This Was Almost Depressing
Spinning out from the recent Dark Angel Saga, this Point One issue attempts to make its case for the new Age of Apocalypse series. Unfortunately, all it really does is show that there is nothing left of the once popular alternate reality worth revisiting.
To this day, Age of Apocalypse is one of my favorite X-Men stories. It was a story and a universe I have always wished could have been expanded on just a little more. There were so many more facets I would have liked seeing explored or more characters to see. But the thing of it is that Age of Apocalypse ended. Characters died, and the world was tragically saved. Since then, Marvel has made more than one attempt to revisit a world that really shouldn't still exist. Elements of the world and story have been twisted in desperate tries to accommodate this. And frankly, all of these attempts have been crap. There are no good Age of Apocalypse stories left to tell, because Age of Apocalypse didn't leave anything left to work with.
This is why I don't really hold it against Rick Remender that this issue leaves me less than enthused about the new series. I don't blame him, but I also really have to wonder what he's thinking. In the build up to the new Age of Apocalypse series, he kills most of what few interesting or even recognizable Age of Apocalypse characters are left to work with. Sunfire and Wildchild have already been killed. Iceman has been... whatever'ed. Nightcrawler has been removed from the board to play on another. Weapon X is only superficially the same character. Most of the original characters are still dead. But now, Remender goes even further by killing off a few more in this issue while he's at it, leaving me wonder who's really left to read about.
The idea of William Stryker as a heroic figure in this world is at least an idea that gels well with the general themes of Age of Apocalypse, and it is about the only thing in this issue that has an AoA vibe to it. That's not to say that it's perfect in its execution. There's Stryker as a heroic figure, and then there's Stryker as a Sentinel-slaying ninja, as he is portrayed here. That's pretty silly. And the character design is your typical "cool but generic" style, which seems to be the style for the new book if the cover's cast is any indication.
Another idea that is a clever one is what Stryker's people attempt to use as a weapon against the mutants based on what they have learned from the proper reality. Unfortunately, it's another case of the idea being one thing and the execution of it being another. In its execution, it doesn't actually make much sense. It doesn't really gel with what we're learning in Avengers: Children's Crusade, nor does how quickly the humans are able to develop the means to pull it off seem even remotely believable. But like I said, the root idea of it is a clever one.
Coming into this as someone who was at least curious about checking out the first issue of Age of Apocalypse, Uncanny X-Force leaves me with no interest at all trying it anymore. There is no Age of Apocalypse left, and this issue hammers that point home. There are barely small, almost unrecognizable, scraps left to play with, leaving me wonder what the point is in even trying when Marvel could do far better for itself by creating something new.
