The topic for our third Event Month was put to vote between the site’s contributors and, not surprisingly, the biggest and best X-crossover ever was decided on – the Age of Apocalypse. Nearly 50 different issue summaries formed the main part of this Event Month and a new release model was tried out. The four issues summaries of each of the revamped AoA X-books were released together and, each time, the Crossover Description text was updated with the same events, until, by the end of the Month, that text too was fully published.
Dean Clayton, Monolith, Milleniumcyke, Douglas Mangum, Iceman (Trevor Cates), Ruth, David Dawson, Psyknife (Jon Tully), 2TUM, and myself, Peter Luzifer, all participated in this event concept that ran through November 2002. Below is a list of the features that were part of the AoA Month:
Crossover / Timeline
The Age of Apocalypse is actually both a Crossover and an alternate Timeline. Therefore, we tried to adapt the basic structures of each section for a merged entry. It starts with an Introduction, then there is a detailed Read Order with links to each issue summary involved, next up there is an overview of the AoA’s History, describing the changed events that lead to the status quo readers were presented with at the beginning of X-Men Alpha.
Of course there is the aforementioned Chronology / Crossover Description, a Character Overview, including some visual captions comparing the AoA and regular versions of some characters, and, finally, a synopsis of the Aftermath / Lasting Effects.
Spotlight On...
Only two spotlights were published during the event, one being on X-Man, who originates from the AoA, the other on Bishop, the sole character unaffected by the revamped timeline.
Character Glossary
Kind of as an extension to the Character Overview, the AoA received its own section within the character Glossary. Over 100 characters were added there, each with their own headshot and a link to their Marvel Universe counterpart’s entry.
Merging Minds - Villains
Pretty similar to the spotlight idea, this section gives insight to the motivations and machinations of the big X-villains. Naturally, during the AoA Event, we had to do one such article about the big A himself - Apocalyptic Accounts.
Current Title Info
Building upon the Aftermath Entry, the Exiles Mission Chart documents all missions of the Exiles, who were led by Blink, who was plucked from the AoA timeline shortly before it ceased to be, just like her mentor Sabretooth, who for a time served with Weapon X, the other group of characters hopping through dimensions to fix them. Some time after the feature’s original release, it was added to the Exiles’ Current Title info as a second page.
Issue Summaries
Although you can already access the individual summaries through the AoA Read Order page, here is once more the full list of all summaries added during the event, in alphabetical order.
Age of Apocalypse One-Shots
Amazing X-Men #1-4
Astonishing X-Men #1-4
Blink #1-4
Factor X #1-4
Gambit and the X-Ternals #1-4
Generation Next #1-4
Weapon X #1-4
X-Calibre #1-4
X-Chronicles #1-2
X-Man #1-4
X-Man #minus 1
X-Man Annual ‘96
X-Universe #1-2