buckingham | C: Steve Buccellato & Electric Crayon | L: Richard Starkings & Comicraft
It’s Chamber versus Husk versus Mondo in Generation Next #1’s opening pages. They seem to be doing the best they can to kill each other. Three minutes in they’re all still alive, and that’s when their teacher, Colossus, attacks. The students team up against him only for their other teacher, Shadowcat, to surprise them as well. And then, when the students finally manage to effectively fight back against her, Colossus becomes momentarily enraged. Magneto’s arrival is the only thing that brings the potentially deadly training session to an end. That’s when Shadowcat lights a cigarette! * GASP * Magneto needs a time traveling mutant and intends to send Colossus and his charges to find one–assuming any survived Apocalypse’s purge. And one did: Illyana Rasputin, Colossus’ sister who was thought to be dead.
Generation Next is an odd duck of a series. The first issue is dark but also so bizarre that at times it borders on funny. Katie Pryde and Paige Guthrie come off as almost insane. This is largely one extended action sequence, and whether or not someone likes the issue is probably dependent on how they respond to the presentation of the characters in the fight. Unlike most of the Age of Apocalypse #1s, there isn’t much of a plot here so much as one long series of events.
Lobdell doesn’t deliver much direct character development. Shadowcat and Colossus’s sole trait seems to be hyper-aggression. And somehow, even less is revealed about their students. But at this point almost all of the original timeline’s Generation X characters were brand new, so little had been established about them as well.
It’s also noteworthy that Katie and Colossus’s training regimen resembles Apocalypse’s own philosophy. The exercise is seemingly a free for all attempt to kill each other (it’s unclear whether killing is actually a goal or the inflicting of pain is sufficient). But ultimately the point is strength over each other rather than strength as a unit.
Indeed, Colossus’s response to his students’ collective efforts against Katie is to deal even more damage to them–as well as a complete freak-out which telegraphs future behavior.
The character of Vincente Cimetta is one of those that is introduced in the Age of Apocalypse before a counterpart first appears in the 616 timeline. One of Katie and Colossus’s students, he’s a mutant with no real body who is able to transform himself between solid, liquid, and gaseous states of matter. A 616 Vicente would be introduced in Generation X #12 less than a year later as a member of Emplate’s gang. He appears in three issues here, #12-14, and eventually a fourth, #57, but has not been seen since.
And boy is that cigarette whiplash-worthy after so many years of Marvel’s no smoking policy.
Bachalo’s style in Generation Next #1 is largely similar to his style in Generation X #1-4. The big exception here is Colossus. He is massive compared to every other character, with somewhat exaggerated facial features. Generation Next will prove to be a transition point toward some of Bachalo’s more eccentric styles seen during his run on Generation X.
Shadowcat’s design is fascinating. None of the Age of Apocalypse writers suggest any kind of deep relationship between Logan and Shadowcat, yet that seems like the likeliest influence for such a costume design. There’s no way of knowing if that was in Lobdell and Bachalo’s mind when this version of Shadowcat was created, but it’s one of many things dropped in various Age of Apocalypse issues that hint at different changes in the timeline.
Weapon X #1
W: Larry Hama | P: Adam Kubert | I: Karl Kessel, Dan Green & Chris Warner | C: Mike Thomas | L: Pat Brosseau
The Human High Council, based in London, intends to airlift as many humans as they can out of Apocalypse-ruled North America. But before they can do that, the sea wall defenses around North America have to be disabled. Logan and Jean ride a sentinel and crash into that sea wall. The sentinel holds its ground as Logan and Jean fight their way toward the control center. Havok teleports in to provide assistance and faces Jean who he recognizes as a former prisoner in “the pens.” The sentinel lends a hand, literally–ejecting both of them toward Havok and sending him back through the teleporter to wherever he came from. The control center destroyed, Logan and Jean hop back on their sentinel and return to London. Apocalypse deploys Magma to wipe out the Human High Council, but she is immediately killed by Logan. And the planning for a doomsday strike on Apocalypse continues.
