Age of X-Man: Apocalypse and the X-Tracts #3
Cody White
Recap
The Light Riders face a moral conundrum about what to do with Omega Red, having been tasked to retrieve him for Apocalypse but seeing his destructive nature first hand. The decision to put Omega Red down for good is made by the team, leaving Evan behind to care for Eye-Boy while Dazzler and Veil go off to end Omega Red's rampage.
Back at home plate, Kitty pays a visit to Colossus' art gallery and confronts him, putting Colossus' full scope of ideology on the brink before being ripped away by Apocalypse, who begins to settle into more familiar, megalomanial tendencies.
Evan and Eye-Boy have a heart to heart about the their differences in which Evan shares knowledge of his link to his father and the memories he has seen of different lifetimes and attitudes before sensing the pain of Dazzler and Veil's defeat, prompting him to rush off to face Omega Red one-on-one. Could this be the end of the Light Riders?
Review
We finally start to get to the heart of Apocalypse and the X-Tracts with the third chapter, in which we see En Sabah Nur begin to expose himself for what he is– not a liberator but a slaver of a different type. Call it indoctrination, socialization, interpellation, what have you, but the issue of the counter becomes, in turn, an issue of the same. Forced ideology begets forced counter-ideology. His overt manipulation of Kitty lifts the veil off of Apocalypse’s schemes here in a wonderfully powerful way as he objects fully to the notion of “free will” and all that it entails.
The framing and page-layouts in this issue continue to blend beautifully with the psychedelic color palates and effects to give this series an almost dream-like state fitting to a series about embattled dreams.
The interrogation of religiosity hits a high point in the conversation between Evan and Eye-Boy as they play out the conversations of conversion versus life long socialization within a religious institution and the many pitfalls therein for both, contrasted nicely by the introduction of Omega Red and his contrary ideologues.
Final Thoughts
Apocalypse and the X-Tracts #3 is a beautifully rendered book that is operating both at base and high levels of conceptual interpretation.
Age of X-Man: Apocalypse and the X-Tracts #3: Tell Me Sweet Little Lies
- Writing - 8/108/10
- Storyline - 8/108/10
- Art - 9/109/10
- Color - 10/1010/10
- Cover Art - 9/109/10
