Like many of my generation, watching the X-men cartoon that premiered in 1992 led me to picking up the comics and becoming a full fledged, dedicated reader, visiting my local comic book shop every month to get the latest issues. Being judged by my peers as an outsider and a weirdo, the X-men and their “hated because they are different” themes appealed to me in many ways. Having very few friends of my own, I thought of them as my friends; characters I went on adventures with by reading their comics and watching the cartoon.

As such, I’ll never forget the day I walked into my comic shop in early 1995. The store was run by an elderly couple – he was the sports card expert, and she knew the comics. She also knew who of her customers read what, even without them having a pull list. So when I walked in that day to buy my comics, she pulled me over to the counter to show me a press release. She did not look particularly happy about it. I’ve scoured the internet to try to find a copy of that press release, but apparently no one has uploaded it to the internet, so I’ll do my best to paraphrase:

“The end of Legionquest* will have disastrous effects throughout the world of the X-men, and as such, changes to the current titles are being made. As of March 1995, Uncanny X-men is cancelled. In its place will be Astonishing X-men…”

What followed was a brief description of the title, and then it continued on to every single X-book at the time (and given that this was the 90s, that was a lot.) Over and over again I saw the words “cancelled” and “replaced.” There was no mention that this was just going to be a four issue limited story arc before everything returned to normal. They presented it as the end of the X-men I had come to know and love. Mock me if you will, but I got misty eyed reading it, thinking that my characters were going to be taken away from me. I did eventually find out that it was going to be temporary, but at the time I still wasn’t entirely pleased with the idea. I bought the issues anyway and in time I came to enjoy it. It was a lot of fun scouring the issues for easter egg references to the heroes I knew, now drastically changed in this post apocalyptic world. And then, poof!, it was gone, and everything was largely back to normal.

Of course, comics business being what it is, this isn’t the last we ever actually saw of the Age of Apocalypse. One shots, mini-series, and now an ongoing series are all continuing the story. However, I personally like the idea of this not being an alternate universe but rather a twisted version of the X-men’s main continuity. Their own version of “The Wish” or that version of 1985 where Biff Tannen controls Hill Valley.   Also, since this blog is called “Second Time Around,” it seems right to only cover the ones I’ve actually read before, so I’ll be sticking to just the limited run series. Will it still be as much fun as I remember? Does it make a good self contained story? We’ll find out together! Since this series was held over multiple titles, I’m using the guide on the fantastic UncannyXmen.net to review them in the proper chronological order. Check out their page if you’d like to do your own reading including the later released issues. As for what you’ll see here, this is how it will go:

01) X-Men Chronicles #1

02) X-Men Chronicles #2

03) X-Men Alpha

04) Generation Next #1

05) Astonishing X-Men #1

06) X-Calibre 1

07) Gambit and the X-Ternals #1

08) Weapon X #1

09) Amazing X-Men #1

10) Factor X #1

11) X-Man #1

12) Amazing X-Men #2

13) Factor X #2

14) Weapon X #2

15) Gambit and the X-Ternals #2

16) X-Calibre 2

17) Astonishing X-Men #2

18) Generation Next #2

19) X-Man #2

20) Age of Apocalypse : The Chosen

21) Astonishing X-Men #3

22) Factor X #3

23) Amazing X-Men #3

24) X-Calibre 3

25) Weapon X #3

26) Gambit and the X-Ternals #3

27) X-Universe #1

28) Generation Next #3

29) X-Man #3

30) Astonishing X-Men #4

31) Generation Next #4

32) X-Calibre 4

33) X-Man #4

34) Factor X #4

35) Gambit and the X-Ternals #4

36) Amazing X-Men #4

37) Weapon X #4

38) X-Universe #2**

39) X-Men Omega**

My recaps will include some scans for those of you who don’t own the comics, but not the entirety of the issue.  Just enough to entice you to go buy your own!

The first issue will appear one week from today, and the schedule will (hopefully) continue for every other Friday after that.  I hope you’ll join me on this journey to examine one man’s worth*** on the world.

*For those of you unaware, Legionquest was a storyline in the X-men comics where Xavier’s son, Legion, went back in time to kill Magneto as what he thought was a favor to his father.  He ends up killing Xavier instead and causes the sudden dramatic change in the timeline.

**I flipped the order on those last two because they are largely meant to run concurrently, but I feel like Omega wraps it all up much better.

***Anyone who knows where I got that title from wins a No-prize!