The Smark Avengers - Vol 4, Ep 26: Marvel’s Age of Apocalypse Alpha & Age of Revelation – Nostalgia or New Stories?

Episode Date: August 22, 2025

Marvel is bringing back the Age of Apocalypse with Age of Apocalypse Alpha and the upcoming Age of Revelation event — but is this a bold new chapter in X-Men storytelling, or just a nostalgia-driven cash grab? 🤔 In this episode, Corey, Dylan, and Jon dive deep into Marvel’s latest announcements, breaking down what fans can expect from this new era. We cover the return of one of Marvel’s most iconic alternate timelines, the creative teams behind the books, and whether Marvel is giving us something fresh or simply rehashing the past. We explore: Why Marvel keeps returning to the Age of Apocalypse The difference between nostalgia-driven events and genuine new stories A breakdown of Age of Revelation and its tie-in miniseries How this could impact the future of the X-Men line going into 2025 Whether you grew up with the 90s X-Men comics or you’re a new reader curious about Marvel’s event strategy, this discussion digs into the hype, the risks, and the potential of revisiting one of the most legendary Marvel storylines ever told. If you love X-Men comics, Marvel events, or comic book debates, make sure to hit that like button, drop a comment with your thoughts, and subscribe for more weekly deep dives into comics and pop culture. Click the link for Dylan's radio show!: http://www.bouncedigitalradio.co.uk Click the link for Dylan's Twitch stream: http://Twitch.tv/spookylaroux Click the link for Jon's Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/bigjonbowski/

Do we have any more hot takes on J.K. Rowling? I don't think we should start to show with our hot takes on J.K. Rowling, shall we? I don't think that's good. Nah. I don't think we have any hot takes. I think we just have regular takes. Well, actually, no. I think there is actually a good transition from this to the topic for today. And that is before J.K. started, like, slipping in her transphobia. she was notorious for going back and adding things after all the books were over

because that was where the infamous oh yeah Dumbledore's gay thing came from and people were like whoa that wasn't in the books was it and yeah so she kept adding stuff in after the fact much like how a lot of comics in between Marvel and DC right now are about let's go back to these old successful storylines and revisit them okay all right yeah yeah I mean You linked it. I don't know if I would call it a successful link. An attempt was made. Yes.

Well, we'll allow it, I think. Well, thank you for the permission. Anytime. That's why I'm the content officer. Content director. Well, okay. We'll go with that. Welcome to Smart Avengers.

My name is Corey. And with me is Dylan and John. How's it going, guys? All good. All good. I don't know how much of that intro is going to be in there, but today, we're going to be talking about a trend right now in the comic book world where they just can't seem to leave the past alone. And I don't know how much of that is just like, oh, well, maybe we can get like a sales bump or maybe there's these untold stories. we haven't gotten around actually telling.

But we're going to zero in on one particular group. Because like I said, this is between Marvel and DC. On the DC side of things, Jeff Loeb, coincidentally enough, has been hush two with Jim Lee. That's kind of messed up the order that Batman's coming out right now. And then also, I think it's called the Long Halloween, the Last Halloween, where it's a sequel to the last two long. Halloween miniseries. And then...

That's a long... Halloween, if it's lasted like three different miniseries. Like, it lasts a day. Then Halloween lasted three years. Holy shit. It's too much. It's too much.

All the kids have no teeth because the cavities have gotten so bad. It's too many Halloween. Mm-hmm. People are broke because they keep buying candy. Yeah. What are we going to do? Wow, the chocolate corporations are having a great time. They're having the best time.

If they could make it Halloween, Christmas and Easter, like all year round, oh, it's just big chocolate winning. Does that mean you have to dress up in different costumes every day? Every single day. Or you wear the same one every single day without washing it. Because there's just no enough time to wash it because it's Halloween every day. Yikes. I have to think about that for a long time.

Okay. It's a lot. It's not as full-purpose we make it seem. There's a lot of things going on. There's some errors. A lot of issue. So Marvel's been doing this a lot recently as well. Previously, they brought back Peter David before his death to do new miniseries

picking up on runs that he had worked on previously. He had a miniseries for Black Symbiot Spider-Man. He had a series for the Genis Vale, Captain Marvel. He had a miniseries for Joe Fixit for The Incredible Hulk. And I don't want to say anything that jinxes anyone in particular, but it does seem weird that Jeff Loeb is doing the same thing, and, like, Peter David's ended with his death. I'm not saying Jeff Loeb's going to die, but it is weird.

Seems a little bit like you're going to kill him. And it's your way of, like... That's John's getting online. John's a criminal. not me. Yeah, that's right. It's a family affair for John. Nobody will know who kills him.

I think we need more data before we can jump to this conclusion. No, I mean, yeah, that's... I feel like he's... Okay, maybe. Wait, the data would you kill on people? No, no, like Corey's theory about, you know, Def Loeb being doomed. Yeah.

