It’s time to wrap up the first month of the future! Rather than tackle each “Age of Revelation” book in a traditional “ToX” format, your intrepid CXF review crew will offer up their individual thoughts in brief for each of this week’s offerings:
Expatriate X-Men #1 is written by Eve Ewing, drawn by Francesco Mortarino, colored by Raul Angulo and lettered by Ariana Maher.
Undeadpool #1 is written by Tim Seeley, drawn by Carlos Magno, colored by GURU-eFX and lettered by Joe Sabino.
Cloak or Dagger #1 is written by Justina Ireland, drawn by Lorenzo Tammetta, colored by Andrew Dalhouse and lettered by Joe Caramagna.
X-Vengers #1 is written by Jason Loo, drawn by Sergio Davila, inked by Aure Jimenez, colored by Rain Beredo and lettered by Sabino.
Tony Thornley: Four weeks in, and we are keeping up. I thought this was an interesting week. Even if the execution didn’t land universally, I did feel like the concepts were all interesting. But it was two hits and a miss and a half for me.
Adam Reck: Hey, hey, hey — we’re four weeks in and haven’t seen a single #2. They just keep on releasing these books, and I agree Tony, it’s about a 50-50 success rate here. Though I applaud the X-office for keeping me on my toes — I liked stuff I didn’t expect to!
Austin Gorton: Number ones for everyone! You get a #1, Deadpool gets a #1, Cloak and Dagger get a #1!
This was a low ceiling/high floor week for me; nothing fantastic, but no huge duds, either.
Stephanie Burt: I want to be sure Austin’s head is OK. I’m not sure I saw that low ceiling, because I like two of these books a lot. Like, really a lot.
Scott Redmond: Only four weeks? Some of this stuff is making those four weeks feel like four months. After wanting to throw a ton of stuff we’ve read away over the past few weeks, I agree there were a few gems here. Loathe as I am to like anything X-related these days, they got me a bit!
Meet the Resistance (Expatriate X-Men #1)
Tony: How have we made it to Week 4 before we got a book that’s ACTUALLY about the Resistance?
I mean, yeah, Amazing X-Men more or less is that, but Amazing is also just driving the plot of the whole shebang and is about a road trip. This is actually giving us a story about the X-Men of this timeline doing X-Men shit.
Scott: Books like this really showcase the dramatic dissonance at the heart of this event. A select few books show how dark a future this is and lean into the overarching premise that was sold to us back when they first announced it. Others just feel like the creators were given a Mad Libs or general improv setup and ran with it, divorced from each other and most of the trappings of this event.
I liked much of what was going on here. The idea that Rift’s powers allowed the team to try their mission and then hit the undo button till they got it right was really cool. Even better was the continued deep, well-thought-out characterization that Ewing is so good at. These are some of the few characters who genuinely feel like a semblance of themselves and developed in this massively populated event.
Stephanie: What Scott said. The do-overs that let the Expatriate team try the mission again and again until they get their target out are exciting and kept me turning the pages. They’re a good use of Rift’s powers, one I didn’t see coming when he first showed up in Exceptional X-Men, and one that other interdimensional teleporters on Earth-616, like Illyana, could never do under their own control. They nod to video game culture, both in-game (as in Life Is Strange, where you can turn the clock back and redo stuff) and extradiegetically (if you die, you can play again). And they look back — honestly, all of this book looks back — to better times on Krakoa, when mutants could die again and again, with no consequences, as long as they could jump the resurrection queue.
Austin: Solid stuff all around. This is the book that feels the most like a spiritual “Age of Apocalypse” successor. It’s not directly advancing the overarching plot, but its worldbuilding is connected to it, referencing Darkchilde while showing a team actively resisting Revelation, all while setting up character conflicts and plots of its own.
Adam: Expat X-Men combines two of the best talents of the “From the Ashes” era — Exceptional writer Eve Ewing and NYX artist Francisco Mortarino — to great effect. Not only do we get some much-needed Ms. Marvel page time (though at this point, who the heck is Ms. Marvel as a character anymore?), but we get a grown-up Bronze and Melee, and a Marauders-style mutant pirate ship (nay, a fleet!). I know we’ve been complaining a ton about the heaps of newer characters in this event, but I legitimately enjoyed this future version of Rift.
I think this book is further proof that a more streamlined event that just rethought the existing titles would have been the way to go instead of … well, all the rest of this stuff.
Stephanie: The whole book is a callback to the first 12 issues (aka the really good ones) of Marauders. They’re not just pirates who wear red: They say that their mission means rescuing stranded mutants in the anti-mutant world of (sigh) the United States as it exists in the Age of Doug. And then we learn that the lawful good rescue mission we’ve just watched amounts to a cover story: They’re doing darker work, in a dark time.
