The Age of Revelation Wasn’t Great, But Its Fallout Is Incredible

Thirty years ago, the “Age of Apocalypse” changed the game for the X-Men. This story imagined a dark future without Professor X to guide the X-Men, resulting in Apocalypse ruling it with an iron fist. He murdered millions of humans in his cullings, declaring mutantkind the superior and unstoppable race destined to lord over the world. Thankfully, this disastrous timeline was averted, but its impact still lives on. To celebrate its thirtieth anniversary, Marvel harkened back to this classic event with another dark future, this time focused on Apocalypse’s heir, Revelation. Unfortunately, this event left a lot to be desired.

The “Age of Revelation” was by no means bad, but it never reached the same heights that its predecessor had. Its various tie-ins failed to establish the world as those of the original story did, and the ending, while interesting, was abrupt and didn’t meet the expectations it established. Still, while the event itself didn’t blow people out of the water, its fallout is. In fact, the aftershocks of the “Age of Revelation” have set up some of the most interesting X-Men plot points in years, and today, we’re going to talk about them.

Two Beasts, One Monster

Instead of just being a time travel story, the “Age of Revelation” put a twist on the concept by having its future Cyclops and Beast exchange bodies with their past selves. The bigger twist was that this wasn’t the Beast that was a member of the X-Men, but the original, Krakoan Beast that went off the deep end and was thought to be dead. In reality, the original Beast escaped to a new body and started his own organization to ensure mutants take over the world; 3K. Not only was he now armed with intimate knowledge of the future, but the X-virus that Revelation would one day unleash. That idea perfectly aligned with his own ideals, and he immediately moved to put it into action.

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On the other hand, the X-Men’s Beast was subject to the harsh truth of the man he became in the not-so-distant future. Ever since he was woken up, he’s tried harder than anyone to be a hero, to prove that he wasn’t just one step from being a murderer. This version of Hank is more dedicated to heroic ideals than anyone, but then he found out that his direct future self helped plan Revelation’s assassination. Even though he tried so hard to be a good man, Beast was still willing to do things that he deemed unforgivable. This dual character arc is easily one of the X-Men’s best, providing a new perspective on the idea of whether people can change who they are, or if they are slaves to destiny. 

The Mystery of Magneto

The other major plot point that is spinning out of the “Age of Revelation” is the ongoing mystery of what’s wrong with Magneto. Ever since the start of X-Men (2024), the Master of Magnetism has been bound to a hover-chair as his powers have slowly slipped away. He is suffering from Ressurection-Linked Degenerative Sickness, where his body is breaking down from repeated resurrections on Krakoa. The X-Men have been working towards a cure, but so far, there’s been nothing. Everything was flipped when the Cyclopses exchanged places and met the past and future Magneto.

In the future, nobody knew what RLDS was, as their Magneto had never suffered from it. Similarly, the future Cyclops was shocked to learn of Magneto’s predicament, claiming that something in the timeline had changed. This revelation, pun intended, implies one of two things. Either the “Age of Revelation” takes place in an alternate timeline with some differences, which seems unlikely, or someone else had altered the timeline ahead of Scott. It never made sense that only Magneto suffered from RDLS, especially given that other heroes were revived far more than he was. This is a clear sign of foul play, but the only question is who is at fault. This turned a dragging plot point into a mystery that needs answering.

Overall, the “Age of Revelation” was just alright. It didn’t blow anything out of the water, but the stories that spin out of it just might. Which “Age of Revelation” plot is your favorite? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!