All New X-men #1 Review

It’s a blast from the past as the original five students of Professor X – Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Iceman, Angel and Beast – are plucked from the past and brought to the present. But what they find, the state that their future selves are in and the state of Xavier’s dream, is far from the future they dreamed of. And how will the X-Men of the present deal with their past coming crashing forward?

The Good

Art- Stuart Immonen is on art duty and he delivers big time! There is a subtle difference in how he illustrates modern day Scott and the teenage “Slim” version which I really dig as well as the strangely similar jaw line of furry Beast and his furless teenage self.

Motivation- By starting the story off with Beast undergoing yet another mutation and him fearing that he may be at death’s door, he’s trying to do something meaningful before he dies and clearly is not thinking very clearly which leads him to tamper with the time stream. Of all people he should remember what caused the Age of Apocalypse and so many other quantum based conundrums with far reaching consequences for the time stream.

Storm– The voice of reason in the midst of chaos, while everyone wants to go off half cocked she’s already warning them not to cause the mutant equivalent of a mutant civil war all over again like schism. Also loved the old school nod to her emotions affecting the weather patterns around her whether she wants to or not. This reminds us just how hard she works everyday just to keep her own emotions in check, thus why she seems so stiff most of the time.

Past meets present– It’s a rather simple premise really that has so many ramifications for the modern day post Avengers Vs X-men status quo of mutant town you can’t help but wait to see what happens next with bated breath.

Black Heroes- We have Storm all but taking over the Jean Grey School and a new black mutant with the power to apparently heal. Good times!

Change- I found it a very effective plot device of showing how much Beast has been made into the man he is by the man Scott was. In the past he was all but ready to walk out on the X-men and Scott reins him in perhaps even stopping him from becoming a human hater himself. In the Present Scott would be right at home with past Hank, while present Hank would rather have past Scott. It’s an interesting dichotomy of just how experiences change an individual. While reading this I was reminded of how I was before fatherhood back in high school. What my ideals were and how they have changed radically from then until now.

Cover– I really enjoyed the fold out cover and how it illustrates the change that has occurred in the ranks of the X-men, what motivates and drives them and what they stand for now. The original five as teens had seen nothing of the word and never experienced anything; they are idealists wishing to change the world for the better. On the other hand we have Magneto, Cyclops and Emma Frost. Characters hardened by the fear and hate they have experienced, characters that see themselves as fighting for survival as opposed to striving to make the world better. They are realists who realize that despite best wishes or intentions the world is cold and harsh and we can do nothing to change it so we accept the world and adapt ourselves to survive it.

New Mutants- Interesting that the two new mutants’ Cyclops grabs first are just what his team needs, a healer and someone with Space time distortion abilities…….the latter may well eventually tie into the original five and time travel in some way while Cyclops little army will certainly need a healer to go along with this militant, combative clearly gonna be in quite a few fights motif.

The Bad

Time Travel-Beast must be off his ticker and out his damn mind if he thought that instead of traveling back and saving Professor X was less important than visiting the original five and persuading Teen Cyclops to talk to modern Cyclops was a good idea. There are so many places to travel to that could have prevented all this! Go back and kill magneto, Quicksilver or Scarlet Witch and your prevent HOM thus preventing Decimation, Schism and Avengers Vs X-men.  I mean c’mon if you have a working time machine at your finger tips I can think of a million ways to fix or at least change how the world turned out.

Emma Frost and Scott Summers- Why is she even standing with Cyclops after his betrayal of her during AVX? Why is Scott with her after she shagged Namor during AVX? Talk about in need of therapy.

Escape- How did Emma even escape from incarceration? Did this happen off panel because it sure did not happen in AVX Consequences!

The Ugly

Bendis opening X-men salvo is a breath of fresh air with continuity strands from the fallout of Avengers vs X-men and more moral dilemmas than you can shake a stick at. I was worried when I heard he would tackle the big X but this I can definitely live with for the next decade!  5/5