X-Men #1 – Review
It’s the Dawn of X. Now we can see how this new direction for Marvel’s mutants evolves. I really liked the twelve issues that led into this line-wide relaunch of the mutant titles. Is this momentum going to hold, especially with the flagship title written by Jonathan Hickman?
Oh, yeah, there may be some spoilers.
X-Men #1
Writer: Jonathan Hickman
Penciller: Leinil Francis Yu
Inker: Gerry Alanguilan
Colorist: Sonny Gho
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Designer: Tom Mullen
Cover Art: Leinil Francis Yu and Sonny Gho
Variant Covers: Mark Bagley, John Dell and Israel Silva; Mark Brooks; Tom Muller; Whilce Portacio and Chris Sotomayor; Leinil Francis Yu; Chris Bachalo and Edgar Delgado; Artgerm; Marco Checchetto; Russell Dauterman
Rated T+
Solicitation:
DAWN OF X!
The X-Men find themselves in a whole new world of possibility… and things have never been better! Jonathan Hickman (HOUSE OF X, POWERS OF X, SECRET WARS) and superstar artist Leinil Yu (NEW AVENGERS, CAPTAIN AMERICA) reveal the saga of Cyclops and his hand-picked squad of mutant powerhouses!
Review:
Jonathan Hickman is really establishing Orchis as the major threat for mutants. The opening battle is intense. I like that it is very apparent that Storm is overextending herself. Cyclops is the star of this issue, though. Even with him deferring leadership to Storm, and with Magneto’s personality in the fold, he still comes across as a leader. We even see the story end with a family dinner at his house, built by Krakoa.
In the middle, we have a scene on the Orchis Forge. Director Devo is steering things in a very personal direction against mutants. There is friction on the Forge with him and Doctor Alia Gregor. It’s also apparent that Devo views the mission of the Forge very pessimistically, while Gregor is more optimistic. I find myself liking her, which is refreshing, given that she’s one of “the bad guys.”
For the Summers dinner party, Cyclops has invited Lorna Dane, which comes from a conversation that insinuates that there may be, at the very least, a close friendship developing between them. The attitude of (Kid) Cable is refreshing in the household. I like seeing the three Summers brothers getting along, and their father’s hesitance at this new status quo is refreshing.
There’s been a lot of talk online about the living situation in the House of Summers. Jean’s room is between Cyclops and Wolverine’s rooms. We’ve seen nothing to insinuate that this means anything in particular about some type of… romantic understanding between the three of them. Of course, one of the first three laws is to make more mutants. Unless I see it spelled out specifically that this is the case, I’m just going to wonder why Wolverine is there. It could be that with the past history of the mutants in the Summers house going bad, Wolverine is there to keep an eye on anything that would threaten Krakoa.
Overall, it’s a decent first issue of a new direction, but not the best I’ve seen. I do like that we don’t have a specific line-up for the X-Men. This series has such a large cast, it only seems fitting that “missions” be something a proper team is put together to deal with. Overall, I’m liking the new direction Jonathan Hickman has taken the X-Men.
Final Rating: 7.5 (out of 10)
Preview Pages:
