For a few months in the 90s, the X-Men titles underwent a massive change. A story involved the mutant Legion going back in time and accidentally killing his father, Professor X. This then changed the timeline and paved the way for Apocalypse to launch an attack and take control of all of North America. Standing in opposition to Apocalypse were the X-Men, a team of mutants formed by Magneto. The story was a massive success and is still fondly remembered by X-fans as one of the highlights of the 90s. As soon as X-Men: Apocalypse was announced, speculation immediately fired up about it being an adaptation of that storyline. Singer has confirmed that the film will be somewhat based on Age of Apocalypse, saying that Days of Future Past wont necessarily create an alternate timeline. But that still leaves a lot to go on. What elements of the Age of Apocalypse would make it into the film? Will we see Magneto leading the X-Men? The death of Professor X? Will this mean we need more time travel shenanigans in order to fix reality? Its all up in the air at the moment, but there are lots of great characters in the Age of Apocalypse that would be fun to play with. The twisted Dark Beast, the heroic Magneto, one-handed Wolverine, and then theres the villain Holocaust, who has a great visual. Maybe we could even see an elevated role for Fan Bingbing's Blink, a fan-favorite character who really shined during the Age of Apocalypse story.
Percival Constantine is the author of several novels and short stories, including the Vanguard superhero series, and regularly writes and comments on movies, comics, and other pop culture. More information can be found at his website, PercivalConstantine.com
