This week the Age of Revelation begins to come crashing down with X-Men: Book of Revelation #3. Plus, we check-in on Amazing Spider-Man: Torn #2, Battleworld #4, and Black Panther: Intergalactic #1. And we have more Dispatches from the Age of Revelation with RogueStorm #3!
X-Men: Book of Revelation #3
Writer: Jed MacKay
Penciler: Netho Diaz
Inkers: Sean Parson & JP Mayer
Colorist: Fer Sifuentes-Sujo
Letter: VC’s Clayton Cowles
As a note, there will be mild spoilers regarding the events of Age of Revelation.
After two months of alternate future shenanigans, side-stories that kind of exist, and just bizarre storytelling choices, we finally learn the details of Revelation’s big plan in X-Men: Book of Revelation #3. While the scheme was first revealed in the pages of writer Jed MacKay other Age of Revelation title, Amazing X-Men #3, Book of Revelation #3 focuses on explaining not only Revelation’s plot to become a living planet but also focuses on the lead character Elbecca’s journey from the planet Arrakko to the inner-court of Revelation.
Far too often comic writers make the big reveals a tedious chore that often read like encyclopedia entries and less like a narrative. However, Jed MacKay does a fine job in explaining Revelation and Elbecca’s plots while also keeping the issue engaging. The reveals and explanations are snappy and don’t get too into the weeds about the details. The problems come from plot itself. I alluded to this during my review of Amazing X-Men #3 that Revelation’s grand plan is to become another Ego. The revelations (excuse the pun) of how Doug came to this grand plan explains where Warlock disappeared, which answers one of my lingering questions, but makes the Ego plan even more random.
Why can’t X-Men events get beyond the whole “villain seeks to reach god status” plotline? In the Krakoa era, it worked because it was novel in Powers of X and with Sins of Sinister, the story was largely building on the themes Hickman laid out. Age of Revelation central plotline (which has been obscured from readers for 2 of the 3 months of the event) is far to reminiscent of the Krakoa-era ideas. Heck, it goes as far as using a Technarch’s cells (RIP Warlock) to carry out the assimilation process. Yet, in what can only be explained as an effort to distance the current era from Krakoa, we instead get a plot inspired by Ego. Despite all the snappy pacing and Ozymandias “I did it 35 minutes ago” of it all, the underlying plot is dumb. To be clear, this is not the case of it being so dumb that it’s smart, it’s just dumb.
The issues with the story itself aside, MacKay’s character work is fantastic, and you get to see a positively evil Doug Ramsey monologuing and showing how low he has gone in his misguided quest to carry out the mission Apocalypse bestowed upon him. Artist Netho Diaz pages layouts complement the script quite well and help keep the issue maintain its brisk pace. For the entire series, I have been vocal about the grid-like panel layouts being interesting but often unnecessary visual hinderance. Here, Diaz puts them to work often changing the shape of the grid-square to accentuate certain key details on the page, be it the Arakko door seed or the dagger behind the back. The varying grid shape and orientation helps provide this largely talking heads of an issue with the energy and dynamism it needs.
Overall, Book of Revelation #3 lays bare Revelations grand scheme to achieve true survival of the fittest. While the issue is full of energy and interesting character work, it may be hard for some X-Fans to get over the absurdity of the plot. I have been enjoying Age of Revelation as a whole, for the most part, but there is definitely a reason why they kept Revelation’s ploy a secret for this long.
Final Verdict: Browse
The Rapid Rundown
Amazing Spider-Man: Torn #3
- Amazing Spider-Man: Torn #3 continues some spicy Spider-Man soap opera drama that some fans, including myself, have been dying to see for a very long time. All while combining a great, hilarious action sequence with a heartfelt emotional dissection of Peter’s mindset. Writer J. Michael Straczynski really shows how well he understands Peter and his character flaws and strengths in a moving scene featuring Mary Jane and Aunt May, all while making sure that Mary Jane feels like her own character who can separate from Peter. It’s a highlight of the issue, and Amazing Spider-Man: Torn #3 is worth it for that alone, and we’ll definitely see the issue dive even more into what makes Peter, Peter.
