For the over six decades that they’ve been in existence, the uncanny mutant group of powerful societal rejects has explored one central question: “What happens when the future of humanity changes?” From stories of mutant persecution to visions of alternate timelines and possible futures, Marvel has used the X-Men to try to grapple with ideas about evolution, power, identity, and society.
Now Marvel is taking the mutant saga into a new era in X-Men: Age of Revelation, a storyline that imagines a future where the world of mutants has been fundamentally transformed. Following in the footsteps of iconic events like Age of Apocalypse, this new chapter explores whether a future built on power and progress can truly become a better world.
Beyond comics, franchises like X-Men represent the larger shift in entertainment. It’s no longer limited to books, movies, or television. Today, audiences interact with storied franchises through digital platforms, video games, and 96 Odds slots featuring familiar animated characters. There are limitless ways to immerse in dramatic jaw-busters.
But at its core, Age of Revelation is still an X-Men comic, one still focused on the future of mutants. If a better future is possible, what price must be paid to create it?
What Is X-Men: Age of Revelation?
This plot takes the X-Men superheroes into a possible future where the mutant world starts to explore an identity crisis. Rather than featuring a run-of-the-mill battle between heros and villains, the event examines what would happen if a mutant society took complete domination of the Earth.
Set 10 years into the future, Age of Revelation presents a new status quo for the Marvel Universe. The story follows a world shaped by Revelation, a figure connected to the legacy of Apocalypse, and his philosophy of evolution, survival, and the ascension of mutants. Under this new order, mutants have achieved a level of influence and control unlike anything ever seen before. It seems to represent the next leap in evolution.
However, after the X-Men have gained power, what will they do with it when they get it? At its heart, Age of Revelation continues the tradition of the X-Men by using science fiction and superhero storytelling to examine realworld ideas about power, politics, identity, and the challenges of building a future that is truly better than the present.
Plot
In the beginning, Revelation talks with Bei the Blood Moon and Warlock about the new height of power that he has achieved and promises that he has no intention to fulfill his predecessors’ ideals. Then, they get attacked by black ops’ Z.E.R.O. and head for Alaska seeking X-Men for an alliance. He’s managed to wipe out much of humanity using the X-Virus, turning the survivors, meanwhile, into mutants. Anyone who tries to go against him loses the ability to engage in language as punishment, converting them to Babels.
Cyclops has an apparition of his own body in the future. Magneto informs him that Doug has messed with the minds of Beast and Cyclops, putting their past consciousnesses into their future selves. Beast arrives while Doug’s wife Bei runs away.
Dough unleashes the Angel of Death (really Wolverine, but he’s brainwashed) against Forge, Archangel, and Magneto, killing them all. Xorn tries to devise a black hole to subdo him, sacrificing his own life in the process. Kwannon badly wounds Bei. She is breathing her last breaths until she transmits a mind message to Apocalypse on Mars.
The Legacy of Apocalypse and the Birth of Revelation
Before moving on to this next chapter in X-Men’s philosophical exploration, one has to look back to the foundation: Apocalypse. For decades, he’s been one of X-Men’s important villains, representing a philosophy built around evolution, strength, and survival. However, unlike other enemies the mutant heroes have known, such as Magneto, who believes humans must be destroyed in order for mutants to live, Apocalypse believes he’s guiding the future of life itself by forcing the strongest beings to adapt and rise to rule the rest. He’s always been about “survival of the fittest”.
He doesn’t believe all beings deserve to continue on and that that’s only up to struggle to decide. This is what makes him so fascinating – it’s that he doesn’t view his intentions as evil. He has a distorted utopia, rather, in his mind. The X-Men disagreed, asserting that their powers must be used to protect others and co-exist with the humans. He decided to leave Earth to sit upon his throne on the planet Arakko.
Who Is Revelation?
Doug Ramsey, or Revelation, is a mutant with the cerebral ability to unconsciously understand and translate any spoken or written language, including technology. He becomes the heir apparent to Apocalypse. He believes that conflict and strength determined the future of life, but Revelation takes that legacy into a new era. In this era, mutant advancement is no longer a possibility but has already become the status quo of society itself.
The man takes control of all the territories within his dominion with an iron fist. He dreams of a future which is perfectly in accordance with the laws of nature. But there are rumors of a coup amongst his allies.
The Characters
Many of the fellow mutants by Revelation’s side are taking exception to this cruel subjugation of humans. In the preview, we see our heroes discussing what the optimal action to take is to upend Revelation’s rule. Allies become enemies. Here are the main characters:
- Wolveine: Normally, X-Men’s most popular hero, here, the quick-healing and long-clawed man-beast is acting for evil against his will as a very effective weapon, referred to as the Angel of Death
- Sabretooth: this is not the beastly giant, muscly savage you might remember, known as Victor Creed, but instead his daughter, who took on his name, who serves as Revelation’s personal assassin.
- Rogue: the woman with the deathly touch is split into Rogue Green and Rogue Red, two separate people, due to a past battle against Galactus.
- Cyclops: this is the perennial do-gooder who shoots lasers out of his eyes and requires an eye covering to stop the blazing lasers from coming out by default. He and Beast have both had their future consciousness wiped.
- Beast: the blue half-animal half-mind with an incredible intellect as well as animal features for brawn and quick movements.
- Binary: She’s transcended her typical Captain Marvel persona, reverting to her cosmic Binary form. She now directly channels the Phoenix Force, wielding god-like power on a planetary scale.
- Spiderman: the webslinger was forcefully altered by the virus into a literal mutant.
- Deadpool: rewritten by the virus too and transformed into a ghoullike creature with a parasitic hunger.
- Glob Herman: Typically known as a gentle, peace-loving mutant with translusent pink wax skin, he’s shifted into a guerilla soldier who has to help steer Cyclops through the war zone.
The Themes Behind Age of Revelation
What’s so different about the X-Men in this story is that normally they’re always being persecuted and discriminated against. Ordinary humans are typically trying to eliminate them. Here, the conflict is a moral one, where the mutants have to ask themselves whether achieving dominance is the same thing as achieving peace.
Danger of Long-Held Desires
Previously, the mutants had always dreamt of protecting themselves, gaining acceptance, and finally living free from being attacked. They yearned for protection and attempted to control the world in which they lived. However, this becomes potentially dangerous under the notion of whether there lies only one path.
Here, Revelation continues on a familiar situation for the X-Men, in which former ideals are tested by new realities. But what if caged mutants with pent-up rage end up finally being at the ultimate apex of dominance?
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