Not a great start, but one you can enjoy.
I'll have to start by saying that if you're the type of person that enjoys characterization a little more than the story, this issue might be a right choice for you.
The Good:
Cyclops assembles a team to help the people of San Francisco rebuild the city that suffered from the attack of Bastion on the mutants. So, the first good thing is the team. Magneto, Colossus, Psylocke, Omega Sentinel, Hellion, Random (Yes, you heard that one right), Danger and Hope. A rightful interesting choice of characters. You'll get to see more development on the Hellion problem and how he's handling the adaptation of mechanical hands. Magneto's feelings about having to obey Cyclops at any cost how he said, little by little getting him tired. Hope finally saying something about how she has no idea about her powers. And so on, little facts and stuff about characters. Minor appearances of other characters like Rogue, Anole, Rockslide, Loa, Kavita Rao and more. Summing up, I had no problem with Mike Carey writing, he can handle the X-Men very well on we all know it, all the experience on the books is really growing on him.
The Bad:
My first complaint is the when you have an underused character and you decide to include him on a team with some of the characters with the biggest fan base like Magneto, Psylocke and Colossus, you have to give him more than one line!! Random is a character that many of new readers might not even know, but I remember him and I like him, I was so excited to see him standing there with the others, but he didn't had a significant nor minor role, almost non existing. I'm sure he would have a bigger role in coming issues.
As I said before, the story is a little lacking. But not really a problem, the book is a light and entertaining read, just what the X-Books need right now in my humble opinion.
The art is not bad, so I'm not sure of bringing it up here in the bad stuff section, but it's not great either. Paul Davidson is a new artist and I'm giving him a chance to grow and make the X-Men beautiful and inspiring as they should. I insist is not bad, just that it's not there yet.
Final Comments:
As stated before, if you like X-Men and their characters give this a try. A light read that is sure to be great for X-Fans. If you are thinking to pick this book and you are not a usual reader of the X-Books, this might not be a great choice.
PS: I'm looking forward to next issue. Random randomness is calling me.
