X-Men: Before the Fall - Heralds of Apocalypse Review/Spoilers

[CGAR]

Also I forgot I'm on east coast time right now. Sorry Mods if I created this too early.

I don’t know why people on Twitter were saying that this wasn’t that good of an issue, but I thought it was a really well done and gave us a lot of the behind the scenes moments between Genesis and Apocalypse.

I thought the art was pretty good and it was a good little introductory one shot for the incoming Genesis War.

The dialogue is always awesome when Al Ewing writes an issue.

And the one spoiler that I will give away in this review is that Apocalypse is the one the opened the Okkara gate for Genesis.

I made this thread because I’m super excited to see what forces Apocalypse gathers together.

So far I'm hoping he gets some Akkaro mutants and of course Betsy Braddock, Askani, and Rictor. (We know Ewing would write the **** out of these Bi queens)

OK some more spoilers:

Genesis is the one who named their kids.

Isca created the swords for Apocalypse by challening the best swordmaker by saying lets see who can make the best sword (or something like that)

Someone clarify for me if the White Swords name was given to us? Blue or Ingios?

[GoingGreen]

I've been thinking since X of Swords and how the two present Pestilences were present that he should gather a bunch of his four horsemen. So Death: Death 1, Archangel, Wolverine, Gambit, Psylocke; Famine: Famine 1, Sunfire, Autumn, Ahab, that drummer guy; Pestilence: Pestilence 1, Polaris, Plague, that bug lady; War: War 1... other Wars... who were the Wars?

[JB]

Thanks for starting the discussion, CGAR! Throwing up my recap for those who can’t read it today.

A masterpiece that has made me even more excited for what's to come in X-Men Red. I cannot and will not do Ewing's storytelling justice so this is a very simple summary. If you're interested in the Arakkii I highly recommend picking this up. Most of the issue is a conversation between -:[A]:- and Genesis with flashbacks, and it seems to take place right before the ending of the recent X-Men Red #12.

We open with the preview pages as A is floating in meditation pose in Amenth. A demon asks him to tell it what strength is and calls him the "Great Apocalypse." A says that is a corrupted name, mangled by history. His name is -:[A]:-, an ancient word meaning Revelation. He essentially tells the demon that it is not enough only to be strong. The demon gets a little sassy and is stabbed in the head by a flying blade similar to a shuriken, thrown by Genesis. She tells A that he shouldn't talk to the demons. She says he's become a lecturer on the weak island of Krakoa.

Genesis: The strong survive. Those who surrender will survive - in my army. So what is strength? Strength is surrender to me. As it always was.

A says his heart knows this to be true but that he cannot walk with her, cannot support her course. She says she never asked him to but that he will open the way. He approaches her.

A: And if I choose not to? Your armies will not persuade me. Nor your White Sword, nor his Hundred, nor my own children, nor anything that you hold. (Referring to the Annihilation staff.)

Genesis says she will persuade him, throwing him one of the his twin swords. As he catches it we get a flashback of "Okkara, in a time long past."

Isca gifted A the twin swords that lock together and become one, a gift for the birth of his and Genesis' fourth child. He describes it as an ornament of exquisite beauty, "which is all a sword should be in a time of peace." Genesis is nearby laying in a bed having just given birth. She says peace is not the natural condition and that every mutant on Okkara is a living weapon and that all weapons were made for the battles to come. He asks if a weapon cannot become something more if the battles never come. Genesis smiles. She names the baby Death and we get a glimpse of the cute little bundle.

Okkara is beautiful and peaceful. Genesis and A walk with the children and as he audibly lists their names she asks if he doesn't like their names. He likes them very much but where he came to Okkara from (Egypt), monuments are built from harnessed pain. He views his children as his monuments, built from love, and each is named after a concept lost to the past. In the lush, plentiful and peaceful Okkara, there is no famine, pestilence, war, nor death. But Genesis says they are not forgotten in the past, they are waiting in the future, waiting to strike. She says she's been dreaming of Okkara being split in two by a sword and named their children in recognition of what they must face, overcome, and then become. As she says they must be strong to survive, two of the children turn back to see a bright flash of light behind them in the sky. A asks if the strength can never rest, if survival has no ending. He turns around and sees the light as well.

