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X-Men: Age of Revelation Ruined a Mutant Who Deserved So Much Better
The X-Men books are in a slippery place right now, and in some ways, it’s gotten a little worse after “Age of Revelation“, the mutant books big 2025-ending event story. The three month event story, with two bookends opening and closing the series and numerous three issues miniseries, was meant to propel the X-Men forward for 2026. It took place in an alternate future, one where Doug Ramsey, who became Apocalypse’s heir Revelation in X-Men: Heir of Apocalypse, was able to use the X-virus and his powers to take over a large swath of the US all while enacting a plan that he believes will save the human race. It’s a cliche plot, using cliches created by the X-Men classic “Age of Apocalypse” to tell its story.
“Age of Revelation” failed for a lot of readers, with numerous complaints about the story and why fans didn’t enjoy it. However, there’s an extremely valid one that you don’t see a lot of fans taking about. Simply put, this story was a waste of Doug Ramsey. Doug is a character with an interesting history and powers that have been refined over the decades, allowing him to be more than just the guy who speaks every language. Making Doug Ramsey into the villainous Revelation has been a huge misuse of the character, and it’s basically ruined him almost completely.
Doug Ramsey Was a Character Who Was on the Precipice of Stardom
New Mutants was a groundbreaking X-series that introduced numerous fan-favorite characters to readers. Characters like Cannonball, Magik, and Sunspot have all become stars at one point or another, and other New Mutants like Wolfsbane, Karma, and Dani Moonstar have become fan-favorites. However, no one would have guessed that Doug Ramsey would ever break out of the pack. His mutant language powers weren’t impressive, which is why he was teamed up with the techno-organic Warlock. However, the character seemed like he was always meant to die, and when he did so, fans weren’t shocked.
However, the mid ’90s would see the character return and finally start becoming popular. He was resurrected as Douglock, a combination of Doug and Warlock, and would eventually be separated from the entity. Instead, creators would find new ways to use his powers. For example, he was able to become an expert computer hacker because he understood all programming languages perfectly. They introduced that he was able to master martial arts, because in their way, they were a language. He created the Krakoan language and enabled the mutants to communicate with Krakoa, putting the mutants on the path to power, something they had never been able to do. He became an extremely important character and was even married to the Arakkii Bei the Blood Moon, something fans loved. Doug was popular and had tons of potential. Then Revelation happened.
Doug was a malleable character, and creators soon learned to use that malleability to form him into something better. The young mutant came into his own in the Krakoa Era, playing a small but important role in the story. It honestly seemed like he and Warlock, and Bei were going to be extremely important, but Hickman’s leaving changed all of that. Instead, he was put on the road to Revelation, and all of the potential the character had has been wasted. “Age of Revelation” is going to pigeonhole the character forever and sap away what little excitement there was for him.
Doug Ramsey was allowed to grow over the years, and that’s been good for him. His transformation into Revelation may seem like an extension of this, but really, it’s a dead end. We’ve seen the kind of monster (with a terrible plan that I won’t spoil for you because in some ways it’s so bad it’s good) he’s going to become. Marvel is making him into the kind of villain that can never really be redeemed, and putting himon on a road to a bad place. There’s nowhere else you can take Doug after Revelation, even if he doesn’t become the evil dark lord we saw in “AoR”. Look at Archangel; he was a mutant with powers that were useless in combat, Apocalypse made him “better”, and ever since then, the only Archangel stories we got were him fighting his dark side. Doug Ramsey deserves better than years of that.
Doug Ramsey’s Potential Has Been Completely Squandered
A lot of fans were excited for Doug again because of the Krakoa Era. He played a big role in it and was one of the most consistently good characters across those five years. Readers liked how he had come into his own; they liked the way he worked with Warlock, and they liked his marriage. So, Marvel figured out a way to ruin a lot of that and put him on the road to becoming a villain that no one liked. There’s a chance that Doug is going to be propelled to stardom because of “Age of Revelation”‘s aftermath (X-Men (Vol. 7) #23 is great, and I recommend it for any X-fan), but that chance is small.
The sad part is, there was a much better character who could have been Revelation: Rictor. Rictor had been built up as Apocalypse’s boy, and the whole situation would have made more sense. Instead, the House of Ideas took Doug off the road that he was on and put him on one that few characters have ever been able to escape from: the Apocalypse vortex (really, only Hulk and Wolverine successfully got out of it with their popularity intact). Doug deserved so much better than this, and there’s a good chance this story will kill him as a fan-favorite for years to come.
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