X-Men of Apocalypse #1 // Review
There is a group of powerful people who have become 1uite displaced in space and time. The world they come from no longer exists and new they’re looking for a way back home into the right parallel Earth in X-Men of Apocalypse #1. Writer Jeph Loeb slams a few action figures together and calls it a comic book with artist Simone Di Meo. There IS a bit of originality in the opening issue of the new series, but it doesn’t really reveal itself until the end of the issue. Prior to then it’s all a forgettable mess of action.
They’re collecting Nate Grey. (He’s been displaced in time and doesn’t necessarily know where it is that he should be or why.) He’s found a group of people to call a family and they’re all absolutely certain that something has gone wrong...so they’re going to have to figure out how to restore the timeline...to the Age of Apocalypse. It’s not going to be easy. Everyone has some sort of a relationship that’s made that much more complicated by divergent timelines and they’re going to find themselves up against some fairly legendary powers as they seek to return to their home.
Loeb opens the series with a big slugfest. Yawn. Tyere are a couple of pages at the end of the issue which establish where the series is going. THOSE pages seem like a fun direction. Sadly, though Loeb felt the need to go through an extended introduction to everyone on the team and that meant a long, drawn0out combat sequence that feels more than a little bit dull. The time traveling mutant storyline lacks a whole lot of originality bby this point, but the series could really possibly get interesting if everything moves in the right direction in future issues.
Di Meo’s artwork is absolutely gorgeous. There’s a delicious big, cuddly rubberiness about it that features largely clean dominant lines. DiMeo’s color adds considerable texture to create a fluid sense of motion, depth and radiance. The gross sense of disorientation makes it across the page in a way that feels exhilarating. There's a amplification of various elements, including the animalism of aggression that makes it way to the page in a very profound and profoundly engaging sort of a visual dynamic. The hyper reality of the visuals that she's working with end up being a great deal of fun.
And some level this is all Rachel Summers’ fault. The first of the time traveling stories was a brief way to show the darkness that would be potential if things didn't go well for the X-Men. When Rachel came through to 1984, she opened the door for a lot of time traveling characters to make their way across the pages of the X-Men. Her story was really compelling. Really brilliantly crafted on so many levels by Claremont everything since that has been needlessly, complicated and confusing. It loses the threat of its meaning when so many different people are traveling in so many different ways and timelines bumped into each other. It's just one big hopeless mess.
