A Review For An X Book Newbie
The Good:
Is It New Reader Friendly?
Kind of, if this is your first ever X book you may be a little bit confused with certain characters like Fantomex.
However characters like Psylocke, Storm and Puck are a little more straight forward and you'll see glimpses of character's history sprinkled through the issue.
Characters:
I was pretty hesitant when buying this since there were a few characters I didn't recognize or know anything about since I've somewhat been out of the X-Men loop for a while now.
My two main X books in the last couple of years have been just X-Factor and Uncanny X-Force by Rick Remender so I knew a good bit but I didn't really know what Bishop was up to or Spiral since the last time I saw them I was in my PJ's sitting down to watch X-Men The Animated Series while hounding down my cereal before I went to school.
This issue didn't reveal too much about Bishop or Spiral as it focused on Storm and Psylocke. Usually I'd be annoyed with this since it's a team book but I couldn't help but enjoy watching these two work together and I had to recount the 21 pages to make sure I didn't miss anything as time flew by even with Storm having have a shiny new mohawk.
Story:
Like most first issues it's all about setup so you won't necessarily get a thought provoking story.
However what you do get is kick ass action, cool character interactions and one or two interesting plot points introduced which will be interesting to see unravel.
Art:
I'm not an art nut, but Ron Garney's art in here is fantastic if you didn't see any of the previews all you have to do is look at the cover and that's the level of detail you're going to see no matter how large or small the panel is.
The Bad:
Characters:
As it's the first issue it's tough to dock marks for characters, but a couple of lines of dialogue just put a shiver down my spine as I felt like it was something that character wouldn't do or say, but overall 95 percent of the characterization was spot on and who knows? there may be a reason down the line for them saying certain things.
Story:
As I've said above there isn't too much pushing the plot forward and the team isn't fully assembled yet by any stretch of the imagination but you do get a sense that there is something really cool coming up and I think if all the characters were magically together then I'd probably scratch my head and refuse to read past the first page.
Art:
Ron Garney doesn't draw every X-Book that needs to change.
The Verdict:
If you're looking for fun and a break from the usual X shtick this is the book for you it has a lot of heart to it and I very much entertained.
However it's not for you if you're looking for a dull, monotone and serious book if that is the case I'd suggest go reading a book called a blank journal, you won't be disappointed.