It is a coincidence. That's set in stone. We know that John is definitely 100% a killer. No arguments there. But the other thing, yeah, we might need to get some more information with that. Yeah. Yeah. It's definitely a coincidence.

We'll leave it at a coincidence. But anyway, Jeff Loeb is back with the first part of this topic, and that is the return of the age of apocalypse. So, Marvel announced back in May that the age of apocalypse, an event that occurred in the 90s would be celebrating its anniversary by having a new six-issue miniseries called X-Men of Apocalypse Alpha,

written by Jeff Loeb with art by Simone de Mayo, I believe is the pronunciation, that goes on sale September 3rd. And the premise of it is simple. 30 years ago, the X-Men of Apocalypse took the comics world by storm and Jeff Loeb was lucky enough to be part of it. They were new characters, new designs,

heroes who were villains and villains who were heroes. Now on the 30th anniversary, an all-new, all-different story with spectacular art brings us to this uncanny team that shouldn't even exist and they're coming to the mainstream universe. Join Gambit, Sabretooth, and Wild Child, blink, forge, and morph,

and more, as they try to save one universe, without dooming the other. So that's the premise. As it stated, it's the 30th anniversary of Age of Apocalypse. The Age of Apocalypse universe is collapsing, I believe, is the premise. And these characters have made the jump over into the main continuity to try to save their world. First and foremost, though, does anyone want to talk to Age of Apocalypse, fond memories of it, things you liked, things you disliked? Is this the fourth time they went back to the age of apocalypse?

The universe is not like the first time. This is happening. This is like four. The original one came out in 95. I thought it was like a year long event, but it apparently was only like four months. It felt long. Yeah, because I mean they basically restarted like, all the book

or the X-Men book is like Age of Apocalypse specific books so there was a lot of content there but then they did bring it back in

I think 2005 where they did like a sort of tales from the age of apocalypse type theories where they were just you know

going back revisiting some of the characters Fleshing out stories and all that kind of jazz Yeah, and then it got brought back in Uncanny X-Force as well, during the Rick Remendo run During, I think it was like 2011, 2012, something like that Where I think that was during like the Dark Angel storyline Where he was...

Oh, the egg! Yeah, the seed, the light, seed and the death seed. I just I remember it being spherical. Yeah. And that one worked out pretty well. That felt like, you know, it had a point to it and it wasn't just like pointless nostalgia.

But then because that was successful, they did do like another age of apocalypse run, I think, the year after, which was not as good and kind of, you know, didn't have any kind of impact in the comic world whatsoever. Well, and that's been it since then. And then you have to add into the fact that Beast from Age of Apocalypse and Sugar Man both have been in the main Marvel continuity since like 1995. So even then, you know, it's, it's weird to celebrate the age of apocalypse turning 30 when it pops up every now and then.

but Nate Gray Nate Gray Yeah Nate Gray had a long series and then Nate Gray was around and Nate Gray created a whole new universe for a period of time

um gosh how many years ago right before Krokoa yeah I mean he was Jesus he was he well legally he was distinct from Jesus yeah he had the tattoo still

he was Azuts yeah he was his zoots Stop jumping on the bar. Was that Jesus? That was Jesus. Good callback. So, yeah, like I said, we were celebrating the return of the age of Apocalypse with this new mini-series.

It's funny that the original ran for four months because they already announced this is a six-issue mini-series. So it's going to last two months longer than the thing it's celebrating. And also, Apocalypse is dead in the age of Apocalypse. That was like how it ended. Apocalypse was defeated. Yeah. So it's still the age of apocalypse despite the fact that apocalypse ain't there no more.

Well, let's see another thing about it. Is it the easiest way to talk about it was to call it the age of of Apocalypse universe, so people knew what it was talking about. But in reality, the most of the time the stories existed, Apocalypse wasn't there because he died in the 1995 run.

You know, but they still have to be like, oh, if they called it like Earth, 48 to 100, people were like, what's one is that again? If you say age of Apocalypse, they're like, oh, yeah, cool, I got it. It's one where there was an age of apocalypse. So, I mean, what is there to say about this storyline? The details are a little sparse.

They're promising that the age of apocalypse versions of the characters will be interacting with the regular universe's characters, which morph isn't in the main continuity, if I'm not mistaken. And Sabretooth is dead. and wild child is in prison boy spoilers about wild child here come on on oh hey show some respect

I think well hold on I'll say this I think Sabreto's dead because they just had a mini-series for him and I don't it was like in the past so I don't know why you would make a miniseries in the past if he's not alive if he's alive so this is just a theory I thought they were sort of teasing

that he's the big bad in the current Wolverine series and there might be some sort of familiar connection between them. So are you talking about Wolverine's mom showing up? Yeah. All right, they did reveal who that was. I'm not sure if you want to know that or not, though.

