Age of Apocalypse #6 Review

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Reviewer: James Hatton
Story Title: Chrysalis

Written by: Akira Yoshida
Penciled by: Chris Bachalo
Finished by: Irwin, Leisten, Mendoza, Olazaba, Sowd & Vey
Colored by: Studio F
Lettered by: Chris Eliopoulos
Editor: Mike Marts
Publisher: Marvel Comics

Here we are, a few months ago I wrote the first Age of Apocalypse review. I was a wide eyed wonder. I was a child at Christmas. I was on the beginning steps of an adventure that I had been waiting for, for years.

It had been ten years since the Age of Apocalypse – and a decade later, here we stood on its 10th Anniversary miniseries. Written by Akira Yoshida and illustrated by original AOA’er Chris Bachalo, it began seconds after the last series ended. I will be doing a more full and in-depth report on the entire story, but this review is simply for the last issue.

Was the ending good?
Was it horrible?
Is it the perfect launch point for a legit series?

What happens when you take my favorite Marvel Crossover ever and give it the ‘let’s visit’ treatment.

STORY!

Magneto has sinned. He let one of the most dangerous men in the world remain on the loose for the sole reason that he lied. The world needed someone to put faith into after Apocalypse had been defeated, and they needed to know how it happened. To stop an arsenal of nuclear weapons from exploding (which is how the original Age ended), Magneto supposedly stopped them.

Not all is what it seems though.

What ACTUALLY happened is that Magneto watched like the rest of the world. He closed his eyes. He took what he expected to be his last breath. His wife, Rogue, and their child, Charles, were pressed close together for that last moment of life.

He didn’t stop them, Jean Grey did. The Phoenix. Assumed dead, Jean had been scooped up by Mr. Sinister, brainwashed, broken, and now she is a part of Sinister’s Six. Now, the X-Men has to take them out.

The rest of the issue consists of the fight scene and the aftermath. Not all survive either. When the end of the issue comes, we are left with what we had at the beginning – the X-Men. Sadly, nothing is gained or lost from this mini-series. In the first AOA they took down Apocalypse, and in this one they take down Sinister. The final moment is that the X-Men will always be there, no matter the problem that arises.

Weak. Weak. Weak.

I prayed that the ending was going to rise to the occasion, but sadly it just didn’t. There was no big final swerve, and the ending could have been predicted in the second issue. This story is no longer the AOA – it’s the X-Men with Magneto. Nothing more.

Art!

Chris!? What happened? I will admit that at the beginning of this series I was a bit underwhelmed at Bachalo, whom I generally love. As the story went on though, his art got clearer and clearer until it was the Bachalo of old (if not a bit heavy on the inks). This issue is a bit of a letdown as it swings right back to the incomprehensible. There are pages where I’m watching a female and don’t know which one it is.

I’ve also made mention that he really has a problem giving Logan a face that is consistant with the tone of the panel. There were severe dramatic moments where his face just doesn’t look as pained or surprised as you would expect.

OVERALL!

So it’s over and done with, and having done over half of the reviews for this mini-series – in retrospect, you might get a skewed version of what I thought about the book if you compare. I will say that I took each individual issue on their own, but this issue I am looking at the end of it all. It’s hard to base this on it’s individual merits, when it’s supposed to be the issue that reveals the moral, the culmination, the… BOOM!… and all it gives you is a foofoo cop out ‘The X-Men will be there’ ending.

So, good-bye AOA – I’m sorry to see you not get the treatment you deserved.