Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
All-New X-Men #1
Marvel Comics
Bendis, Von Grawbadger, Immonen & Gracia
The launch of the Marvel NOW! book, All New X-Men presents a very interesting take on the characters. Picking up this issue I really wasn't sold on the premise and after the first issue I can say that this seems like it could work (at least in the short term) as Bendis crafts a great start. Essentially, Beast believes Cyclops and the X-Men are out of control in the wake of the Avengers versus X-Men event and he travels back in time to bring back their younger counterparts. While this might appear to be a standard fish-out-of-water story it seems there is more going on here. This has been the best of the Marvel NOW! books so far in the early going. I plan to stay tuned.
Beast can't understand the direction that the mutants as a whole are headed in so he decides to do something about it. The motivation behind the idea is sound but the reasoning itself isn't that clear. I'm not sure what he hopes the younger versions of themselves would or could achieve with the mature versions but there is room for that to get explained. The other interesting quirk here is that the Beast appears to be evolving to a point that might result in his death.
The book is very character driven. Bendis does a good job introducing a large cast. He manages to lay out the subtle differences in some of the characters that appear in the present and past. Bendis also presents a good setup for the drama that is about to unfold in the issues ahead.
The artwork is tremendous. The whole book has a glossy look to the inks and colors over the highly detailed pencils. I was very pleased to see how the artwork presented such an epic look to the entire book. The artwork really adds a lot of drama when the X-Men appear to save the newly discovered mutants and I think is a great trait to have when dealing with a book with such a wide cast.
There are a lot of X-Men books out there and it's tough to tell which ones are worth picking up. This one has the time travel aspect to it, which may not sound appealing, but the delivery is what makes the book special for this particular issue. We will have to see if the premise has enough story to keep the book interesting, but the initial issue is worth picking up.
4 out of 5 Geek Goggles
