The value of a book centered on the chief players working for Apocalypse cannot be overstated. We know from X-Men Alpha that an Apocalypse ruled “survival of the fittest” world isn’t pretty. We also know from X-Men Alpha that Apocalypse himself is willing to live by his philosophy.
But what does that mean in an ongoing fashion? What about the horsemen and the breeding pens and McCoy’s genetic experiments and Manhattan at large? We get some of those answers in…
Factor X #1
W: John Francis Moore | P: Steve Epting | I: Al Milgrom | C: Glynis Oliver | L: Richard Starkings & Comicraft
Sinister hides out in the head of the statue of Apocalypse towering over New York harbor. Meanwhile, back in the mutant pens he left behind, Havok and Cyclops chase a group of runaway Morlocks that McCoy intended on using in his genetic soup to create better Infinites. The runaways back where they belong, Havok and the Bedlam Brothers, two other elite mutants working for Sinister, head to Warren Worthington’s club, Heaven. Havok finds Scarlet, the club’s beautiful human singer who he is having a secret affair with, in the back. This, of course, violates laws about fraternization. When Havok and the Bedlam Brothers return from the club, Cyclops enlists them to help him find Sinister only to discover Sinister’s lab destroyed and Sinister himself missing.
It’s startling to see Sinister as probably the most reasonable person in Apocalypse’s hierarchy. That doesn’t remotely make him a good guy. Just less evil. It’s less surprising to see him a step ahead of everyone else. His narration is a good entry point, both into the series and Apocalypse’s empire depicted within it.
Sinister’s point of view is also a good way to introduce characters who have switched sides in the Age of Apocalypse timeline. Alex Summers and Sam Guthrie are sadistic, grossly racist thugs with seemingly no redeeming qualities. Strangely, Northstar being evil doesn’t seem like such a stretch. And, perhaps unsurprisingly, the Summers brothers still don’t get along. Indeed, Cyclops has something resembling a favorite child relationship with Sinister.
Alex, though, is also a massive hypocrite as seen in his secret affair with the human Scarlet.
And it’s somewhat startling to see the word “miscegenation”–a term coined in the 19th century that means “sexual relationships or reproduction between people of different ethnic groups, especially when one of them is white.” Anti-miscegenation laws made interracial marriage a felony, particularly between white and Black people, but were later expanded to include other groups like Native Americans and Asians. It’s an efficient way–at least for readers who know the term–to ground this fiction in a real world context.
A couple more characters pop up here that won’t appear in the 616 timeline until much later: the Bedlam Brothers, Jesse and Terrance Aaronson. Their powers are creative, especially as siblings–one instills mental confusion and the other monkey-wrenches machinery. With an unshakable sibling bond, they are a stark contrast with the Summers brothers. John Francis Moore and Steve Epting created them for Factor X. Moore will later introduce Jesse in the 616 timeline in X-Force #82 and his brother in X-Force #87 (though in the 616 timeline his name is Christopher). And another of the seemingly endless Guthrie clan shows up here. Elizabeth Guthrie, though not displaying mutant powers in the 616 timeline to this point, appears here with the ability to increase her size and mass at will.
Almost every character in Factor X #1 looks grim and hateful as drawn by Epting and inked by Milgrom–perhaps none more so than Havok. Their lines on facial features are thick and shadows dark. There is little subtlety in the work which is a shame. The style works for unrepentantly evil characters like McCoy and Havok, but it’s a bit heavy handed for characters like Cyclops and the Bedlam Brothers who aren’t expressly evil in their actions so much as a mere products of their circumstances.
Starkings’ work here cannot be discounted. He doesn’t do anything flashy–he doesn’t make much of a meal of sound effects or emphasized dialogue. But he does keep the dialogue bubbles and caption boxes surprisingly well organized–surprisingly because text absolutely dominates this issue. Moore did not skimp on the dialogue, perhaps because he was the only writer developing this part of the world.
