A question about Age of Apocalypse...

I just today bought the two issues I needed to complete my AOA set, minus the
Ages of Apocalypse stories, X-men Chronicles, and Blink mini.

I'm just starting to re-read X-Men Alpha, then I'm going to read each of the
#1-4 series in the recommended reading order as suggested by some internet
sites.

I've read these before in their individual numbers, but not in the order some
of the web sites suggest.

Will I see a much bigger arc than before when I read the each of the books as
recommended?

On 08 Apr 2004 00:02:10 GMT, scific1258 DeleteThis @aol.com (Scific1258) wrote:

 >I just today bought the two issues I needed to complete my AOA set, minus the
 >Ages of Apocalypse stories, X-men Chronicles, and Blink mini.
 >
 >I'm just starting to re-read X-Men Alpha, then I'm going to read each of the
 >#1-4 series in the recommended reading order as suggested by some internet
 >sites.
 >
 >I've read these before in their individual numbers, but not in the order some
 >of the web sites suggest.
 >
 >Will I see a much bigger arc than before when I read the each of the books as
 >recommended?
 >
 >
I did the same thing two summers ago and enjoyed the hell out of it,
in it's entirety for the first time. The difference is, I went
hardcore and tracked down every issue, no matter how loosely tied in
it may have been. But screw Ages of Apocalypse. It's totally
irrelevant. I would recommend X-Men Chronicles, as they answer a few
questions from the context of AoA in the present. Plus, they are
decent reads. There were also two one-shots, "Tales of the Age of
Apocalypse" and "Sinister Bloodline." Both precede X-Men: Alpha, but
they were published in like '98. I found Bloodlines to be especially
enjoyable. The X-Universe two-parter is also easy to overlook. It
coincides with the main AoA titles, and makes for a good side story.
With Pacheco art. Finally, X-MAN -1 (from Flashback month in '97
or thereabouts) is another prequel issue that reveals the
circumstances of Nate's creation. Oh, wait, one more... and don't ask
me how I remembered... but X-MAN Annual '95 ('96?). Nate goes back to
the early history of the AoA world and teams up with Magneto, Forge,
and Morph. They battle Sugarman and rescue Mastermind. Yeah, umm,
might actually want to skip this one. It is somewhat hard to
reconcile with what we know about the history of AoA Magnus. But if
you're a completionist like me. . .
And even if you skip the books I listed, you will most definitely have
a much bigger overall arc. The titles Generation Next, X-Calibre, and
Gambit and the Externals spring forth entirely from missions that
Magneto assigned to various characters. Weapon X sees some
interaction with Factor X which sees some interaction with X-Man. Of
course, the events in the core books, Astonishing and Amazing,
interconnect. So yeah... it was one of the rare cases of a crossover
done right.

Lots of AoA posts lately

--Tim<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->