In addition to the final recap of “Age of Revelation,” the ComicsXF team sat down together to look at the overall event. The best method we thought of to talk about it? High school-yearbook style superlatives! So here they are.
The Class of Doug 2025!
Best in Class
Adam Reck: Justina Ireland and Lorenzo Tammetta’s Cloak or Dagger presented the best case scenario for a book in this alternate future. Solid art, a unique twist on familiar characters that gave it an emotional core and a tight, easy-to-grasp plot with a small cast that made the stakes of the world understandable without putting any hats on hats. I do wish Tammetta hadn’t needed a fill-in for the third issue, but it’s a slight knock on what was the clear standout of the minis.
Tony Thornley: Seconded.
Austin Gorton: Of all the books that didn’t directly tie into the plot (so everything not written by Jed MacKay), this was far and away the best and the most pleasantly surprising. Never would have guessed I’d be consistently singing the praises of a Cloak and Dagger book, but here we are.
Best X-Virus Mutation
Tony: Look, the event didn’t play nearly enough with the various X-Virus mutations. We got Cloak and Dagger’s shared body. There was Zombie Deadpool. We got the various Avengers in X-Vengers. And there’s Black Cat becoming a literal cat-woman. None of those lived up to their potential. But for the best, we have to go with May Parker, whose X-Virus mutation turned her into a giant, cannibalistic purple monster in Radioactive Spider-Man.
Austin: I’ll give an honorary mention to Punisher in the Age of Revelation Infinity comic, who was left normal except for his hands mutating to the point where he can’t use guns anymore. That’s hilarious.
Most Nostalgic
Adam: Al Ewing gave us all something very special with his brief return visit to Arakko in World of Revelation. While doing the basic job of setting up the chess pieces for the finale issue, Ewing paired with Agustin Alessio to give a fitting farewell to the domain he lovingly developed for years in X-Men Red. Krakoa fans who missed it should make sure to check it out and shed a tear for the lost red planet.
Austin: I really wish they’d just give Ewing an Arakko book to do with as he pleases and let him cook.
Best ‘I’m not really telling a story about this event, I’m just telling a “Days of Future Past” for my title’ Story
Unbreakable X-Men from Gail Simone et al.
Best Use of the Three-Issue Format
Austin: I wouldn’t say the plot of Rogue Storm was straightforward and easy to follow, but compared to Murewa Ayodele’s yearlong arc in Storm, it was damn near See Spot Run. Having only three issues to work with seems to have brought out the best in terms of letting his gonzo ideas run wild, but keeping them contained enough that it doesn’t become complete nonsense along the way.
Tony: To be clear, that doesn’t put it in the upper echelon of the event. It just used its length better than most.
Best Use of an Obscure Mutant
Dan Grote: The crew of the flotilla in Expatriate X-Men. There was no calling attention to them, but characters like Doop, Blob and Toad were just there, helping out, doing background gags and not pulling focus.
Austin: He didn’t do a lot and it was all mostly in the background, but Chrome (formerly of Magneto’s original crew of Acolytes) got an awful lot of page time for someone who hasn’t done anything since dying in his third appearance (and saving Magneto’s life off panel).
Dan: It’s also the most we’ve seen of Dragoness in 35 years or so.
Worst Use of an Obscure Mutant
Tony: Marrow dying like a chump in Iron & Frost #1
Dan: Chance was wasted as a Chorister. No one has used her since Fallen Angels, but suddenly she’s a main hench? Just not earned.
Worst Pick of Protagonist
Adam: I’m sorry, but the Wendigo Kid just didn’t have the charisma to carry a mini. You’d think pairing him with Nightcrawler would make things better, but it didn’t!
Austin: Bite your tongue! Leonard is a treasure.
Tony: I’m going to have to agree because there was also a series about all the OTHER Wolverines. But I guess maybe Leonard survived longer than they did?
Weirdest Plot Point
Tony: Rogue Red and Rogue Green only existing so two different writers could write two completely contradictory stories about Anna Marie LeBeau, and nothing else.
Austin: The best thing about that is the two stories are set in different future times, so with the mildest of editorial oversight, having two Rogues would have been largely unnecessary anyway!
Also, Polaris being a secret Venom was weird and random, right?
Most Confusing Plot Point
Tony: I think it’s a tie for me between The Last Wolverine showing that Canada is basically still pretty normal despite the U.S. going full dystopia and human Nightcrawler re-mutating more and more the closer he got to Philadelphia, also in The Last Wolverine.
