Age of Apocalypse Turns 30: Part 6 – Nurture Over Nature
Theron Couch
By Theron Couch
on
The 30th anniversary look at Age of Apocalypse continues (even if it’s now technically 31)…
“We sat around and we started talking if you could start things from soup to nuts who would get what characters and what character go in what books. If you remember Fabian, whore that he was, and I say that with nothing but affection, he was like, ‘I want Magneto, and Storm, Quicksilver, and Wolverine and Gambit.’ He was clearly front-loading his book with the popular characters at the time. And I countered with ‘I want Changeling, you know, the guy Professor X switched places with? But what if in here, he calls himself Morph like the character from the TV show, and he looks like a number two pencil eraser until he picks a shape?’ I went on to ask for Sunfire, with his skin burned off, and Sabretooth with Wildchild on a chain. All the while Joe Madureira, God bless him, is sitting across from me like, ‘What are you doing?’” —Scott Lobdell
W: Warren Ellis | P: Roger Cruz & Renato Arlem w/ Charles Mota & Eddie Wagner | I: Phil Moy. Tom Wegrzyn & Harry Candelario | C: Joe Rosas/Digital Chameleon | L: Richard Starkings and Comicraft
Avalon is burning in X-Calibre #2. Or at least that’s what Destiny sees in Switchback’s future. At the same time, far from Avalon, Kurt and a group of humans are being smuggled out of Apocalypse’s territory on a small rickety submarine. The submarine’s air recycling breaks down, and it has to surface. Kurt teleports out of the hold as soon as he can. The submarine is happened upon by a larger ship under the command of Callisto. She offers to take the refugees the rest of the way, using a hard sell on the sub captain. Once the refugees are safely aboard her ship, Callisto sinks the sub. She collects the refugees’ valuables to, as she says, provide an alibi for her ship as a shipwreck recovery vessel. Callisto then proceeds to “hide” the refugees in an unused ballast tank before later flushing them out into the ocean. Overly impressed with their haul, the crew fails to notice that they’ve drifted into an atrocity zone–one of several areas in the Atlantic Ocean where Apocalypse dumps the excess human bodies from his cullings. Horrified by Callisto’s crew’s actions, Kurt proceeds to kill Callisto’s crew. Callisto is his last target, and as the two standoff, Kurt with swords and Callisto with a gun, Kurt’s mother arrives.
X-Calibre #2 is a slow point for the series. Certainly Kurt’s trip to Avalon is worth following in the story, but this issue is largely a side adventure on the way. Ellis makes a play for delivering the darkest entry in the event, though even an ocean full of corpses can’t stand up to the likes of Astonishing X-Men or, especially, Generation Next.
Dani Moonstar is a throwaway character here, but there is something amusing about her being a complete sadist and torturing Dead Man Wade because his healing factor makes it fun for her. The 180° shifted characters are some of the most fun.
If Scott and Jean (in Factor X and Weapon X respectively) are examples of nature overcoming nurture, Kurt is decidedly an example of the opposite. When Age of Apocalypse was written, Scott, Jean, and Kurt were pretty much above reproach. Kurt may still be one of the good guys here, but vengeance and murder are perfectly fine by him.
Despite the art by committee situation, X-Calibre #2 is a visually cohesive issue. Cruz’s work is dominant, and it is clearly in keeping with his style as seen most recently in X-Men Alpha. This is especially obvious with Kurt whose facial expressions are exaggerated in comparison to Lashley’s work in the series’ other three issues.
Generation Next #2
W: Scott Lobdell | P: Chris Bachalo | I: Mark Buckingham | C: Steve Buccellato and Electric Crayon | L: Richard Starkings and Comicraft
Illyana Rasputin is one of many humans (or in her case a mutant whose powers haven’t manifested) toiling in the Seattle core, the source of energy for all of America. Colossus, Shadowcat, and their students are approaching the core in a two pronged attack in Generation Next #2. The students are sneaking in the front door while the teachers come around the back. As he discusses the plan, Colossus’s statements hint that he sees the rescue of his sister as paramount above all other considerations. Paige, Vincente, and Mondo successfully sneak in and surprise and kill Quietus, the mutant in charge of the core. They then impersonate him and smuggle in Jono and Angelo. Meanwhile, Illyana continues to toil and avoid the Sugar Man.
