The X-Men comics have jumped into an all-new alternate universe storyline — “The Age of Revelation”. This is just the latest change to the books, which started with 2024’s “From the Ashes”, a new publishing initiative meant to bring the X-Men comics back to a more traditional X-Men status quo, something that X-Men fans really haven’t gotten since the end of House of M way back in 2025. The X-Men line was given to Marvel bigwig editor Tom Brevoort, an editor who is known for his encyclopedic knowledge of comics, and a love of the old school Marvel Universe. However, there’s another thing that Brevoort loves, and it’s been a part of nearly everything that he’s edited in the 21st century — heroes clashing with heroes.
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“From the Ashes” established that the X-Men had separated, with Cyclops leading one team, Rogue leading another, and a young mutant training team led by Emma Frost and Kitty Pryde. Right off the bat, we were shown that there was a grudge between Rogue and Cyclops, as each of them thought the other was making a mistake. “Raid on Graymalkin” pit the two teams against each other, and “X-Manhunt” showed the differences between the teams again. However, Amazing X-Men #1 shows that this grudge is basically meaningless, proving that the Brevoort approach to the X-Men is a mistake.
Cyclops Proves the Grudge Between the X-Men Is Meaningless
Amazing X-Men #1 revolves around Cyclops and Beast being brought to the future to learn about Revelation’s plans. After an attack by Wolverine, the two of them and the X-Men of the future escape, trying to get to X-Men allies in Pennsylvania. Cyclops and Beast end up having a discussion about their situation, and both of them reveal that they’d rather have Wolverine from the past with them in their current situation. Right now, Wolverine is on Rogue’s team, and Cyclops has had some pretty choice things to say about this team of X-Men.
The difference that “From the Ashes” has built between the two main teams is that Cyclops wants mutants to be soldiers that fight against evil humans, much like he has since the Utopia Era, and Rogue wants to keep fighting for Xavier’s dream, showing humans that mutants aren’t out to get them. This has honestly always been a pretty flimsy idea; you can argue whether Xavier’s dream and how the X-Men go about it are right, but there’s really no reason why Cyclops and Rogue would be at each other’s throats in the way they are. This is Brevoort 101, ignoring the point of characters to get his beloved “hero vs. hero” stories.
There’s a reason why the X-Men became so popular in the late ’70s/early ’80s, and that’s because of the relationships between the team members. The X-Men’s strengths are the different members and how they operate within Xavier’s dream. There have always been grudges among the X-Men, and the drama from these grudges has been very entertaining, but they put those things aside for two reasons — because they believe in the cause and because they’ve become a family. The fate of mutantkind is too important for these grudges to break the team.
Breaking the X-Men into warring factions has always been anathema to the idea of the X-Men as a concept. The X-Men’s grudges have gotten violent, but they used to just go into the Danger Room, fight it out, and then got over it. Readers don’t want to see the X-Men battling each other; we want to see them try to get along. If you look at the fan reception of stories like “Raid on Graymalkin” and “X-Manhunt”, it shows how little fans want to read these types of stories. Fans like Uncanny X-Men and X-Men more when they’re dealing with anything but their grudge. It’s a meaningless complication that fans don’t want.
Selling Us Feuding X-Men Misses the Point of the X-Men
Amazing X-Men #1 proves that Brevoort’s pet idea is exactly the wrong one for the X-Men. Two X-Men teams doing different things is a fine idea, but it’s when you get to making the teams fight that fans have a problem. The popularity of the X-Men has always been about the way the X-Men work together despite having different methods and goals. We want to see the X-Men debate their points, fight evil as a family, and then get back to their arguments. They’re family; it takes a lot to make a family fight each other.
When Brevoort was announced as editor of the X-Men books, fans knew it would only be a matter of time before factions of X-Men would end up fighting. However, that’s against the natural state of the team. They may get mad at each other, but they love each other. They know their strengths and weaknesses, and that they’re stronger together. X-Men fans don’t want this sort of thing, and it looks like the creators of the books don’t either. Hopefully, this plot line will end sooner rather than later.
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