Age of X: Alpha #1

I´m a big fan of alternate realities, like Age of Apocalypse, and I think Mike Carey´s premise for this arc story is new, refreshing and very interesting. Carey has an unique style for writing and he really imprinted this since the first page of this story: one of the things that I really liked was the idea of only giving explanations for what´s Age of X all about as the series goes on, instead of first explaining what´s the meaning of everything, then starting the plot. Other thing that really impressed me was the dialogues, not specifically the ones involving the mutants around the bonfire in Fortress X (those were good too), but mostly the ones involving Basillik, the Guthries, Wolverine and Dr. Rao and Magneto. The weakest link in this issue was Mirco Pierfederici (I really don´t like his art), thought the dialogues weren´t as sharp as the ones quoted above, but if there was other artist assigned it would be much better, no doubt about it. The best of this issue was Gabriel Hernandez Walta, he really impressed me in the creation of a dark and bitter version of Cyclops (Basilik) and the nuances that Carey gave to him, like a liberator but with no desire to be so and the way he got his revenge, but never showing the actual picture of it (it was very cool, let the readers use their imagination to picture the scene). I was a little sad because of Logan´s fate, but his story was very cool too. Magneto´s story was the weakest of the four showed in this issue, but it was ok for presenting him as a savior/general of the mutant resistent. Overall I think this was a good beginning and I hope this arc story has something else to show for except the Mutants Vs Humanity thing, and for the early characteristics of the mutants showed I think this will be a great alternate arc story. Highly recommended for the mutants lovers.
4.5 out 5