This was also the time Neal Adams came into the picture, and blew our minds away with his great pencils - and it naturally blew me away. Unfortunately, this didn't last long, and the age of reprints begun. Fine... I stuck by them wherever I could... a cameo in Captain America, here... Hank turning blue, and later becoming an Avenger there... then came Giant-sized X-men #1, featuring an All-new, All different team., and once again, I jumped in for the ride... trying my best to find these issues. Collect them I did... following through Krakoa, to Nefaria, Shi'ar, and Sentinels, Phoenix, Magneto, With writing duties from Wein to Claremont, and art duties from Cockrum to Byrne.
I followed their adventures to the M'kraan crystal, to Hellfire club, to the moon, to Days of Future's Past, to some forgettable portions of the series - Australia, Marauders, Morlocks, Madelyn... as I said, few important changes. Things get hazier from there...and my passion for collecting X-men started waning.
Eventually, I stopped collecting comics on a monthly basis altogether.
Enter Moira X, and what seems to be a total revamp of the Mutants. Everyone's organized. They live in Krakoa, as a sovereign state... with a monopoly to needed pharmaceuticals that are used as a carrot stick to any nation that recognizes them. Charles, Moira and Magneto are the supreme architects, and if you have no idea what I'm talking about, then you have to read the twin limited series of of House of X and Power of X - both by Jonathan Hickman - who earlier revamped some of Marvel's mythology with S,H,I,E,L,D,, Fantastic Four and Avengers. With Hickman are Pepe Larraz (whom we'll get back to later), Marte Gracia, and R.B. Silva. This was a game changer... and a huge one at that. But they weren't done yet...
Everything from then on revolved around that scenario - Mutants living in Krakoa, and trying to live apart - peacefully... despite whatever threats came their way.,, be they global, or extra-dimensional. Then the supposed phase two? Another island - with a different dimension filed with mutants - apparently, mutants that recognized Apocalypse as their long lost father... and lived in a more war-like state. The island was Arrako - a war happened... eventually, an understanding - and peace amongst mutants of both islands existed. But new problems persisted. Not to mention how the mutant population and the island mass suddenly doubled overnight - surely a concern with the rest of the world.
The third act showed just how powerful the mutants were. They terra formed Mars, gave it an atmosphere, then teleported Arrako and all it's inhabitants to Mars (renamed planet Arrako) - again, Magneto was instrumental in planning and building the planet - giving it it's iron core at the start, and positioning Starcore 2 - a newly created space station (told you they were powerful) to protect Mars, er Arrako, and also be an outer defense for the Sol system's Mutant and Terran inhabitants. This world, and setting is where the New X-men issue comes in. I just gave you the cliff notes.
 |
| Issue Number 1 of the new Xmen - I used my mouse to flatten (carefully) the lifting spine so I can get to take a picture of the cover |
So now to issue 1.The directors of this new title (I refer to it as new since it restarts it's numbering) are Gerry Dugan - writer, Pepe Larraz (artist) and Marte Gracia (colorist).
So there is some form of continuity with Pepe seemingly the over-arching artist since House of X, which is relatively good for a feel of consistency, albeit Pepe's art is a bit cartoonish - but not overly Manga style cartoonish. His work... and maybe it is also because of Maite's colors, are easy to follow.
I just notice that Pepe's drawing of people - specially in the background... be they just crowds or characters who are not in the foreground, his characters seem to have much less details, it almost feels like he just stuck the minimum amount of effort for these. Granted, not everyone can be as gifted as George Perez on details - but I would hope to find more details to make the characters less cartoony. I hope I'm mistaken on this, and see his works get better. After all, this is an X-titile. Not necessarily's Marvel's flagship title... but definitely, the Mutant line's main title.
Gerry's story... it may be too early to comment on it. After all, it is just one issue so far (at least, for me). I can't really comment on his capabilities - yet. Instead, let me mention how I reacted to this story.
The first three pages are a prologue of sorts... we are introduced to a young savant... who could have struck it rich, had his parents not have been short-sighted, and better trusted / supported their son. He makes a fortune with his company at the age of 15 - only to lose it, through no fault of his, but more through manipulations of the adults around him... most likely with the help of his parents too.
Frustrated... maybe angry and depressed, he disappears from the public eye. We learn that he has been quietly preparing - he is in the cusp of regaining his fame with his next endeavor - a migration to Mars. He even adapted his body to thrive in a Martian atmosphere - all with the intent to conquer Mars and do further researches and possibly come up with new discoveries on that planet. We see him reacting unfavorably to the broadcast by the mutants showing the sudden terra forming and annexation of Mars, and transferring Arrako there, thus derailed years of work and sacrifice. Needless to say, he feels a sense of fury, and sees the Mutants as the cause for his loss and now useless efforts. So yeah, we'll see him soon as an adversary with his misplaced rage... but not now.
