Judgment Day Omnibus #[nn]

History

The crossover originated from Kieron Gillen's 2021 Eternals ongoing series, illustrated by Esad Ribić, which deliberately set up a collision course with the Krakoan mutant resurrection protocols at the heart of the X-books. Marvel teased the event as early as December 2021, and it was formally announced as a six-issue limited series at San Diego Comic-Con in July 2022 by Editor-in-Chief C.B. Cebulski and Executive Editor Nick Lowe. A notable production wrinkle shaped the event's structure: lead artist Valerio Schiti became a father during production, so three 'story-critical' bridge issues — A.X.E.: Avengers, A.X.E.: X-Men, and A.X.E.: Eternals, functioning editorially as issues #5a, #5b, and #5c — were drawn by different artists to avoid overworking him. The 2024 omnibus, released January 16–17, 2024, collected all of those story-essential issues along with the tie-in chapters from over a dozen other ongoing series into a 944-page hardcover edition.

Trivia · 8 facts

• The omnibus is the sole collected-works volume for A.X.E.: Judgment Day (2022), the central crossover of Marvel's 'Destiny of X' publishing phase within the Krakoan Age, published January 16–17, 2024.
• Primary writer Kieron Gillen scripted the six-issue main series (A.X.E.: Judgment Day #1–6), three 'story-critical' bridging one-shots (A.X.E.: Avengers, A.X.E.: X-Men, A.X.E.: Eternals), the prelude A.X.E.: Eve of Judgment, and the epilogue A.X.E.: Judgment Day Omega — making him the author of a remarkably large share of a company-wide event.
• Primary series artist was Valerio Schiti, with colorist Marte Gracia; the three bridging one-shots used alternate artists (Federico Vicentini, Francesco Mobili, and Pasqual Ferry) specifically because Schiti became a father during production.
• The event introduced Ajak Celestia, a transformed version of the Eternal Ajak who merges with the Progenitor Celestial at the story's conclusion and becomes a new kind of deity independent of both Celestial and Eternal hierarchies.
• The story publicly revealed within the Marvel Universe that each Eternal resurrection requires the death of a human being — a bombshell that permanently altered the social and moral standing of the Eternals and set up ongoing repercussions in subsequent Krakoan-era titles.
• Three one-shots — A.X.E.: Avengers #1, A.X.E.: X-Men #1, and A.X.E.: Eternals #1 — were classified by editor Tom Brevoort as 'story-critical' tie-ins, essentially serving as issues #5a, #5b, and #5c of the main series, and are collected in full in the omnibus.
• The omnibus collects approximately 30 issues/one-shots across more than a dozen ongoing titles, including Immortal X-Men #5–7, X-Men Red (2022) #5–7, A.X.E.: Death to the Mutants #1–3, X-Force (2020) #30–33, Fantastic Four (2018) #47–48, Amazing Spider-Man (2022) #10, Captain Marvel (2019) #42, Avengers (2018) #60, Wolverine (2020) #24, and Marauders (2022) #6, among others.
• The hardcover omnibus edition, published by Marvel/Penguin Random House, runs 944 pages and was edited under Editor-in-Chief C.B. Cebulski, with Jordan D. White serving as the primary series editor; the cover art was by Mark Brooks and Sabine Rich, reprinted from A.X.E.: Judgment Day #1.

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