Starting Alt 295: Age of Apocalypse

What do I like about alternate realities? It is an opportunity to see our favorite characters in new light. Good stories keep the essence of the characters the same, but that doesn't always mean they will always have the same roles. That was exactly what happened with the Age of Apocalypse.

This was perhaps one of my favorite events. The X-Men are completely reimagined in a dystopian world ruled by the Apocalypse. Professor X is killed by his son during the Legion Quest crossover (Era #7, Part 16) which eventually leads to a new world.

Our story opens with X-Men: Alpha. Magneto's X-Men are in Seattle in another attempt to protect humans from Apocalypse's Infinite forces led by Unus the Untouchable. They find a nomad named Bishop who is a man out-of-time. The encounter convinces Magneto that he needs to send it his X-Men on various missions to get to the truth and save the humanity.

Every X-Men series was stopped in 1995 for four months and replaced with an Age of Apocalypse title. Yes, it was incredibly gimmicky, but it was also completely immersive.

• Astonishing X-Men (was Uncanny X-Men)
• X-Calibre (was Excalibur)
• Factor X (was X-Factor)
• Amazing X-Men (was X-Men (v2))
• Generation Next (was Generation X)
• Gambit and the X-Ternals (was X-Force)
• Weapon X (was Wolverine)
• X-Man (was Cable)
• X-Universe 
• X-Men Chronicles (was X-Men Unlimited)