Surprisingly Familiar
Uncanny X-men #1 proves to be a great start for a promising title.
In my experience of reading Bendis' past titles I have thoroughly enjoyed his various work on X-characters in the Ultimate universe and in the House of M event. I believed he had a good grasp of what made most of the characters tick, and clearly EVERYONE seems to be enjoying his first seven issues of All-New X-men. My original fear of this Uncanny X-men title was that Bendis would make this a side/companion title to All-New sort of what he did with his numerous Avengers titles and the book would not be able to properly stand on its own with a clear voice. I am glad to say this is NOT the case, and anyone looking to read about Cyclops' team or the new mutants that have been popping up after AVX, THIS IS THE BOOK FOR YOU. This issue goes through the mandatory setup that all first issues require and Bendis shows the readers how this team works together in a unique way. One of the best things about this book over other team books is that clearly not all of the mutants here are at their full power levels; they all need each other to work together on the battlefield to survive. It makes for great suspense during the action scenes throughout the book. Bendis does a great job of not portraying Cyclops as an outright villain that most writers currently at Marvel have been doing for months. He gives the readers the sense that their not reading a Dark X-men book, but a different perspective on the current state of mutants. This book is at its core a quest for redemption and the difficult road of getting there. This book feels like a familiar X-title in the sense that mutants around the world are in trouble and the X-men come to help them find their way; which is nice for longtime X-readers. The big twist is a great payoff for all X-readers who have been reading for the past couple of years and it will definitely get people to go buy issue two. We don't get to see many intimate moments with the main cast of the book but I assume Bendis will cover this in the upcoming issues.
Chris Bachalo brings a familiar look to the X-universe where many readers should feel comfortable having previously seen his art. The action scenes look gorgeous and the colors go well with the tone of the book. The spread of the Sentinels were gorgeous and the new costume designs are slowly growing on me. The panels in the S.H.I.E.L.D. room were my personal favorite. My only major complaint here are the slanted panels. While reading the issue at first I thought Marvel made a mistake while printing the book only to note that this was deliberate. It took a little bit for me to get adjusted, but its fine if Bachalo is trying to give this book a certain feel.
