Age of X-Man (AOX) has introduced us to a world where something has fundamentally changed to create a new history in a way similar to the Age of Apocalypse. This time the change revolves around the character of X-Man who is from that divergent world and who made his way to the 616 universe. This time it seems that he is at the center of this divergent timeline and he fully intends to keep[ things as they are for through his efforts he has created a mutant paradise…at the cost of all human interaction, at the cost of love itself. If you recall from my review of the previous issue mutants work together in society but are ultimately alone. There are no deep interpersonal relationships, now deep emotion bonds, no families, no unity the individual is placed above all. Given how uniquely diverse mutation can make the citizens of this world it is easy to see why this became the core of their society and in large it has worked. There are no more wars, crime is minimal (in this book) nd there is harmony. But, humans are at heart social creatures and this is where Apocalypse comes into the scene.
Apocalypse is preaching the gospel of love, of unity of passions expressed. This creates quite a dilemma as the X-Men do not assault anyone going about this heresy peacefully. And heresy is what this is all about, this book is about the clash of two opposing religions in essence. Both are in essentially preaching ideologies of peace and a means to happily coexist but there is obviously going to be conflict and indeed some of the long repressed citizens resort of violence as does X-23. The author does an excellent job of showing how these two factions within this society are represented. Apocalypse is the grassroots movement while the X-Men are torn between taking action or not disrupting the peace. X-Man himself has already shown that he does not respect Xavier’s idealism about the sanctity of another’s mind and is more than willing to manipulate others to maintain this society but Jean Grey disagrees with these methods and he holds back. She may eventually be the key to revealing his meddling in the affairs of mutantkind to maintain this utopia of his singular design. More and more of the X-Men are having experiences, flashes of the old reality, memories and emotions are being dredged up that run counter to the beliefs they how in this life. Its going to be really interesting to see where the authors end up taking this but you can already see the cracks starting to form and one wonders what X-Man will do, how far will he ultimately go to preserve his perfect world.
The story is only slightly allegorical current events and is so far thankfully free of current political pollution. This is certainly a welcome change of pace as too much at Marvel has become overt instead of symbolic. This harkens back to the classic days of comics where you could tell a story that had some bearing in the real world that manages to entertain and get one thinking about the themes involved, without going to the extreme to the point where the comic loses any value as a source of escapism entertainment.
ART
The art team continues to do a good job. While I still don’t see this comic going down as a classic issue for its artwork the art is solid if not overly exciting. The layouts are easy to follow, the characters are emotive and the colors are effective. No complaints in this department.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Marvelous X-Men is a thought-provoking What If with a twist in that it ties directly will likely directly affect the 616 universe in a similar way that the Age of Apocalypse did. It’s still an engaging story on all levels. Bring on issue 3! 5 out of 5!
[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
REVIEW: AOX: THE MARVELOUS X-MEN 2
Writer: Zac Thompson and Lonnie Nadler
Art: Marco Failla
Colors: Matt Milla
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