Sugar Man makes a cameo appearance in Generation Next #2, appearing only in shadow on the opening pages. The dialogue Lobdell writes for Illyana and her companion, as well as the overall mood for the scene, do a good job building up the character in advance of his first full appearance.
The Colossus foreshadowing continues. The character’s darker nature is a good reflection of what happened in his past. Like Kurt in X-Calibre, Colossus is a character whose potential good nature can’t get past what he’s experienced. Indeed, he seems further gone than Kurt as seen in Generation Next #1.
Generation Next #1 saw Bachalo push the envelope when it came to his artistic style. Colossus was a good example in the first issue, but Quietus here is something else altogether. Quietus’s mutant power isn’t described, so perhaps his appearance was meant to be part of it. In any event, he is all out of proportion and in possession of one hell of a nose.
The procurement of sexual favors, exploding bad guys…the series’ creepy humor and general darkness continues.
Astonishing X-Men #2
W: Scott Lobdell | P: Joe Madureira | I: Dan Green & Tim Townsend | C: Steve Buccellato & Digital Chameleon | L: Chris Eliopoulos
ESSENTIAL – Continued in part from Amazing X-Men #2…The X-Men are in what remains of Chicago, attempting to prevent Holocaust from culling all the humans in the area. Sunfire immediately goes into a frenzy, determined to kill Holocaust. Unfortunately his display of power terrifies the humans that the X-Men are intent on saving. Rogue temporarily depowers Sunfire and in the process absorbs Sunfire’s memory of when Apocalypse and Nemesis slaughtered everyone Sunfire held dear. Sabretooth and Wild Child break away from the rest of the team, followed soon after by Blink. Sabretooth wants Blink to teleport him to Holocaust. After a heartfelt goodbye, Blink does so. Sabretooth and Wild Child arrive in Indianapolis. During their confrontation with Holocaust, the Horseman foolishly reveals the location of an Infinites processing plant. Wild Child runs off to deliver the information while Sabretooth keeps Holocaust busy. Though Sabretooth seems to have the upper hand when he shatters Holocaust’s armor, Holocaust is able to seemingly kill the X-Man.
Most of Astonishing X-Men #2’s plot is unimportant to the larger event. But a key part of Age of Apocalypse overall is an upcoming storyline involving Magneto and Apocalypse. This is a stepping stone in that direction. Astonishing X-Men overall also captures a significant amount of the emotional resonance of Age of Apocalypse. Indeed, there is probably more power in this story of the X-Men trying to stop the culling than most of the other series.
Sunfire’s momentary enthusiasm is a nice follow-up to his entrance in Astonishing X-Men #1. And in Sunfire’s case we see the traumatic events from his past. Most characters’ pasts are stated or merely inferred. Nemesis, mentioned here, is the earlier form of Holocaust. He is only seen in X-Men Chronicles #1, and there is never any specific information about how this change happened.
And at the end of that sequence, a heavily burned Sunfire, seen only in a few panels after Rogue extinguishes him, plays into the trauma Lobdell is going for in the writing.
The Blink/Sabretooth relationship is fascinating. Lobdell still pushes Sabretooth toward savagery in Age of Apocalypse (and his appearances in X-Men Chronicles especially lean that way), but Sabretooth’s characterization is still a little softer here than it is in the original timeline. In the scene in question, Blink is certainly the more emotional of the two. But Lobdell captures genuine feeling in Sabretooth’s dialogue. This is easily one of the closest relationships that isn’t a romance in the entire event. And Lobdell is getting a lot of mileage out of Blink, a character whose only appearances came during the recent Phalanx Covenant. It’s possible to have a two-fold regret here: the first is that there isn’t space for more scenes between Sabretooth and Blink in Age of Apocalypse (though Blink gets a lot of good material on her own), and the second that Blink’s power set combined with a rich emotional depth could have made for a compelling character in the original timeline.
