Rogue Storm #1: Twin Flames Burn Twice as Fast

The X-Virus has devastated the Earth, humanity is on the brink of extinction, the X-Men have all but fractured, and a Goddess has turned her back on humanity as a woman searches for a purpose in a broken land. 

The opening chapter is called “Deicide”, which is apt to say the least. Unlike most books in the Age of Revelation event released so far, Rogue Storm doesn’t take place X years later, but five, at least in the beginning. Rogue is leading a new incarnation of  X-Force consisting of herself, Warpath, Fantomex, Iceman, Gateway, and Spiral riding genetically altered rhino men into a not at all Fortress of Solitude to take out Storm, who has seemingly gone mad as a result of the X-Virus. 

Small jokes aside, this is a very effective opening scene to bring home the overall setting of the book. The X-Virus has devastated every corner of the globe and not even the strongest mutants on the planet are immune to the disease’s effects. As it turns out, this is a mission that spans YEARS as we are pulled ahead to the current “X years later” to see that Storm is not very happy about the attempt on her life. 

Murewa Ayodele transition from his solo Storm title into this book isn’t quite as seamless as it could have been, but he manages to stick the landing for the most part at the end of this issue with minimal scarring. The reason for “Red Rogue’s” inclusion seems like it could have been a story on its own and for that it just seems like an out of place bait and switch and a part 1 to another story that hasn’t come out yet. Storm herself, shockingly, has little screentime despite being one-half of the book’s focus. We don’t know HOW she became the way she is and why this matters in the context of AoR’s world. Time will tell.  

On the artistic side of things, Roland Boschi plays his part well. There is a nice sense of scale and his action scenes are easy to follow. Nothing too spectacular at the start, but there’s flashes of interest here and there.