Age of Apocalypse 12, X-Treme X-Men 10, Ultimate X-Men 22

Age of Apocalypse 12
Lapham (w) and Arlem (a) and Loughridge (c)

Interesting things happening all across here. I continue to like this series even when I'm not totally sure who everyone is. I know the major players from the 616 who pop up in this Universe (Jean, Weapon Omega, Colossus, Cyclops, Havok, so on), but I'm less familiar with our main characters, which is weird. Not that I haven't read this series, just that I even still have trouble remembering who everyone is at any given time. Here's the weird thing about that: I don't know that it's a huge flaw of the series. On the one hand, I know (to a point) it's absolutely me. I read a lot of books and the 616 is far more deeply ingrained in my head after decades of continuity. This book, even though it's been a solid run, has only had 12 issues and has been otherwise developed here and there so I pretty much only know it from this series. STILL, I should know it better. I don't. But I don't think it's hurt the book. You understand everyone's roles from what they do and how they act. That's a sign of good character, even if I'm really bad at remembering who the characters are.

On top of the characters who are PROBABLY more compelling than I can rightly say I find them, there is an exciting story going on. First off, one of the great things about a universe in Marvel that isn't the 616 is that characters can die. I have a lot to say on character deaths in the 616 which maybe I'll actually say sometime, but everyone knows very few deaths there are permanent. It's still sad and it's still a major character moment when someone does die, but it's never permanent so, as soon as someone dies, there's speculation as to how long it will take to bring them back. In offshoot universes, like this one or the Ultimate Universe, there are far fewer examples of resurrected characters, meaning that death really is final and a huge, real threat to the characters. Every character will always treat death as a threat (it would be stupid if they didn't), but only in these situations can the reader fully see it that way. So there are always things at stake. Second off, the threat of Apocalypse is very real in this universe. It's the driving force. This is the Age of Apocalypse (keen-eyed viewers might have noticed). So when, in this issue, the Death Seed that grants the power of Apocalypse is rejected, it's a real deal. Very interesting. It also leaves us in an interesting place in this world. Civil war is looming and the sides are going to be very blurred. Also, Nightcrawler is coming back, according to the upcoming arc that I quickly referenced on Wednesday's excuse post. I'm looking forward to it all.

X-Treme X-Men 10
Pak (w) and Segovia and Crisostomo (a) and Kholinne and Noor (c)

As I said after last issue, I have some trouble viewing Dazzler as a real leader, given what we know from her past and even her recent past. Apparently I'm not the only one. This issue dedicates a good amount of time to the backstory of our new characters (a black Civil War Union corporal Scott Summers and a gay Hercules from the same universe as our team's gay Wolverine - yes, they are dating) and forces us to look at the backstories of everyone involved. We saw Kurt's recently, as he went back to his homeworld to try to find his parents and ended up attempting to kill an entire planet of sentient robots (kind of a theme lately, HMM OLD SECRET AVENGERS?). Everyone, they recognize, has had a horrific backstory rife with mutant-hunting with the exception of Dazzler, who kinda just didn't make it as a huge disco artist. Cyclops thinks she shouldn't be leading the team because she doesn't have what it takes. Howlett thinks she should be leading the team because she knows where the line is. It's an interesting little question and it gives some clarity to why she's leading. I'm still not totally sold just because of how fast she kind of got serious, but then I know I don't have a particularly extensive knowledge of Dazzler's backstory.

On top of that, I'm not sure it matters. I tend to read comic books from Marvel as part of the scale. I think it's wrong to handcuff writers with continuity, so they have to constantly check everything they want to do against everything their predecessors have ever done. If you have a good story to tell, tell it. However, I do think these characters are pretty nicely defined in a lot of ways. What I really love about the new Captain America series is that Remender is taking a character who has already been defined so many times and showing him from a new angle. It still fits within the old angles and still allows his character to act in very much the same ways he always has but it gives him a new layer of depth. I'm willing to say that this kind of "new angle" approach is what Pak is doing with Dazzler. I don't mind it.

This issue continues like most of the rest, giving us a look into a different universe and trying to find an evil Xavier. This Xavier seems to be heading up the Nazis, so that's something. He insists that the Nazis he leads are not the Nazis everyone is familiar with (after he reads their minds to see what Nazis THEY'RE thinking of) and that the enemy isn't him, it's a Japanese-Atlantean Namor flooding the Earth. That's about where the issue leaves us, so we'll just have to find out if things are what they seem around here.

Ultimate X-Men 22
Woods and Edmondson (w) and Barberi and Vlasco (a) and Aburtov (c)

I continue to like the way this series shapes up. I chose this book as one of my ten best series of 2012 and issues like this make me feel good about that choice. Not a ton happened in terms of action or beat-up-bad-guys plot, but a lot happened in terms of the structure of this book and of mutants as a whole in the Ultimate Universe. The Ultimate Universe isn't nearly as big as the 616 and, while I love the really wide feeling of that universe, it tends to help a lot in books like these. Instead of spending the time asking "how is Kitty here when she's over there" or "how is Tony Stark spending all this time with them when he's with the Ultimates ringing in a new football season," you can more easily see the way that these pieces all fit together. It's very manageable and very compelling. It also makes you feel more like the mutants are truly alone than even when they set up Utopia in 616.

Woods and Edmondson have done a great job to really set up the feeling towards mutants in these books. They've also done a great job to show that Kitty really does want peace and that she's trying to lead through peace and establish her nation peacefully. She's looking for cohabitation in the true X-Men way. There are, like there always were with Magneto, plenty of reasons to look at what Kitty's doing and the results she sees and ask if Kitty's doing the right thing. So when Nomi and her band of rogue (but not Rogue) mutants set out for a new home that they'll try to establish through shows of force, you can understand why she'd see it as the right way to do things, even if you support Kitty's view. Then, to add further to the intrigue, we see a shadowy Washington group set on overturning President Cap's executive orders to protect Utopia and showing mutants as a threat to humanity. Like always in this book, things are boiling and, little by little, we're ready to see what the end results will be.