Marvel on Friday announced X-Men of Apocalypse, a six-part miniseries (four issues bookended by an Alpha and Omega issues) starting in September, written by Jeph Loeb and drawn by Simone Di Meo. The book will see the X-Men of Earth-295 — including Gambit, Sabretooth, Wild Child, Blink, Morph and Forge — traveling to Earth-616 on a mission to save their homeworld from destruction.
Spinning out of this spring’s Giant-Size X-Men specials, the mini marks the 30th anniversary of the original 1995 Age of Apocalypse event that envisioned a world in which En Sabah Nur rose to power.
We’ve been here before. A few times, actually.
Of all the designated realities in the Marvel Multiverse, Earth-295, the Age of Apocalypse, is one of the publisher’s favorites.
It’s impossible to discount how popular the original event was. Marvel literally shut down its entire X-line for four months, giving us a fully developed world in which Apocalypse ruled from a throne of bones, Magneto led the resistance, Sabretooth was a hero, Cyclops had one eye and a conflicted morality, Nate Grey was an all-powerful twink and we all really cared about the Sugar Man.
And Marvel never had a hit it couldn’t milk to the point of exhaustion.
The year 2000 saw “Ages of Apocalypse,” an event in which the X-Men find themselves trapped in a series of alternate realities in which En Sabah Nur rises to power.
In 2005, we got an Age of Apocalypse series drawn by Chris Bachalo and written by a mystery man named Akira Yoshida (wonder whatever happened to him?).
2011 brought us back to the AoA in the pages of Rick Remender’s Uncanny X-Force, during which the team brought back that reality’s Nightcrawler. Later, the quest to return him would be its own story.
The Battleworld domains of 2015’s Secret Wars had its own Age of Apocalypse.
Legion accidentally sent a bunch of X-kids to the AoA during 2018’s “X-Men: Disassembled” story.
And Kamala Khan will go there as part of her adventures in the Giant-Size X-Men specials out of which this new AoA story will spin.
That’s not to mention out-of-comics nods in things like the X-Men ‘92 two-parter “One Man’s Worth,” the 2000s video game X-Men Legends II and, most recently, last year’s Deadpool & Wolverine movie.
And of course there’s an appeal. As creators add more characters to the X-canon, there’s a cache to seeing how they’d look in the grimdarkest timeline. Would they be missing a limb, have an eyepatch, a goatee, a gun or knife for a hand? Secret children? Are they kissing that person I wrote about them kissing on Ao3? Is Glob Herman in some Junior Horseman training program but really he just wants to make laksa for Mikhail Rasputin? They’re good questions!
But the best answer is sometimes mystery. The best sequel is the one in your head.
But this is the Age of IP-ocalypse, and we simply can’t have that.
Check out cover and interior art by Di Meo below, and keep scrolling for the basic deets.
This September, Marvel Comics marks the 30th anniversary of Age of Apocalypse, a groundbreaking X-Men storyline, with X-MEN OF APOCALYPSE, an all-new six-part event series by legendary writer Jeph Loeb, one of the creators behind the original Age of Apocalypse, and, in his first series since returning to Marvel earlier this year, Eisner nominated artist Simone Di Meo.
Mirroring the first Age of Apocalypse saga, X-MEN OF APOCALYPSE will kick off in X-MEN OF APOCALYPSE ALPHA #1, continue through X-MEN OF APOCALYPSE #1-4 starting in November, and conclude in X-MEN OF APOCALYPSE OMEGA #1. A prelude to the event will be featured in Giant-Size Age of Apocalypse #1 next month, where Loeb and Di Meo team up for the one-shot’s special Revelations Backup story.
THE X-MEN OF APOCALYPSE CRASH INTO THE MAIN MARVEL UNIVERSE!
A dystopian future created when Charles Xavier was killed, AGE OF APOCALYPSE is home to a wartorn group of X-Men led by Magneto. In order to free their Earth from Apocalypse’s cruel reign, they were willing to sacrifice their very existence—or so they thought! The main timeline was restored, Apocalypse was defeated, but their world lived on!
Taking place in the direct aftermath of the original crossover’s explosive finale, X-MEN OF APOCALYPSE reignites the mission of this iconic reality’s X-Men as they journey here to ensure their universe’s survival. This desperate mission will take them into the main Marvel Universe, where they will come into conflict with their classic counterparts, forever impacting both team’s destinies!
“Thirty years ago, THE X-MEN OF APOCALYPSE took the comics world by storm and I was lucky enough to be part of it,” Loeb shared. “There were new characters! New designs! Heroes who were villains and villains who were heroes! Now, for the 30th anniversary, an all-new, all-different story with spectacular art by Simone Di Meo brings us to this uncanny team that shouldn’t even exist — and they are coming here! Join Gambit, Sabretooth & Wild Child, Blink, Forge and Morph and more as they try to save one universe without dooming another!”
“Working with a legend like Jeph is really exciting,” Di Meo said. “I’ve known his work for years along with the great impact it’s had on this industry and I’m really honored. Beyond that, I’ve really found a friend and someone who’s passionate about his work so it’s really nice to work with him, Marvel and Tom [Brevoort] together day by day trying to build the best book of my career.
“Being able to touch a legendary story like Age of Apocalypse is unexpected for me, that event has an important place in Marvel history, and being able to enter it and give my own take is absolutely incredible. I’m giving my all to make all the readers happy, from the longtime fans who loved the event in the ‘90s and the new ones who I hope can become just as passionate about it. I’m excited and nervous at the same time!”
Check out the main cover for X-MEN OF APOCALYPSE ALPHA #1 by Simone Di Meo along with a first look at interior artwork and stay tuned for more news about the series in the weeks ahead, including exciting variant cover reveals. For more information, visit Marvel.com.
Dan Grote is the editor and publisher of ComicsXF, having won the site by ritual combat. By day, he’s a newspaper editor, and by night, he’s … also an editor. He co-hosts The ComicsXF Interview Podcast with Matt Lazorwitz. He lives in New Jersey with his wife, two kids and two miniature dachshunds, and his third, fictional son, Peter Paul Winston Wisdom. Follow him @danielpgrote.bsky.social.
