With the Terrigen Mists killing off mutants, Storm decides to follow in the footsteps of Professor X to help mutantkind and put together a new team of X-Men.
Once again, a new team of X-Men is coming together because the world hates mutants, but this time Storm is leading the way. Right off the bat, there's no better person to lead a team of X-Men than Storm. She's known Professor X longer than the vast majority of members of the team and she has led the team a few times in the past as well, like when Xavier spent time in space with the Starjammers. Plus, she still has an updated version of the mohawk going on. Currently, there's no one else around more fit to lead the team, so that's a great starting point for this book.
Young Jean Grey is still around and now going to college? Color me completely confused. Ever since she came back, it has the potential to screw up the Marvel timeline and while trying to keep all of that out of your mind when reading this, it's still at the forefront. Don't get me wrong, young Jean Grey is a really cool character. Anyway, fanboy, timeline complaining aside, she's great in the role this issue as she's stand-offish from joining Storm's X-Men. Jean is trying to lead a normal life, but that's tough with everything going on in the Marvel universe, especially when you have super-powers.
The issue really is about putting together a team, but it's all fan favorites, one way or another. We're treated to Storm, Iceman, Jean Grey, Colossus, Nightcrawler, and Wolverine... the older one. Writer Jeff Lemire is putting together a book for X-Men fanboys that is written intelligently. It's more about dealing with characterization and developing and expanding upon relationships rather than showing off cool super-powers. It is more of a traditional "set the team up" story, but its done very well and in a way that should really please long-time X-Men fans while not alienating new readers.
The art team of penciler Humberto Ramos, inker Victor Olazaba, and colorist Edgar Delgado do a stellar job on this first issue. There are a couple times where the art is a little muddy, but Ramos' style really works wonderfully for these characters, bringing in a new era for the X-Men team. Colossus in overalls looks really awesome. (He should keep the beard) Nightcrawler's new costume is one of the best costumes we've seen him wearing in years. This is the perfect team for the book.
EXTRAORDINARY X-MEN #1 is a pretty standard "put the team together" story but it's done exceptionally well and opens the door wide for this new series. It's a good place for new readers to jump on and a great read for X-Men fans who have been reading for years. There's a lot of potential here in this new series. I highly recommend checking this issue out.