Uncanny X-Men: The Birth of Generation Hope #1

The X-Men enter a new Heroic Age with the hope of peace. The X-Men track down the five new mutants found on Cerebro.  

The events here are spinning directly out of the Second Coming event where Hope Summers returned to the present. The X-Men are still dealing with the casualties they suffered. It's a difficult time but a new Heroic Age has begun giving the X-Men hope. Not only that, but the first five mutants since M-Day have appeared on Cerebro. Now all that sounds awesome and you would think this must be five star comic, but unfortunately it has its ugly moments as well.

Matt Fraction, the wrier who has received a lot of criticism for his work on Uncanny X-Men continues his run. The central focus was on Hope and the five new mutants. That was one of the strong points of the story. In the meantime other stories are happening as well. One involving a vexed Emma Frost where she is rude to her students while trying to cover up the fact she has Sebastian Shaw hidden on utopia. Not only that but she's  meeting with Tony Stark and Namor while Cyclops is gone. I like Emma Frost but she seemed out of character a little here. It almost felt like this story was rushed. I'm not sure what Fraction is trying to do at this point. This definitely was my least favorite part of the story. 

I like how Cyclops and Steve Rogers met in the Savage Land. I'd like to see them together more in the future myself. It would be awesome if Steve called on the X-Men for help down the line. 

We get our first look at the new mutants. It's a little early to tell but some of them look like they could be pretty cool characters. Some were a little weird, but again it's still early. We're slowly seeing Hope come out of little shell she was hiding in and start to embrace life. I'm not quite sure what to make of her yet but she's someone I'd like to continue reading.

The part at the end where everyone was helping rebuild Utopia was a nice little story that serves as a prelude to the Children's Crusade where Magneto searches for Wiccan and Speed. 

One thing I did like was that Molly Hayes had an appearance. She met with Beast to ask him some questions about extinction. I thought it was pretty funny. I'd love to see her one day become a member of the X-Men. The only part I didn't really like during their encounter was the way Beast was drawn. He looked really ugly.

The art was by Whilce Portacio, Steve Sanders, Jamie McKelvie and Oliver Coipel. Most of the work was done by Portacio was is among my favorite artists. My only problem was the way Beast was drawn. Other than that the work was pretty stellar. Coipel always does a great work and although his contribution was small, it was still spectacular. 

While this story has it's not-so-great moments, I do recommend reading this after Second Coming. Parts of this are good and important while some of it may bother you, but if you stick it out you'll sort of see what direction some of the X-Men are heading in.