Tony: This issue does a lot to resolve one of my biggest complaints about Exceptional — the pace. Eve Ewing is one of the best writers working at Marvel right now, and Exceptional was easily the best FTA story. But the pace was SO glacial. I think it was Austin who told me the Sinister storyline would have been in issues #4-6 of any other book rather than, what, issue #10? And he was exactly right.
This jumps right into the action (almost to its detriment), has great plot drivers and has interesting setups throughout. But this is another story where the three-issues-and-out format will be its downfall.
And like you sorta said, Adam, Mortarino’s art is VERY good. I think my two complaints are that the in medias res kickoff is almost a problem, and Mystique feels tacked on. I would love to see what Ewing’s Mystique is long term, though, and I hope she does some cool stuff with Colossus when he eventually shows up.
Stephanie: I don’t know how soon Colossus will show up, though I did note that our six-armed Hawkeye now has Colossus’ powers (see below). Eve Ewing wrote Exceptional for people who would rather see as many pages as we can of characters talking and flirting and having lunch and handling real-world nonsense, people whose favorite comics sometimes treat superhero knockdown fights the way TV drama watchers treat commercials. People who’ve read every issue of Astro City. People like me.
Which is why it’s so cool to see her extending her range, doing something new, by writing what’s essentially a wartime book. Action, action, action, action. Mission intrigue. Everybody coming in hot. And a morally complicated secret mission underneath the mission. It’s new territory (as far as I know) for her. And it works.
Scott: To your point, Tony, it’s kind of wild that so many of the books are slow-playing showcasing characters, some of whom are on the covers of the books, when they’re now already a third of the way complete. Whether good or not, it’s like they are just throwing things at the wall and some of it is sticking better than others. It feels like the event is trying to cast too wide a net when there are only a small bit of fish to be found.
I’ll agree about the book looking pretty darn good, though.
Insert Your Favorite Slasher Theme Song Here (Undeadpool #1)
Tony: On one hand, Deadpool as a slasher villain trapped in his own head is a great concept. On the other, holy crap there’s a fine line between great and insufferable within that concept, and this issue leaps across it. I get that Wade Wilson trapped in his own head would be SCREAMING to get out, but this was way too much.
It looked great, though. Magno does not get enough work.
Scott: If I had a nickel for every character this future storyline has introduced in a way that is supposed to evoke care despite them ceasing to exist in two months … well, I’d have a lot of nickels. I hate carrying around that kind of change.
Austin: Yes, even MORE new characters to learn/care about. Sigh.
Scott: Anyway, yeah, this was just not great overall. It’s wild how Marvel, despite how much they lean on him, can’t seem to find a sustained rhythm with Deadpool. For every run that is great, the following one(s) are usually lackluster or really miss. Especially when the writer leans too heavily on the motormouth, breaking all the walls, barely touching on the emotional human aspect of the character.
Like you said, Tony, the concept seems solid on paper, but the execution is majorly lacking.
Adam: Resident horror nut here. How the heck did they screw this up? All the parts are here for a Deadpool-as-Jason-Voorhees riff on Friday the 13th, and they completely blew it. Endless exposition and jabbermouthing when this version of Wade can’t even talk? Huge waste of what could have been a really fun book.
Austin: This is easily my least favorite book of the bunch this week. Then again, I’m not a huge Deadpool fan in the first place (not that I think any of us are), so just cramming all his jibber jabber into narrative captions instead of dialogue boxes doesn’t do much for me. Like Expatriate X-Men, I did enjoy the effort to place this in the larger world of the event, mentioning the resistance flotilla and the Omega Kids in passing.
Scott: I’m imagining right now a version of this book where there is not a single caption box, just a silent, terrifying, undead Wade taking out these characters, only revealing at the end that the real Wade is tortured and stuck within his own mind. Where’s that book, Marvel?
Tony: A Deadpool story satirizing horror tropes is a great idea (so much so that Cullen Bunn wrote two). Some of the horror here is REALLY effective (the panel of Wade eating Fan … brrr). And the last-page reveal that this is going to be a twist on the Martin Freeman zombie movie Cargo is clever. I just wish the rest of it lived up to that.
That’s What I’m Talking About! (Cloak or Dagger #1)
Tony: Why is one of the best stories of this event so far A) a side book and B) a Cloak and Dagger story that too many people are gonna skip?
This was delightful. Tandy and Ty were engaging protagonists. The side characters were actually interesting, and the stakes were so REAL. This might have been my favorite of the whole month, so much so that I hope afterward we get a Justina Ireland-written Cloak and Dagger limited series early next year.
Also, congrats to Ireland for actually making the X-Virus feel like a legitimate and scary threat, FINALLY. Fenris forcing infections and shrugging at the carnage in their wake might have been the plot point of the week.
