Age of Apocalypse #2

To Kill Mutantkind by David Lapham and Roberto De La Torre is the second issue of Age of Apocalypse and features the X-Terminated battling against Prelate Summers and elsewhere Jean Grey tries to contribute to the battle against mutantkind.

Picking up from where we left off last issue, the X-Terminated and Harper Simmons are confronted by Prelate Summers in an abandoned lab (previously used by Henry McCoy) and a battle ensues. Despite the humans actually overpowering Summers, Deadeye is captured and the team end up separated with Fiend hiding behind to sabotage the lab. Before the issue is out Goodnight, Horror Show and Simmons liberate the captive Deadeye before she is interrogated by the Shadow King and Fiend relays info she found in the lab back to the human resistance - and it turns out the dead bodies of the X-Men are being operated on by mutant scientists. Meanwhile, Jean struggles to come to terms with her lack of power and begins to train to fight alongside the humans against The Overlord.

To start with the negatives, one of the main problems is it's not always clear what's going on in action scenes - particularly the fight between the X-Terminated and Summers and the scene where they free Deadeye from the prisoner convoy. While I like De La Torre's art, I find that some of the action panels don't have quite enough detail combined with the inking and dark coloring, it's sometimes hard to even tell the members of the X-Terminated apart in action panels.

Also, the issue again alludes to the continuity that Rick Remender set-up in issues of Uncanny X-Force. I haven't read those issues, I don't want to read those issues, I want to read Age of Apocalypse. What I don't need is references to Scarlet Witch bombs that I have absolutely no context or idea about what the heck that even means. Just mentions of these things with no further acknowledgement of what these things are. It's the height of arrogance to expect me to read an entire other series just to understand parts of a new series.

Other than that, this continues to be a entertaining read. The X-Terminated again come across as interesting and capable characters without the story descending into the territory of bad character exaggeration to make them seem important. They're vulnerable and underpowered which makes them just as likely to die a sudden death than it does for them to succeed in their battle against The Overlord. The subplot with Jean Grey is kinda very nothing-y at the moment. Mostly setting up where that character is going to fall in later issues, but seeing Jean hit in the head with a teacup more or less made up for the some what mediocre sub-plot.

This is a consistent sophomore effort for Age of Apocalypse and continues to interest me with it's central cast of a bunch of cool-looking new characters. Despite a few reservations and a few elements I don't like about this new direction for the Age of Apocalypse, the promise and strength of the X-Terminated as characters is enough to keep me entertained. Hopefully the series can continue to entertain me and gives us more exploration of these characters instead of the usual suspects - in this case Jean Grey and Wolverine.