Review: Age of Apocalypse #1

De la Torre’s art has impressed be since Daredevil as I find that dark, dystopian style a la Alex Maleev. Lapham is a good writer but while I never found him lasting to my taste, this issue here builds well on Remender’s AoA run-in with X-Force and what we get is a well-woven tapestry that connects the old AoA with Remender threads and new crannies made by Lapham. The cast is well-rotated with Jean, Sabretooth, Wolverine and Prophet all proving to be key facets. It’s perfectly orchestrated and while there is no over-elaboration into Bolivar Trask and Azazel
, you get the feeling a lot of subterfuge runs deep with the resistance as well as Weapon Omega’s hunters. With Jean and the resistance on the lam, it’s nice to see how predatory the instinct is of Wolverine and Lapham does well to leave a tapestry of grim hope and that impression of a world ravaged and torn by warlords and dictators. The fact that Apocalypse is gone doesn’t even make the book slow down because there are enough tools and systems put in place to keep the book ticking and flowing, which is the big task of staying alive and not getting cancelled in Marvel’s marketing scheme. However, with Harper Simmons being that minor connection to 616, I wonder if AvX ties in to this title, and I guess it may not. This may be the biggest downfall, even though such disparate a connection makes for better storytelling as Lapham has free rein. I’ll enjoy this ride while I can seeing as I was thrown for a loop with the final page (8/10)