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.
