Writing: Scott Lobdell and Mark Waid
Art: Roger Cruz
What Went Down: Holocaust is toying with his captive, Magneto, while his father Apocalypse watches. Apocalypse taunts his prisoner and explains the trap that has been set for his X-Men. The villains still have possession of the M’kraan Crystal, which the X-Men need to fix the time stream. Elsewhere, Angel takes the time to rescue Karma, but she apparently dies in his arms.
Blink teleports the X-Men to the pens, and they fight some soldiers. After the fight, Gambit pulls the Dark Beast out of some rubble to use him to get into Apocalypse’s base. In another part of the city, Cyclops and Jean Grey are leading the prisoners of the pens to freedom. Unknown to them, Cyclops’ jealous brother Havok is following them. At the same time, Angel flies into a defense tower carrying a load of explosives, freeing up the way for the X-Men, and making it possible for Nate Grey to escape.
The Shadow King tells Apocalypse that the southwest territories have been bombed; Apocalypse prepares for reprisals. He’s about to finish off Magneto when Nate Grey shows up and attacks. Magneto finds his helmet, and the two prepare to battle Apocalypse and Holocaust.
Blink teleports the X-Men to the chamber holding the M’kraan crystal, and another fight begins. Destiny glimpses the regular universe in the crystal and announces that she, Bishop, and Illyana are the only ones who can approach it. Holocaust and Nate fall through the ceiling, and Magneto approaches his X-Men. He gives a speech about the necessity of sacrifice and the fate of the universe. Colossus has issues with his sister potentially being sacrificed, but the X-Men begin fighting anyways.
Outside, Jean projects a telekinetic shield to try to protect the prisoners from the bombs that have been triggered by the Human governments. Wolverine, known as Weapon X, makes it through the shield with a parachute. Nate beats down Holocaust some more.
In the midst of the main battle, the Sugar Man escapes from Colossus’ boot to the M’kraan crystal, so he’ll show up later in our universe. Colossus freaks out and decides that he has to be with his sister. Iceman tries to stop him, but Peter shatters him. Gambit attacks him to hold him off. At the crystal, Destiny tells Illyana to use her powers to create a portal for Bishop to go through.
At the Human High Council in Europe, Apocalypse’s defense grid is attacking England. Magneto busts in on Apocalypse and creates a suit of armor out of stray pieces of metal. However, Magneto is forced to hesitate because Guido is holding his son. Outside, Havok attacks and kills Cyclops and Jean. Weapon X kills Havok, and then sits by Jean as she passes away. Logan is reminded of a legend about the Phoenix.
Bishop travels back to the moment right before Xavier jumped in front of Legion. He’s about to interfere when he is stopped by himself from the past.
Back in the AOA, Morph is injured, and Dark Beast makes his way to a teleportation device. Quicksilver quickly scrambles the coordinates, since Dark Beast’s destination is the crystal. Shadowcat decides to get in front of Colossus, hoping their love will stop Colossus’ rage. Instead, he accidentally kills her, and Gambit in turn kills him. Peter apologizes to his sister, but Quicksilver is forced to intervene and save Illyana from enemy guards.
Rogue uses her powers to remove Guido’s mass and rescue her son. Nate Grey attacks Apocalypse and steals a shard of the M’kraan crystal that the villain was holding. In the past, Bishop beats up his past self and tackles Legion out of the way. Bishop stabs himself with Legion’s energy blade, absorbing and redirecting the energy until it consumes Legion. Legion sees the Age of Apocalypse and apologizes, saying he only wanted to help. Legion dies, and the past X-Men are sent back to the present. Charles, Magneto, and Gabrielle forget all about the recent events in Legion Quest, although they all have a sense as if something important just occurred.
Magneto and Nate have Apocalypse on the ropes, but Holocaust interrupts the fight by shooting Nate. Nate has no choice but to stab Holocaust with the M’kraan shard, sending them both into the regular Marvel Universe. Apocalypse wonders why Magneto isn’t fighting back, but it is because he is concentrating. Magneto tears Apocalypse in half, then walks off to spend his final moments with his family before the nuclear weapons go off. He takes the time to thank Charles Xavier for changing his life.
How It Was: Well, it’s double-sized, shiny, and there’s not an advertisement to be seen in it. Nevertheless, it still feels really rushed as Lobdell tries to plow through the storylines of nine books in one single finale, plus the whole Age of Apocalypse story has to be resolved so that everything can revert back to normal next month. So this book goes at a pretty fast pace. A lot of inconsequential characters like Dazzler and Exodus completely disappear because there isn’t enough room for them, and poor Roger Cruz already has more than enough characters to draw. A lot of other characters are left up in the air; Morph gets injured, but we never see what happens to him. Nightcrawler and Jubilee get forced into the background as nothing but fighters.
All the same, there are some really awesome moments in this issue. Rather than discuss them all, because it is a really big book, I think I’ll list my favorites.
1. Colossus accidentally kills Kitty Pryde
2. Magneto rips Apocalypse in half.
3. Magneto and Nate Grey vs. Holocaust and Apocalypse.
4. Weapon X avenges Jean.
5. Nate Grey to Apocalypse, “This is for Forge!”
I will elaborate on my number one pick. I can see how many would see Colossus’ reactions as out of character, but I think that given his reactions to Illyana’s death in the Marvel Universe, his behavior isn’t that far-fetched. I mean Illyana’s death pushed Peter to join the evil Magneto’s Acolytes and later he sacrifices himself to help cure the Legacy Virus (much, much later, we’ll get to it). Plus you throw in the fact that his students all died under his care, and I think it’s perfectly natural for AOA Colossus to become overwhelmed by his emotions. And the speech he gives to Illyana as he’s dying is so well done down to the part where he wants her to stay with him, but she can’t.
Not every moment is solid. The fact is that the only way that this story could have any impact on the greater X-universe was to have some of the characters make it back to the normal universe; the ways in which these characters make it to the Marvel Universe are rather contrived, and none of them have had any groundbreaking moments in the last decade or so. Yes, X-Man had his own book for a while, but most X-collectors never really bothered with it, and it rarely affected the wider X-Men franchise.
I must say that the end is superb; I love how the panel is engulfed in white and you’re left to figure out if it’s a nuclear holocaust or reality fixing itself. And while the story doesn’t have very many ramifications for the characters, it is a well-constructed story with a solid direction that opened a lot of possibilities for writers to play with the characters and themes of the X-Men and present them in a new light.
B+
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