HEY THERE'S SPOILERS IN HERE!!!
Now that that's out way....
I almost wrote this blog immediately after I finished reading the final part of "Age of X" in New Mutants #24 but decided to wait until I had the opportunity to re-read the Alpha issue, the 6 issue story, and the two "Age of X Universe" issues as a whole. After doing that, my opinion as a whole has not really changed. It is a terribly flawed, terribly disappointing story, and here is my view on the how's and why's...
The "Age of X" (henceforth referred to as AoX) all started in November 2010 with this little image below:
A handful of blacked out images, a teasing logo that references a historic story from fifteen years ago, and plenty of speculation. Would it related to "Age of Apocalypse"? Is that Magneto, Wolverine, or Gambit in that image? Does "X" stand for X-Men?
Over the course of the next couple weeks, the fans were treated to another image with blacked out characters that were revealed a bit at a time...
...as well as QR codes that linked to historical logs fleshing out the AoX world (check them out at the AoX Wiki page). Comic Book Resources added it's own Age of X Communiques that gave back story to several of the characters, and prior to the actual release of the books, I was quite excited.
The first story of the AoX world, AOX: Alpha, came out in January 2011 and gave me plenty to be intrigued about as it gave origin info on Basilisk (Cyclops), the Guthrie Family, Wolverine, and Magneto, as well as estabilishing the general tone of this brave new world. I dug it, was very curious to see where it was going, and excited for the X-Men: Legacy & New Mutants issues to come.
My interest continued after reading the first two parts of the story in Legacy #245 & New Mutants #22 as the central conflict was established, the question of just what did Katherine Pryde's camera contain was posed, and the nagging wonder of just what Madison Jeffries was talking about regarding the stars lingered. The identity of X, Bartender Wolvie, comatose Prof. Xavier, the strange dog tags...it established a mystery to sink my teeth into as I worked to figure out just what the hell had created this world. And I think that mystery maintains pretty well through Chapter 3...after that, the wheels slowly fell off.
Enter Chapter 4, and the slow downfall of this AoX story for me. There were definite moments in the first three chapters that brought out my inquisitive side: why was Moira one of the only humans in Fortress? Why were only telepaths in the brig? Why were mutants who had otherwise lost their powers repowered in this world? And the cliffhanger of Chapter 3 had me excited for the possibility of Basilisk & Wolverine working to uncover the mystery as well as Legacy (Rogue) and Gambit.
Enter Chapter 4 and the first four pages essentially scream at you identity of the parties responsible for the AoX. The page featuring Legion & Moira may as well be a picture of the reader being hit in the head with a hammer. We find out the entire universe is being kept in a box, that Doctor Nemesis is in some wierd stasis in a room that shouldn't exist & someone's brain scans are on his wall. The entire feel of this chapter just felt different to me, like there should have been more chapters to this story to unfold it in some meaningful way, but Carey was only given 6 in order to accomplish that goal, 7 with the Alpha issue. Truly not enough to really flesh out the whole AoX world in my opinion, and I guess that was part of the reason for AoX: Universe.
The month that Chapters 3 & 4 came out was also the release of the first issue of AoX: Universe and essentially worthless given the revelation via Katherine Pryde's camera that nothing existed outside of the force walls created by Legion & the Force Warriors every day. The AoA version of this book fleshed out the world away from the X-Men and this was intended to do the same. Instead we ended up with a story that really didn't matter because, according to the core text, NOTHING existed outside the walls. Yes, the reader is brought into this via the memories Legacy has apparently absorbed from the AoX Captain America but does anything that happens here matter? Hell, how is any of it even remotely possible in a world where nothing exists until it enters the Force Walls and the Fortress? Are memories spontaneously generated by the constructs as soon as they enter the area? How are these heroes a part of this world? These are questions that are never answered, as if these AoX: Universe stories were written with Simon Spurrier having no idea what Mike Carey's larger plan was.
