Comic Review: Age of X-Man Omega #1

Age of X-Man Omega #1

Marvel Comics

Writers: Zac Thompson & Lonnie Nadler

Artist: Simone Buonfantino

This whole Age of X-Man event has been a bit of a doozy. Starting with the first ten issues of the 2018 relaunch of Uncanny X-Men, there are six separate but connecting series. Each series has five issues, plus the Age of X-Man Alpha and Omega issues. I’m not the best at the maths, but that’s a lot of issues (it’s 42, I’m okay at math). Honestly, when I read the Alpha issue I thought each little “continued in blah blah blah” notes were a joke. But here we are a few months later at the end of The Age of X-Man.

At the climax of their battle with Nate Grey in Uncanny X-Men, all the X-Men present vanished without a trace. They were all transported to a new reality, where after some struggles, there’s finally peace for mutant kind. Or so it seems. Behind the scenes, there’s been secret police, “terrorists” preaching love and connection, and mind erasing prisons. But the cracks in the wall eventually reveal themselves, and the X-Men come together and find out the truth of it all. Only some want to stay, while others want to go, and shades in between.

While I don’t think you’d need to read every tie in mini series to fully understand this issue, it certainly does help. The Marvelous X-Men team, Apocalypse and his X-Tracts, and Bishop and his prison team confront each other and Nate Grey over the truth. There’s some fighting, and a narration running through the issue giving a full explanation of Nate’s actions. I won’t go into more details than that, but I think you can figure out how this ends. But here’s a hint: Jonathan Hickman’s House of X & Powers of X start real soon.

The art in this issue is a major strong point for it. Looking into Simone Buonfantino’s other work, there isn’t a lot, but there are a few things that I have read. The action is nice and clean and detailed. The characters look great and run through a bunch of different emotions. Some are happy, some show despair, there’s a lot of angry determination going around too. There’s also some costume changes, which look good. It’s all backed up by the colorist, Triona Farrell. Coloring is a really important part of the comic book process, and I need to get better at recognizing the names and work of color artists. But, of the few I can, Triona Farrell is definitely one of my favorites.

This issue has an unfair balance to it, in that part of judging it, includes judging the event as a whole. It’s got to carry the weight of resolving all the separate storylines within its pages in a satisfying way. And for this one there are six stories it has to touch. I think it does a good job of that. The event as a whole isn’t one of my favorites, but it’s far from the worst Marvel’s given us in the last few years. The story is good, there’s action, and the art is fantastic. If you’ve been reading this event or even part of it, I don’t see why you wouldn’t pick up this issue. It’s literally the conclusion. 

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