Amph 101 "Oh ****!" Moments in Comic Book History

MAUS is one of those books I've always meant to pickup but haven't. Mostly because everything and anything related to the Holocaust depresses the crap outta me. I guess I oughta change my tune and just read it.

 

Well, you're right, it's a massive downer, but sometimes it's nice to read something that's depressing because it's sad, rather than depressing because of what it says about modern society.

 

For the record, I do think Maus is the best narrative of the Holocaust ever told. It wasn't any hyperbole.

 

I read Maus as a teenager, and most of the subtleties were lost on me. The part I remember most was when Vladek puts a pig mask over his mouse face and tries to get help from a Pole. I recall thinking how bizarre it was to have to "pretend" you're a citizen of your own country. I had a teacher who was a Holocaust survivor, and it helped me understand things like the Nuremberg laws.

Obviously, I missed a lot, and it's time to read Maus again.

 

An amazing read, no doubt.

I can see it on my shelf from here on my couch. As mentioned, the interpersonal, contemporary stuff woven into the narrative is what takes this to another level. It isn't a comic about the holocaust any more than it's a book about guilt, family, the inversion of the parent child relationship and how a man always lives in father's shadow

 

I didn't know this existed!

EDIT: Ahhhh, so this is what comes with a DVD with the Vladek tapes. Dammit, I thought it was just some kind of anniversary edition, but this looks fascinating.

 

No. But I'm not surprised: Amazon.co.uk shipping to Spain is always quite slow.

 

You'd certainly would thank yourself if and when you do read it.

 

You don't know counting pills!

 

96. Enter Now... The Age of Apocalypse (X-Men #41 and X-Men: Alpha) -- suggested by The2ndQuest

And now, a whole different story!

For some, it represents everything that was bad with the 90s, up there with Knightfall and the Clone Saga.

For others, it's one of the saving graces of the 90s, and the last real good X-Men storyline in the whole decade.

We're talking about that time Professor Xavier was killed, and what happened to the whole X-Men line afterwards.



The concept behind what became the behemoth crossover known as After Xavier: The Age of Apocalypse was sound: the best way to jump into the kind of hyper-gritty storytelling the Image Comics guys were successfully doing was to create a new reality, a world without hope. But how to do it, and how to make it "matter"? By having a time-traveller killing Xavier back when he was younger, thus highlighting the importance of Xavier's dream to the X-Men mythos, and actually *replacing* the main Marvel Universe with this new timeline. And who better to kill Xavier than his own estranged son, David Haller, Legion?

Followed by a ragtag team of X-Men, Xavier's son traveled back in time with the intention of killing Magneto before he became a villain and could do any harm... but it all went wrong. Just as his future son was about to deal a killing blow, James McAvoy jumped in between Legion and Michael Fassbender. Xavier was dead, causing the story of the Marvel Universe to be rewritten.



With Xavier gone, events unfolded much differently than that which the readers had known or decades. Only the time-displaced Bishop, a chronal anomaly himself, knew of what the world should be like. And so, all X-Books were cancelled.

No. Really.

Okay, just for four months. But still!

I remember the outrage back then, when I heard they were replacing all of the X-Men books with new comics, and I remember reading the first books (even though all I knew about the X-Men was from the TV series) and being hooked. We have to admit the idea behind the cancelling of the books was inspired, and even kind of fourth-wall breaking: for four months, the comics were replaced by their "alternate universe counterparts", explaining how this new dark universe had developed without Xavier and how the heroes of this new universe, helped by the time-displaced Bishop, eventually (SPOILERS) returned everything to normal. Parts Greek tragedy, part Wagnerian opera. I was 15, and I loved it.

Scott Lobdell plotted a whole new universe, taking some characters to their logical extremes (Cyclops and Havok having a nearly-fraticide relationship, or Shadowcat and Colossus being married), playing with fan expectations and theories (Logan and Jean Grey being a steady couple) or just throwing crazy stuff to surprise everyone (Sabretooth being a big damn hero, Nightcrawler having a loving relationship with his mother Mystique, Destiny and Blink being alive, or Juggernaut being a pacifist monk -no, really-).







Yes, it was dark and gritty. Yes, it was overly dramatic. Yes, the art was subpar, Madureira and Bachalo excepted. Yes, its success caused the Spider-Man office to hit us with the infamous Clone Saga. But who cares? A good story, some good drama, and just too many "holy @#$%!" moments to be counted. The idea of a bunch of alternate universe characte

 

I totally thought this was going to be about the 1960s issue.

Age of Apocalypse was... well, I guess interesting is a good term for it? The concept is definitely different, and it would've made a cool alternate universe ongoing, especially since it frees you up into anyone can die territory. But on the other hand it's collected over... what, 5, 6 volumes? That's freaking ridiculous. Much like No Man's Land, it's the kind of idea that's really cool but plays out better in the novelization where there's a lot less bloat and the tone and quality is more consistent.

Oh, and it gave us X-Man. Because I totally needed that pun in my life.

DON'T SAY IT LEST YE RISK INVOKING IT!

 

I just wanted to attract the X-Men movie fans with the thread's subtitle.

