30 Years Later, & I’m Still Convinced This X-Men Crossover Is One of Marvel’s Best Stories of All Time

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Time travel has always been a part of The Uncanny X-Men’s story, as they fight almost constantly to prevent a genocidal future for mutant-kind and often get a look at those horrifying possibilities in the process. The seminal X-Men time-travel plot is The Days of Future Past” which set the pace for similar stories and which has been adapted to film and television more than once. That’s hardly the only case, however, and periodic exploration of alternate dark futures has resulted in memorable characters like Cable and Bishop, as well as classic (and sometimes not-so-classic) story arcs.

Amid all that, it can be easy to overlook the Age of Apocalypse, a sprawling epic that encompassed the entirety of X-books being published at the time. It remains one of the best storylines not only in X-Men history, but in Marvel history in general. It’s hovered around the edges of subsequent movie and TV endeavors, but has yet to see a formal adaptation. With the Marvel Cinematic Universe ever hungry for new content, that may simply be a matter of time.

The Age of Apocalypse Presents a World Without Professor X

A Well-Meaning Legion Creates a Nightmare in the Epic X-Men Crossover

Marvel’s comic crossovers date back to 1966, when an epic battle between Iron Man and Namor began in Tales of Suspense #79 (Stan Lee, Gene Colan, Jack Abel, and Artie Simek) and ended in Tales to Astonish #82 (Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, Gene Colan, Jack Kirby, Dick Ayers, and Artie Simek). The trend had reached a fever pitch by the 1990s, and with an explosion of new X-Men titles in the late 1980s, crossovers had become a regular event for Marvel’s Merry Mutants.

The Age of Apocalypse officially began with a smaller crossover, “Legion Quest,” which started in 1994’s X-Factor #109 (Todd DeZago, John Francis Moore, Jan Duursema, Al Milgrom, Glynis Oliver, Starkings, and Comicraft). In it, Legion attempts to travel back in time and kill Magneto as a young man, giving his father an open field to promote mutant-human harmony and create a better world. Though the X-Men try to stop him, he succeeds in his efforts, only for a young Charles Xavier to sacrifice himself for the sake of his friend, Magnus. Legion winks out, having killed his own father before his conception and erased himself from the timeline.

A horrified Magneto vows to abandon his own vision of mutant dominance in favor of his friends’ dream of peaceful coexistence with humanity. He founds the X-Men in Charles’s name and attempts to convey his principles to them, though admittedly in a somewhat harsher form. Unfortunately, Apocalypse has been monitoring events, and with Charles out of the way, he decides that the time has come to conquer the world. Twenty years later, Magneto and his students fight a desperate guerrilla war against a triumphant Apocalypse. Only Bishop – himself time-displaced from a different alternate future – escapes the effects of the change, and becomes something of a mad prophet in this dark new world,

The Age of Apocalypse essentially replaced every X-Men title running at the time with a new title, exploring various characters in their new incarnations. Heroes and villains are divided along the battle lines, with figures like Cyclops and The Beast serving Apocalypse, and baddies like Sabretooth and Exodus on Magneto’s team. It ends, as such crossovers often do, with a winner-take-all battle in Apocalypse’s fortress. During the conflict, Bishop, Destiny, and Magick travel into the M’kraan Crystal, sending Bishop back in time to successfully stop Legion from killing Charles.The timeline resets, though the alternate timeline created by the rupture endures too, and is subsequently labeled Earth-295. Several characters from that reality migrate to Earth-616 as well, most notably Hank McCoy’s sinister variant, The Dark Beast.

This Classic X-Men Story Has Never Received a Proper Live-Action Adaptation

The Age of Apocalypse works exceedingly well in its simplicity. It essentially adopts a What If…? question and stratifies it over multiple comic lines for the better part of a year. That gives fans an easy entry into the specifics of its alternate universe, as well as providing an easy template for wild variations on well-known heroes. As with any first-rate storytelling, the characters take center stage, and the creators have great fun with twists like Jean Grey and Logan being a couple and Cyclops being the outsider who pulls them apart. The alternate universe it created was initially intended to cease to exist after the storyline ended, with a few holdouts like Dark Beast excepted, but it proved popular enough to merit a return visit more than once.

