Hated and feared more than ever, the world is a dangerous place for mutants. As the few remaining X-MEN retreat into seclusion, a handful of mutant teenagers refuse to allow their destiny to be decided for them. CYCLOPS. BEAST. ICEMAN. ANGEL. THE ALL-NEW WOLVERINE. KID APOCALYPSE. OYA. Stepping out of the shadows of their predecessors, the ALL-NEW X-MEN are striking out on their own, determined to write their own futures!
The Good
Art- Mark Bagley is a long time X-men artists and his work looks stellar especially in how he illustrates an action scene.
Love– It’s creepy how much I enjoy Young Angel and Laura/Wolverine together. They come across as caring deeply for each other without the typical creepy bits.
Most Hated mutant– Now it’s been awhile since I reviewed anything with Cyclops in months and for good reason. In Avengers vs. X-men #1 I wrote: let’s look at this story from the perspective of race. If your race whether black/white/Asian etc was on the verge of extinction and your “savior” the person who will bring your race back to prominence was on the line…is there anything you would not do to protect said person? How would you react to someone coming in and telling you “hand over your Jesus/Buddha etc”? At the end of the fracas Scott did save his race and sure he killed his mentor and a couple of people but he had good intentions. He was imprisoned and broke out to start a revolution among his newly emerged race. He also did something neither Magneto nor Xavier ever did he managed to unite all mutants under a single leader. Now no matter what he’s done to be labelled as the most hated mutant is a stretch. Magneto had endangered earth multiple times, Jean Grey has endangered existence multiple times, Beast has all but destroyed the space-time continuum with bringing the young X-men to the present but the most hated mutant is the man who put his race above his own personal wants and needs and managed to not only unite the race but bring them back from Extinction? I’m done! That type of logic makes me not want to read another X-men comic for the next ten years. It’s utter BS and a spit in the face for long time X-men fans.
Black Heroes– Oya the chick who broke the X-men in two is here. She’s little more than a token person of color. We also get a new villain in..firefist.
Story– New Wolverine and her boyfriend Young Angel are enjoying a ski trip while young Beast recruits Young Apocalypse clone and Oya before collecting young Iceman. They are trying to find Young Cyclops. Young Scott is on the path of catching a team known as Cyclops Ghosts, a band of new mutants who follow Old Cyclops’s revolutionary ideas. The police arrive before Scott can take out the team but he tracks them down with a dropped ID. In a college library the ghosts attack him and he must unleash his powers to save an innocent man. The Ghosts realize he’s Cyclops and decide to take him with them. The All New X-men arrive just in time to save their teammate.
Cover– Mark Bagley also provides art for the cover and I don’t hate it.
Anti Mutant hysteria– It was very subtle how young Scott was hit on by the human girl. It points out that just like racism even the most seemingly innocent can house the worst forms of hate and bigotry we could ever imagine. It was subtle enough that it hit the right notes unlike the travesty which is Extraordinary X-men.
The Bad
Time gap– Dragon Ball Z used time gaps very effectively to move the tale along. The X-men and time gaps however have a bad history. When Claremont returned to the X-men at the start of the millennium he had a six month gap which all but killed any momentum the series had built. Morrison was brought in to fix that pretty soon after. Here’s hoping this new time gap for the X-men manages to do better than the last.
The Ugly
It’s not that this feels like an X-men comic but it just feels like a competent comic in general which is wicked cool. I felt emotionally invested in the tale and for an X-men book, it’s been awhile since I could say that, I’m giving All New X-men #1 4/5 stars 