Despite a VERY misleading cover, a fun book you should pick up
My comic shop recommends that if you're going to read the backstory trades on the X-Men that you should start from Deadly Genesis. I disagree. I think that both Morrison's and Whedon's runs on the X-Men are great jumping off points for the modern stories. However, I think that anyone catching up on the X-Men should AT LEAST start with Chris Claremon't return in these X-Men: The New Age TPs. (The onlybummer - some of them can be hard/expensive to find) I mentioned in my vol 2 review that we see the introduction (more or less) of X-23 into the X-Men. And now she's so big she's got her own book. With this volume we see the return of Psylocke. Apparently some time before Morrison's run she died. I'm basing that on the fact that she's been dead for a year and a year in Marvel takes roughly five years in the real world. A small note on reading order because Whedon fell very far during his run on the X-Men, you have to put these first three books intertwined with his other stories (Comic Vine can probably help with that) because Colossus is back as per the Gifted Astonishing Story Arc. But Kitty's around, unlike in the later story arc. Also Psylocke seems to be rekindling her relationship with Nightcrawler (maybe I'm remembering incorrectly, but I thought they were together during Onslaught) and that's very important in the current X-Force issues. So, again, a great place to see the beginnings of stuff that's affecting today's comics. All that intro out of the way, let's get to this book.
After some intro stuff at the Mansion it starts off with Wolverine getting a message and going off on a mission. He then disappears and isn't heard from for the rest of the volume. Near the end people mention stuff he's done or doing, but none of the usually great footnotes telling you where you can read about his exploits. I'm certain that back when this was new Marvel made a big deal of it and everyone knew what was going on - but from the point of view of someone reading 5/6 years later, it just seems weird. It also almost ends up making his quest look like a McGuffin since X-23 sneaks onto his plane. It crashes which causes the rest of the X-Men to show up. Which allows them to all end up taken to the Savage Land.
Interestingly, if I hadn't been rewatching the old 1994 cartoon I wouldn't have known what the Savage Land was. Anyway, there turn out to be humanoid dinos - think in Chrono Trigger when you lose in the Prehistoric Age and then it turns out everyone is descended from Dinos or think of that horrible Super Mario Bros live action movie. They even have their own "X-Men" which is pretty cool. So the X-Men have to deal with that.
I think this story is well told and furthers relationships between Rachel Grey, Psylocke, X-23 and the others. It has good plot twists and I enjoyed reading it. If it has any flaw it's that Astonishing was the main book at the time, so this story has the feeling I get from X-Men: Legacy nowadays: a fun little side adventure that may or may not have consequences in the main book. In fact, thinking about it now, I realized that most of the stories in New Age focus on the B-team with Cyclops and the other A-listers often making little to no appearance.
Speaking of which, every author's run has their favored characters. Claremont in this run seems to be focusing on Rachel Grey (Marvel Girl), Storm, Nightcrawler, Bishop, and Psylocke. Something I never knew - apparently Wolverine and Storm became something of an item during this run. I think they work rather well together. They really seem to be quite a good match - his perpetual affections for Jean Grey notwithstanding. Another good reason to start with the Morrison books is that there are still X-Corp offices around the world and that plays a role in both this book and the next one and you won't know what those are if you haven't read it. (Of course, it's a small enough role that you won't be completely lost without that knowledge.
The book ends with a forgettable Mojoverse story. This is a character, Mojo, that I'd forgotten about until watching the 94 cartoon. And he's just as annoying and pointless in the comics as he is in the cartoon. Actually, I find his antics and trope-breaking work better in the cartoon than within the pages of a comic. And of course, there are the X-Babies. Ugh. Mostly pointless other than pointing out a change in Juggernaut's motivations and that Nightcrawler has a kid with Scarlett witch in another universe. Speaking of Scarlett Witch...after this book you should read the House of M books. You may be tempted to read about it on Comic Vine and I'd done that at one point since everyone refers to M-Day in the current X-Books, but it's so much better to read those books. And they're really good! See you in the the review for Vol 4, after the events of House of M!