 

I remember reading the Age of Apocalypse storyline when it came out, and I was like, "Holy crap this is awesome!".

Cyclops as a literal cyclops? Wolverine with only one hand? It was all stuff that comes off as stereotypical '90s Comics "cool", but it didn't seem like it at the time, because we knew going in it was only temporary.

 

I was 10, and I freaking loved it. One of the last storylines I read, as I quit after Onslaught.

Some great AU stuff.

They made me like Quicksilver, and Morph, and they made me like Nightcrawler even more. They brought back Sunfire.

Cyclops was a bad guy, mostly. Beast was absolutely insane with no moral ethics.

I still have every single issue of the storyline. I even bought all the action figures.

 

My first thought was "Which time?" Hasn't he died like four times?

 

Wait a comic book character dying is a 'oh ****' moment?

 

I wouldn't even say the art was subpar at all, especially in the style that was popular at the time period the storyline was released, and I've read the whole storyline a few times and have the issues, but they weren't all image standard glossy at Marvel yet so they looked more gritty to me than anything. Which, to be honest was part of the charm. It certainly wasn't the worst XMen storyline from that era, and was basically a giant What if? series to me. (I love what if?, btw)

Alternative timelines with established characters can be tricky, and if not done correctly can be quickly overdone, cheesy, what have you, but I am a fan of the original AoA, and let us never speak of the second one again.

 

One thing I REALLY liked about the Age of Apocalypse: When it was over and Nemesis/Holocaust crossed over into the main Marvel Universe, he killed a bunch of Magneto's Acolytes, who where full of arrogant gits with weird, ill-defined superpowers I was glad to see knocked off.

 

As an avid X-mutie reader/collector/misguided fanboy back in the day, I saw the whole thing as yet another "interesting" gimmick from the 90's, less offensive than the one that immediately followed it (ONSLAUGHT!), but still gimmicky. If the storyline had lasted longer and if perhaps the writing had been better then maybe I'd have better memories of it, but it wasn't. To me the highlights were Joe Madureira's art in Uncanny (Astonishing?) X-Men, Magneto's heroic role and his relationship with Rogue. What truly annoyed me afterwards was the six or so month leap forward when the regular titles resumed, since several ongoing storylines in some of the books prior to AoA were scrapped or resolved off panel or new and atrocious creative teams took over some of the books. And then there was X-Man. Honestly, was there truly any need to add yet another alternate reality Summers/Grey scion into the already convoluted X-Men family tree?

 

I disagree. Making it limited in time (just four months) and setting from the first issue the means to revert everything to normal is what makes AoA more honest than your typical "gimmicky" crossover (aren't they all?).

 

This was the last X-Men storyline I read real time and I quite enjoyed it.
I don't know if it counts as an Oh S moment sin e we all knew it'd be undone but it's fun to recall.

The thing I hated about it was that my friends and I always sang the title to the tune of The Age of Aquarius. Dwell on that for a second and you'll neverbe able to say AofA without doing that.

 

How many genocides does it take to make the Avengers actually avenge?

The death of the Kree Supreme Intelligence via Operation Galactic Storm


As a war between the Kree and Shi'ar rages, Earth becomes drawn into the conflict. The Shi'ar Imperial Guard come to steal the technology left by the deceased Captain Marvel while Kree agents try to secure their loose technology, getting the attention of the Avengers. Earth's Mightiest Heroes learn not only of the intergalactic war taking place but that their solar system is being used as a strategic hyperspace stop and it is severely destabilizing their sun.

The east coast branch of the Avengers unite with the Avengers West Coast and divide into three teams. One team remains on Earth while the other two journey to the respective throneworlds of the Shi'ar and Kree to find some way of protecting Earth from this war. These space-bound teams are quickly embroiled in conspiracy within both alien empires. The Shi'ar team expose Skrull infiltrators deep within the Shi'ar ruling body, and the Kree team become fugitives as the Supreme Intelligence rises to rule the Kree once more.

Even with the conspiracies becoming clear, the war continues with a life of its own. The Shi'ar complete their Nega-Bomb, an unprecedented weapon of mass destruction, and the Avengers are unable to stop Lilandra from deploying it against the Kree. Its detonation ends the war, killing millions upon millions of Kree.

The Avengers survive and discover the true architect of all this death is the Supreme Intelligence, who sacrificed countless lives so that the few surviving Kree would break free of their evolutionary dead end thanks to the Nega-Bomb's fallout. This leads to half of the Avengers to decide to hunt down the Supreme Intelligence in the ruins of the Kree Empire and execute him for his crimes, despite Captain America's strong objections.

Disagreeing with this idea completely, Captain America holds a vote, and when a majority of Avengers agree that killing the Intelligence is not appropriate, he orders that no Avenger should kill the creature. Iron Man refuses to follow this order (invoking his seniority as a founding member), and he and the other dissenting Avengers- Black Knight, Hercules, Sersi, Thor, Vision and Wonder Man attempt to terminate the creature, apparently succeeding.



The Black Knight was the one to actually do the deed, but left a long dissent between Cap and the other Avengers, and he actually walked away. It created a even bigger barrier between Steve Rodgers and Tony Stark, and left all Avengers involved on both sides in a majour state of distrust between each other.