• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Comic Book Herald

A Comic Book Reading Order Guide For Beginners & Fans

  • Reading Orders
    • Marvel
    • My Marvelous Year
    • DC Comics
    • All Comic Book Publishers
    • Most Recent
  • Beginner Guides
    • Beginner’s Guide To Comics In 2021
    • Marvel 2021: Where to Start?
    • DC 2021: Where to Start?
    • Best of Lists
    • Tablets for Comics
    • Guides for Digital Readers
  • Reviews
    • Marvel Comics
    • DC Comics
    • Comic Book Movies
    • Comic Book TV
    • Video Games
  • Podcasts & Video
    • My Marvelous Year
    • Best Comics Ever (CBH)
    • CBH on Youtube!
  • About Me
    • My Favorite Comics of All Time
    • Columns
    • CBH Email Newsletter
  • Support Comic Book Herald
    • Ways to support
You are here: Home / Comics Guides / Secret Wars Watch: Age of Apocalypse

Secret Wars Watch: Age of Apocalypse

December 10, 2014 by Thomas Bacon Leave a Comment

When the trailers for ‘Secret Wars‘ first began to come out, one major event caught every X-fan’s eye: ‘Age of Apocalypse‘ is coming back…

Age of Apocalypse

Background to the Age of Apocalypse

According to X-writer Scott Lobdell, it all started with a message on his answering machine from then-Editor-in-Chief Bob Harras: “What if Jubilee goes to the mansion and everyone she finds there are claiming to be X-Men, but they aren’t really the X-Men?”  From there, Lobdell and Harras began batting around ideas – what if time had been changed, and one person remembered the previous reality?

More of the X-office got involved, and the ideas spun around; the centrepoint seemed to be, what if Charles Xavier died before he ever got the chance to found the X-Men?  Running out of this, the X-office decided the best way was to effectively cancel the whole line, and replace it with four months of totally new books, exploring this dangerous new timeline.  Each of these replaced an existing X-book of the time, and told a segment of the overarching story; an ‘Alpha’ and an ‘Omega’ issue launched it and closed it (a formula ‘Age of Apocalypse’ invented, and pretty much a mainstay of all X-Men crossovers since).

So what was the Age of Apocalypse?

In this twisted timeline, Charles Xavier had died in Israel, years before founding the X-Men.  His death – an accidental killing courtesy of his time-travelling son Legion, occurring in spite of the best efforts of the X-Men who pursued Legion into the past – was a major catalyst for change.  The ancient Apocalypse saw the flares of mutant power as the hint that now was the moment for his ascension; Magneto, struck by his old friend’s heroism, pursued a very different ideology.

Magneto AoA
Magneto – founder of the X-Men!

It wasn’t to be enough.  Years before the X-Men were founded; years before the Fantastic Four were empowered by cosmic rays; years before any chance of hope… Apocalypse rose to power.  The North American continent became a grim reality; the ‘Alpha’ image opens with a tower of human bodies, and the horrific nature of this reality percolates every page.  Humanity struggled to survive in a world in which Apocalypse ruled.

Support For Comic Book Herald:

Comic Book Herald is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn a qualifying affiliate commission.

Comic Book Herald’s reading orders and guides are also made possible by reader support on Patreon, and generous reader donations.

Any size contribution will help keep CBH alive and full of new comics guides and content. Support CBH on Patreon for exclusive rewards, or Donate here! Thank you for reading!

Become a Patron!

Of course, this reality had heroes; darker heroes, shaped by their own circumstances (such as the murderous Nightcrawler, antithesis of the Kurt Wagner we know and love).  The X-Men of this reality were led by Magneto, now married to Rogue and with a son, Charles.  And even Apocalypse’s own Prelates – such as Prelate Scott Summers – began to doubt and rebel as the series went on.

Follow Me
In spite of everything, Scott and Jean wind up together!

But the whole series was informed by the X-Men discovering the sole survivor of the original timeline; Bishop, too much of a temporal anomaly to be rewritten, who they at first thought a madman but whose actions ultimately led to the X-Men changing the past back again.  A good job they did so; as the ‘Omega’ issue came to an end, Apocalypse was dead, and nuclear war raged across the ashes of the Earth.

What kind of impact did this have?

This was massive.  It was easily the biggest thing to ever happen in X-Men comics, and was perhaps one of Marvel’s boldest marketing moves since the original ‘Secret Wars’.  It set the precedent for future X-Men-event structures, and the reality was revisited many times (most notably in the 2012-2013 ‘Age of Apocalypse’ series, which, in the ‘X-Termination’ arc, finally destroyed the entire timeline).

Various characters made the transition from the ‘Age of Apocalypse’ timeline to the regular one:

  • Dark Beast, a twisted version of Hank McCoy who was retconned as creator of the Morlocks.
  • Holocaust, son of Apocalypse, who soon fell into dim memory but made a tremendous entry, destroying the Acolytes’ orbital satellite.
  • Nate Grey, the ‘Age of Apocalypse’ version of Cable, a youth created by Sinister from the genetic templates of Cyclops and Jean Grey. His ‘X-Man’ series lasted until #75 in 2001.
  • The Sugar Man, a ruthless geneticist tied to experiments on mutants on Genosha.
Cable vs Nate
It comes as no surprise that Nate Grey and Cable clashed.

