Age of Revelation - When you see a page so depressing that there's only one solution

[icon_uk]

Post balancing material and go beyond it!



It pains me to mention that in X-Men: Age of Revelation Overture #1, we get this page, set "X years in the future"



Sigh, if we needed any more of a reason for Age of Revelation to be removed from the potential futures of the MU, this would be it.

Again, Jed Mackay started out with an interesting take on Doug as Revelation, and the speedrun to dystopia is just... disappointing. I'm hoping this is addresses properly when it's all over.

So, say what you will about the Krakoan era, it had it's fun moments, and few moreso than the unexpected marriage of Doug Ramsey of Bei the Blood Moon during the "X of Swords" event

From their first meeting, which was whatever the opposite of a meet cute is



Soon Saturnyne decreed that Cypher and Bei be one of the first rounds of the tournament...



That's showing real commitment to linguistics Doug... not necessarily common sense, but commitment.

And as events unfold...



Oh look! Illyana's here, she'll calm his nerves I'm sure



Even cannibals probably like a nice cake for dessert guys, don't be judgemental!

At any rate, it's at this point we got the first indication that some of these challenges were NOT going to be simple sword fights.



I would pay good money to see Illyana give Doug "The talk".



Yes, that is an entirely admirable choice of "vows assessor" right there...





Suffice it to say that after that unexpected start, Doug and Bei were, perhaps a little surprisingly... a solid couple, absolutely besotted with each other for the rest of the Krakoan era!



Doug getting the little leg-lift pose is entirely in character for both of them.



Even after the Fall of Krakoa and Doug becoming Revelation, the Heir of Apocalypse, they were still together (with Warlock of course)



I'd say "Don't worry, it's not his blood", but I usually find that in those circumstances it's MORE of a reason to worry.

Alas, their life a a couple (or througple, depending on how one looks at Warlock's involvement) seems destined, in at least one future, to be wrecked.

So, as a counterbalance, here are the happy couple by Luciano Vecchio (Which isn't my commission, but if someone hadn't beaten me to it, it might well have been)



And likewise this, which I do not know the artist for, despite looking, and if anyone can tell me please do, as I HATE not being able to credit/link artists




And this, which IS the latest addition to my collection, courtesy of a new artist who impressed me mightily, Nick Thomas on Instagram



Doug is having a day off on Krakoa, and what happens on one's day off in Krakoa is your own business! ;)

I'd also recommend taking a look at the work of an artist named phierie on tumblr, whose Warlock/Doug/Bei portraits are delightful, along with the other New Mutants. And in this case of this short story, more than a little heartbreaking

Comments

[iamrman]

Yep, I see more evidence why I was correct in not reading any X-books for the foreseeable.

[icon_uk]

Certainly not going to hold that against anyone...

[iamrman]

Denial isn't only a river in Egypt.

[cainofdreaming]

You are so right.

It's also a river in Ethiopia, Eritrea, Congo, Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.

[akodo_rokku]

Uncanny has been pretty delightful. Gail Simone is putting in the work. It still took me a WHILE to get on board, but that's not her fault - she had a hell of a hole to climb out of, and it's a testament to her skill as a writer that she's done it.

[icon_uk]

I really want to like Uncanny more than I do because, yes, Gail Simone, whose work I've liked for years.

I'm just not sure "Here's another half dozen characters you've never met before" was the way to go when we should perhaps be seeing how post-Krakoan life has messed up existing mutants. Like how do the one's who gave up their native citizenship to become citizens of Krakoa get re-registered, if they can.

[akodo_rokku]

Oh I have no illusions about the Outliers sticking around very long once Gail's run is done. Which is a shame because they're all so damn delightful.

But I don't think that was the point of them at all, because the entire point of "After the Fall" was to bring the X-Books "back to basics". The writer's driving the train, but editorial laid the tracks.

