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

[Hdefined]

Assuming that this series really is Beast's efforts to have the original X-Men stop Cyclops from doing something or other, there's a perfectly easy way to set all that up and provide a decent hook without throwing away the events of this issue: start the story in medias res.

Cyclops is about to pull off his plan, when suddenly the original X-Men appear to stop him. We know they're going to show up, but in this way, we don't know how or why, or what they're trying to do. Then just flash back in issue #2 to the contents of this actual debut issue.

[zero cool]

"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."

Oh how I miss the days when comics adhered to the "show don't tell" rule of thumb. If characters have to sit around telling you what's happening instead of having it come out organically during the action, then the story is flawed. If one issue isn't enough to hook you to make you buy the next, then guess what, the story is flawed. Bendis needs to drop his Mamet act and focus on writing good comics. He's writing for comics, not theater.

[botc76]

Bendis is a no go for me by now. All the credit he had accumulated with better work has been eaten away by all the crap he has written since then.

At this point all I'm feeling is mild irritation at the fact that Marvel is wasting great artists Immonen like and Bachalo on those hack's books. They should pair Immonen with Gillen on Iron Man and pass Land to Bendis.
Then we would have a comicbook full of wise-cracking heroes explaining the story to us, while posing like pornstars and endlessly repeating the same 20 postures.

[Mike H.]

pass Land to Bendis. Then we would have a comicbook full of wise-cracking heroes explaining the story to us, while posing like pornstars and endlessly repeating the same 20 postures.

They already did that book together. It was called "3 issues of the lousy Ultimate Power mini".

[Paul Shinn]

But offs are that's exactly what many people wil new.

...wow!

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.

Erm, no I think that it's actually more Marvel's fault for putting out so much about this book ahead of it's release. I remember getting to the end of X-Force #116 – the first issue of the Milligan/Allred run – and being genuinely surprised that the majority of the team had been wiped out in the first issue. An #1 X-men book written by Bendis is going to sell, so how much better would it have been if they'd kept the time-travelling original five thing under wraps until the first issue was released (and not spoiled it the day before in the press either). That final sequence (I'm assuming that the panels shown in the preview are the end of the first issue) would be a real "Yeahbutwhat?!?" moment. As it is, it's just another Marvel book where everything you've been told will happen, happens.

[Revolutionary Cyke]

"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."

Oh how I miss the days when comics adhered to the "show don't tell" rule of thumb. If characters have to sit around telling you what's happening instead of having it come out organically during the action, then the story is flawed. If one issue isn't enough to hook you to make you buy the next, then guess what, the story is flawed. Bendis needs to drop his Mamet act and focus on writing good comics. He's writing for comics, not theater.

That was one the main problems of AvX: we were TOLD that the Avengers were the good guys and Cyclops was evil, however we never saw them acting as such, until he got tired of being provoked and attacked by them. Apparently Marvel just assumed everyone would have the same "If Cap. America says it's wrong, it's wrong" mentality Quesada seems to have.

Erm, no I think that it's actually more Marvel's fault for putting out so much about this book ahead of it's release. I remember getting to the end of X-Force #116 – the first issue of the Milligan/Allred run – and being genuinely surprised that the majority of the team had been wiped out in the first issue. An #1 X-men book written by Bendis is going to sell, so how much better would it have been if they'd kept the time-travelling original five thing under wraps until the first issue was released (and not spoiled it the day before in the press either). That final sequence (I'm assuming that the panels shown in the preview are the end of the first issue) would be a real "Yeahbutwhat?!?" moment. As it is, it's just another Marvel book where everything you've been told will happen, happens.

I agree, at this point we have seen nearly the entire book in previews.

[Hdefined]

That was one the main problems of AvX: we were TOLD that the Avengers were the good guys and Cyclops was evil, however we never saw them acting as such, until he got tired of being provoked and attacked by them.

So they never showed that Cyclops was evil, until they showed that Cyclops was evil.

[Revolutionary Cyke]

So they never showed that Cyclops was evil, until they showed that Cyclops was evil.

No, I mean: Cyclops turns deserts into farms, the Avengers call him evil. The Avengers come to kidnap Hope, and they call Cyclops evil. Cyclops feeds the poor, the Avengers attack him for being evil. Eventually, after being gangbanged by the entire MU, bullied and patronized by Xavier, and Hawkeye and Red Hulk try to murder him, he gets angry enough to kill Xavier and goes Dark Phoenix. But surely it was all his fault, cause he is evil.

[Hdefined]

No, I mean: Cyclops turns deserts into farms, the Avengers call him evil. The Avengers come to kidnap Hope, and they call Cyclops evil. Cyclops feeds the poor, the Avengers attack him for being evil. Eventually, after being gangbanged by the entire MU, bullied and patronized by Xavier, and Hawkeye and Red Hulk try to murder him, he gets angry enough to kill Xavier and goes Dark Phoenix. But surely it was all his fault, cause he is evil.

I don't recall the series being like that at all. I thought all of Cyclops' dialogue made him unambiguously tyrannical.

[botc76]

They already did that book together. It was called "3 issues of the lousy Ultimate Power mini".

The important thing would of course be to get Gillen a good artist for his book.

No, I mean: Cyclops turns deserts into farms, the Avengers call him evil. The Avengers come to kidnap Hope, and they call Cyclops evil. Cyclops feeds the poor, the Avengers attack him for being evil. Eventually, after being gangbanged by the entire MU, bullied and patronized by Xavier, and Hawkeye and Red Hulk try to murder him, he gets angry enough to kill Xavier and goes Dark Phoenix. But surely it was all his fault, cause he is evil.

It's not that I dislike the new Hawkeye book, but considering he broke up with his wife because she let her rapist/ slaver fall to his death, because he was so convinced that a hero should never take a life or let someone die, I still find it hard to swallow that Clint tries to kill somebody. Be it Osborn or a tyrannical Cyclops. Yes, people do change, but somehow I don't see Hawkeyes transformation as not being very convincing. Well, almost as unconvincing as Cyke turning into a paramilitary leader, terrorist and then a dictator killing Prof X.