Credits: Written by John Francis Moore, pencils by Steve Epting with Terry Dodson, inked by Al Milgrom and edited by Kelly Corvese.
Cast: Earth 295 verssions of Scott ‘Cyclops’ Summers, Jean Grey, Warren Kenneth ‘Angel’ Worthington III, Dr Henry McCoy, The Bedlam Brothers (Jesse and Terry Aaronson), Alex ‘Havok’ Summers, Sam & Elizabeth Guthrie and Scarlett McKenzie.
Plot: The Order is in and the pens are to be cleansed. The Guthries are keen, but the Bedlam Brothers are less so, but Havok will hear no dissent, he needs the job done and he wants his brother’s head. Elsewhere, Infinite soldiers arrive at the Heaven nightclub to shut it down. Angel is ready for that, with his bar manager and lead musical attraction arrested for treason, it was likely next move, so rather than sit of the fence, he opens fire at the Infinites before making a run for it, sanguine about the loss the life he had made.
Cyclops heads with Jean to the ‘Brain Trust’ a group of disembodied cloned brains who are used to supress the aggression of the prisoners. The Bedlams are waiting, knowing it was Scott’s best move, but decide instead to join this rebellion and promise to take care of the Gutheries. Jean takes out the brains, more powerful after her feedback encounter with Nate Grey. With the psychic restraints dealt with, Scott directs the Bedlams to cause more technical problems as a distraction. Meanwhile Alex confronts Scarlett over her treason, he threatens to kill her, when she announces she’s pregnant. Then the lights go out.
Back at the pens, McCoy is attacked by some of the prisoners, he survives and realises it’s probably time to move on. Scott and Jean share a moment where they wonder what they would have been if things had been different and then the try and lead the escapees out, but in front of them is Alex who is ready to kill.
The battle is intense, but only physical as their powers have never worked on each other. Alex points out how he’s always been in his brother’s shadow, but after a lifetime of this Scott has had enough and lays out his brother. He leaves him alive and Jean is at his side again, pointing out that she believes in him and there’s something to talk about when all this is over. He leads the survivors out, in search of their freedom and a better world. Alex however is still alive and wants his revenge.
Notes: If this isn’t the best of the AoA mini-series, it’s a damn clear #2. The story comes to an end in a bit of a slam-bang action finale, but there’s all sort of other things going on. The series looks at nature versus nurture and the possibilities for redemption. We spend most of this issue within the citadel. One of the Summers is trying to free the prisoners of the pens, the other is leading their execution and it’s family units that are at the heart of it. There’s the almost there couple of Scott and Jean who know that there’s something there and have just met their son. There’s the Guthries, separated from their sister Paige completely buying into the current regime and then we have the Bedlam Bros. They were part of the elite, enjoying high status and kicking all sorts of ass, but honestly not dyed in the wool with Apocalypse’s creed. AS soon as any alternative is offered , they walk away. The idea of them being people in a police state who suddenly find the line they won’t cross and decide to do something about it. But really it’s about the 3rd act of it all, Beast gets his come-uppance, but escapes, Angel makes his stand and Scott faces Alex as all their sibling resentment comes out. Alex hates Scott, feeling overshadowed and dismissed (to be fair, he clearly was) but rather than see what it is, he sees it as Scott doing it to him. I can imagine that the whole woe is me stuff is always a topic brought up by Alex, but no longer needing to hold anything together Scott just decides to pull the ‘get over it’ card and lamp his brother. He leaves him for dead, honourable, but we all know that this is only the latest round and not the final one. But even so, it as a satisfying feel to it, knowing that this will only feed into the finale to the Age of Apocalypse.
Verdict: Writing – 5 out of 5 – This is a strong issue of a strong series throughout. The attempts to look at the villains side of a dystopia is interesting and seeing the differences and similarities between differing versions of the characters we were familiar with. Its the series that each issue stays with me a little bit longer than the other series have done and to do that with a short term thing like this is something of an accomplishment.
Art: 4 out of 5 – Re-reading this, I’ve appreciated Steve Epting’s art more. His solid story-telling and consistent art has been a revelation when sat next to the stylised art of his contemporaries. The only thing stopping this from being 5 out of 5 is that we get some jarring fill in stuff from Terry Dodson, but that’s not a complaint in any way.
Overall: 9 out of 10 – This has been the most consistent and high quality book, well written, with a good story, a unique perspective and very well put together visuals made this 4 issues a delight. I’m going to miss Factor-X.
Next Time: Spider versus Spider for the life of a woman both have loved.
My Marvel Life 