X-Men: Age of Revelation Finale #1 Is a Mixed Bag of Highs and Lows

The X-Men have been having quite a time since the 2024 end of the Krakoa Era. The X-office got a new editor in the person of Tom Brevoort and has been soldiering along with “From the Ashes”, a status quo that most fans assume is a bridge back to the X-Mansion for movie-comic synergy because of the team’s upcoming MCU debut. There have already been several event stories in the last year and half, with “Age of Revelation” being the latest. The three month event story has had some ups and downs, and X-Men: Age of Revelation Finale #1 brings readers the story’s ending. However, the issue feels endemic of all of the problems with the story so far.

“Age of Revelation” has been a hard sell for a lot of readers. Many of them took the opportunity to pause buying the X-books, and the fact that the story is such an obvious homage to “Age of Apocalypse” hasn’t really helped its perception. “Age of Apocalypse” was fantastic, with numerous great books. However, “Age of Revelation” just doesn’t have the same kind of oomph as that classic story did 30 years ago. Now, from a technical standpoint, there’s nothing really wrong with this issue. Writer Jed MacKay does his job well. The book is well-paced, everyone feels like they’re in character, and there are definitely some cool moments in the issue. The problem with this comic isn’t the technical aspects of the writing.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

Pros	Cons
The art is gorgeous	Revelation is a weak villain and this story tries to play him as an amazing manipulator and it doesn’t fit
Well-paced and pays off what the story has set up	The end of the story’s main plot is ridiculous
	There’s really no actual memorable moments in the issue; nothing sticks out

Age Of Revelation’s Finale Continues The Arc’s Trends (For Good & Bad)

All of the problems with this issue stem from the storytelling decisions that have been made since the story began. Your mileage may vary on this one, but the reveal of Revelation’s big plan in Book of Revelation #3 made me groan out loud, and this issue leans into that. Revolution wanting to make the Earth into a living world like Ego is a unique idea, but it’s also not really a good idea.

Revelation has struggled as a villain, and this plan isn’t the kind of thing that’s going to make people forget that. It’s certainly unique, but that’s all it has going for it. If you’ve been a fan of this story so far, I feel like you’ll enjoy this issue — it pays off everything the story has set up, and ends on a pretty important moment that will change X-Men (Vol. 7) in the months to come. However, if you’re like me and not completely in love with this story, this ending really isn’t going to do much for you. This whole event seems like it exists to set up plots in MacKay’s book, and that’s it.

Ryan Stegman’s Art Is the Unequivocally Good Part of the Issue

Regardless of your feelings about the writing of “From the Ashes” so far, it’s impossible to deny just how great the art in these books has been, especially Ryan Stegman. While I wouldn’t call him the best current X-artist (that’s David Marquez), he’s done a fantastic job, and that’s on display in X-Men: Age of Revelation Finale #1. Stegman’s style has a lot of ’90s X-Men to it — especially artists like Joe Madureira and Roger Cruz — and this made him the perfect choice for the bookend chapters of this story.

“Age of Revelation” has been trying (and often failing) to give readers “Age of Apocalypse” vibes, but Stegman’s art fits that to a tee. The art in this issue is pretty great throughout. The page layouts are nice, the action is fluid and detailed, and the character acting sells the emotion of the scenes. While I have a lot of problems with this issue’s story, the art wasn’t one of them. I enjoyed the book’s art throughout, and I say that as someone who isn’t exactly in love with Stegman’s style (I’m an older fan and his work feels like it’s standing on the shoulders of giants without bringing anything new to the table). Artistically, this issue has the goods.

I tried to love “Age of Revelation”. I enjoyed several of the series (Unbreakable X-Men, The Last Wolverine, and Book of Revelation were pretty good), but I wouldn’t say that I like the story. I was hoping the story would at least stick the landing, but X-Men: Age of Revelation Finale #1 has too many problems for me to really enjoy it. If you like this story, this is a serviceable ending that will have some repercussions for X-Men (Vol. 7). Other than that, this is not what I’d call a good comic. If you were like me and hoping the ending was going to make it all worth it, you’re going to be disappointed.

X-Men: Age of Revelation Finale #1 is on sale now.

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