Sabre too. I'll avoid the spoilers on that one. Hey, runt. It's me, your mama. I'm your father. It's got it happened. It worked for Mystique. It'll work for me.

Yeah. I got both. Don't worry about it. It's not funny. Don't worry about it. All right. Well, we'll, like I said, they're promising these characters are going to interact. We know where Gambit is.

We don't really know where, well, we kind of know where Forge is because Forge had his own X-Force book that got canceled after like nine, ten issues. He's with Wildchild. Yeah. So, a wild child is in the Grey Malkin prison and being used as basically like a prisoner release criminal thing.

But yeah, Gambit is hanging out with a bunch of kids in New Orleans with his wife and Wolverine and a more traditional X-Men lineup. When you say it like that, it sounds weird. I mean, you know, he's doing Gambit stuff, mentoring. That's what he does. I don't know why for just hanging out with a bunch of kids

in San Francisco. No, no. Louisiana. I apologize. Oh, whatever. Maybe I made up San Francisco. I don't know. They were in San Francisco for a while. It's interesting. Louisiana. Not anything.

It never happens in Louisiana. That's fine. In the bayou. Yeah. So, yeah, anyway, like I said, that's the premise that we know of so far. Their world is dying. They're in the main continuity to do something to keep that from happening.

And here we are. Is there any interest on your part to see this storyline, follow the storyline, see what happens, that kind of deal. Not really. I mean, for me,

I don't know if you guys feel the same way with this, but for me, it feels weird going back and exploring universe of a big happening event. Let's, for example, look out of the air, use

the age of apocalypse. The whole point of the age of apocalypse was it was like an alternate universe because something happened and then if that thing ended up this would have been the world that came up and they told the whole story and then it ended that was

the end of it right and the way that they ended it they brought the characters they liked Nick Gray Dark Beast everybody's favorite character to the Sugar Man the love machine himself the meat don't even give me

I draw pictures again they brought those characters back to the main universe so they didn't have to go back to age of apocalypse because the story was wrapped up was done i think that it's weird to go back to a universe like that because then you're like well this the story was already done and it seems weird to go but there's more stories to be told i'm like not really because that universe existed primarily for that one story yeah you can't tell more stories now but the reason people cared about the age of apocalypse universe is for

the age of apocalypse story and there are other universes too where that happens there's other like storylines when they go back and you visit them and you go you don't need to do this like you could just make a new I don't get

why this has to be part of the same universe because what's the point yeah you already did it for me that's how I feel about this and I see that they're putting a lot of effort into it and they're putting a lot of time

and comics and resources six issues into this they wanted to but it's like also there's so many crossovers

other oh no that's the other that's the other thing we're going to talk about this is not that's not related to this oh okay

yeah that's a different thing that's coincidentally happening around the same time that's what I thought we were talking about that whole that whole business oh no no we'll get into that one shortly

okay good but like I just don't I don't see the value in going well let's see what happened 20 years later in this universe because I'm like we already saw like the main art you know what you mean that's how I feel anyway so I've been reading uh Batman and Jeff Loeb and Jim Lee came on to do hush 2 which was a follow up to Hush which was a storyline that Jeff Loeb wrote with Jim Lee on art that's you know they're following up on a new story

featuring Tommy Elliott and his desire to ruin Bruce Wayne's life by sabotaging it at all costs. And I have to be honest with you, the book's been delayed so that when Hush 2 ends, the new Batman run that Matt Fraction will be writing is already a month in. So like, it's already thrown the schedule out of whack because it's, you know, God bless Jim Lee. He's a busy guy. He does not have the time to be doing all. ongoing books. Um, no. And, and so far, I'll be honest to do, the story hasn't really been anything to write home about.

You know, it's like, hush is putting Bruce Wayne in a position where he's having to choose his no kill policy over the bat family. Like case and point, he pretty much killed Joker and Bruce was forced to like resuscitate him and now Red Hood's pissed at him and backgirls pissed at him because it's like, okay, cool, someone killed Joker and you brought him back why is there a good answer to that question uh not that i've seen so far aside from just the whole you know you know batman doesn't kill yeah the shit like that i'm like yeah hush put him in a position where he had to choose and he chose to save joker uh regardless john do you have thoughts on are you going to try to follow age of apocalypse alpha

I know you're a big trade reader I don't know I think it will depend on one like if it's well received and two if it feels like the events will impact the main

X-Men comics and you know like if it feels like not reading it means I'm missing out on something crucial but uh or see like it'll because i do trades like you say it'll be i'll have plenty of time to kind of gauge

reaction and then see if it's important or not or if i can just skip it and not go back to it so it's funny that you mention whether it's going to have a main like an impact on the main continuity or not because this is uh age of apocalypse alpha comes out in september in october exactly october first the age of revelation starts. That is a follow-up on the storyline, the miniseries, Air of Apocalypse, which would end it ended in Doug Ramsey,

uh, being named Apocalypse's heir and having his body transformed into an apocalypse-esque form. Um, it starts on October 1st and a whole slew of miniseries are going to launch and we'll get into that. And then there's going to be another one shot that has. happens at the end of it to tie everything together. But I don't see age of apocalypse alpha having a major impact on the main continuity while this is going on because it's, oh, it basically, shit's going to happen and everything's going to change.

