X-Men: Age of Revelation Overture #1 Review

 

Writer: Jed MacKay

Penciler: Ryan Stegman

Inker: JP Mayer

Colorist: Edgar Delgado

Letterer: Clayton Cowles

Cover Artists: Ryan Stegman, JP Mayer & Marte Gracia; Aaron Kuder & Marte Gracia; Stanley “Artgerm” Lau; Cory Smith & Carlos Lopez; Rickie Yagawa & Tamra Bonvillain; Mark Bagley & Alex Sinclair

Design: Jay Bowen

Editors: Lindsey Cohick, Annalise Bissa, Tom Brevoort & CB Cebulski

Publisher: Marvel Comics

Price: $5.99

Release Date: October 1, 2025

 

When voices awaken him, Scott Summers peers through his visor. Although he recognizes the people around him, they look different. Older. As he rises from the hospital bed and yanks the contact pads off his forehead, Scott asks what's going on. His “friends” tell him they’ve transported his consciousness from his era and supplanted him in his older body. Worse than the abduction, they destroyed his present consciousness to bring him here. Why did his older colleagues summon him to the future? And can he trust them? Let’s grab our visors, leap into X-Men: Age of Revelation Overture #1, and see!

 

Story

Magneto, so often Scott's adversary, wears an X on his belt. He leads Scott out of the cave and shows him a foreign land. It used to be the United States. Below him, nature has encroached upon cities. Foliage-crowned, crumbling towers poke above the forest. Magneto tells him that a mutative virus is sweeping across the United States. Like the Terrigen Bomb that activated Kamala Khan's Inhuman genes, this virus turns Humans into Mutants. This virus has also changed the landscape, destroying the roads and cities that helped Humanity thrive.

 

 

As Scott realizes that civilization lies in ruins, he learns that Doug Ramsey rules the isolated pockets of survivors in this vast, expanding landscape. His choristers assist those villages loyal to him. Seraphim kill the dissenters. Millions may have died. But the Revelation Territories have taken on the vitality of the Mutant nation of Krakoa that Doug helped create. As Cipher, Doug helped people communicate and grow in harmony with nature. Now, as Revelation, Doug takes inspiration from the Biblical story of Humanity's first attempt to build a skyscraper. He turns dissenters into Babels stripped of any ability to communicate in X-Men: Age of Revelation Overture #1.

 

 

 

After providing a glimpse of village life, Jed MacKay's story follows Scott, Revelation, and his seraphim, Psylocke. But the spotlight shines brightest on Scott Summers as he navigates unfamiliar surroundings. He doesn't know this world or who he can trust. And in their desperate struggle to survive, the X-Men employ harsher methods than Scott approves of. While they value his abilities, some aren't ready to follow him. He may not like what his X-Men have done. Still, Scott Summers fights to meet the demands facing him without relinquishing his principles in X-Men: Age of Revelation Overture #1. 

 

 

 

Art

Ryan Stegman and JP Mayer fill traditional page layouts with natural beauty, drama, and action. Scott's muscular body, long hair, beard, and clothing show how time has forced his older self to adapt. His new allies mutter to each other about him. Most regard him with frowns. After cloaking his features in shadow, Magneto's face appears within his mask as he explains the world they inhabit. Then a hairy Mutant leaps from above the cave mouth to confront them. 

 

 

 

Edgar Delgado applies a loaded palette of nuanced colors to X-Men: Age of Revelation Overture #1. Like the fire that accompanies his choristers' appearances, Revelation adorns himself in yellow and orange. As he plucks blue fruit from a tree, the purple foliage forms a link with our first glimpse of his wife. But Bei's predominant red outfit links her with Magneto's costume and Scott's cape. Still, no color reinforces the harshness of this Brave New World like pink. It colors Glob Herman's translucent body, Psylocke's sword, and the energy whirling around Quentin Quire's goggles.

 

 

 

Clayton Cowles fills panels with black uppercase letters in white dialogue balloons and narrative balloons. When he bends others to his will, Revelation speaks white letters into black boxes. White block letters introduce settings and characters. Telepathic communication occurs in cloudy balloons. Sound effects enhance weapon fire and clashing blades, while giant letters overtake the background when Revelation sends his Angel of Death to dispatch his enemies. Thanks to Marvel Comics for providing a review copy.

 

 

 

Final Thoughts

As Cipher, Doug Ramsey helped the Mutants thrive. Now, as Revelation, he isolates people into small pockets of civilization that he can control. While ruling with an iron fist, the truth becomes whatever Revelation wishes it to be. And anyone who disagrees with him never does so again. Jed MacKay, Ryan Stegman, JP Mayer, Edgar Delgado, and Clayton Cowles deliver a far-reaching meditation on what happens when the abilities that help us achieve greatness outweigh our respect for others in X-Men: Age of Revelation Overture #1.

