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Comic Book Review – X-Men #1

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Anghus Houvouras reviews X-Men #1…

“The X-Women finally get their own book, from critically acclaimed superstars Brian Wood (X-Men, Ultimate X-Men, DMZ, The Massive) and Olivier Coipel (AvX, House Of M, Thor)! An old enemy shows up at the X-Men’s door, seeking asylum from an ancient evil come back to earth. Meanwhile, Jubilee has come home, and she’s brought with her an orphaned baby who might hold the key to the earth’s survival… or its destruction. Against a backdrop of what seems like an alien invasion and an eons-spanning war between brother and sister, Storm steps up and puts together a team to protect the child and stop a new threat that could destroy all life on earth!“

There are a lot of X-Men books out there right now.  Maybe even a prohibitive number.

I’ve been enjoying the two Bendis X-books: All New X-Men and Uncanny X-Men.  Each title pairs well with the other.  On one side of the coin you have Scott Summers and his more militant team of mutants.  On the other, the ever expanding roster of ‘good guys’ dealing with a massive space-time continuum issue that has brought the five original X-Men into the present day.
There are more than these two titles.  There’s Wolverine and The X-Men.  Uncanny Avengers.  A+X.  Cable and X-Force.  And at least a thousand book featuring Deadpool.  
I dropped all the X-Titles years ago for very much the same problem the current crop of mutant themed titles are now facing: over saturation.  One X-Men book became two, then three, and then before you could say “Xtreme X-Men” there were a dozen different mutant themed comics out there vying for shelf space.  Adding another to the pull list has made me wonder if Marvel is heading down a perilous path.  
So it was with some trepidation that I picked up the newest copy of X-Men #1 wondering if this was the comic that watered down the mutant filled corner of the Marvel universe and soured me on the whole enterprise.  Thankfully, it’s not.
X-Men #1 is served well by two things: Number one, it looks fantastic.  Oliver Copiel’s art is as expressive and energetic as ever.  Number two, it’s a very brisk and light read.  This isn’t a bad thing.  I’m already bogged down with two very dialogue heavy Bendis X-Men comics.  Brian Wood’s X-Men #1 is all about momentum.  The story moves.  The panels are clean.  The dialogue is brief and effective.  In fact, I’m guessing the total word count here is probably ten times less than any Bendis penned X-Men issue.  It’s not better, or worse.  Merely different.  And with so many mutant books on the market, different is the only thing that will keep me coming back. 
The first issue brings back Jubilee who is trying to get back to Westchester and her X-family to help protect her and her baby from a stalker who is following close behind.   The X-Men rush to her aid and find out that her pursuer is a very powerful mutant named Sublime who immediately surrenders to the X-Men and explains he needs help fighting a billion year old menace: his sister.  That pretty much covers the entire issue. Wood seems to embrace the ‘less is more’ mentality letting Copiel’s exceptional art do most of the heavy lifting.  I like this ‘less talk, more action’ foundation for an X-Men book.  
There’s been a lot of talk about the team roster for X-Men lacking a “Y” chromosome, but I really didn’t notice.  Though the idea is very flatly presented on the cover, the first issue never makes it feel like a gimmick.  Every character on the roster is someone with deep ties to the history of the X-Men.  Bringing them all front and center without a Wolverine or a Cyclops feels like a natural progression for the team.  Although after one issue, I’m not sure where exactly this is going to fit in with All New and Uncanny.  Maybe it won’t.  Perhaps this will just be it’s own book with it’s own ongoing narrative.  I think I’d actually prefer that.  Interweaving all these parallel titles will only make reading it feel like an obligation, rather than something to look forward to each month.
X-Men #1 is a promising start. 

Anghus Houvouras is a North Carolina based writer and filmmaker. His latest work, the graphic novel EXE: Executable File, is available from Lulu.com.

Originally published May 30, 2013. Updated April 11, 2018.

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