Reviewer: James Hatton
This book is quite easily my favorite of the team books of the Age of Apocalypse story, and that probably has quite a lot to do with the fact that at the time I was a huge fan of Gambit and Rogue. It seems a long time ago they loved each other, but due to some unfortunate issues – Magneto won the Southern Bell’s heart. So we get a moody and bitter Gambit who is dating Lila Cheney.
So this book’s purpose is that Gambit’s team, consisting of himself, Lila, Jubilee, Strong Guy, Sunspot, and Jubilee have to go and get the M’Kraan Crystal (In the 616, the thing that gives Juggernaut his unstoppablenessocity). Now, in our world of X-Men, this wouldn’t be a huge deal… just stop the Juggernaut, it’s not like he’s unstoppable. On the AOA world, though, the M’Kraan crystal is in the middle of Shi’Ar space. That simple fact, is what made me love about this story. They didn’t want to share with us how JUST the world of Earth had been changed because of Xavier not existing, but they wanted us to see how the entire universe had been changed by this one man.
So who better to steal a crystal in the middle of space from a people that are much more civilized than us.. why the greatest mutant card throwing mutant… EVAH! Gambit.
So with the conveniently babe-a-licious powers of Miss Lila Cheney they head out to the Shi’Ar, and after a run in with the Imperial Guard we start to see exactly what not having Charlie around has done to Interstellar relationships… it seems instead of Lilandra running the stars, it is a power hungry goon by the name of D’Ken.
Lots of great action commences. It also includes, arguably (Sabertooth and Blink’s relationship being a close tie) one of the sweetest moments in the entire story. To finally take the M’Kraan with them, Gambit must sacrifice something personal – and he chooses his love of Rogue. Deep, eh? Well it doesn’t end there, later in the series Gambit is given another moment of the heart to decide upon, but that’s for you to read.
The other fine point of this book is their main enemy. It isn’t someone who has made anything of himself in the 616 – it is, in fact, Rictor. You know, the guy with the Earthquake powers that’s done not a whole helluvalot since X-Force was cancelled the first time. Between him and Guido, the team is given nothing but trouble.
As I said, one of the best stories told in this entire crossover as far as individual stories goes, and deserves praise for not being called ‘X-Posse’ as it was originally intended.
