Review: All New X-Men 1 by Brian Bendis and Stuart Immonen

[n8twing]

I have to wonder.......who was snapping pics on the moon? (bottom right)

What, Lilandra's like "Oh snap! Jean's dead and Cyke is crying in a pose that will be mimicked on covers for decades! Gladiator! Grab my camera! It's the 80's so it will be a separate device than my cell phone. What's a cell phone? Just shut up and hand me the Polaroid, nerd. And get a haircut!!" {*click*} "Got it. Righteous. Now to update my Facebook. What? What's a Faceb--JUST SHUT UP AND CAPTURE THE X-MEN you purple fuck!!"

LOL, I thought the same thing.

[smokescreen]

So... whats this mutant genocide Cyclops needed to talk himself out of committing? Am I the only one confused by that bit?

[DJ_Convoy]

a first issue probably isn’t the best way to judge th book

Says it all, doesn't it?

[hellblazer72]

Forgot to mention this. I had the chance to read All New X-Men #1 at NYCC. Sorry, should have said.

It is one of those books where you know the core concept going in, and then you get that core concept revealed at the end as some kind of cliffhanger. Except of course you knew it going in, they're on the cover, this was the solicitation, the promotion, the PR, this is why you bought the comic. It's not a surprise when it happens.

What is a surprise that they actually use the end of the comic as a preview for the comic. To be fair, it's where most of the "stuff" happens, but even so. Expect a lot of people experiencing deja vu when they read this on Wednesday.



There are lots of terribly interesting things in and around the comic. 2013 is the year where the future of Dayd Of Future Past was meant to be said, and the current Marvel Universe is the horrific future seen by the past. Although on Marvel's sliding timescale, that means these funky teenagers are from 2005, maybe 2004, at a push 2003 even as they are all doing their best Mad Men impression. Immonen is an expert here at creating different moods, different times, different experiences without clashing and making the differences obvious



The problem is that a lot of it isn't in the first issue. There's plenty of talk about the new position of the X-Men, much discussion of legacy and history, and unease about Cyclops and especially the death of the Professor. Again. And it's the old team, now the grandees of the X-Men who are doing the talking. The Beast it seems is the one who seems to be doing something about it, even though it goes against his grain. So he takes all the subtext of current X-Men stories, clashing the old with the new, and makes it text, courtesy of some time travel device or other. Unlike Uncanny Avengers #1, there just not as much to get your teeth into in the first issue.

Maybe it's just one of those comics that has been over teased, over previewed, over analysed before the first issue has come out. But then I have to remember that not everyone reads these previews to death. Not everyone even knows what All-New X-Men is about?* Not everyone reads Bleeding Cool. I know, shocking.

Many of Bendis' strengths come out over an extended story, a first issue probably isn't the best way to judge th book, the first trade paperback will be better. But offs are that's exactly what many people wil new. People new to the comic may be entertained far more than those who have been reading about this for months. Expect an outpouring of "is that it" in comic shops. It may well be more your fault than that of the comic.

It just seems ironic that "All-New X-Men" will feel like "Been-There-Done-That X-Men" to many.

All-New X-Men #1 by Brian Bendis and Stuart Immonen is published by Marvel Comics on Wednesday.

I'd say its the fault of the writer not the reader. If a first issue doesn't have enough give a reader an indication of what the series is about or if it does nothing and the story doesn't start until the second or third issue then thats bad writing and is the writers fault. The write for the trade attitude is just a way to pad a 2 issue story into 6 issues.

[Cavemold]

More like a trade skip book for me. After watching Bendis' Avengers and New Avengers verge into unreadable over the last few years, he's an automatic pass for me now (even though Immonen is an amazing penciler).

I'm much more interested in Aaron, Remender, and Hickman's new books.

True true im not getting it either way

[Charlesknight]

There are lots of terribly interesting things in and around the comic. 2013 is the year where the future of Dayd Of Future Past was meant to be said, and the current Marvel Universe is the horrific future seen by the past. Although on Marvel’s sliding timescale, that means these funky teenagers are from 2005, maybe 2004, at a push 2003 even as they are all doing their best Mad Men impression.

I've been wondering about this as well - does Warren stop to update his myspace account before he leaves? Sync his Ipod?

[Allen T]

So... whats this mutant genocide Cyclops needed to talk himself out of committing? Am I the only one confused by that bit?

Its coming from Beast, you know the guy that was so upset that Cyclops created the covert X-Force squad that he quit the X-men, yet his discovery of Wolverine's covert X-Force was to tell Wolverine to keep it away from the school? The man that deliberately tried to undercut Cyclop's dealing with Hope? It is pretty much going to be to ease his butthurt feelings, and since everything must be Scott's fault, not Wolverine's, the Avengers, or Beast's, any action Cyclops takes to actually protect mutantkind will be seen, at least by Beast, as bring them closer to genocide

[Star Saber]

Seriously, though, given the prominence of that shot....and assuming its not being used purely for nostalgia's sake....would it be feasible that Bendis might be leaning towards the notion that Scott Summers had a nervous breakdown at Jean's (original) death? That could easily "explain" in a Hal Jordan-like way for the X-Men's greatest leader's impotence, insecurity, and fragile mental state ever since. Sinister playing with his mind Maddie Pryor-style made it worse. Then, count all the times the Prof was a jagoff and messed with him, or they battled Mastermind and The White Queen, etc. That's why even though I have read not a single issue of this A vs X stuff, I have no problem buying Cyke as losing his shit. Take into account the serenity of the above scene where they are all teens hanging out in a posh library, all trying to get into Jean's panties (she's a telepath guys! Awkward!) and compare it to the last twenty-years of X comics (Cable, Reavers, Virus, Death, Magneto, Xorn, Scott Lobdell, etc.) and it's not hard to see where Scott would just be like, "Okay. We failed. This is not what we wanted. The world is all but fucked. I've been cool about this for too long, and the Professor...well...he just sucks now, doesn't he? Turns out, we've been following the wrong fanatic. MUTANT POWER!"

I think a closer and more reasonable explanation would be that he never really got rid of the Apocalypse influence after his return during the Search for Cyclops. Now that would be a really close parallel to Hal Jordan's Parallax influence, plus place the start of his "fall" more recently. Placing the start of it right after Jean's death doesn't make that much sense since he was still acting like the same ol' Scott all the way until Jean came back, till they got married etc. Morrison even mentioned the Apocalypse influence early on during his New X-Men run, with Scott still trying to move on from being merged with him, and had intended him to be "free" by the end of his run. With the way Scott's been written, it could easily be said that wasn't the case.

Also, agree with everyone else, just some sloppy conceptualization with the image of Jean, having framed photos of events where no one could have taken pictures of them.

[Eric Sean]

I love Immonen's art! I've been a fan since his LEGION and ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN days. I'd love to be able to buy this but I can't. The X-books have been pretty much a no-buy for me for years. And outside of POWERS 9when it comes out) I have no interest in Bendis' writing.

[Revolutionary Cyke]

So... whats this mutant genocide Cyclops needed to talk himself out of committing? Am I the only one confused by that bit?

It's Beast overreacting as usual.

Since Matt Fraction's run, Beast is that guy who lives only to whine about Scott being cold, unethical, violent and too focused on the job...and then goes to his girlfriend, an emotional shut-in, work obsessed, known to be unethical person that is also famous for wearing shades of an unusual color all the time.