Austin: There are so many little bits scattered throughout the event I’m still confused about. All the secret deals and cross-deals within Expatriate X-Men. Why Galactus was in the ocean and why Shuvahrak sought him out in Unbreakable X-Men. Why Phoenix could stop the virus from spreading off Earth but not from spreading out from the Eastern Seaboard in Binary. Most of everything that happened in Longshots.
Dan: I mean, this is a big one, and one I know we’re supposed to see resolved in upcoming issues of X-Men, but, if the future X-Men’s main reason for sending future Scott to the past was to stop Doug there, why did we spend all this time in a future that was just going to fall apart anyway? Like, based on that pretense, all of these three-issue series were for nothing, and the real action was in the present. Like what the hell?
Most Squandered Potential
Austin: There are two potentially interesting ideas smooshed into X-Vengers: What are the Avengers like in this world (something we never really saw in “Age of Apocalypse”), and what do Doug’s former New Mutants teammates think of all this? Apparently, Jason Loo pitched the latter, but Marvel told him he also needed to do the former, and the end result doesn’t do enough with either idea to capitalize on the potential.
Best Case for Letting the Artist Write
Adam: We already know an enormous part of comics storytelling is about the artistic decisions on each page, but it’s always fun to see a well-known artistic talent get a chance to write the script. And David Marquez proved he’s no slouch with Sinister’s Six, a spiritual sequel to Zeb Wells’ Hellions, throwing in fun cameos, giving Havok another kid, and writing a fabulous Mister Sinister. Here’s hoping Marquez gets more chances like this in the future.
Biggest Fakeout
Adam: I do hope Gerry Duggan and Jonathan Hickman collected a nice paycheck for whatever the hell Longshots was. Those expecting something great from these talented Krakoan architects were at bare minimum bound to be confused by every single aspect of this book. From its off-the-wall cast, to its lack of actual jokes, Longshots was somehow a Mojoverse book about … Wonder Man and Hellcat, which still makes me think it was a prank all along. Who knows?
Tony: I’m gonna say Binary because it spent two and a half issues trying to convince us it was going to be important whether it was Carol, Jean or Maddy who ended up with the Phoenix Force, and then it just wasn’t.
Worst Payoff
Tony: Literally nothing mattering to the finale except Amazing X-Men and Last Wolverine. Like, Gambit, Kamala and Illyana couldn’t be bothered to show up?
Austin: The Expatriate crew ended their series heading to Philadelphia! How are they not there?!?
Also, Omega Kids ended with Quentin wiping out all the titular kids and starting over, but now they’re on hand to help defeat Xavier? Feels like there should be someone whose job is to keep track of this kind of stuff.
The Undisputable Ranking of All the Kids Everyone Had in Less Than Ten Years
- Cloak and Dagger’s kid — she seems fun and generally well-adjusted; giving Cloak and Dagger a child manages to both be a surprise and make sense.
- Temper and Ransom’s kid — also pretty well-adjusted as these things go; giving two characters with a blossoming romance in the present a kid in the future is a classic alternate timeline trope.
- Havok and Polaris’ kid — mostly stuck inside a bubble but seems nice despite having perpetual relationship screwups Havok and Polaris as parents; gets to hang out with Polaris Venom at the end.
- Laura Kinney’s kid — his father is someone who has never appeared in a comic and inspired Laura, off panel, to abandon the Wolverine moniker in favor of the moniker of a homicidal maniac; in the end, he kills everyone, which is honestly pretty delightful in its randomness.
- Illyana and Lyrebird’s kid — another kid with a father introduced in this event; what the hell even was this plot twist?
Final Age of Revelation Ranking (WHY WERE THERE SO MANY BOOKS?!)
- Cloak or Dagger
- Amazing X-Men
- Unbreakable X-Men
- Omega Kids
- Book of Revelation
- Sinister’s Six
- World of Revelation
- Undeadpool
- Rogue Storm
- Expatriate X-Men
- Age of Revelation Infinity Comic
- The Last Wolverine
- Radioactive Spider-Man
- X-Vengers
- Iron & Frost
- Laura Kinney: Sabretooth
- Binary
- Longshots
Adam Reck is the cartoonist behind Bish & Jubez as well as the co-host of Battle Of The Atom. Follow him @adamreck.bsky.social.
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.
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.
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.