If you'd like, I can read you the, uh, the premise to this. Okay. Okay. This October, the world is reborn in the image of Doug Ramsey, the air of apocalypse in age of revelation. the event takes the Marvel universe 10 years into the future where the Revelation

Territories, a new mutant utopia, threatens an earth ravaged and transformed by the mysterious X-Virus. And that's basically the premise we're jumping into the future 10 years and a bunch of shits changed and these mini-series of all launched to explore the various aspects of it.

It's all centered around Doug Ramsey. So they did a issue of Jed McKay's X-Men that was all about, that was all centered on Doug Ramsey, who grew his hair back out so he doesn't look as much like Apocalypse. And him and his wife and Warlock trying to figure out how he is going to follow Apocalypse's mission of improving the world for mutine kind. and I guess this is the lead-up to what happens as a result of that decision. So any thoughts on that initially before we start looking at the mini-series that are going to be launching that will fill out the world of the Age of Revelation? I have zero thoughts. Okay.

I mean, I would say, like, just finished, like a pretty big storyline in the X-Men world where the mutants were living in like their own utopia and then stuff happens and they go to war with like the rest of the planet basically and here we are in a similar situation

even if it's like oh ten years in the future it just feels like are we going back to that well already yeah yeah just done something like this why are we doing it again right it's 10 years in the future but in real life, it's like three months

later or whatever. Like, it's not that much longer. It tends to be seen this. So, these are the mini-series that will be coming out as part of this series-wide crossover. Amazing X-Men.

Amazing X-Men. X-years later, on the run, after a deadly clash with Revelation's chief assassin, the Shattered X-Men desperately gamble everything on one last mission. With help from an unexpected ally, they venture into the haunted ruins of Gray Malcon. What they find, there may be, there may change everything if they survive. This will be written by Jed McKay, who is kind of the architect behind age of Revelation and

the current X-Men writer. This book seems to feature characters from the, the X-Men run. Cyclops is a main character. Glob Herman has a new look. He looks like a badass. He looks like a badass. no if you're ready for glob herman looking like a like a like a man like a man and not i want to look at glob so that's our first our second is binary this is binary and the universe burns with her x years later in the ashes of the old world to survive she is reborn a cosmic force channeling the phoenix herself with the universe crumbling binary returns to save what's left but power this great always comes with a price and the end of everything might begin with her.

This is written by Stephanie Phillips. So a lot of people are it, so you're familiar with the binary identity that Captain Marvel, Miss Marvel, Carol Danvers used for a while. It looks like it's a combination of that and the Phoenix at the same time.

Okay. Next up, Laura Kinney Sabretooth. X years later, she's taken the name of once bitter enemy Sabretooth and fights beside Revelation himself. Why did Laura Kinney abandon her legacy? What secrets does she keep from the mutant world? Oh, this ad...

This website is so bad. The ads keep generating and moving the screen. What secrets does she keep for the mutant world? When loyalty changes, blood means everything. And this is written by Erica Schultz. Next up... That sounds kind of interesting. Yeah.

Well, so, you know, the other two books sound like their characters against Revelation, this is a character who is with him. Next up, long shots. X years later. All of these start with X years later. X years later, and Mojo's got a new game for Wonder Man, Hellcat, Bishop, Rhino, and Craven to play. There are no rules. One survivor wins.

One survivor wins, the others die. Mojo promises you can vote for the winner with your dollars, but you probably can't. Mojo can't promise that any of this is true or that you can even vote, as all decisions will be made by Mojo and Mojo alone. It is Mojo Dojo, its fame or fatality. And this is written by Jerry Duggan and Jonathan Hickman. What? Jonathan Hickman's right in this.

With Jerry Duggan. That's it. Then just seemed fair we put those two together in that? So this is an X-Men book without X-Men because we have Wonder Man, Hellcat, Bishop, well, Bishop, Rhino and Craven the Hunter Rino what the fuck I am okay with a mojo story because

I think in the context that it kind of makes sense it sounds like they can make it make sense I don't understand why they pick those six guys I know I feel like when you read the story it will not explain why those six guys are picked but I'm okay with a mojo story because when was the last time being a good mojo story

uh Mojo was just been a while. Mojo was just the villain in NYX, I believe. That series got canceled at like issue 10. I said a good Mojo story. There you go. All right. Next up, World of Revelation.

