Avengers: The Children's Crusade #9 courtesy Marvel
Avengers: The Children’s Crusade #9 The final fate of the Scarlet Witch. Which young heroes will survive the showdown with Doctor Doom.
Age of Apocalypse #1 Wolverine is the madman Weapon X. The X-Terminated are the only hope for humanity. A new series set in the bizarre dimension spinning out of Uncanny X-Force.
Fairest #1 Horror, humor and adventure in a new series exploring the secret history of Cinderella, Show White, Rapunzel, Thumbelina, The Snow Queen, Sleeping Beauty and more of
Honey Badger Adventures #1 The internet sensation inspires a new comic book starring the world’s most fearless animal.
Green Arrow #7 Three deadly blondes give new meaning to drop dead gorgeous and they after Green Arrow. The legendary Ann Nocenti returns to comics and her reputation for creating femme fatales continues
Marvel twisted their X-universe into the Age of Apocalypse in the 90’s. Charles Xavier never existed. Apocalypse ruled North America. Magneto was the leader of rebel heroes. Wolverine and Jean Grey were lovers.
courtesy Marvel.com
Rick Remender took his Uncanny X-Force into that dimension for The Dark Angel Saga. In the aftermath, Dave Lapham is taking survivors of that dimension’s mutant-human war to an even more twisted level. Age of Apocalypse #1 is a new ongoing by Lapham with artist Roberto De La Torre.
Weapon X is leads the war to eliminate humanity. The X-Terminated may be the only hope.
courtesy Marvel.com
“This new Age of Apocalypse book does the impossible – it revolutionizes an old concept without a reboot,” explains Senior Editor Nick Lowe. “If you’ve been reading Uncanny X-Force, you know where this is coming from and you’re already in. If you’re an Age of Apocalypse junkie, this builds on the alternate universe’s mythology is fascinating and troubling ways. And if you aren’t either and just want a ground-breaking, easy-entry book that will challenge everything you know about the X-Men, there hasn’t been a better jumping on point.”
courtesy Marvel.com
The new series debuts in March with covers by Humberto Ramos.
The X-Men have been drawn into the nightmare reality that is the Age of Apocalypse time and again. Today Marvel revealed a new series set in the horrific alternative timeline that spins out of The Dark Angel Saga in Uncanny X-Force #18 which wraps today.
David Lapham and Roberto De La Torre are the creative team on Age of Apocalypse launching in March.
“We start sort of spinning out of Uncanny X-Force. There are events that happen there that we directly fall out of. Basically, we open with Weapon X, who’s the Big Bad Overlord of the Age of Apocalypse world, and he’s just sort of wiped out the last enclave of humanity.” Lapham said in today’s presser.
The roster of characters includes alternative versions of William Styker, Graydon Creed, Donald Pierce and Bolivar Trask – all mutant hating X-Men enemies in the Marvel universe but are could they be seen as heroes in this dystopian world ruled by Apocalypse?
Age of Apocalypse #1 variant courtesy Marvel.com
Lapham confirmed the AoA versions of Wolverine, Jean Grey and Sabretooth will be part of the series is about “humans versus the mutants.”
The Age of Apocalypse is a cool place to visit but an ongoing series? I love the AoA Jean Grey, she’s ruthless and definitely Wolverine’s match. What do you think? The adventures begin this March.
Uncanny X-Force 17 from Marvel.com. Cover Art by Esad Ribic
Today the Dark Angel Saga Volume 1 is available. This collects the first chapters of Rick Remender’s violent epic starring Wolverine’s covert team – it’s one of my favorite storylines of 2011.
As The Dark Angel Saga races to the finale in Uncanny X-Force I recall the twisted tales that serve as the foundation for this adventure. Wolverine’s covert ops team has been searching for the Life Seed to save original X-Man Warren Worthington/Archangel from becoming the next Apocalypse. The seeds for this story are definitely worth reading. There are links to the books throughout the post.
Logan and Wolverine’s covert squad traveled to the Age of Apocalypse. This alternative timeline is where Apocalypse conquered North America. Back in the 90’s Marvel made a radical move by cancelling all the X-titles. During Legion Quest Professor X had been killed in a freak time travel incident by his own son and never formed the X-Men. Without opposition, the evil mutant Apocalypse rose to power. The new titles reflected this dark new status quo. Reality was eventually restored but some beings from that dimension escaped into the real Marvel universe and the X-Men have been pulled back into this alternate realm in previous stories.
Uncanny X-Men #1 Marvel.com
Warren Worthington was always the golden boy of the original X-Men. Being rich, blonde, athletic and born with mutant wings, Warren was christened Angel by creator Stan Lee.
Many years later the original five X-Men regrouped to form X-Factor. This is when the golden boy’s life turned tragic. During the Mutant Massacre, Angel was brutally attacked and his wings had to be amputated. But Warren would fly again thanks to Apocalypse. Warren was now armed with wings of poisoned blades that he could shoot at his enemies. Under Louise Simonson’s reign as writer Angel became the Archangel, one of Apocalypse’s Four Horseman. It was just one of the game changing stories affecting all the X-teams during the Fall of the Mutants event.
I believe this stands as one of the most radical transformations in comics and lead to emotional storytelling and some vicious showdowns that included Archangel versus Wolverine. One of Archangel’s most vicious battles was in the X-Tinction Agenda.
Eventually Angel was reborn. Warren’s white wings returned but the blue skin stayed. During this period Warren and Psylocke fell in love. Psylocke is a fellow X-man who underwent a radical change from telepathic British model to Asian psychic ninja. Psylocke’s transformation deserves a whole post – I’ll work on that!
During the Messiah Complex epic Cyclops and Wolverine created a covert team to do the dirty work the X-Men couldn’t. X-Force was created to take out threats to mutants even if it meant killing. During the first mission Warren’s white wings were shredded again and the Archangel persona took over during a clash with the Purifiers. After the events of Second Coming Cyclops ordered Logan to disband X-Force.
Uncanny X-Force: The Apocalypse Solution cover courtesy Marvel.com
Warren and Logan form their own covert team to seek and destroy the newly resurrected Apocalypse in The Apocalypse Solution. The story raises a lot of questions about ends justifying the means and when a hero’s actions are really heroic. X-Force is definitely not for every reader.
I think those storylines are the seeds to give you the foundation for The Dark Angel Saga. These epics are always exciting to enjoy anytime. You may want to give them a read to give you more context while you wait for the final chapter and learn Warren’s fate.
. This alternative timeline is where 
