Enter Now: The Age Of Apocalypse! Part 1 : The Retro Network

An X-Men Age Of Apocalypse retrospective. Reliving X-Men Alpha #1

Age of Apocalypse is an X-Men crossover event that ran from February 1995 to June 1995 throughout various newly named X-Men titles. The regular ongoing titles were put on hiatus to make way for A new world! A world in which Xavier was killed before he could form the X-Men, Magneto is a hero and leads the team, as Apocalypse rules over it all!

Alpha

X-Men Alpha # 1 is our first real look into the world of AOA. This issue does a great job of setting up this new universe, introducing the reader to the new characters and the new roles of the existing characters. It sets up the overall plot that will run through the whole crossover and informs the audience of the stakes.

This issue first focuses on an amnesic Bishop, whom is crawling over piles of dead human bodies. The bodies are as far as the eye can see, filling the crumbling, decrepit city. A hysterical young girl runs right into Bishop, shocked and panicking the young girl tries to plea with him.

Here we are first introduced to Apocalypse’s forces. A group of soldiers lead by Unus the Untouchable. Unus in any universe is kind of lame. I am pretty sure he has been on Wizard’s Mort of the month with a mort-o-meter of at least 7. Anyway, no matter how lame he is this is where we get our first look of the Age of Apocalypse X-Men in action!

Unus and his forces try to take Bishop down, but soon realize that Bishop can absorb Unus’ power energy. They come to the conclusion that Bishop must be a mutant too. They take Bishop down and are just about to deliver the killing blow when the X-men interfere and stop them.

We see different versions of familiar characters, Sabertooth, Wild Child, Blink, Morph, Rouge, Magneto, Storm, Quicksilver, Iceman and Nightcrawler. All part of the main X-Men team.

The fight is quick and brutal. These X-Men may be familiar, but they are much darker and deadlier than what we are used to. Ice Man ends up killing Unus before Unus can shoot the X-Men’s leader Magneto.

After the fight is over Bishop’s face is revealed to the rest of the team and it seems Magneto recognizes him. Bishop seeing Magneto triggers his own memories and Bishop incoherently confronts him. Magneto puts Bishop to sleep and they decide to bring him back to their headquarters.

Meanwhile, we turn our attention to the cast of Factor X, which includes Kurt Russell… just kidding but doesn’t Cyclops kinda look like him here ? Anyway, it includes Dark Beast, Cyclops, Havok, and Sinister. Quickly we see that the heroes in our world are much darker and in some respects evil. Dark Beast is a twisted individual that gets his rocks off by experimenting with the DNA of live mutants and humans alike. Havok is a jealous and angry little brother to Cyclops, never getting out of his big brother’s shadow. Cyclops is a little darker as well, but still the overachiever and teacher’s pet. And then we have Sinister.. still he has his hands in more than one pot, scheming and undermining his lord Apocalypse. This team is highly dysfunctional, which makes it’s very interesting.

In a brief encounter, Gambit visits Angel to ask how to get ahold of Magneto. Both Gambit and Angel are clearly not X-men in this world and both have a shady past. It’s interesting to see that Angel is the owner of a club that welcomes both humans and mutants, but has to have some sort of deal with Apocalypse since we see his Sentinels leave the establishment alone. There is an uneasiness between the two, but Angel does give Gambit the information.

We turn our attention to Apocalypse and his horsemen. Sinister, Abyss, and Holocaust (Apocalypse’s son) gather to go over plans, while notably absent is Mikhail the fourth horsemen. As the cabal discuss their plot to betray the humans’ Kelly pact Treaty, Sinister is distracted. Thinking about the information he gave Weapon X and Jean Grey, clearly undermining Apocalypses’ will.

Speaking of Weapon X and Jean Grey, they are two lovers on a mission in London.

When I saw this for the first time back in 1995, it was crazy to me. As 10 year old kid, the comics and cartoon did a great job of explaining the history of these two. She was deeply involved with Cyclops, and they even had gotten married in 1994, but there was always an attraction between them. Maybe for the older fans this was a moment they finally got to see Logan get the girl or maybe some fans hated it.

Logan and Jean deliver the data rods to the human council and have uneasy feelings of working with Sinister. They know it’s crazy, but they also know Sinister has much to lose if Apocalypse gets his way.

Back a the X-Mansion Magneto needs Rogue to look into Bishop’s mind to see a world that never was. They talk about how bad this world is and how they hope that they can bring a better life to their young son.

When Rogue touches Bishop to absorb his memories, there is a counterforce strike that shocks the X-Men. The feedback reveals a world that the readers are familiar with. A history of the X-Men through images of past events in the comics we all knew and loved.

This is when Gambit finally makes his presence known by pushing his former lover, Rogue out of harms way.

After all the commotion is settled, Magneto knows deep down that the world Bishop showed him is the correct one. He sets a plan into motion. He tell Nightcrawler he needs to speak with Mystique, Nightcrawler’s mother. He also has plans for Gambit even though they have a very estranged relationship.

By the very end of this issue, Apocalypse knows Sinister has turned on him and Magneto knows he has to fight for a world that’s not his. The final page reveals crystals in space headed towards Earth much like it did at the end of the Legion Quest Storyline.

Wow! What a great first official issue to this mega crossover! I still love it after all these years and over a ton of rereads! I really hope you enjoyed this article as much as I did writing it and rereading this issue. I hope to be back sooner this next time with part two of my AOA retrospective. But until then, Keep it Epic!

X-Men Alpha was Written by Scott Lobdell and Mark Waid, Art by Roger Cruz with Steve Epting, Inks by Tim Townsend with Dan Panosian, Letters by Starkings with the Comics craftsmen, colors by Steve Buccellato with the Electric Crayons and Edited by Bob Harris. Editor and Chief Tom DeFalco.

The X-Men were created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.