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Uncanny X-Men #5 - Tabula Rasa, Part One

5

A new habitat, 130 million years evolved within a day, has appeared in Montana. The X-Men decide to investigate.

A new habitat appears in Montana and the X-Men go in to investigate.

The Good

What a fantastic and enjoyable issue. I'm not the biggest X-Men fan, but I really enjoyed this story. It's a very easy to follow story, and an original and dynamite one to boot. The majority of the issue is the team exploring this new world, within Montana, and it's paced incredibly well, and the final few pages set up for what seems to be a very exciting storyline.

The X-Men split into duos within the issue and two of these teams-of-two stand out above all others. Magik and Colossus are the perfect fit for a team, and it's more than because they are just brother and sister. The dialogue between the two is natural and you truly feel like you're listening in to a conversation between two siblings who care about each other. The other team I liked within the book is Magneto and Psylocke. These natural born leaders work well together as what the book portrays to be the main scouts of the book. The reason they work so well together is because there is so much tension between the two and conversations break down so quickly into arguments.

As a new reader to the series, I had no trouble jumping into the book. It's true that these are characters I am all familiar with, but any new reader, to comics or to X-Men in general, will have no trouble picking this issue up and enjoying it. There may be a couple times where the book refers to Schism, and there are a couple references to the Uncanny X-Force series, but it's never overwhelming for the new reader. It feels like the perfect issue for anyone interested in this book to jump on.

The Bad

I had no problems with this issue. Usually, I'm not a fan of Greg Land's work, but his work did fine for this issue, and I didn't feel like he was doing the "tracing" he is usually accused of doing.

The Verdict

Super-cool issue and a super-cool concept for a story. I love where this story started and I can't wait to continue following it. I loved how the team split up into smaller groups and the Magik/Colossus team and the Psylocke/Magneto teams were the most memorable of the issue. The best part of this issue was that it was easy for a new reader to jump in and have a good time with the rest of the X-Fans. It's a perfect place to jump on and I highly recommend this issue to everyone!