[wizardru]

I get that, but it's really the only X title that appeals to me, right now. I didn't like the title with Kitty/Kate (did we back off that simple change that quickly?) from what I read - it didn't feel like the writer had the character's voice to me. I view Gail's run as somewhat akin to the Australia days...a new setting and some new characters in the mix. I was dubious about the Outliers at first, but now I'll take a bullet for them.

And I have never loved Rogue or Gambit more. She also has Nightcrawler and Wolverine's voices down in a way I've missed for some time. It may not work for everyone, but I love everything about Gail's run, so far.

[iamrman]

Uncanny and the two Wolverines were the only X-books I have been reading. Yes, Uncanny has been delightful. Gail Simone managed to make me actually care about the mutant kids.

[freezer]

Cosigned.

[iamrman]

I just wish the event is over quick, then normal comics can resume.

[scorntx]

Normal comics like "Storm: EARTH'S MIGHTIEST MUTANT".

[iamrman]

I have only been reading Uncanny and the two Wolverine books.

[beyondthefringe]

I'm both sad and relieved we didn't hear more about Illyana being "self-taught." Like, did she have to figure things out in Limbo the first time around, or was this after she died and returned much later? I mean, she always did come across as the least innocent of the New Mutants in matters of... social engagement, demonic upbringing aside.

Doug! The second of the New Mutants to get married, after Sam and Izzy. (Er, do Rahne and Haruminuminamihari the Wolf Prince county?) And in such a random fashion, no less. And yet he and Bei really did make a good couple in their own odd way.

I am not liking Dystopian X-Men Future #53. Sure, it's less genocidal on mutants and many of our favorites have survived to see it, but it's full on character assassination of Doug and so many others. I'm sure in the end it will be prevented, but you know it'll forever exist as an alternate timeline to be revisited as writers feel like it.

[akodo_rokku]

I do wonder if there's going to be a "mwahaha actually anyone who became Heir of Apocalypse would inevitable become evil because it's APOCALYPSE DUH," or if it's gonna be, "You need to be a Strong Man to wield that kind of power responsibly," or what. The one tie-in seems to imply that Apocalypse is not happy with the path that Doug has taken, but like: dude, you made him into a little palette-swap of you, what were you expecting?

[cainofdreaming]

More baldness, maybe? That's probably the problem Chuck and Poccy have with him, right?

[icon_uk]

The irony being, of course, that Age of Revelation is Age of Apocalypse with the serial numbers filed off, so what Apocalypse is complaining about is literally what AoA Apocalypse did himself (albeit in a timeline he knows nothing about). Is he disappointed, or just jealous?

[akodo_rokku]

I *think* the point of Heir of Apocalypse was supposed to be him finally recognizing that his way had failed and he was passing down the mantle to give someone new a shot, so he's disappointed. "Kid, this is something I would have tried in the 80s."

[icon_uk]

Honestly, I always felt Illyana was VERY innocent, to the point of naivete, about social interations, because she had no experience with them after being stuck in Limbo.

She expressed no interest in anyone (beyond the whole Kitty thing) for as long as Claremont was writing her, and even her vaguely stated wishes came across as performative, what she thought people might expect from her, rather than something she wanted to do.

Then Weezie came along and she was a lot more into the concept, but again, no actual dating at all.

In terms of "self-taught" in this context, I took it to mean she is used to not having anyone else involved in her experiences.

[thanekos]

If nothing else, putting this in Doug's character history means one more 80s X-Men character writers and readers will have to engage with without just copying and pasting said period.

(I've enjoyed post-80s, pre-Krakoa X-stuff, but looking back at them, it's embarrassingly obvious how gushing and uncritical they are about their reverence for the 80s stuff. Krakoa and forwards certainly wasn't and isn't completely radical, but aesthetically and at least superficially in terms of substance, it was trying something other than regurgitation.)

[icon_uk]

I think it came in fits and starts, the Morrison run changed things with the long overdue concept of an actual mutant subculture and the outing of the Xavier School

There there were the years when Marvel was downplaying the mutants due to lack of MCU synergy and pushing the Inhumans over them, which went about as well as it could be expected.