X years later, what happened to the Fantastic Four and what horrors plagued the East Coast? How does the rest of the world survive the rise of Revelation? And far above on O'Raco, what does Apocalypse think of his heir's new empire? Discover the far-reaching impact of Age of Revelation across the Marvel Universe. This is written by Ryan North, Al Ewing, and Steve Fox. So this is going to be your sort of collection of mini-stories, it sounds like.

So all of those books are out on October 8th. October 1st is a one-shot that introduces Age of Revelation. October 8th, number ones for all those books come out. Next up, these are the books that are coming out on October 15th with new number ones. Unbreakable X-Men X years later and the uncanny X-Men have been shattered by loss and tragedy and scattered to different locations around the world

at Haven House only three wounded, grieving, and guarding the portal to the terrifying panumbra. Can they stop the thundering darkness that has lurked below the surface for centuries screaming to break free? Or will they fail and watch a vengeful God bring an army of tormented souls to the surface crying for mutant blood?

This is written by Gail Simone So this is a series It's a follow-up to what she's doing in Uncanny Axemen And the main character is an older gambit That's good to me Rogue Storm X years later with Earth's gods gone Only Aurora Monroe, the mutant god of Storms remains

She is a goddess driven mad by dark magic and grief Now as Storm threatens to freeze the world into a new Ice Age Rogue leads a team of killers and legends, Gateway, Iceman, Phantom X, Spiral, and Warpath. The sole mission of this uncanny X-Force, Kill Storm. This is written by Mura, I believe it is Miorwa Eodell, who I believe is the current writer to Storm. After this, we have Iron and Frost.

X years later, after 3K's devastating terrorist attack, cost Tony Stark and Emma Frost everything, the heartless queen returns to what remains of her past. Secrets hide in the ruins of New York. The Hellfire Club has a dangerous new leader. This is written by Kaven Scott. Sinisters 6. X years later, Mr. Sinister's assembled an elite strike force

to take his rightful place on the throne of Revelation. What his sinister offered havoc, black cat, domino, Omega Red, Phantom X, venom to convince them to take on impossible odds? Are Sinisters misfits throwing their lives away or has revelation underestimated how far his subjects will go when there's nothing left to lose?

And this is written by David Marquez. Isn't that kind of similar to the Mojo one? We're like what the fuck is up with the choices of people here? Well, the Mojo people seem like they're trapped in Mojo World, like a traditional Mojo World thing where it's kind of like Squid Games, I suppose.

And this book is a It sounds like a suicide squad take of like, here are these characters that are kind of expendable, and they're on a, they're on a suicide mission. Black cat? What? Why? Oh, yeah, and she's mutated, so she looks like an actual cat right now. Also, you may not, I'm not sure if you realize this, but there are two phantomexes. There's a male phantom X that's in the rogue Storm book, and there's a female Phantom X that's part of Sinister 6.

so double phantom x what do i do you know should i don't think it's confusing yeah should i ask i don't think i should ask all right so those are the books that are coming on on october 15th these are the books that are coming out on october 22nd

uh do i have yeah okay cool book of revelation x years later after the assassination of one of his prized choristers revelation welcomes a new mutant to his capital city of philadelphia but the capital of the Revelation territories hides many dangers, not the least of which are her rival choristers, and Fabian Cortez will allow no one to challenge him for Revelation's favor. But this new mutant has a secret ally, the ghost of Philadelphia.

And this one's being written by Jed McKay as well. Ghost of Philadelphia. I have no idea. That whole blab sounded like nonsense to me. Yeah, what the fuck? The last Wolverine. X years later, the people of Vancouver cheer a new hero, the Wonderful Wolverine, aka the Windigo, Logan's last student.

But what happened to Logan? A secret from Wolverine's past will set the last Wolverine on a mission to uphold his mentor's legacy, unless a dire threat burns it all down first. A wonderful Wolverine. That's got to be a first. Yep. So if you've not been reading the Wolverine book, Wolverine encountered a Wendigo

that seems to have a level of intelligence that was a teenage boy that was given the curse and Wolverine has kind of mentored him. It doesn't matter if it's a boy or girl. He just loves his teenagers. He does. Omega kids. X years later, Quintinquire protects the dream

of mutant supremacy and independence as head of the Revelation Territory spy network. But when a conspiracy he threatens the mutant utopia, choir and his psychic students will have to distinguish friend from foe. Has Quentin got what it takes to carry the dream forward, or will the next generation replace the former revolutionary? By the way, this was written by Tony Fleece's. The Wolverine one is written by Saladinamed. I don't think any of those people are. Oh, I think you would really like Saladinamed.

