tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7105844689832543332.post431714540883085710..comments2024-03-27T11:32:34.392-07:00Comments on NOT A HOAX! NOT A DREAM!: X-MEN: AGE OF APOCALYPSE OMNIBUSMatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14580725636327122073noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7105844689832543332.post-30926367313450701402018-03-09T19:22:21.083-08:002018-03-09T19:22:21.083-08:00Hi Matt, thanks for the article, this is really us...Hi Matt, thanks for the article, this is really useful for me! I'm wondering where Gambit & the X-Ternals #4 appears in the collection, can you please clarify? ThanksSubJunkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11815819922576293286noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7105844689832543332.post-53334459829990191392016-12-07T16:04:59.382-08:002016-12-07T16:04:59.382-08:00And Marvel even does reformat many of these intros...And Marvel even does reformat many of these intros to the new books; they just then cram them in back for some reason. It's so frustrating!<br /><br />"Canceling" GENERATION X after only four issues <b>was</b> a little weird.Matthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14580725636327122073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7105844689832543332.post-24392579488521831502016-12-07T16:03:33.299-08:002016-12-07T16:03:33.299-08:00"Sometimes I think you're an auto-contrar..."<b>Sometimes I think you're an auto-contrarian just to *me*. :)</b>"<br /><br />That's a fair assessment, Teebore, even if it's unintentional!<br /><br />I'm with you on being taken aback by the cancellation of all the X-books, and totally buying into it. I think I learned about it in an issue of DISNEY ADVENTURES magazine, of all places, and I was shocked and dismayed. Of course I eventually figured they had to return to the original universe eventually, or it would screw with the rest of the Marvel Universe. The X-Men would never again be able to guest-star in other series! But it took a while for me to figure that out.<br /><br />I do find it odd that the X-CHRONICLES books were omitted, though I think the reason was so they could fit "Legion Quest" in instead. Personally I would've been okay with leaving that story out, though, since it's already in the AGE OF APOCALYPSE PRELUDE book mentioned above -- and if that were the only way to get "Legion Quest", I would probably own that trade today despite my misgivings about its paper quality.<br /><br />Wow, Teemu. The most popular comic in the U.S. was canceled in Finland at, arguably, the height of its American popularity (at least sales-wise). Stuff like that fascinates me!Matthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14580725636327122073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7105844689832543332.post-40394848707435096972016-11-25T09:28:46.695-08:002016-11-25T09:28:46.695-08:00That is weird about the previous introductions bei...<br>That is weird about the previous introductions being printed with other bonus material at the end. When I see older prefaces and introductions printed in later collections or anniversary editions of prose books, they’re up front, usually in reverse chronological order with the edition-at-hand’s new one first. Even if they’re statted replica pages rather than being reformatted for the new edition, more in the vein of artifacts than prose to be read as prose, they belong at the start or perhaps at whatever part of the new book reprints what they originally preceded, maybe facing reprints of the appropriate previous editions’ covers.<br /> <br /><i>// It's always felt like a waste of time; a diversion "stealing" four issues from all the regular ongoing X-titles. //</i><br /><br />Although I am a fan of alternate futures and parallel universes, in moderation, the way Marvel set this up was rather a pain in the ass for retailers and — from what I recall at the time — at least some readers as well. The fact that the only X-title interesting me was <i>Generation X</i>, which got interrupted for four issues of <i>Age of Apocalypse</i> only four issues into its own fledgling run, didn’t help.<br /><br />The lack of <i>X-Men Chronicles</i> and <i>X-Universe</i> in the Omnibus doesn’t seem right, like Austin says.<br /><br>Blamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07342343767763035991noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7105844689832543332.post-27920082644101710372016-11-18T02:16:43.218-08:002016-11-18T02:16:43.218-08:00I remember hearing about the "cancellation&qu...<i>I remember hearing about the "cancellation" of the X-books in the run-up and being legit horrified that my favorite comics were being cancelled despite being some of the best selling books out there (how naive I was).</i><br /><br />Our X-book <i>was</i> cancelled for good at the end of Legion Quest in 1996. Keeping the readership in economically viable level probably was a mission impossebleu with 52 to 68 monthly pages to cover anyhow sensibly anything going on in the Americas. It probably was a good way to go.<br /><br />We did still mostly get the AoA in one-off publications and on our anthology book, and yay for that.Teemunoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7105844689832543332.post-12263537398286626222016-11-16T08:09:03.996-08:002016-11-16T08:09:03.996-08:00Am I an auto-contrarian? Well, maybe sometimes.
S...<i>Am I an auto-contrarian? Well, maybe sometimes.</i><br /><br />Sometimes I think you're an auto-contrarian just to *me*. :) <br /><br />I love AoA. So much so that I made the second printing of this omnibus one of my few X-related omnibus purchases, just to have the whole thing collected in one spot. This came out right in the sweet spot of my reading, when I was old enough to know what was coming and get really hyped up about stuff, but still young enough to think everything that was happening was all part of some big editorial plan. <br /><br />I remember hearing about the "cancellation" of the X-books in the run-up and being legit horrified that my favorite comics were being cancelled despite being some of the best selling books out there (how naive I was). I remember my jaw dropping at the way the imminent end of reality in "Legion Quest" led to stuff like Gambit & Rogue kissing for the first time or Wolverine seemingly killing Sabretooth, of rushing home from the store with the Alpha and tearing through it twice in succession, soaking up the details of the new reality. <br /><br />The tone, the style, from the dystopia to the altered costumes, even just little things like the altered map of the US with the Horsemen zones detailed, absolutely captivated me and had a huge influence on me. It wasn't just the idea of a dark alternate reality - the X-books had done that plenty - it was the scale and level of commitment that impressed me. This wasn't just a two issue story like DoFP, this was taking over the entire franchise for four months. It was a completely immersive experience, and I ate it all up. <br /><br />In hindsight, it probably represents the high water mark of my initial fandom, the last point at which I fully took in whatever Marvel was selling me without reservation or criticism. I know in the immediate aftermath, coming out of this crossover, there were some story developments I wasn't particularly fond of (like Feral Wolverine and Gene Nation), and then "Onslaught" (which I was excited about in the run-up but in the end recognized as being kind of mess) was the last gasp of my initial "I love whatever they're doing" fandom. <br /><br /><i>Personally, I would've preferred the best possible reading order, even if it meant, say, three consecutive issues of one title lumped together or something.</i><br /><br />Yeah, it's really not in the best possible reading order. It's okay for the first half, for the most part, but by the end, there's a lot more clustering of issues involved. The first three ASTONISHING issues, IIR, basically tell one continuous story, then the 4th issue ties in to the climax of the whole thing, X-MAN #1 and #2 are pretty standalone, but #3 leads directly into #4, stuff like that. <br /><br />My other gripe with this collection is that it leaves out the two X-CHRONICLES issues (the alternate version of the quarterly X-MEN UNLIMITED) and the two-issue X-UNIVERSE (which showed what the Marvel heroes were up to in the A0A reality and tied into the "European humans nuke America" plotline from WEAPON X). Both are, narratively, a little outside the scope of the main story and I think they get collected in the "Tales from the Age of Apocalypse" companion omnibus that collects all the post-AoA AoA stories, but they deserved to be here, since they were released as part of the initial event (unlike the rest of the stuff in that companion omni). Austin Gortonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14281239771248780430noreply@blogger.com