X-Men returns after the Age of Revelation in this epilogue issue from Jed MacKay and new series artist Tony Daniel. Serving as the capstone for the three-month event, X-Men #23 offers some twists and turns as the characters reckon with the ominous warning of their future.
Pay What You Want!
An Epilogue to the Age of Revelation
The Age of Revelation was polarizing, to say the least. The three-month-long event took readers ten years into the future of the X-Men, showing them a world ravaged by the once sweet and kindly Doug, now Revelation, and the grim fates that awaited so many of them. The dark ending, the suspension of the regular comics for three months, the lack of certain characters, and the hasty resolution in the Finale proved to be polarizing for some readers, with online sentiment seemingly verging more on relief that the event was over than catharsis with its ending.
Age of Revelation proves to be more set-up for the future, rather than a true picture of it, as X-Men #23 shows. What leads to this grim future and how best to avoid it seem to be the questions Jed MacKay is posing, and that works well as a present-day motivation for the characters and for readers, particularly since that is a timeline most readers would be keen to avoid.
An Assassin from the Future
X-Men #23 shows us what was going on while the Age of Revelation, future Cyclops was in the present version’s body. His plan to kill Doug was foiled by Beast, who was not taken over by the Age of Revelation Beast, building off the stunning twist at the end of the Finale issue last week. The issue follows the persistence of future Cyclops, aiming to take down Doug no matter what assurances Doug provides that he doesn’t want to go down such a dark path. Cyclops’ dogmatic insistence that Doug dies leads Bei, Doug’s wife, and him to sit down to talk, with Bei feeling that it was a mistake to even come here. Outside, they face threats from ONE, but as Doug says himself, taking on assassins from ONE and assassins from the future is easier than taking on Cyclops.
The conversation between Bei and Doug is a good one, as is Temper’s inclusion in the situation. There is strong character work with Beast, who is angry and confused by the future Cyclops, worried about his version of Cyclops, and where he could be. Magneto and future Cyclops also speak, with a surprising discrepancy between the future this Cyclops is from and Magneto’s present condition arising. R-LDS, the condition Magneto is plagued by, has been mysterious for some time now. Future Cyclops seemed to be unaware that Magneto had it or was afflicted by it. It’s a twist that raises some questions, some conclusions better than others. But it’s certainly more mystery to the mystery box approach Jed MacKay has taken with his X-Men run.
A Lack of True Progression Harms the Pace
Unfortunately, the rest of the X-Men are given brief roles, with the most surprising being Magik. Though the character has a long history with Doug, Magik doesn’t play much of a role in the issue at all, just as she didn’t in X-Men #22 when Doug first shows up in Alaska.
The issue is quite a light one, with not quite enough happening in it to feel that much was accomplished in the 22 pages that the comic was afforded. More mystery and intrigue is added to a comic that is already rife with mystery and intrigue, but frustratingly little payoff.
The Return of a ’90s Throwback
Tony S. Daniel returns to Marvel and to the X-Men line after a long, long stint at DC and on creator-owned comic books. Close to 30 years since his work on X-Force, Daniel is now the lead artist for X-Men. His style differs quite sharply from Ryan Stegman’s, with smoother, cleaner linework and facial compositions that are markedly different from Stegman’s more cartoony style. His work is quite solid on the issue, with easy-to-follow sequential storytelling and a sense of flow and motion to his work. His work is inked by Mark Morales, and Fer Sifuentes-Sujo provides the colors.
Sifuentes-Sujo’s colors suited Stegman and Netho Diaz quite well, but they take away from Daniel’s linework, and the overly shiny, yellowish tint to the colors, as well as the darkness, don’t quite complement his work as well as they should. Perhaps this will improve over time as artists and colorists work together more.
Verdict
Ultimately, X-Men #23 is a solid issue with a strong focus on how horrifying the future is and the X-Men’s responsibility to avoid it. To what extent they will take action in the name of that responsibility, and how far they will go, are key questions MacKay poses. With Doug, Bei, and Warlock leaving Alaska at the end of the issue, to parts unknown, the reader is left questioning whether future Cyclops was right all along.
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{X-Men #23 Review and Final Verdict}
X-Men #23 is a light and breezy issue, but one with consequences for the future. The story moves along at a frustrating pace, and too much of Jed MacKay’s X-Men has been dedicated to future set-up rather than current stories, but the issue does contain intriguing elements that could make or break the Age of Revelation event. There is strong writing for future Cyclops and several of the other X-Men, and Tony Daniel’s return to the X-Men office is in a visually strong fashion.
