All-New X-Men Vol. 1 Review

All-New X-Men Vol. 1 Review

“Yesterday’s X-Men”

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Penciller: Stuart Immonen
Inker: Wade Von Grawbadger
Colorist: Marte Garcia
Letterer: VC’s Cory Petit

Review: Tom Speelman

All-New X-Men picks up after Avengers Vs. X-Men, which saw Cyclops, possessed by the alien force known as the Phoenix, kill Professor X. He’s since become something of a terrorist, teaming up with Magneto and Magik to free mutants worldwide after their powers emerge and violently attacking the humans responsible. While doing this, they recruit Eva from Australia, who has the power to freeze time, and Benjamin from Texas, who can perfectly mimic anyone else.

Angered by Cyclop’s actions, Iceman remarks that if the teenage Cyclops could see what he’s become, he’d be ashamed of himself. Inspired by that, Beast — who we learn is dying due to mutating again — travels back in time to meet the original five X-Men (himself, Cyclops, Iceman, Angel and Jean Grey/Marvel Girl) to convince them to come back to force Cyclops to look at what he’s become and change his life accordingly.

After they get over their shock — particularly Jean, who learns from Beast that she’s a telepath way before she was supposed to — they decide to go with him. But once they get back to the present, Beast’s mutation flares up again, leaving him on the edge of death. And the rest of the X-Men don’t take too kindly to these time-travelers showing up.

A lot of fans give Brian Michael Bendis a hard time for his supposedly weak writing on team books, but I liked his story quite a bit. He manages to provide a clean entry to a bunch of ongoing storylines in the wake of a crossover. Bendis also accurately captures both the fear humankind has towards mutants, the fractured psyches of the current X-Men and the confusion and frustration of the past X-Men as they struggle to come to grips with what awaits them.

I’ve always liked Stuart Immonen’s artwork, and he doesn’t disappoint here. With Wade Von Grawbadger’s bold inking and Marte Garcia’s eye-popping coloring to back him up, he looks great. The way they update the original five X-Men both in their civilian and hero looks really makes these characters feel fresh and new, despite having been first published 50 years ago now. The cleaner style really does evoke the X-Men of Lee and Kirby’s days.

While I’ve never been a super big fan of Marvel’s Mighty Mutants, this book really changed my mind. I’ll be getting the rest of this series in hardcover for sure.

Writing: 5/5
Art: 5/5
Overall: 5/5

Tom Speelman is double majoring in Literature and Writing at Calvin College. He has presented on Carl Barks and Donald Duck comics at the 2011 Calvin Honors Conference and Sherlock Holmes at the 2013 Making Literature Conference and blogs three times a week at tomtificate.wordpress.com, including the feature Star Trek Saturdays, where he examines an episode of the original Star Trek every week