He's got very unique ideas. Do you remember when we were, uh, we did that episode on like weird powers and I was telling you about Dial H and there was the guy who was like a steamboat with, he was like a guy with steamboat arms. Yeah. That's solid Named. No. I don't know if I do remember this.

He does the Miles Marlins book as well. That's pretty good. Okay. The radioactive Spider-Man. X years later, the X-Fius decimated New York, but Spider-Man won't stop fighting. In a desperate gamble, Peter Parker doses himself with lethal radiation to hold the infection at bay.

Survival comes at a cost. While this may not kill Peter Parker, it sure messes him up. The most dangerous mutated Spider-Man ever, and he's not alone. This is written by Joe Kelly. His mutation, by the way, is he's growing some extra arms again,

but they're not like human arms. They're little clawed arms. Okay. All right. And we have the books on sale October 29th. The ex-patriot X-Men. X years later, like the fallen and reassembled United States, the new team of Miss Marvel, Bronze, Malay, and Rift,

they have seized control of the Mississippi River waters that divide mutankind from the rest of humanity, feared and powerful their guerrilla tactics keep them in control, until a high-stakes mission to extract a valuable asset threatens to tear them apart. Can they hold together when everything's on the line? So these are characters that are a mix of the NYX book and also the exceptional X-Men book. This is written by E-viewing, who I believe is in some relation to All-Ewing. I don't know the specifics.

I don't know if it's a white stripe situation where people are going to say their brother and sister, but they're actually like divorced or something. Cloak or dagger. Dumbest name so far. X years later I just cloak or dagger X years later and Tandy and Tyrone have tied the knot but their bond comes with a terrible cost

Now they can no longer exist on the same plane At the same time Reunited at last The pair now face a love story Warped by Power and Fate And this is written by Justina Ireland Undeadpool X years later

And the virus ravaging the revelation territories has finally made Wade Wilson into what he always wanted to be a mutant, but not like us and not like this. Deadpool's healing factory is on overdrive, his mind, a passenger in a body that hungers, and cannot be sated unless he devours the life force of mutants. His next targets are the new blood known as fearless, magni, kid man thing, and fantastica. It's Deadpool like you've never seen him before, and this is written by Tim Seeley. you were talking about expandable characters

I think fantastic and kid man thing might be like tip top of it we just made this shit up so Deadpool can eat them you kind of deal right you baby man thing yeah like what the fuck like not buying it says Deadpool like you've never seen him before but we've seen it sounds a bit like zombie dead

yeah we've seen Marvel's honest yeah Earth's mightiest and hated in fear the X-Vengers. X-years later, Earth still needs the Avengers, but what happens when those who are left have transformed into mutants? Danny Moonstar leads a new team of Avengers,

Hawkeye, Vision, Water Widow, Shang-Chi, Variable Man, and Cannonball to protect the planet. But can these Ex-Vengers protect all of Earth, including the Revelation territories? And this is written by Jason Liu. Water Widow? Water Widow.

Yes, Black Widow has the X-Virus. If it doesn't kill you, it mutates you. So, Natasha, it sounds like Natasha, or potentially Yalina, have gotten some hydroman powers. It's not like somebody got divorced. Yeah. Or the water died, I guess, not divorced. So that is all of the books coming out from. Age Revelation, these are all mini-series.

I don't know how long they're going to run. I don't know if they're one-shots. I don't know if they're like four issues, five issues, six issues. But it's a lot of books. So if you want to read Age Revelation and you want to get the whole story, it's going to cost you some money. Considering every week in October is going to be a new number one five times at most. well that raises the question of do you want to read in the age of revelation there you go that's the trick not just do you want to spend

many points on all these comics is like is it worth it is it worth like trying to like connect all these strides together for this story so john did any of those miniseries appeal to you in any way. I know you seemed interested in Laura Kinney's Sabretooth. Yeah, that one was the one that kind of stuck out more than the rest. I guess like sinister, what was it, Sinister? Sinister six. Which elicited a reaction out of Dylan.

Yeah. And I guess maybe the rogue storm. one just because like what the fuck happened to storm to you know make her break bad in the first place and then yeah I do but I mean there's just too much there's too many books yeah it's too many stories and it feels like it's just an overload of ideas and I I read all of those and I can't remember more than three or four of them So immediately while I was looking at these, the books that don't seem like they need to exist, I don't know what purpose they're going to serve.

Iron and Frost, I don't think needs to be a thing. Cloak or dagger doesn't need to be a thing. ExVingers doesn't need to be a thing. There's already a book about the Omega Kids doesn't seem terribly interesting. There's the anthology book. that's like, oh, these are the, here's other things that are happening in this setting because of this massive change. That seems like it's fine. That might be interesting.

