Amazing X-Men #3: Philadelphia Freeway

You’d think with a telepathic ninja assassin that used to be part of the enemy’s elite guard now on their side that things would get easier for the X-Men as they enter what was once known as Philadelphia (which admittedly doesn’t look much different that what the city did after the Eagles’ Super Bowl win), but clearly that was a pass for things to get even harder. The X-Men finally learn of Revelation’s admittedly lackluster true goal, but it may be too late to stop him. 

I mentioned in my review of Expatriate X-Men #2 that a problem with Age of Revelation is that the individual books in it don’t really connect to one another in a coherent way. Amazing X-Men is one of the books that goes in that linear path, but one book does not an event save. Though the creative team certainly tries because Amazing X-Men continues to be an entertaining book, despite a few stumbling points. 

Jed McKay moves the overall narrative of the event forward with this final issue, but it feels a bit middling at points. We get big revelations (no pun intended) and even a few mysteries for the past as we head towards the Omega issue, and a couple of the other books in the event are mentioned, but there are only the tiniest of threads that hold them together. Psylocke gets some pathos, but it feels a bit meaningless since we know we will likely never see this version of Kwannon once the event is over. The same goes for Wiz-Kid, Glob, and the rest of the X-Men of the future. The Revelation Territories map gives us a general idea of where the various books in the Age of Revelation take place, but when we know that most of the characters will never interact with one another it’s little more than window dressing. 

Mahmud Asrar’s art continues to impress with this issue and the colors by Matt Wilson help further highlight the pencils. The muted color palette does it’s job and setting the dreary and hopeless mood of the story, popping when it needs to, notably in a few of the very entertaining action scenes.