In terms of Doug particularly, I think Krakoa did more for him than most characters, since he was undoubtedly a Hickman favourite, but in a way that made sense in the context of the Krakoa era and moved him forward in a way that felt organic.

The hints that Doug might actually have been intended to be the big bad given his connection to both Krakoa and the Phalanx, and those being dropped to make way for Inexplicably Evil Moira, and the threat of the future Dominion AI being change to make it all about Sinister certainly didn't help things,

A radicalised Cypher, who was already cynical about his elder's dreams, and has seen every possible human/mutant social experiment basically end up with "Racist humans unleash Sentinels" was an interesting idea, and would have been interesting, him being Apocalypse's Heir had potential, even if it felt forced, but making him basically the Purple Man redux and his first foray into that leading to Apocalypse Redux seems such a waste of that potential new arc.

[onsokumaru]

It's clear that current X-editors have even less love than the formers toward the New Mutants who are not russian. Apparently, X-vengers writer wanted to do a more NM centered book, but his editor told him to put more big name Avengers in the team.
The fact that Bei is betraying Doug is worrying. I don't think she'd have much issues about humans being killed, so Doug must have done something that really goes againts her values. This plus the absence of Warlock so far, I wonder if all of this could be Phalanx related. And if it is, it could have dire consequences for Warlock, even after AoR is over.

[akodo_rokku]

I suspect more than anything it's that she sees the Doug she fell in love with is gone and she made some kind of promise to Apocalypse to deliver this message if Revelation went awry.

[onsokumaru]

That's what makes it more suspicious to me. What is it that Doug has done that even Captain Eugenics would find repulsive enough to make a move? Certainly not the mutant virus that "culls the weaks".

[icon_uk]

I think it's as much that Apocalypse had, thanks to Krakoa, changed. He'd finally realised that smashing your action figures together to see who wins a fight is not "survival of the fittest" by any stretch of the imagination.

By Big A's original definition, Doug Ramsey was the weakest mutant going. But Krakoa meant that Poccy saw him in a different light and saw him as somene who shared his dedication, So Palette-Swap-Poccy Doug would try a NEW approach. And now he's just using force like the original would.

Revelations plan is just as hierarchical and cruel to the perceived weak as original Apocalypse and I think that might be the turning point.

[akodo_rokku]

Yeah exactly, the point was for Doug to find a NEW way, not just be Apocalypse 2.0.

And honestly this is INCREDIBLY OUT OF CHARACTER FOR DOUG RAMSEY TO DO so... maybe we'll find out something happens?

[icon_uk]

Exactly, yes.

Given his inner circle includes Fabian "Pretty much the worst person in any room which doesn't have Empath in it" Cortez, I suspect a lot of background shenanigans.

[shadowpsykie]

Age of Revelation is the only X-Arc I am not looking forward too. like... couldn't the x-men get used to a new status quo BEFORE being flung into a horrible future? I do hope doug (and Bei) can be saved.

[shakalooloo]

That height difference was eroded away so very subtly, wasn't it.

[icon_uk]

In this case there is, at least, an in-universe, reason.

The transformation which Doug underwent to become Revelation increased his height and build noticeably "One heck of a glow up" as Doug put it.

[super_fly]

Yes, that is an entirely admirable choice of "vows assessor" right there...

Apocalypse has been around since ancient times, he's probably attended more weddings than anyone alive (gotta make sure the strongest are hooking up, right?)

And for someone whose catchphrase is "I am the rocks of the eternal shore, crash against me and be broken," yeah he'd think that's a good one.

[mastermahan]

I have mixed feelings about the Doug/Bei marriage. On one hand, I really like the twink and Amazon aesthetic, Doug certainly deserves someone, and Bei appreciates Doug for the catch he is.

On the other hand, not understanding someone really isn't good grounds for a marriage. There's also no development to the relationship. Saturnyne just tells them to get married, and they do.