The Second Genesis.
Originally written 9-21-10
After responding to the appearance of a new and powerful mutant. The original X-men lead by Cyclops are ambushed and soundly defeated. Cyclops escapes to warn Professor Xavier that the X-Men may be prisoners. Xavier embarks on a mission to form a new team. During his search, he's able to convince seven mutants to become his new X-Men. Now, once again with Cyclops at the helm, this new inexperienced and undisciplined team must find a way to cooperate with each other. -summary
Personally, I was never too fond of the original X-Men team. It had nothing to do with me not being familiar with them as much as the second team; but it was due to the second team having more of a spunky attitude. It appears that almost everyone had a chip on their shoulder, which resulted in some good back and forth between the characters. Written by the legendary Chris Claremont, along with Len Wein and Bill Mantlo; this TPB reprints the origin story as well as the earlier adventures of the second generation X-Men, and some of them would go on to be among the most popular in the franchise.
The meat of these first few stories are no doubt the characters. The writing is superbly done when portraying the X-Men as the motley crew they really are. Each of the characters have some type of flaws with them, and teamwork is almost non existent. Also, unlike the original team, I enjoy that the characters are of different races with many interesting backgrounds. This is actually a real nice revamping for the story, because the original team came together almost too unrealistically. This team on the other hand functions more like people, whom are either too green or are too individual and they're constantly evolving. They even get a chance to experience the death of a teammate. This all adds to the series authenticity.
When concerning the characters, I think there's someone for everyone. The stories are also pretty good, and they don't rely on a repetitive formula when compared to most of the earlier stories in the series. The first three stories I think are ok at best. However, later on, a plot does begin with numerous subplots taking place that are cleared up later. The action also becomes better as the stories begin to develop.
One of the problems I can think of is how bland the first few villains appear. They come off as nothing more than stock bad guys who are taken care of rather quickly. Fortunately, this doesn't continue and the new X-Men get a chance to take on the mutant killing Sentinels, and these battles boast some of the best action panels in this first book. Now on a side note, I have a very good memory of these stories in original form, and I can guarantee that there's at least one missing page of action during the battle with the Sentinels; but it doesn't hurt the story at all for those who never read it before.
The artwork still holds up well to me, and the character designs are pretty good. The characters are rather average and there's no huge exaggeration in the men's muscular size, and the women aren't insanely overflowing with sex appeal, yet. The coloring is also brighter and more detail than I remember when compared to the original books.
This first chapter of the series is pretty solid and it does end on a serious cliffhanger. Thus, making the second volume a mandatory pick up. I highly recommend this to die hard X-Men fans. I also think this is a great place to start for the late bloomers whom are only familiar with the movies.
Pros: Decent stories, a plot later pick ups, interesting "new" team
Cons: Ends on a big cliff hanger, a few uninteresting villains, small amount of missing content