 |
| Ben Urich has questions Cyclops deflects - not a good start for them |
Scene shift to New York's Central Park, where a large tree house has grown supposedly overnight... an 18-foot tree house, and park, over land bought earlier by the Hellfire consortium of Emma Frost (the White Queen), and grown with Krakoa biological advances, in tandem with Forge's tinkering of Synch's (Everett) designs. So the tree house was shaped with bespoke cables inserted with a lot fo Tech - and both the tree and cables grew organically - this explanation was given by way of a one page narrative on how the tree was designed.
 |
| Cyclops and Marvel Girl discuss the team's purpose and sets aside any second thoughts |
The tree is in a park that is publicly a memorial of the Mutants who sacrificed their lives; so I still have to reconcile how these dead are staying dead - given Krakoa's, Hope and the rest of the 'Five' have the ability to resurrect new versions of any lost (to death) mutant - an act seen in the earlier mentioned mini-series, after Cyclops led a kamikaze mission, which included, Marvel Girl, Wolverine, Mystique and others to derail the creation of the Mastermold.
They all died, but were resurrected. But apparently, 'Thunderbird' is mentioned as a viable name for their new plane. So... do they only resurrect mutants they need? Do some stay dead for a reason? This is still a mystery to me - though maybe there was a reason that i might have missed at an issue I have not read.Back to the story... Cyclops enters, he and Jean kiss - she says she caught the conversation he had with Ben, and they exchange thoughts on the idea of the team and moving to New York (after all, they do live on the moon), and how this team was elected (not sure by whom, so I assume the council did) to be the team to defend the Earth - not just mutants. So with that, the team's purpose becomes clear.
 |
| A quick tour of the tree house, and a cross-section of the new HQ |
(Lorna Dane) arrives in the tree house, and Cyclops gives her the quick tour. We see Forge and Synch further working on a part of the tree, Jean is busy monitoring things which makes it not surprising when she gives everyone an emergency heads-up. A meteor is approaching, and Rogue is dispatched to intercept, while the rest follow not too far behind.
The meteor turns out ot be a metallic like alien, tough, strong, and non magnetic (as Polaris learns).
The X-men regroup, think things through, and decide to create a metallic contraption that looks like a Minion of Gru.
 |
| The new team jumps into action Rogue went ahead |
So now it looks like a battle between a robot and a Kaiju. The idea is to do what they can to get through the alien's shield, get Wolverine (Laura) in and do whatever internal damage she can, while Cyclops, Firelord, Rogue and Polaris do what they can to battle it externally.
As the alien robot is attacking in a psychic level and affecting the nearby populace, Jean is countering that, and Synch is keeping their robot together..
this is happening, the X-men receive incoming messages from both the Avengers and the Fantastic Four who are seconds or minutes away. They are told that the X-men should be done by the time they arrive (which they do).
 |
| The X-minion. I mean, really? |
averted... Avengers and FF don't linger, and some questions on the origin of said robot are asked - we, the readers, discover that the robot was apparently part of a galactic casino game.
Someone wants to conquer the Earth... get rid of the inhabitants, but not destroy the planet. The humans are seen as a threat, and need to be removed - the Earth used for something better, far as they're concerned. So the game continues, as the bet is once again announced.
In the audience, we see the High Evolutionary in the crowd - his thoughts to himself... possibly not reacting positively to the thought that humans are a threat... after all, whatever he is now, he was human once.
Meanwhile, back on Earth, it seems the X-men's debut is received well, as New Yorkers applaud them for saving the city. We end with an article from Ben Urich... neutral, and he dies say the tree does not feel repressive or dangerous - it's a tree. So people seem to like visiting the park to see it.
We go back to witnessing a lab where Dr. Stasis of the Oblivion Institute, in New Jersey is experimenting with altered humans. Subjecting them to deadly scenarios, as he clinically measures their survivability. He may have had many deaths... but he does not bother with that fact - he sees these deaths as a learning processes, a chance to improve survivability... and he seems to have noticed that some mutants have indeed cheated death - and he is wondering how they are being resurrected... possibly looking at dossiers of Charles Xavier and Catherine Pryde? This is where the art of Pepe is again not helpful. I assume this person is looking at their dossier because he knows they died - and are suddenly alive again.
So... how did it do as a debut? For starters, we see the team setting up and settling down. The readers are introduced to the 'Tree' - it's not sentient... not that I know. We see them leap into action, using a well known tactic of having a mind link while in battle. We see how competent they are, given the situation. Does the team work? It is a formidable bunch. Hopefully, Ben Urich will continue to be the voice of New York, and we see a threat or two preparing to go against the X-men.
As initial issues go, it wasn't too bad. I might even say it was nice - not spectacular, 'jump on my feet to cheer; or 'feel mind blown' nice. Just, okay... 'nice start' nice. I'll be reading issue 2 later, see how things go from there... then decide if the title is worth continuing. On a scale of 1 - 5, one being it sucks, and five being 'cheer' or 'mind blown', I'd say it's a 3. I'm neutral. Aside from the additional pages and back-to-back cover, it is just another X-title. Is it worthy of being the carrier flagship? Not yet - but it may still happen. I'm not taking that away from them yet.
Fingers crossed on this one for them.
Comments