When it comes to Marvel’s bigger pop-culture projects, however, it has edged around the corners, getting close but somehow never quite taking center stage. The most prominent example is the “The Power of Love” montage from 2024’s Deadpool & Wolverine, as Wade Wilson searches for a Logan variant who can replace the deceased one in his timeline. It lets Hugh Jackman and, in one case, Henry Cavill flash a half-dozen distinctive looks from various eras of the comics. That includes an Age of Apocalypse version, complete with shaggy mane and a missing left hand.

Similarly, 2009’s Wolverine and the X-Men animated series planned to make the Age of Apocalypse storyline its centerpiece for the second season, only to be canceled at the end of the first. The series ends with a few tantalizing shots of a triumphant Apocalypse flanked by Mister Sinister and a one-eyed Scott Summers. The storyline works extremely well in conjunction with Season 1’s overarching metaplot, which finds Charles Xavier trapped in a Days of Future Past-style future, and Logan taking command of the X-Men in the present to prevent it.

The original X-Men: The Animated Series came closest to recreating the Age of Apocalypse in Season 4, Episodes 9 and 10, “One Man’s Worth.” It depicts an attempt by Master Mold to erase Charles Xavier from existence, a la The Terminator, sending a trio of assassins back in time and successfully assassinating him. History changes, with “The Leader” Magneto and his X-Men fighting an endless war against Sentinel armies. The episodes aired in late 1995, just a few months after The Age of Apocalypse had finished its run in the comics, and clearly reflect the influence of the comics version.

The Age of Apocalypse Remains a Vibrant Setting

A Big-Screen Adaptation of This X-Men Story Feels Like a Matter of Time

Despite that, fans are still waiting for a definitive onscreen adaptation of the story. One of the central challenges in bringing the Age of Apocalypse to TV or movies has been adapting another classic X-Men alternate future storyline.The Days of Future Past has been adapted multiple times, in addition to its use in Wolverine and The X-Men, including an extended arc on the original X-Men: The Animated Series and elements in several X-Men video games.

2014’s X-Men: Days of Future Past brought the story to the big screen and is regarded as one of the best entries in the X-Men’s up-and-down movie franchise. The follow-up, X-Men: Apocalypse, introduced the titular villain to the movies for the first time, but eliminated the time-travel notion. It was not as well-received as Days of Future Past, and it is unclear whether Marvel will revisit that particular version of the character again.

In light of that, the Age of Apocalypse has had to wait in the wings, though that time may be coming to an end. 2015’s massive crossover Secret Wars features Earth-295 in its narrative, and with Jackman’s nod in Deadpool & Wolverine, the doors have been thrown open to delivering a proper adaptation. Smaller efforts may be possible too, including appearances in the likes of X-Men ’97. Ironically, the vehicle it was practically made for, the What If…? animated series, ended its run in 2024. Marvel’s rival DC has thrived with animated versions of its Elseworld titles, and The Age of Apocalypse would work exceptionally well in such a format.

Regardless, the storyline’s high standing among fans and colorful incarnation of favorite characters mean that a formal adaptation feels like a question of “when” rather than “if.” The X-Men are on their way to the MCU, possibly in a very big way, and with a number of classic stories already enjoying TV or movie incarnations, the Age of Apocalypse is ripe for proper development. With the Multiverse now a widely accepted concept in pop culture, selling it to more casual fans of the MCU becomes significantly easier. As it stands, the comics’ story is essential reading for any X-Men lover and remains just as strong today as it was when it was first released.

“}]] The Age of Apocalypse transformed the Marvel Universe when Charlex Xavier was erased from the timeline. 30 years later, it’s essential X-Men reading.  Read More