It was the Twilight Sword tearing paradise asunder and demons poured in. As they continue to duel in the present, Genesis and A talk about how they fought with everything they had and how they would have fallen if not for White Sword and his Hundred. They fought for years and the children grew into warriors, which Genesis liked. We flashback again...

Losing the war, Annihilation asked to parley and wished to make an offer. However the offer was to Genesis and Genesis alone. In the present again, A mentions that what Annihilation offered and how Genesis answered was never told, not even to him. Genesis says the knowledge of knowing the truth might have broken him then but feels it's time for him to know. It turns out Annihilation offered to seal the rift it created that brought the demon invasion. If Genesis asked it to. And Genesis did not!!



He falls to his knees with the swords stuck in his body and Genesis says he's insulting himself by pretending anything else. By pretending he wouldn't have chosen to fight. (This whole scene must be read because it's powerful, I can't even articulate it.)

Putting her hand on his shoulder, Genesis says A sent the broken land to Earth, to the coddled Krakoa. She asks what he intended by this decision. "For the strong to conquer the weak? For the weak to worship the strong, as we came to them in all our majesty?" He says he did it to force growth, to force a necessary change. She says it was a noble aim, but that she saw the results.

We get a more recent flashback to when A, Genesis and their three children returned to Amenth after X of Swords. We see Summoners bowing before Genesis, surrendering. But one of them has a big mouth and mentions how things may have turned out differently had Tarn lived to see this day. Genesis is shocked to hear this news and appears startled.





In the present Genesis is telling A that because of Stern's information she had no choice but to gather her forces, including getting Death out of Sevalith, and rolled up on White Sword to force him to join her. She asks what A did while she was doing all of these things. "What did you do, besides prepare for my return?" She says he may have been the living Apocalypse to the weak Krakoans but between them he will always be her mage while she is the warrior. She says he must yield and open the way. He uses his mutant power of atom control of his body and forms two new arms which pull the swords out of his body as he stands. She smiles as he throws down his swords and yields, but on his own terms, he says.

A says though their reasons to act differ, it is necessary for them to act.

A: Mutantkind will not survive the fire to come without Arakko - and Arakko must thus be tested... and tempered in the flame.

He pulls out three seeds that he's prepared with mutant magic over a millennia. The Okkara gates. He gives her one, keeps one for himself, and plants one in the ground in his blood which he says the seed must feed on, "for mutant blood has always been the cost of mutant power."

[JB]

The final three pages.







Game on.

[Master of Sound]

Two questions:

1 - Was it explained how Death came back to Okkara as he was on Otherworld
2 - Any comment made, or power shown by Pestilence, or was he a background king once more?

[JB]

Also I forgot I'm on east coast time right now. Sorry Mods if I created this too early.

I don’t know why people on Twitter were saying that this wasn’t that good of an issue, but I thought it was a really well done and gave us a lot of the behind the scenes moments between Genesis and Apocalypse.

I thought the art was pretty good and it was a good little introductory one shot for the incoming Genesis War.

The dialogue is always awesome when Al Ewing writes an issue.

And the one spoiler that I will give away in this review, is that Apocalypse is the one the opened the Okkara gate for Genesis.

I made this thread because I’m super excited to see what forces Apocalypse gathers together.

So far I'm hoping he gets some Akkaro mutants and of course Betsy Braddock, Askani, and Rictor. (We know Ewing would write the **** out of these Bi queens)

OK some more spoilers:

Genesis is the one who named their kids.

Isca created the swords for Apocalypse by challening the best swordmaker by saying lets see who can make the best sword (or something like that)

Someone clarify for me if the White Swords name was given to us? Blue or Ingios?

It would be crazy if A’s forces don’t include at least some characters from Otherworld and Rictor. He set things up with Mercator and the Siege Perilous I believe for this moment. And of course I’d love for Betsy and the Corps to be involved.

[Taurean Sun]

The final three pages.







Game on.

I loved it! A perfect aay to start out an arc and to plant seeds of bigger conflict. Genesis war might be bigger than just genesis and storm clashing apocalypse will be coming to join the fray with forces and he is definately going to hunt coven akabba the very unwanted third part in all this.

[Taurean Sun]

Also I forgot I'm on east coast time right now. Sorry Mods if I created this too early.

