It’s only been about a year since the X-Men line relaunched with three main titles and a host of spin-offs, but it’s all happening again – and this time, the entire line is moving into an alt-reality just like it did 30 years ago in the classic story X-Men: Age of Apocalypse.
In the original 1995 Age of Apocalypse, the X-Men were rebooted in a reality ruled by the eponymous villain, and the entire line was temporarily suspended and replaced by new titles that completely rewrote the stories of the classic X-Men, even swapping the allegiances of some heroes.
The new event, titled Age of Revelation, puts Doug Ramsey in the role of the tyrannical villain. Following Doug being named as the so-called “Heir of Apocalypse,” he’s taken up the name Revelation (the meaning of the word “apocalypse”) and upgraded his ability to translate any language or form of communication to the point where he’s now able to speak to the Earth itself – and the Earth will obey his commands.
The entire thing kicks off on July 16 with a one-shot titled X-Men: Age of Revelation #0 by X-Men series writer Jed MacKay and artist Humberto Ramos, with a cover by Ryan Stegman, MacKay’s creative partner on the core X-Men title. This sets the stage for the transformation.
That’s followed in October by another one-shot titled X-Men: Age of Revelation: Overture #1, again written by MacKay with art and cover by Stegman.
After that, the entire X-Men line will relaunch with no less than 16 new titles which jump ahead ten years into an alt-future ruled by Doug Ramsey/Revelation.
Here’s the list of titles, though no creative teams have been named yet:
- Amazing X-Men
- Unbreakable X-Men
- Expatriate X-Men
- The Last Wolverine
- Binary
- Cloak or Dagger
- Iron & Frost
- Laura Kinney: Sabretooth
- Longshots
- Omega Kids
- Radioactive Spider-Man
- Rogue Storm
- Sinister’s Six
- Undeadpool
- X-Vengers
- X-Men: The Book of Revelation
“Enter… the Age of Revelation!” says writer Jed MacKay in a statement. “I’m extremely excited to be at the center of this event – we’re traveling to the alien future of the Age of Revelation, where the stories unfolding in the Revelation Territories and beyond will decide whether this is the dawn of a new world, or the end of one. We’ve been exploring a whole world, and it’s been really exciting to see other creators make corners of it their own!”
We don’t yet know where the Age of Revelation will end. Marvel states that it will replace the entire core X-Men line “for the foreseeable future,” with the event being billed as “a pivotal moment that radically transforms the Marvel Universe.”
We’ll find out more when X-Men: Age of Revelation #0 arrives on July 16.
The original Age of Apocalypse makes the list of the best X-Men stories of all time.