X-Man #1
W: Jeph Loeb | A: Steve Skroce | I: Mike Sellers, Cam Smith, Bud Larosa, Will Conrad | C: Mike Thomas | L: Richard Starkings & Comicraft
ESSENTIAL – Nate Grey’s powers are on full display during X-Man #1’s opening–he telepathically stumbles into a meeting between Bishop and Magneto (quite some distance away) while accidentally exploding a forest. Forge, the closest thing Nate has to a parent, chastises him for using his powers to such a degree. That kind of display could be a beacon to their enemies. Indeed, back in Apocalypse’s citadel, Shadow Kind has detected a powerful telepath and Apocalypse has dispatched Domino to convert the telepath to his cause or kill him. Forge leads a rebel mutant cell composed of Toad, Soaron, Brute, and Mastermind. They travel the country posing as a theater troupe, their true appearance obscured by Mastermind’s telepathic gifts, and perform acts of sabotage against Apocalypse’s forces as they go. On this night they free a trainload of humans and kill their Infinite escort. During the fight, a woman named Theresa releases a sonic scream for the very first time. As the insurgent group leaves the site of the battle, they come upon a man named Essex who is looking for a ride.
And the whining begins! Sometimes it feels like the biggest difference between Nate and Cable is how much whining Nate does, not their power differences. But seriously, folks…
The storyline of Nate’s powers and the argument over whether he should use them or not dominates this series. But more interesting in retrospect (and something that didn’t hit as hard at the time) is that the good guys here are terrorists in the way that we understand them in the real world–as opposed to the X-Men who are an overt fighting force. The X-Men face Apocalypse’s major forces head on. It could be argued that the X-Ternals and Logan and Jean are also terrorists in this fashion, but they are considerably more open in their actions. Forge’s group simply hits targets of opportunity as they move across the country. They’re not a head-on fighting force, nor do they try to be. Indeed, that’s at the heart of the disagreement between Forge and Nate over the use of his powers.
There isn’t the same opportunity for the good guys to fill an insurgency role against the dominant governments and leadership of, say, the United States in the 616 timeline because sympathetic mutant heroes can’t just go out and start killing ordinary humans and destroying their infrastructure at will. So in this sense, Age of Apocalypse provides a singular storytelling opportunity. It is too bad that the series didn’t explore this aspect just a little bit more, but then the world was a different place in 1995, at least as far as the west was concerned.
Loeb and Skroce design a true band of misfits for this theater troupe/insurgent cell. This group’s goals are small scale and they employ hit and run tactics. Compare them to the much prettier, typically human looking X-Men and X-Ternals, both of whom act on larger scales. It’s almost as if there was a tiered system of attractiveness based on the level of resistance to Apocalypse. Forge’s group is a minor inconvenience, and so no one gets to be pretty.
Skroce comes on to X-Man having done a brief stint as Cable’s regular penciler (#13-14 and #16-19). Like the other regular pencilers, he stuck with the book’s Age of Apocalypse counterpart. But rather than go back to Cable following the event, he remained on X-Man, staying on the series through issue #20.
Skroce’s style tends to exaggerate facial features somewhat. This is largely achieved through thicker lines and fields of black as opposed to lighter shading or thinner lines for more subtle outcomes. The result are expressions with more pronounced forehead, cheek, nose, and lip detail. Eyes tend to be particularly expressive.
The style isn’t a complete departure from his work on Cable, but as is the case with other Age of Apocalypse artists, Skroce pushes the envelope a little further.
X-Man is not necessarily essential to the larger Age of Apocalypse story (though it certainly helps to know who Nate is when he suddenly shows up in X-Men Omega), but it is critical to understanding the character when he arrives in the 616 timeline in X-Man #5.
Next Time…
Banshee gets eaten. Polaris gets confused. And Logan gets flambéed.
Age of Apocalypse Turns 30: Part 4 – Everyone Loves a Good Villain
