X-Men: The Complete Age of Apocalypse Epic - Book 1

the age of apocalypse x men series is one of the coolest things i've ever seen in comics, it's my favorite. it doesn't try to be PC or happy, it's really dark and the x-men are cooler. i have another review more about the story on book 2 page cause as others have said marvel didn't group this series together perfectly, you are supposed to start with book 2 and then 3 then 4. book 1 is a collection of backstories best for being read after the rest. so it's true chronologically book one is first, but dramatically and storywise you should read book one last cause the stories in book one, although good, are kind of sporadic and meaningless to the rest of the series. (x men chronicles are the best and most important parts of book one) trust me, as someone who collected all these and read them in order when they came out, you should read it 2, 3, 4, then 1. and also, you should definitely check these out if you haven't, if you like anything about comic books you should!!

The book is amazing! It has really good writing and awesome new looks on characters. It is set in the AoA obviously. This is a world where Xavier is no longer around, and everything goes to hell. Mutants are named superior to humans by Apocalypse. There is much talk about this book being "out of order", and that it should not be the first story. I have not read the other books yet. So I don't know how out of order it is. But I read it first anyway, I was not going to let a book called Vol 1 be saved for the final read sorry. In order, out of order whatever it does not take away from this book and its collection of stories. You'll love it a must buy. When Marvel puts out stuff like this, it is what gives it the slight edge over DC. BUY BUY!!

This came out when i went to college and stopped collecting comic books for monetary reasons. I was always a huge X-Fan, and am glad I picked up the whole series. The first book is pretty cool as a retelling of X-Men #1, with Magneto in place of Professor X and Apocalypse filling in for Magneto as the Big Bad. Read back to back the whole series seems a bit disjointed, but you'll have that with a cross title series. If you are an X-Men lover, and are in for a long story, this is a good series to have.

this includes all the comic that is associated w/ the AoA storyline so you don't miss a thing. it might be a little confusing for the average reader who has no information to the AoA background, but w/ a little marvel knowledge of the universe and continuities then you will appreciate this collection a lot more.

I gave this book 5 stars for reasons beyond the book itself; please read on to understand my thinking. This book is an essential portion of a larger whole. The Complete Age of Apocalypse Epic wll total four volumes running in chronological order according to the Age of Apocalypse storyline (not individual title release dates). This storyline originally ran in the summer of 1995 and featured a bleak alternate near-future scenario where Professor X has been killed before forming the X-Men and Apocalypse is poised to dominate the world. Although little, if any, original material from the summer of '95 is presented in this volume, the material that we are presented with provides great backstory and insights into the characters and events that occur in the following volumes. If you are not interested in the AoA storyline from start to finish, which I believe is one of the greatest Marvel storylines to date, if only for the incredible concepts and artwork (though not so much in this particular volume), then skip Volume One for a later volume featuring the actual material from the summer of '95. On its own, with no relation to the following volumes, this book would rank around two and half stars. My review of five stars is due to this title's relation to each other volume in the series.