Kubert’s Logan is exceptionally detailed here, right down to the individual strands in what looks more like a mane than a hair style. This look for Logan’s hair was first seen in X-Men Alpha, but real justice is done to it here. Between this mane of hair and angry expressions that turn to teeth gritted rage during fights, Kubert has managed to give Logan an even greater intensity than his 616 timeline counterpart. Even when Logan is kissing Jean, he looks pissed off.
Havok is drawn with an equal level of rage. The same level of detail used on Logan is also brought to bear on Havok. Jean never quite hits the same level of rage as either of them, but she isn’t very happy through any of this issue, either.
Though Kubert draws a more intense Logan, narratively he isn’t that different from the original timeline. The lion’s share of character development concerns Jean. She’s more violent than her 616 timeline counterpart. And somehow the Cyclops/Jean/Logan triangle still exists–dialogue reveals that Jean was at one point a prisoner in the pens controlled by Cyclops and Havok but was rescued by Logan who clawed out one of Cyclops’ eyes. That’s got to be satisfying for Team Wolverine. But Hama does write Logan with enough self-awareness to wonder if what Jean feels for him isn’t love so much as gratitude.
Havok’s dialogue also reminds us that Sinister and Beast use mutants for experiments and breeding stock–a particularly dark environment for one of our good guys to have been trapped in (even if we didn’t see it).
Weapon X is the only series that provides a glimpse of what’s going on beyond Apocalypse’s empire, so while none of the series is essential, there is some extra world building here that the other series won’t provide.
Amazing X-Men #1
W: Fabian Nicieza | P: Andy Kubert | I: Matt Ryan | C: Kevin Sommers | L: Richard Starkings & Comicraft
Humans are gathering in Maine, awaiting an airlift sent by the Human High Council in Europe (the one that Logan and Jean paved the way for in Weapon X #1). The remaining X-Men–those who didn’t go with Rogue to Chicago–plan to protect the humans while the airlift is underway. To do that, they need to momentarily disable a sentinel and slip in a disc that will identify them as friendly mutants. When the X-Men get to Maine, they’re ambushed by the Madri who have managed to scramble the disc the X-Men slipped inside the sentinel. The sentinels identify the X-Men and attack, blowing Iceman apart.
Cigarettes make another appearance here. * GASP * Dazzler lights up–something a singer isn’t likely to do. It’s yet another hint at how this world is different from the original timeline. At least Exodus has the good sense to yank the cigarette away from her, not a fan of her cigarette breath.
Amazing X-Men #1 is somewhat refreshing in that it has nothing to do with the overall fix-the-world plotline. It’s just an easily digestible X-Men adventure. From the point of view of the heroes, this is one of only two first issues that merely offers a sense of the world and the heroes in it. So much of Age of Apocalypse’s success depends on world building, and a story like this helps do that.
Nicieza also does a good job of tossing out ideas that will never get an explanation. How did Magneto find Paris (the 616 timelines’s Exodus), and why is he so unfamiliar with his own powers? What happened with Iceman’s powers that he can be blown apart and reconstitute himself (keep in mind that this was a long time ago, and in the 616-timeline Bobby has just recently seen Emma use his powers far better than he could)? How could Banshee retire given the state of the world? On one hand it’s almost unsatisfying to never get answers to questions like these in an alternate universe story. But on the other hand, we’re just popping over for what amounts to a few moments and getting explanations for everything isn’t the point of the story. Creative writing all around.
Kubert’s style here is very recognizable. Character designs are largely unremarkable as well. Banshee and Dazzler are easily recognizable. Paris isn’t obvious as a counterpart to Exodus. He also doesn’t stand out at all. In an event where many characters’ appearances are eccentric at the least, it’s unfortunate that there isn’t much creativity here.
More successful are the issue’s crowded wide panels and the action sequences. These are Kubert’s bread and butter most of the time, and it’s a good visual setup for the large-scale encounter in the next issue.
Next week…
The Summers brothers still don’t get along, and the X books’ chief complainer makes his first appearance.
