Age Of X Starts Strong
Mike Carey's mysterious Age of X story has begun and gets off to a fantastic start with its large cast of familiar but different mutants. This issue serves as a far better introduction to the universe than the Age of X Alpha oneshot did, escorting us through Fortress X during and after yet another attack by the humans.
There is a very large cast of mutants here, but Carey wisely keeps the focus primarily on Rogue, known as Legacy and Reaper in this universe. There are scenes that focus on other groups of characters, but by always bring it back to Reaper, Carey prevents the story from seeming cluttered and confusing to follow. It also allows Carey to start strong, because at first glance, Reaper is one of the most interesting alternate takes on a character in Age of X. Reaper is a chilling but rather logical take on Rogue.
Reaper is far from the only interesting character in Age of X, though. To varying degrees, Carey touches on many of the differences in characters to be found at Fortress X. Some, like Sam Guthrie, are really not so different from what we know, but they are given new context to stand in, like Sam being able to shine as a top commander of mutants. Others are almost the polar opposites of what we are used to seeing, like Scott Summers as Basilisk being treated as a loose cannon and Wolverine in the role of a sidelined civilian. A handful of romantic relationships are revealed as well, introducing us to intriguing pairing never conceived of in the universe we are all familiar with.
Major credit has to be given to the art too. Lazy art can, and often does, kill alternate reality stories. But here, we have a huge assortment of character designs that feel like actual thought and effort were put into them. That is crucial in selling the idea that this is a fleshed out alternate reality. Some characters are nearly unrecognizable as how we are used to seeing them and others still have familiar characteristics, but for the most part, they all look like they have lived different lives.
Comparisons to Age of Apocalypse are unavoidable, and this story is practically asking for them by calling itself Age of X. So the question is how this holds up to that classic story and whether it is just a pale copy of it. There are some obvious similarities with Professor Xavier seemingly out of the picture and Magneto being the leader of our mutant militia in a very apocalyptic setting. But beyond those shallow similarities, Age of X reads like a very different story from Age of Apocalypse. The latter was a very straightforward story. From the very beginning, we understood what was happening, how it had happened and what the end goal of it all was. Age of X is very mysterious. We know it to be a world where Xavier never formed the X-Men, but we have no idea why or how. Because this isn't the mainstream universe that has been overwritten, we have little clue about what is to come or how this may relate to the universe we know. The claustrophobic and desperate nature of all these mutants hiding behind the force walls of Fortress X gives this a much stronger atmosphere, and characters seem a bit more substantially different from their mainstream counterparts. As similar as it is, Age of X definitely comes off as a story noticeably different from what we got in Age of Apocalypse.
It is a shame that some readers are probably going to overlook Age of X due to it taking place in the side X-titles of X-Men Legacy and New Mutants. A lot of good thought and effort has clearly gone into this story, and honestly, it is already by far more interesting that anything happening in the main X-titles lately.