But the other book of Revelation that we talked about where you said that sounds like a bunch of nonsense, I would agree. The only character names that stuck out were, of course, Revelation, which is Doug Ramsey, and Fabian Cortez. I don't know who the ghost of Philadelphia is. And for whatever reason, they didn't name the female character that's new to the territory. odd so Dylan was there anything oh go ahead John I apologies oh sorry I'm gonna say do we know um if these books are gonna be like replacing the regular yes like tree of X-Men books yes they will be so all of the X-books that are out there right now they're either ending before age of revelation or they're pausing so like X-Men uncanny X-Men uncanny X-Men exceptional X-Men. Those are all pausing. I think magic,

Siloak are ending. I think Phoenix and Storm are both pausing. And I can't remember if there's any other X-books right now. So of the books that are still active, the majority of them are pausing, and then the ones that are focusing on like single characters, those seem to be ending.

At least Sylock and magic. Okay. So it is reminiscent to what they do. with age of apocalypse in that sense. Yeah, definitely. So, Dylan, after hearing all of those, do you have any thoughts? Like, what stuck out to you?

Just like Liam some of that sounded. Do I mean, maybe my expectations are these days. Maybe that's what it is. Maybe I just have high standards. But maybe I'm impossible to please when it comes to comics. I don't know. There are a lot of stuff that are like,

So, well, Peter Parker, the radioactive Spider-Man, he already is radioactive. That he's even more radioactive. Wow, now I've got to read it. He's got tiny arms. Like, you know, like you said, there's a lot of stuff there that you're like, we don't need this. And I wonder what the purpose of it is. I like, I always like the idea of flesh and out side characters and stuff like that. But what you're doing is flesh and out side characters.

in like an alternate universe kind of thing. It's just 10 years in the future, so it's going to end up not happening. So ultimately, none of the flesh and art of these characters has any purpose other than the main characters in the story. You know,

I don't see what cloak and or dagger are going to make different in this story. Or like, why Deadpool has that story other than being Deadpool. Yeah. You know? Because he doesn't, He's not involved with the main story.

He's just off doing his own fucking thing. So, like, well, why, why? You know, I don't know. A lot of it, I wasn't, I didn't really think a lot of it sounded, like, I got to go check that out of it. Yeah, I mean, like you said, I agree. The only X book I'm reading right now is just the regular X-Men book. And I liked the issue they had of Doug with his wife and Warlock talking about what they were planning to do. because partway through it, like a hit squad tried to kill Doug.

And, you know, they were protected, you know, but, you know, like that was interesting. And then the ending of it promised Doug is going to Alaska to talk to Cyclops. But I don't really know where they're going to go from that. There's some names that are missing. Like, they're not in the preview. They're not in the covers. And they're not mentioned in the blurbs. Like Magneto's not been referenced anywhere.

We know that Xavier is in space because of Imperial. Beast hasn't been mentioned. Gene Gray, if she's binary, but binary might be Carol Danvers. And also there's a weird inconsistency because we see Rogue as the leader of this version of X-Force that's assigned to go kill Storm. But in the Unbreakable X-Men cover that Simone's writing, Gambit is standing over a grave that has rogue's name on it. So is like, is that just a mistake? Is, does Gambit, have they been led to think she's dead?

Like, you know, there are questions. Or it just could be, like I said, somebody overlooked the art. Right, but there are questions, but there are these questions where you're like, I've got to find the answer to this. Or are they questions who are like, that is the stupid. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, I do appreciate. the fact that it sounds like Gail Simone's going to be continuing what she's doing, but just, you know, advanced into the future. Because the penumbra, that whole deal is in her book. I stopped reading it because I didn't really care for all of these kid characters she introduced. But, yeah, I don't really see the value add of 75% of these books. Like, I feel like they could have put out a handful of them and been fine. Yeah, I think so Like it sounds like this is designed to eventually sell an omnibus one day Pay $150 and have a big thick book on your shelf

It's the original age of apocalypse You collected them all together It was like four volumes I think Like that's... I think that's what it comes down to though Isn't it? Like the whole Like we started off talking about like Why are they revisiting the age of apocalypse

It's all about like oh, it's the 30th anniversary of this coming out. Let's go back to that well, because nostalgia's the big thing. Most of our fan base grew up in the 90s, reading these comics, and have an emotional connection to them. And not only that, but it will potentially get people who didn't read them to then go back and buy the collected editions or whatever so they could spend their money on that as well.

Like, if you're looking at it cynically, it's, you know, it's like kind of nostalgia based. And at the same time, it's, well, I say nostalgia based and like celebratory as well. Like, you know, like celebrating the anniversary. But at the same time, you do feel like this is just sort of a cat grab, really. So the microphone fell apart. I think the thing that got me is the fact that, Age of Apocalypse Alpha starts in September, and this is the entire month of October. There's like five books coming out every week in October.