I don’t know why people on Twitter were saying that this wasn’t that good of an issue, but I thought it was a really well done and gave us a lot of the behind the scenes moments between Genesis and Apocalypse.

I thought the art was pretty good and it was a good little introductory one shot for the incoming Genesis War.

The dialogue is always awesome when Al Ewing writes an issue.

And the one spoiler that I will give away in this review, is that Apocalypse is the one the opened the Okkara gate for Genesis.

I made this thread because I’m super excited to see what forces Apocalypse gathers together.

So far I'm hoping he gets some Akkaro mutants and of course Betsy Braddock, Askani, and Rictor. (We know Ewing would write the **** out of these Bi queens)

OK some more spoilers:

Genesis is the one who named their kids.

Isca created the swords for Apocalypse by challening the best swordmaker by saying lets see who can make the best sword (or something like that)

Someone clarify for me if the White Swords name was given to us? Blue or Ingios?

The people saying that it wasnt a good issue well it's basically one person, often goes around getting in their own head about things only to get disappointed. I too read the issue and wondered what isnt good about it? It set everything up very well, and s the title suggested gave a clear direction as to where the Fall of x will take arakko. Seems like aside orchis fall of x has no connection to whatever mess krakoa, the xmen and jean got going on. It will be it's own separate thing I kinda get why storm isnt at the gala now.

[JB]

I loved it! A perfect aay to start out an arc and to plant seeds of bigger conflict. Genesis war might be bigger than just genesis and storm clashing apocalypse will be coming to join the fray with forces and he is definately going to hunt coven akabba the very unwanted third part in all this.

Agreed completely. This by far is the best of the Before the Fall one-shots. It elegantly filled in some gaps about A and Genesis and Okkara. I loved their cute little children. And yes this is great setup for an epic story. 10’s across the board.

[Taurean Sun]

Wait what if.... what if genesis uses white sword to ressurect the dead arakki? And even the other gr members that have died like Tarn and idyl. They will be indebted to white sword who is in turn indebted to her.

[Grunty]

(...)War: War 1... other Wars... who were the Wars?

Abrahm Kieros (original War in Apocalypse early X-factor appearance), Hulk (2nd version), Deathbird (3rd version), Gazer (4th version), Decimus Furius (final horsemen).

Btw. Looking up the original description of the Four Horsemen it's interesting that only Death is actualy named, the other 3 are up for interpretation.
The first rider in particular was only later heavily associated with pestilence and was interpreted quite differently for many centuries.

It's also somewhat amusing that the Four Horsemen in X-men have seldomly if ever used any steeds again after the mechanical ones of original 3, despite the horses being one of their primary identifying traits in the bible passage the idea of these figures originates from .

So they are more the Four Walkers of the Apocalypse for most of their X-men appearance.

[Cyclone_Ablaze]

This was pretty good. We got to see what Okkara was truly like and how Peaceful it was. I think Ewing does a great job of fleshing out the Arakkii Mutants and their Mythos.

Now, to Genesis. This issue did not make me like anymore than I did before. I’m fact it made me like her even less. The Bitch is Crazy. She’s Evil. And she must be destroyed. To see that she purposely gave up Peace to prove her point and to Apocalypse that War is the only thing that matters. Yeah, Mother of the year everyone good job -_-. She’s just as evil as her Sister Isca the Baldhead. But, I’ll say this she is a Good Villain. One that can test Storm in every way possible.

But, other than that this was very good. I’m interested in who Apocalypse is going to go recruit.

[CGAR]

Two questions:

1 - Was it explained how Death came back to Okkara as he was on Otherworld
2 - Any comment made, or power shown by Pestilence, or was he a background king once more?

Pestilence is the female right? Famine is the male.

Death is the baby of the family and War is the eldest.

Or maybe the way he listed their names is their birth order.

It basically just said that Genesis went to Sevalith to retreive Death and that the Sevalith vampires did not want to give him up but she was persuasive and thats it. Just one dialouge bubble.

[StormBorn06]

Very good issue. It was the beginning of the war.

[Dizzystarr]

Genesis is such a overconfident petty Bitch I hope Storm kicks her teeth in then A and his crew rolls in and finishes her ass off once and for all