X-Men #23 Brings Back a ’90s Fan-Favorite Artist for the Age of Revelation Finale

Marvel is getting ready to land the plane on its current X-Men arc, the future-peek saga called 'Age of Revelation.' And right on its heels, X-Men #23 arrives as the epilogue — with a very familiar name back on art duties after a long time away.

Tony Daniel is back on X-Men, decades later

X-Men #23 brings artist Tony Daniel back to Marvel for his first interior pages at the publisher in decades. That by itself is a big swing, but there is a very nerdy bit of symmetry here: some of Daniel's last Marvel work was on 1995's 'Age of Apocalypse,' which directly inspired the current 'Age of Revelation' storyline. From one alternate-future mutant epic to another — neat full-circle moment.

What X-Men #23 actually is

This issue serves as the epilogue to 'Age of Revelation,' the X-line's flash-forward look at a possible future for mutantkind. Jed MacKay is writing it, Tony Daniel is handling the interior art, and there is a fresh variant cover by Ivan Talavera. Marvel has preview pages out there showing off Daniel's return and the new cover.

Daniel on why this one matters to him

Daniel started his career at Marvel drawing X-Force straight out of high school, and he still traces his love for the franchise back to a beat-up copy of 'Giant-Size X-Men' a classmate brought to school when he was in fourth grade. Coming back to draw the team now clearly hits a nerve — and he is especially enthusiastic about teaming with MacKay.

"The way Jed constructs his stories is an artist's dream!"

He also calls out MacKay's mix of big action and character work as exactly the kind of thing that is fun for the artists and, by extension, the fans. Translation: expect fireworks and actual character beats.

Quick notes

• X-Men #23 is the epilogue to 'Age of Revelation'
• Writer: Jed MacKay
• Artist: Tony Daniel (his first Marvel interiors in decades)
• Variant cover: Ivan Talavera
• There are preview pages and the Talavera variant circulating now
• On sale January 7

Bottom line: if you have been following 'Age of Revelation,' this is your cooldown lap — and if you are a longtime reader, Daniel returning to the X-Men right after a future-shock event that echoes 'Age of Apocalypse' is the kind of deep-cut symmetry that makes comic book history feel like one big loop.