Giving Magneto a son is a great story choice if for no other reason than Magneto has to pay a heavy price to fix the timeline. In the long run it’s of no consequence–once the timeline is fixed Magneto won’t remember that he had a son. But Lobdell repeatedly gets pathos out of it. And he writes a particularly cold Bishop who sees young Charles as nothing more than a mistake of a broken timeline. It’s no wonder everyone who encounters Bishop hates him. And in a bigger picture sense, resetting the timeline in these kinds of stories is too often approached without much–if any–thought given to the fact that such an act affects a planet’s worth of people. Lobdell doesn’t go that far when it comes to exploring Charles’s presence, but it’s a good inclusion and helps create personal stakes for both universes.
X-Man #2
W: Jeph Loeb | P: Steve Skroce | I: Mike Sellers, Bud LaRosa, Kevin Conrad & Scott Hanna | C: Mike Thomas & Digital Chameleon | L: Richard Starkings and Comicraft
Domino and her cohorts Grizzly and Caliban are pursuing an unknown telepath in X-Man #2. Sent by Apocalypse, they are pursuing whatever clues they can. Meanwhile, Forge continues Nate’s training but is finding it harder to control him now that Essex has joined their group. Essex continually pushes Nate in secret training sessions despite the risk it puts him in. During all of this, Brute watches Essex, believing that he knows the man. When it comes time for the group to plan their next strike, Essex talks Forge into attacking a factory where McCoy has humans slaughtered in order to collect bone marrow. His intention is to use that marrow to help create alpha class mutants. Following the attack, an attack in which Nate pushed himself to a near breaking point, Brute confronts Essex. Though Brute acknowledges that Essex looks different now, he believes that Essex was the one who experimented on Brute when he was held in the pens. Essex’s response is deadly. Shortly after, Forge finds Essex and announces that his group intends to part ways with the new member. It’s at that moment when Domino, Grizzly, and Caliban strike.
Skroce’s style is well suited to depicting less conventionally attractive mutants. Rossovich, the Age of Apocalypse version of Omega Red, is oversized compared to his original timeline version. As a physical presence, he carries more menace here. Grizzly’s face is half teeth. Caliban resembles a goblin. Skroce’s thicker lines and heavier shading exaggerates features on every character, but it works especially well here.
As frustrating as Nate’s characterization can be, Loeb does build good excuses into Nate’s surroundings. Nate started out in Sinister’s pens. Now the dynamic Nate is in with Forge isn’t a nurturing one–he lacks a true parental figure and has no companions of similar age. And finally Essex arrives and starts feeding into Nate’s natural tendency for teenage rebellion. It’s unclear how much Loeb looked at the circumstances he crafted as justification for Nate’s characterization, but it at least makes sense for the attentive reader.
McCoy’s actions are laughably evil in Age of Apocalypse. The casual waste of what Loeb envisions here outstrips anything Moore has going on in Factor X. Of course this was back in the 90s when Beast in the original timeline was guided by a definite morality. It was hard to picture the character going off in such a dark direction. Looking back on what Beast has become in the intervening years, though–especially his behavior by the end of the Krakoa era–all of this suddenly doesn’t feel so impossible.
Next time…Apocalypse versus Magneto!
Scott Lobdell quote: “One for the Ages: An oral history of Age of Apocalypse, the X-Men’s massive crossover, 25 years later” (https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/x-men-age-of-apocalypse-oral-marvel-history-25-years-later)
Age of Apocalypse Turns 30: Part 6 – Nurture Over Nature
