All New X-Men takes a very "standard Bendis" turn.
So, at first I really enjoyed this series. It seemed like a great fit both for the X-Men franchise and for BMB. X-Men got a fresh storyline and a book which really included and summoned a lot of good, but very varied storylines which have featured in books like Uncanny X-Men, Uncanny X-Force, Wolverine and the X-men etc. the last couple of years. It seemed like the whole x-men concept needed a pause to take a deep breath. All New X-men seemed to look at the x-men world with fresh new eyes.
For Bendis this is a new franchise to play with. The characters are obviously familiar to him but not as usual and worn out as the avengers and daredevil worlds. And at first I thought the new franchise really helped Bendis to renew himself as a writer. Sure there was a lot of familiar storybuilding and concepts. The original x-mens way of reacting to the modern state of the marvel universe shares similarities to how Spider-Man reacts to the ultimate marvel universe in the ten year old initial story arcs of Ultimate Spider Man. But on the other hand, that is a classic and high quality comic book.
In this issue Bendis uses his standard toolbox a bit too much. The comic is very talky, there is not so much action as a wide endemble of characters reacting to the concept of the original x-men returning. When combined with Bendis very sitcomish dialogue it gets really stiff and awkward. The same kind of feeling I would get reading the occasional Avengers issue somewhere between 2010 and 2012.
I still have high hopes for this series but I fear this might turn into just another Brian Michael Bendis book. Maybe they should slow it down a bit and give a good writer some time to be great again.
