Friday, February 15, 2013

Uncanny X-Men #1

Setting aside the silliness of yet another first issue for the Uncanny X-Men, this is shaping up to be the darkest of the three X-Books I read (the other two are All-New X-Men and Wolverine and the X-Men).

While "All-New" focuses on the original teen X-Men who've been brought to the present day, and "Wolvie" revolves around the Jean Grey School for Gifted Students, this comic - apparently - will follow the X-Men team being formed by the renegade Scott Summers, who everyone has decided is some kind of monster.

(I still call BS on that whole story - he was under the mind control of a malevolent force - the Phoenix - something every single hero has experienced, many of them more than once.)

The story starts with an interesting mystery, as an unidentified informant meets with SHIELD to reveal the dangers being posed by Cyclops. The last-page revelation of that individual is well done (though also a bit of a cheat).

The story by Brian Bendis is otherwise pretty predictable, with lots of building-shattering battles going on - but there are also some good character moments.

The art by Chris Bachalo is quite good. I like his art a lot, but I have to admit that there are some pages that are brilliant, and a few that I don't really understand at all. But when he's on, the art is amazing.

So it's a solid start for this "new" series - but since it's essentially focusing on the "bad guys" in the X-family, it has a challenging road ahead of it to see if it can hang onto its audience.

Grade: B+

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