Deep dives into Peter’s psyche aren’t all we get, thanks to Pere Perez‘s fantastic art and facial expressions. Perez does a great job with panel angles and the character work to ensure that even the panels where people are just talking feel like they’re constantly moving, which pairs nicely with the more plot-heavy-centric panels involving Evangeline, whose likability as a villain improved thanks to her banter with Peter at the start of the issue. I also want to shout out colorist Guru-eFX, who does a great job of making Peter’s Spider-Man costume pop in every panel he’s in.- LM
- Amazing Spider-Man: Torn #3 continues some spicy Spider-Man soap opera drama that some fans, including myself, have been dying to see for a very long time. All while combining a great, hilarious action sequence with a heartfelt emotional dissection of Peter’s mindset. Writer J. Michael Straczynski really shows how well he understands Peter and his character flaws and strengths in a moving scene featuring Mary Jane and Aunt May, all while making sure that Mary Jane feels like her own character who can separate from Peter. It’s a highlight of the issue, and Amazing Spider-Man: Torn #3 is worth it for that alone, and we’ll definitely see the issue dive even more into what makes Peter, Peter.
- Battleworld #4
- This is current Battleworld mini-series by Christos Gage and Marcus To has been one of the more surprisingly fun mini series in recent Marvel. Is it trading on recognition from Secret Wars? Sure but Gage has crafted a story more akin to Avengers Forever. He assembled an unlikely team of misfits from across Marvel history to fight the all powerful Korvac, who wants to see which timeline is more deserving of survival. Making Hank Pym, one of Marvel’s most haunted characters, the lead allows Gage to explore what heroism in the Marvel universe looks like through the prism of alternate heroes. This book has made a meal out of it’s unique line up of characters which includes a the recovering alcoholic Carol Danvers from the Busiek/Perez era Avengers, a teenage Spider-man interacting with teenage WWII era Bucky, Days of Future Past Storm, and the present day Hank Pym. Artist Marcus To does a damn good job matching the visual styles of character to their era. It’s one thing to draw Spidey but To makes him look not just like a teenager but gives him the busier looking Spidey costume drawn by Steve Ditko era. His Days of Future Past Storm looks like a John Byrne drawing while King Thor at least has the physicality of Esad Ribic’s rendition. Marvel has indulged nostalgia a bit too much lately but at least a series like Battleworld reminds you of how much fun (and wild) Marvel books can be. – DM
Amazing Spider-Man: Torn #3
Battleworld #4
- Black Panther Intergalactic #01
- Spinning out of the events of Marvel’s cosmic mini-series Imperial, writer Victor LaValle has taken charge of T’Challa’s return to the Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda. The convoluted plot of Imperial set Wakanda up as the fallguy for the Inhumans to reassert themselves on the cosmic political stage, after the dust settled from the scheming, T’Challa was running things for Wakanda. And now he finds himself lost and having to survive on an unknown planet with no idea how he got there, while the rest of Wakanda rebuilds after the events of Imperial and the side Imperial War: Black Panther story. To help bring this new world to life, artist Stefano Nesi is a perfect fit with his whimsical manga approach to the action in this story, and color artist Bryan Valenza’s vibrant color palette that figures out a way to not distract from the subjects or the environment. From LaValle’s previous comic work, picking this up, I knew this issue would be a fresh take on the Panther. There’s been politics, action, mystery, and court intrigue, but put all of that together, along with being lost, and this is a spin on Panther we haven’t seen before. – GC3
Dispatches from the Age of Revelation
- RogueStorm #3
- I don’t know if I can adequately explain the plot of RogueStorm #3 in just a few hundred words. Writer Murewa Ayodele weaves a complex and dense tapestry of a tale that features gods, mutants, clones, and multiple non-linear time jumps. Ayodele’s Storm run has largely focused on the mythological aspect of Storm and that is no different here in RogueStorm. The mythology is lush and the story has this sense of it being of a larger world. However, Ayodele’s non-linear approach to the storytelling makes the series a dense one to follow month to month. It will read better in one sitting, but as it stands the constant jumping around the timeline and different settings makes the book a headache to follow. The character work with Gambit and Rogue Red is interesting if not confusing when factored into Unbreakable X-Men’s story. Though, there is a subtle explanation on the page regarding magic that I think does a fine job explaining it. The art by Roland Boschi is so visually interesting that I didn’t even realize this was a jam issue for colorist with Neeraj Menon, Fer Sifuentes-Sujo, and Rachell Rosenberg all sharing the credit. Boschi’s composition is stark and captures the scale of the moment. There is a painterly approach to the colors with gouache and likely some watercolors being used. In terms of Age of Revelation, RogueStorm is inconsequential to the plot outside of explaining why there’s a note on the map about Storm’s climate change that’s inserted in each issue of the event. The series itself is labyrinthine in its story structure, but most myths are often like that. There is something here and I highly recommend checking it out if you like the current Storm run. That said this is definitely a very bizarre and polarizing book.–JJ
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