And that brings me back to the last two chapters, 5 & 6, of the AoX world; the chapters where everything becomes revealed to the Brotherhood of X (the name being a further tell that the character of X is the one manipulating everything). Chapter 5 is a huge dialogue drop in which we learn that all of this is because of Dr. Nemesis' attempts to heal Legion's fractured mind and Xavier looking to fix the damage the Doc caused. A super personality was created inside Legion's brain that took on the identity of Moira MacTaggert and had the (very vague) power to create worlds. It decided to create a world where Legion was a coherent personality, a world in which Legion was the hero of the day, a world where it became the voice in charge known as X (hence the Age of X), but it was a world at constant war. It was even expressly stated that things only existed if X was paying attention to them ("Why do the human battalions disappear when your attention is elsewhere?" said Xavier). Oh yeah, and it's a shame that the tease of Basilisk & Wolvie joining the search for the truth amounted to nothing...
Okay so now my problems with all of this: why on Earth would X keep Dr. Nemesis around in any form? Or Xavier? Or any of the telepaths for that matter? If X could create any world, why would it be a world in which the methods to break that world are still intact? How did any of the events of the Universe books even take place if no world existed outside the Force Walls, if X wasn't paying attention to it, as Xavier stated? Who the hell are all these random, faceless mutants in The Fortress if those on Utopia were the one's affected?
And I think, with the final chapter, we get the ultimate problem with this entire story arc: none of it matters. Not one second of anything that has happened, not any of the X-Communiques, not any of the QR historical logs, none of it has mattered. I think that's core reason why such moments like Wolverine leaping into battle with claws extended, despite The Cure probably killing him in the process, has no emotional impact to the reader. Nothing mattered...
It's a bit odd to write that statement because the same could be said for the AoA in the 90's, but this is different in many ways. That story, that reality, while only in print for four months managed to draw you in so much more and felt so much more...real. Perhaps it was the multi-faceted look at the world with something like 10 mini-series' devoted to giving you a full picture of the entire world as well as Alpha & Omega bookends. The relationships between characters felt fuller and the desperation of their situation more dire, as opposed to the same sort of circumstances in the AoX. For example, the relationship of Basilisk & Frenzy is surprising in the AoX but it just doesn't ever feel right like the relationship between Jean Grey & Weapon X in the AoA. And I know I keep comparing the two, but the choice to call it the AoX is just one way in which Mike Carey intended to connect the two stories.
Another obvious way they are connected is in the use of Legion as the impetus behind the change. Not wholly original, and entirely unforseen by anyone reading the X-Books really. There has been nothing in any of the X-Titles that served as precursor to this tale. No instances of Prof. X expressing concern over Dr. Nemesis' treatments of Legion that have been going on for months now, no signs of Legion having any problems; when the reveal of the "how" is laid out on Chapter 5...it just felt out of left field to me.
I wanted to like this story, I wanted to be impressed and wanted this to be a story I looked forward to re-reading from time-to-time. Unfortunately that was not the case...hell it took me forever to actually pick up Chapter 5 again after I finished Chapter 4 the second time around. I just felt...robbed? No, that's not it, just disappointed in the whole situation. The answer to the "how" should have been a logical progression of story, the reveal of Moira as X should have had more oomph, and the fallout on Utopia should have felt like something big was on the horizon. Instead I got none of that...and I don't feel like any of that is coming.
This was something major, or at least should have been. We should see the repercussions in not just X-Men: Legacy, but also in X-Force, Uncanny X-Men, X-Men, and New Mutants! This was a story that changed the world, changed relationships, changed status quos, and brought characters into 616 existence that weren't there before. I know I need to wait and see what's to come, but there was nothing in the close of Chapter 6 that made me feel like there was anything coming. I could barely tell what Legion was doing on the last page given the quality of the art (that's a whole other story...couldn't even keep wardrobe consistent from chapter to chapter, just like at Moira in 5 & 6).
I guess it's only the future that will show if AoX has any importance whatsoever, but in the 3 months of its existence, it proved to have very little positive impact on little old me. Shame too, I've generally liked Carey's run on Legacy, not as much since X-Necrosha, but still a solid book. I hope that the post-AoX stories can redeem the last 3 months and that I'm proved wrong about their impact on the X-Universe proper.
But for now, let me just say that this is NOT something I recommend for those who have not read it. If you want to read some alternate reality X-Books, go pick up the AoA trades or Days of Future Past book, don't worry about the AoX. Leave that up to obsessive fanboys like yours truly...
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