So Age of Apocalypse Alpha is going to just get completely swallowed up by this. So it's like, is this a celebration of Age of Apocalypse in a traditional sense of what a celebration is, if it's just going to be overwhelmed by this new big crossover storyline we're doing? because one of the covers, Apocalypse is on one of the covers, if I'm not mistaken. So in this 10 years in the future, it seems like he's around.

One of the synopsis talks about, like, what's he going to think about what Doug's doing? I, by the way, I refuse to use the name Revelation. It's Doug Ramsey forever. Because of prisons?

Yeah, I'm, you know, as an atheist, I find it offensive that they're trying to force their Christian agenda on me. He didn't like the character genesis? I didn't. I'm not a big fan of Genesis. I'm not a fan of the band Genesis.

No, I hate the ban. There's a woman that works for my company. Her first name is Genesis. That seems weird. Not a fan of it. Is she a mutant? She might be. But yeah, yeah.

I just, it just seems like such a weird decision to be like, we're going to put out age apocalypse alpha. and then a month later we're just going to whitewash it with Age of Revelation stuff. I mean, even just the naming convention of Age of Revelation, it just

swallows it up entirely. Yeah, yeah. Seems like poor planning. Well, I don't plan. I feel like it's exactly what they planned because they did want, I think in their heads they were trying to play off the Age of Apocalypse thing. And then just

saw it. Oh, you know, people will just buy it all together as one big new september age of apocalypse october age of revelations november age of apples december is no it should have been age of long halloweons the age of long halloweons age of hush too yeah that's december uh exactly you know i think they did plan it like that and just saw people will buy age of apocalypse shit Yeah. Maybe it's just a timing thing, though, with Jeff Loeb, like, coming back to Marvel,

because I assume, yeah, yeah. Like, maybe they would have liked to have got the age of Apocalypse one out, like, earlier in the year. Put a bit of a gap between them, but if he's been delayed with all this Batman, her stuff, then, you know, maybe that even had, like, a knock-on effect on the Marvel side of things as well. Yeah, because long Halloween, last Halloween, I think is still going on, because I think it's like a 10-ish issue series. So it was started earlier in the year with a couple of issues out already before Hush 2 started about a month or so ago. About two, three months ago Hush 2 started. So yeah, you're right, it just could have been availability, but just rotten timing.

Mm-hmm. Maybe. And I think the X-Men just need a long break from this kind of stuff. Because even before this, when they had their, like, the downfall of Krakawa, the main books got, like, canceled, and they brought back Uncanny Avengers, and they made the uncanny Spider-Man series where Nightcrawler was in a Spider-Man costume. And they did a Dark X-Men book where Madeline. prior and like a partially

zombieified havoc were the main characters and it's like they just like let's just have about two three years maybe longer of just putting out the book and not do any of this overlap stuff or reset

you know the universe stuff yeah and I say that as a DC fan who the continuity has been reset three four times since I've been alive so yeah

well any more thoughts on either age of apocalypse alpha or age of revelation no really no I'm just not that psyched about it to be honest no I would agree with that I would agree with that so John what is your movie count at for the year I am on 639

That's a good number. What was the last one that you watched? It's fucking dreadful. It was called The Ritual Killer. And the poster made it look like Morgan Freeman was one of the main characters. Apparently in it. And he, yeah, it was basically like a director streaming type thing. And it was the actor called Cole Houser, who was the main character.

Who I've apparently seen in 13 other movies, but I do not recognize him at all. So, okay, so John, where can they find you at the link in the description of this video? Or description on Spotify? If they go to a letterbox and search for what? At Bing, John Bowsky, all one word. Also in the description of our, of the episode in IHeartRadio, Pandora, Amazon, podcasts, Apple Podcasts. we're like a million I think we're at like 30, 40 places

so if there's a place to listen to podcasts you're going to see the link to John's letterbox in the description so Dylan what are you up to these days okay so what I do sometimes is

I radio show I do Monday nights at 9 o'clock to 11 o'clock UK time on Bynne's Digital Radio so if you go to Bounce, usually really, I'll code at UK. At 9 o'clock, UK time, you'll be able to hear my show.

It's really fun. We'd play a lot of Pearl Jam and some other bands as well. And then sometimes I do some streaming in between that. At Spookular Room on Twitch, where I've been doing a lot of art stuff. I actually streamed me making the thumbnails for some of the videos recently. And by recently, I guess, I mean, two weeks ago. but maybe I did do that but recently again. I don't know. It's hard to tell with my

you know brain problems. A lot of problems. But it's a lot of animating and drawing and stuff, so it's a good time. Well, like I said, we'll have the links in the description for that as well. Also, I have

my show, Large Old Cup. It's Stream of Consciousness, Storytelling kind of deal. So you can find that at pretty much everywhere that you can listen to podcasts. Until next time, though, we're going to go ahead and say goodbye. So goodbye. Goodbye.

Bye-bye.