Giant-Size X-Men #1

This is a very good comic, but it is neither underrated nor overrated. It deserves the tempered acclaim it has received over the years, surely, but we probably remember this issue best for what it started, not its own intrinsic merit, and that is just fine. The premise of Krakoa is a bit thin, especially because of the odd mysterious narrator telling us things we don't of necessity need to know, and the resolution to the main problem is almost laughably magical (one wonders if Mr. Thomas was not consulted on how to end the conflict: "just have it happen because you want it to happen!"), but this issue gives us some of the most beloved (and interesting) X-Men of all time: Nightcrawler, Colossus, and Storm. The international approach to the next generation was definitely the way to go, especially bringing back the under-utilized Banshee and the preposterously-treated Sunfire. It's not Wolverine's first issue, but it's impressive the tension between him and Scott was there from the beginning. Equally impressive is the characters' internal/social conflicts, impressive in that they were established from the beginning. Obviously layers were added to these characters over the years (especially in the family category - Illyana and Mystique, most notably), but they are presented to us well-conceived from the outset. That Thunderbird is antagonistic to Xavier is also good - it's not wholly new, what with the Avengers' constant antagonism - furthering the "all-different" aspect of the second generation of X-Men. I liked Cyclops getting his power increased, even if it was another "just because" event (though the red power glows for eyes in his new visor is a bit weird). Somehow since we last saw them, Alex and Scott have grown a little further apart - Alex is now so protective over Lorna's well-being he is willing to attack Scott to save her. It is all-new, all-different - and we are in for a great, fresh ride. That the gathering set-up is reused by Claremont in Graphic Novel #4 for the New Mutants, and Angel's jocular final "what are we going to do with 13 X-Men?" is reused at the conclusion of the X-Factor #70 (when the original X-Men are no longer the original X-Factor, which now makes more sense to me, having just read this issue - of course, by that time, we've got a much larger X-Universe and far more mutant superheroes running around) don't detract from their enjoyment here. It's not a perfect issue (more story, more time with the new recruits, more resolution, more attention to what the X-Men have been doing since Hank left or something along those lines - all would have been better than the reprints of the embarrassing filler pages of Cyclops, Iceman, and Marvel Girl's powers, most of which have been better explained since then), but it's a pretty great issue, with or without the anachronistic sentiment for what is to come added in.