X-Men #1

100 Words Or Less

The start of a new X-Men ongoing series pits the mutants against vampires. A suicide vampire bomber explodes himself in a populated public area and spreads a vampire virus that infects others, including dear Jubilee. With no more mutant powers, will she now be imbued with vampire powers? And who is responsible for the start of an epic war?
 

So Then I Said...

 I'm an X-Men fan. I was part of the 1,000,000 or so that bought X-Men #1 back in the 90's and I'm one of the significantly less than 1,000,000 that bought this #1. Having no knowledge of anything that has happened since, oh about Issue #17 of that 90's series, it was, more or less, easy to get into with this new volume. As a #1 issue, I felt it would have been good if the writers had allowed for a little more introduction than just the first (all-text) page. I remember Jubilee but I don't know Pixie or the two doctor characters (who's names were never actually mentioned). Cyclops is still the leader and Wolverine is still snikt'ing but where's the rest of the team? Angel got to tag along with Logan and Pixie when they went on their re-con mission but half the members on the cover don't even make an appearance in this issue (and Storm bearly had anything, save a couple of panes). Though I liked that there was quite a bit of action in this issue, a few more pages could have been added to flush out the background. There are only 22 pages of story (not including the text prelude page) and then the entire back section was devoted to adverts for upcoming issues. Is this what I'm paying $3.99 for? Why didn't they just throw the solicits into that free Curse of the Mutants Saga issue instead of wasting all my pages.
 
There are those that are rolling their eyes because Marvel decided to go with vampires but I like the story and it's something different from what's been happening in the X-world recently (or so I've read online). The interior art was good, albeit not as mature as I would have liked. But that's not a fault, as this issue is clearly advertised as T+. I felt the characters were visually depicted as 20-somethings (I have no clue what their real ages are supposed to be), whereas I would have liked them to show a little more age and wisdom, to represent all that they've gone through. Come on, this isn't supposed to be Ultimate X-Men, right?
 

Bottom Line

Thanks, Marvel, for giving me an X-title that I could easily jump into. I held off before because it felt like the X-world was in the middle of some major things and would not be new-reader-friendly. I liked the fresh start with a new story, the art was good, and like I said, I do like me some X-Men. If it wasn't for the wasted pages, I would have given this issue a higher rating. For those looking for a place to start with the X-world, this issue is Worth It.