 

Rating 9.8/10

 

To look inside see my review at Comic Book Dispatch. 

Gwenpool #3 Review

 

Writer: Cavan Scott

Artist: Stefano Nesi

Colorist: Matt Milla

Letterer: Ariana Maher

Cover Artists: Chad Hardin & Edgar Delgado; Karen S Darboe & Ruth Redmond

Graphic Designer: Kat Walkington

Editors: Kaeden McGahey, Jordan D White & CB Cebulski

Publisher: Marvel

Price: $3.99

Release Date: June 23, 2025

 

When Gwen Stacy died, it should have been forever. The problem with resurrection is that no matter how glad you are to be alive, you remember who put you in the grave. Resentment threw Gwen into the clutches of the Great Architect. And instead of designing the next Battleworld, the Great Architect transformed Gwen Stacy into Dark Gwenpool. Gwen dislikes the name. She finds her past so distasteful that she prefers to be called X-31. Yet when she meets up with Spider-Man, Gwen’s concern for Peter Parker outweighs her urge to kill him.

 

Gwen and Peter shared a close bond. So, when Gwenpool tries to get between them, Gwen Stacy reacts like the Great Architect trained her. Even if the woman’s name was Gwendolyne Poole, how will Gwen Stacy face killing another version of herself? And can Peter Parker forgive the woman he never stopped loving? Let's grab our swords, leap into Gwenpool #3, and see!

 

Story

The Avengers couldn't defeat Fin Fang Foom. Spider-Man, Hawkeye, and Jeff the Land Shark also failed. So Gwenpool took out the giant dragon that wanted to crack open Earth's shell and feast on its molten core. But instead of celebrating over Shawarma, Gwendolyne Poole rests in peace. None of the Avengers attended her funeral. So, Kate Bishop and Jeff the Land Shark stand vigil as a priest sends Gwendolyne on her final adventure.

 

Still, another person watches in Gwenpool #3. He stands atop a headstone-dotted rise in Mount Olivet Cemetery. Unlike Spider-Man, Kate’s not anxious to know the man dressed in a dark suit standing in the driving rain. And when she climbs the slope, he runs away. But Kate doesn’t need webshooters to unmask him like Spider-Man revealed Dark Gwenpool’s secret identity. As a private investigator, it’s Kate Bishop’s job to uncover hidden clues. Kate knows that, once she confirms her suspicions, she cannot unlearn her colleague's secrets.

 

Cavan Scott’s supernatural mystery hums with fourth-wall-breaking dialogue that made Gwenpool a fan favorite character. But while acknowledging that the Ghostbusters are just a phone call away, Cavan ponders where our spirits go when we die. Cavan Scott also contemplates how death changes us. Some people lock memories away and rarely revisit them. Others barricade themselves against new relationships by holding onto the past, or feed on the resentment of losing their loved one. Unlike a visit to Las Vegas, Kate Bishop, Jeff the Land Shark, and Peter Parker will leave the graveyard changed in Gwenpool #3.

 

Art

Purple hangs in the moist air, tinging the New York skyline. Like the falling raindrops, it bathes Hawkeye's face and shines from her costume. But Dark Gwenpool (or Gwen Stacy, or X-31) also wears purple, hinting at who she could become. While Jeff shines as blue as the sea, Peter wears black and white as he wades into a moral gray area. Yet yellow also radiates the life-giving energy of the sun, reinforcing the allure of holding onto memories.

 

While Matt Milla enhances the energy and moodiness of Gwenpool #3, Stefano Nesi captures the action and drama of this confrontation in the cemetery. His art reveals Hawkeye's sadness, Jeff’s anger, Dark Gwenpool’s frustration, and Peter’s struggle to cope with what has occurred. A glimpse inside Peter's mind pays homage to Steve Ditko, who helped bring Spider-Man and Gwen Stacy to life. Yet in the same panels, Stefano Nesi reveals how comic art has progressed since Ditko’s time.

 

Ariana Maher casts uppercase black letters into white and pink balloons and narrative boxes. The letters grow bold for inflection, enlarge for volume, and shrink for lowered voices. Sound effects help us hear arrows impacting, smoke grenades detonating, blades appearing, and an aggrieved land shark. Thanks to Marvel for providing a review copy.

 

 

 

Final Thoughts

Gwenpool was Jeff the Land Shark’s best friend. But she was also an interloper, and another version of Peter Parker’s girlfriend. Her superior knowledge of Earth-616 and her ability to exploit hidden aspects of their world kept other heroes away. Gwenpool #3 flips the script in this story about identity, mourning, and the indomitable spirits of the characters we love. 

 

Rating 9.4/10

 

To look inside see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.