Also, man, I hope Ty makes Fenris hurt later in this series. They so deserve it.
Adam: The surprise of the week is definitely Cloak or Dagger. My expectations for this were super low after some of the other “edge of Revelation-verse” stuff, but instead we get beautiful artwork from Lorenzo Tammetta and Justina Ireland writing a pretty compelling twist on the classic are-they-actually-mutants-or-not pairing of Cloak and Dagger. The central conceit of their secondary mutation being they can’t physically manifest at the same time in the same space so they have to Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde with each other is not only great visually, but makes for some truly interesting stakes for them romantically, especially given the reveal later in the issue.
Stephanie: It’s a lot. I’ve found Cloak and Dagger hard to enjoy in the past, because the characters’ power sets mean they’re always, also, saying something awkward about race. I like what Ireland has done with them. A lot. And she uses them well by placing them adjacent to something that feels like body horror.
Cloak and Dagger in their first appearances specifically defended teen runaways from extra-evil kidnappers and drug dealers (“drug dealers,” I know: It was the 1980s). So it makes extra sense that they’re fighting extra-evil kidnappers and eugenicists, i.e. the Fenris twins. Who have the confidence of, uh, real-life present-day baddies. I was surprised by how real the whole story felt.
Austin: I know Ireland mostly from Star Wars stuff, but this makes me want more Marvel stuff, either with Cloak and Dagger or something else. Their new status quo is a fun twist on both their existing relationship and the classic Mar-Vell/Rick Jones (or, you know, Captain Marvel/Billy Batson) setup.
Adam: My only (linewide) complaint is that I do wish humans turning into mutants weren’t all some variation on Anole or Skrulls. Mainly because any time one pops up I just think it’s Anole or a Skrull. But other than that I’m excited to read more of this.
Scott: Similarly my expectations were quite low. While I really like the duo of characters (thanks, Spider-Man/Venom: Maximum Carnage game!), Marvel has generally used them poorly. As mentioned above, they’re always side characters featured in books that are easy to skip, if one even knows they exist. This though, this was good.
Having a smaller cast, where there is no actual “see how important these new characters are” beat, helps a ton. So does the fact that the X-Virus is indeed a genuine threat here. I have to echo Adam though that the low visuals of everyone just looking very Skrullish was a bit of a bummer. Otherwise the artwork from Tammetta is fantastic. It’s such a simple but compelling and large twist for the duo, putting more drama in their long-standing relationship.
Assemble (X-Vengers #1)
Tony: This is one I think I can summarize in one sentence: I loved this concept, but I did not like ANY of the execution.
Scott: That sums it all up, let’s close up shop, folks!
OK, a little more, I guess. Rough doesn’t even accurately describe this series. It’s great seeing Dani get some use, but again, the execution of this whole thing just doesn’t work. Like much of this event line, the randomness and the unevenness surrounding the entire dark future’s foundation is on full display. They’re just plugging in characters and making them bounce off each other in hollow ways that mean very little.
Adam: Dani Moonstar being the new Captain America is a homerun (why isn’t the book just that?!), but this lineup isn’t fun, and the art is a mixed bag. Two other things work against this book: 1. This is an X-event, it does not need an Avengers book, and 2. How many threats does this event need? We already have Babels and the X-Virus, do we really need to have a red Transmode Virus on the loose, too? Focus, event! Focus!
Austin: When you have approximately 154 tie-in books, you need a lot of threats to sustain all those plots!
Tony: There are two interesting concepts here that are mashed together in a way that minimizes both. First — what would it be like if the X-Men had to step up to take on the mantle of the Avengers in a dystopia? That’s cool, and we see that just a little with Captain Dani (literally making “why Dani Moonstar of all people?!” text) and Cannonball, but it doesn’t go far enough. Imagine a team of Avengers like Dani, Sam, Sunspot, Molly Hayes, Firestar and … I dunno, Justice maybe, but get them living up to the standard set by Cap, Thor and Iron Man. That could have been a lot of fun.
But the second — what if all of the highly skilled baseline humans in the Avengers suddenly had powers? — would justify this story’s existence on its own. Instead, it focuses much too much on being an Avengers book with Dani as the lead. I also do not understand Scott Lang’s mutation at all. But that doesn’t matter because he’s dead now. Whoops.
Austin: As the resident Avengers stan in this group, I enjoyed it a touch more than the consensus, largely on the back of the Dani spotlight and that second concept Tony outlined. That said, what I’d *really* like to read are all of the adventures BEFORE this when Dani was apparently on the Avengers and impressing the hell out of Cap.