What does this add to ‘Secret Wars’?

‘Age of Apocalypse’ was a classic of the 1990s, a dystopian reality steeped in grim darkness.  It was a world in which the villains ruled, and in which the heroes were more on their back foot than in any other series.  The solicits – and the Battleworld map – imply that ‘Secret Wars’ revisits the time of Apocalypse’s rule, a time when the mutants ruled in all their horror.  It is certain that Apocalypse will be one of the key villains in ‘Secret Wars’.

Apocalypse AoA
The design of Apocalypse was superb.

It’s also possible that this will reintroduce some of the classic heroes of ‘Age of Apocalypse’ – that we’ll be able to explore once again the subtle treachery of Prelate Scott Summers, that we’ll see Magneto leading his X-Men into the fray, and perhaps even that we’ll see once again the classic Nate Grey, whose character was redirected so badly in the 2000 ‘Revolution’ event.

If anything gives a reason to be excited for ‘Secret Wars’, this is it!

Filed Under: Comics Guides, Featured Tagged With: Age of Apocalypse, Secret Wars, X-Men

Heroically Support Comic Book Herald!

If you like Comic Book Herald, and are able to donate, any small contribution will help keep CBH alive and full of new comics guides and content. Donate here! Or, support CBH on Patreon for exclusive rewards! Thank you for reading!

Become a Patron!

About Thomas Bacon

Tom Bacon is an old-school Marvel fan, a blogger on http://www.mahmusecomics.com and an admin on the popular X-Men Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/groups/XMENFANS/). In Real Life, he's currently working in the field of Knowledge Management at The Co-operative Bank, and is happily married to wife Fiona.

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

CBH on Youtube!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pi7HnWapV-o

The Comic Book Herald Podcast!

Apple PodcastsGoogle PodcastsRSS
My Ultimate Year podcast and reading club

Recent Posts

  • Best New Graphic Novel: The Department of Truth Vol. 1 February 24, 2021
  • Warhammer 40,000: Marneus Calgar #5 Review February 24, 2021
  • Uncanny X-Men Omnibus, Volume 4 Review! February 23, 2021
  • Creannotators #36: Interview With Letterer Aditya Bidikar! February 23, 2021
  • Some Careworn Hustler’s Tomorrow — 100 Bullets Omnibus Review! February 22, 2021
  • 1989 Pt. 5: Venom Returns & “Vision Quest”! February 22, 2021
  • Meet Marc Spector in the Moon Knight Omnibus February 21, 2021
  • X-Factor Epic Collection: Angel Of Death Review! February 20, 2021
  • The Best Silver Surfer Comics! February 19, 2021
  • Pietro Maximoff: The Twin I Hate to Love and Love to Hate February 19, 2021
  • Quicksilver Reading Order! February 18, 2021
  • Strange Academy Vol 1: First Class review! February 18, 2021
  • Wolfsbane (Rahne Sinclair) Reading Order! February 17, 2021
  • How to (Re)Read the Hickman Era of X-Men: Powers of X #1 Pt. 1 February 17, 2021
  • The Old 52: “Gotham… is a mystery” – On Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s Batman February 16, 2021

Popular Articles

DC Rebirth Guide

Batman Reading Order

DC New 52 Reading Order

Marvel Ultimate Universe Guide

Civil War Reading Order

Marvel Cosmic Reading Order

The Best Comics of All Time!

Deadpool Reading Order

Justice League Reading Order

Complete Thanos Reading Order

X-Men Reading Guide (Modern Era)

Age of Apocalypse Reading Order

Modern Marvel Universe in 25 Trades

Best Tablet For Digital Comics

Is Marvel Unlimited Worth It?

Footer

New to Comic Book Herald?

Hey there - my name's Dave and this is my comic book blog. It's my way of sharing my borderline obsessive addiction to the comic book medium, and I hope you like some of what's going on here.

Most people that come here are looking for my (WIP) Marvel reading order guide. You can probably also get a sense if CBH is for you by taking a look at some of my columns.

If you like what you see, let's connect on Facebook or Twitter. Or, leave a comment on the blog here, I'm always looking for new awesome people in the comic book community.

More on Comic Book Herald

  • Home
  • About
  • Support CBH
  • My Marvelous Year
  • Join!
Privacy Policy
Terms of Service

Recent Posts

  • Best New Graphic Novel: The Department of Truth Vol. 1
  • Warhammer 40,000: Marneus Calgar #5 Review
  • Uncanny X-Men Omnibus, Volume 4 Review!
  • Creannotators #36: Interview With Letterer Aditya Bidikar!
  • Some Careworn Hustler’s Tomorrow — 100 Bullets Omnibus Review!

Copyright © 2021 · Metro Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in