Release: January 2026 | Writer: Jed McKay | Artists: Tony Daniel & Mark Morales | Colorists: Fernando Sifuentes | Letterer: Clayton Cowles
As the Age of Revelation has come to a close, we return to the narrative where we left off in X-Men #23. What occurred during the Age of Revelation? In a nutshell, Scott Summers and Beast were mentally transported a decade into the future. They were unaware of the new world into which they had been placed.
The northeast had been broken up due to the mutant known as Revelation. Revelation is the heir of Apocalypse with the deadly power of manipulating the will of others to do what he says. This power seemingly caused another end-of-days scenario for mutantkind. After killing many people and mutants, damning the world, and consuming the planet, Revelation tried to reclaim what was lost in Krakoa during that brutal and dangerous future. Back in the current day, X-Men #23 continues from issue twenty-two with Scott Summers welcoming a younger, more innocent version of Revelation onto the team.
*SPOILER WARNING AHEAD!*
BACK FROM THE FUTURE
Scott Summers embraces Revelation, as we saw in the last issue, before his mind is taken over. He screams in pain and calls out to Quentin Quire for help. However, when Scott returns to his senses, he is a different man. He is a motivated and angry individual following everything that occurred in the future. He blasts Quentin and dodges all the confused members of the X-Men who are trying to stop him. He yells about plans that he has been making for the past ten years to accomplish one specific goal.
Kill Revelation and prevent the horrible, devastating future he creates.
As Scott Summers is about to take out Revelation with the Soulsword of Illyana Rasputin, he is tackled by Beast and imprisoned. While being restrained, Scott calls Beast a traitor. It is finally revealed that when the Cyclops of the current day arrived in the body of the future Cyclops at the beginning of the Age of Revelation story, the future Cyclops switched his mind with our version of Scott.
This situation is a purposeful mind-swap intended by the future Cyclops to ensure the death of Revelation. In the kitchen of the X-Men, Revelation and his wife, Bei the Blood Moon, argue about the situation that just occurred. Revelation has hope that the X-Men are good people, while Bei disagrees. She explains how Cyclops just tried to kill him in cold blood. Watching them communicate through sign language during this entire exchange is Temper.
Changes Made
Temper verbally berates Bei for calling her Krakoan, since Temper associates Krakoa with a dark time in her life due to her imprisonment in The Pit. Furthermore, she questions if the jailer-hating Arakki warrior, Bei, knows that her husband was a jailer himself. Specifically, he was the jailer of Temper.
Revelation tries his hardest to calm the room, stating that he will fix the history he has with Temper in due time. However, he insists that their focus should be on Cyclops, who at this point has escaped from his jail cell. Quentin Quire tries to wrangle the group together, but Scott Summers has other plans.
Those plans involve Magneto. However, this is not the Magneto whom this future Cyclops remembers. When he discovers that Magneto is confined to a wheelchair, he realizes that the past he knew is not the same one he currently inhabits. Despite this discrepancy, he still believes that Revelation is at fault. This is his conviction even though Magneto has been in a wheelchair this entire time due to his deteriorating powers. While trying to persuade Magneto, Cyclops is captured and jailed again, this time with a reinforced visor face mask.
Revelation attempts to beg Scott Summers for help, asking him to assist in making good decisions. He hopes to avoid the mistakes that this future Cyclops has witnessed and to change history instead of simply being killed. However, Cyclops insists that there is no saving Revelation. He believes that killing him is the only available option.
Which causes Revelation to realize that Bei was right this whole time. With both mutants and humans not wanting him, he needs to change the world for the better. Whether the world realizes it needs to change or not.
CONCLUSION
We are officially back to the mainline X-Men series. Age of Revelation was a lot of fun for me personally. While I read only the core issues of the arc, I thoroughly enjoyed it and wondered how it would affect the world when we returned. It is a dark revelation, and the pun is certainly intended. Age of Revelation hit the mark for some and not for others.
Regardless of where you landed, reading this issue presents an interesting question. By this version of Cyclops returning to "save" the planet, is he inadvertently causing the same outcome he fears? Because he is taking these drastic actions, Revelation seems to be developing the same outlook and motivations that initially caused his future reign of terror. It is simply being caused differently, and perhaps even in a quicker manner.
The casting of Cyclops in the shadows throughout this issue makes him look terrifying. It is reminiscent of a horror movie. This is a great choice in art direction that shows the difference between the Cyclops we have always known and this brutal, war-ridden future version of the character. I think the enjoyment level of this issue will depend on how much you enjoyed Age of Revelation.
However, you should give it a shot. It is a good jumping-on point, and the creators explain enough so that you do not necessarily need to read all of Age of Revelation. It would definitely help to understand the scope of how horrible the world became, as that context makes you understand exactly where this version of Cyclops is coming from with his actions.