X-Men: The Age of Apocalypse: Factor X by John Francis Moore

X-Men: The Age of Apocalypse: Factor X Reviews

• 
  Jessica Robinson

  When I started regularly reading X-Men comics in the 90s, the Age of Apocalypse was on its last legs so I'll always be fond of stories from that era, as baffling as they were to me then. This volume is particularly incomprehensible if you don't have a thorough handle on that universe and it's charmingly grimdark take on familiar characters. The description on Goodreads is pretty misleading since this story is all about the sibling rivalry between a beatifully-coifed Cyclops and the only man in the multiverse who gets dumped on more, his baby brother Havok. Everybody's second-favorite time-traveling mutant Bishop doesn't even show up. Don't read this if you don't know what the AoA is. Instead go find one of the huge omnibuses they've put out and enjoy the whole, confusing, wonderful story from the beginning.
• 
  Andrew

  Hmm, how can we change X-Factor's name for its four-issue arc in Age of Apocalypse... how about Factor X? In this case the writer and artist have been in a bit of flux going into AoA but John Francis Moore writes this arc (I have no idea who he is) and Steve Epting does the art, with a very minimal assist from Terry Dodson. Epting's art is growing. His covers initially urk me, but reading the book itself wasn't as bad as I remember.
  
  The book has Cyclops serving under Sinister in his Slave Pens, where Dark Beast (normally Beast) does genetic manipulation on the prisoners they keep. Basically a story of Cyke's revelation that he's in with the bad guys. His team is Havok, Dark Beast, Cannonball, one of Cannonball's sisters (who hadn't been introduced in the regular universe), the Bedlam Brothers (didn't pre-exist in the regular Universe). Angel also gets a little story. As does Polaris.
  
  Overall, not bad, not great. If anything, better than I remember.
  
  Oh and whereas most of the character redesigns are good, Cyclop's is terrible. As is Cannonball's, but he's a minor character anyways.
• 
  Erik

  Although it's been done countless times in superhero comics, the idea for the Age of Apocalypse is a pretty good one. Familiar characters that are a little different to what we're used to in a setting that's completely differenet to the normal one. It gives writers a chance to do things with the characters they'd otherwise never be allowed to do and artists get a chance to redesign everything. Of course the problem with all of the Age of Apocalypse stories is they're about as 90's as comics get in both story and art. Every plot point in this mini is really predictable. It's also got the worst art of the whole event.
• 
  Frans Kempe

  Scott Summers and other mutants fights in a battle against Apocalypse in a different future. Ok story.