Stephanie: I’m with Austin. Maybe I even liked it more than Austin did, because I liked Dani’s narration, and Dani as Cap, so much. Especially with the jerks who insist that she’s not their Cap (which, I know, has been a thing since Sam Wilson became Cap, but it’s still — unfortunately — relevant). I liked Dani’s mix of valor and self-doubt — did Steve really choose her, or did she just happen to show up as he was dying?
Does this book need to exist? Not really. Given that Marvel decided it ought to exist, do I think it’s done well? Honestly, yes. There’s a lot to see — each Avenger gets mutant powers in a way that’s either fun to watch (Clint Barton) or magnifies the sadness in an already sad character (the Vision).
Tony: Also, the world presented here is way too normal. Aside from the X-Virus, it’s just an Avengers story in a generic distant future.
Austin: Yeah, this continues to be a problem for me across the event: the inconsistency of scale and specificity of each book’s setting.
Scott: Way to go for them to pick a hardly compelling team of characters when deciding to shove the Avengers into an X-event. It’s funny how much Marvel senior editor Tom Brevoort can’t seem to fully let go of the realm he edited forever, bogging down an already overburdened event with characters and concepts that have no place here.
Even in a generic apocalyptic future, the Avengers still have a heavily male and heavily white roster. Some things seemingly never change.
Stephanie: Could have done better there, yeah, especially since Shang-Chi feels underused. The whole cast is too big. That said, I do find the Vision stuff moving, the Hawkeye stuff’s fun, and honestly I will recommend the book, because we get to see Dani lead. She’s such a good team leader. Lots happening there.
Scott: Also, while a minor thing, the moment at the memorial where Scott Lang is mourning his daughter has an art mistake where he’s mourning a whole other person in the full shot. It’s a simple mistake, but it made my head shake when I was already soured on this very messy book.
X-traneous Thoughts
- Clint Barton claims his suit is tailored by Jumbo Carnation, but aside from the six arms, it seems kinda plain for the designer of many a Hellfire Gala look, no?
- Looks like most of the Avengers are dead. The memorial in X-Vengers includes Steve Rogers, Sharon Carter, Janet Van Dyne, Kate Bishop, Eli Bradley and a whole bunch more.
- Is Cable infected with Technarchy, or is that actually Warlock?
- Is Vision infected with Technarchy, or is THAT actually Warlock? (I really hope it’s Warlock, because I want to see Warlock teach Vision how to enjoy living in a synthetic body and stop spending his whole life trying to be a cishet allistic human guy. Though if Vision doesn’t know better by now, maybe he’ll never learn. Egg prime directive, amirite? — Stephanie)
- If neither is infected with Warlock, where is Warlock? (Maybe Warlock is everywhere and nowhere, like Jesus in Tolkien. — Stephanie)
- Also, why were the two books with Technarchy infections released in the same week?
- Rusted out Colossus appears on the cover of Expat X-Men #1, but nowhere inside. I have to assume we’ll see him next issue!
- Bobby DaCosta would not be a collaborator. Thank you for attending my Ted talk. (Counterpoint: Doug’s got ways to persuade people with his words. — Stephanie)
- Dani has a leather Avengers bomber jacket, so everything in this event has been worth it.
- What horror movie theme did you have playing as you read Undeadpool? I turned on the Fresh Prince’s “Nightmare on My Street” because it made the endless captions more tolerable.
- As someone currently reviewing the Joe Kelly Deadpool series from the late ’90s, I appreciated Zombie Deadpool’s narration name-dropping Siryn.
- God, Fenris truly is the worst. It’s kind of amazing there have been multiple versions of them in Marvel TV adaptations.
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Tony Thornley is a geek dad, blogger, Spider-Man and Superman aficionado, X-Men guru, autism daddy, amateur novelist and all around awesome guy. He’s also very humble. Follow him @brawl2099.bsky.social.
Adam Reck is the cartoonist behind Bish & Jubez as well as the co-host of Battle Of The Atom. Follow him @adamreck.bsky.social.
Austin Gorton also reviews older issues of X-Men at the Real Gentlemen of Leisure website, co-hosts the A Very Special episode podcast, and likes Star Wars. He lives outside Minneapolis, where sometimes, it is not cold. Follow him @austingorton.bsky.social.
Stephanie Burt is Professor of English at Harvard. Her podcast about superhero role playing games is Team-Up Moves, with Fiona Hopkins; her latest book of poems is We Are Mermaids. Her nose still hurts from that thing with the gate.
Scott Redmond
Scott Redmond is a freelance writer and educator fueled by coffee, sarcasm, his love for comic books and more "geeky" things than you can shake a lightsaber at. Probably seen around social media and remembered as "Oh yeah, that guy." An avid gamer, reader, photographer, amateur cook and solid human being. Follow him @scottredmond.bsky.social.
