The latest installment of Marvel’s X-Men: The Seminal Moments has premiered, and it focuses on one of the most gripping sagas in the mutants’ storied history. Marvel has always tried to one-up itself with a new crossover event every year. However, few tales have come close to matching the grand scale of Age of Apocalypse.
In 1995, Marvel was enjoying great success with the various X-Men books. So it came as a big shock to readers when Marvel suspended publication of these titles in advance of the Age of Apocalypse event. Several new miniseries sprang up in their wake, and even the writers themselves couldn’t believe what they were allowed to do.
“The audacity of just stopping the entire line, and not letting you know that it was ever coming back, we were gobsmacked by this idea,” said Mark Waid, who co-wrote X-Men: Alpha and X-Men: Omega. “We have a half a dozen super successful books that are carrying the line. Let’s just cancel those for four months.”
RELATED: Marvel Launches X-Men: The Seminal Moments Web Series
The new timeline happened because David Haller/Legion traveled into the past and accidentally killed his father, Charles Xavier. This resulted in a chain reaction of events that facilitated Apocalypse’s rise to power.
“I liked the idea of our heroes fighting for a very apocalyptic future,” said Jeph Loeb. “You’re trying to save the world, but the world’s all destroyed, so what are you really fighting for? And what you’re really fighting for is humanity.”
Surprisingly, it doesn’t sound like Marvel knew the trajectory of the event from the get-go. Instead, they just let their writers do their own thing and have fun with it.
“I don’t think I ever saw an overview,” said Weapon X writer Larry Hama. “It was that loose. The thing with Age of Apocalypse is it’s basically taking the maxim of ‘all power corrupts’ and running with it.”
“It meant anything goes,” added Loeb. “Anyone could die. Anyone could fall in love. Any way we wanted to change it up, Everything that you had come to know and love about the X-Men, out the window.”
You can watch Marvel’s retrospective on Age of Apocalypse below, then tell us what you think in the comment section!
Recommended Reading: X-Men: Age of Apocalypse Omnibus
