Uncanny X-Men#1 Review (Spoilers)

[beserkerclaw]

wait there was a point? it seemed very vague about what the goal of the book is to me. basically just felt like a cut scene from ANXM instead of it's own book. i know it's bendis so this is something that has to be put up with, but when it's the first issue to be this underwhelming is an issue.

The point of the book is simple and was put forth in ANXM:


Cyclops is going on the road recruiting the newly created mutants for a mutant revolution and announcing to the world that mutants wont be fucked with as long as hes around.

[Clark_Krunk]

Magento needs to be killed in the worst way possible..

Let wolverine chop is old man head off already. Enough with this guy. In which world would he be allowed to parade around the way he does..

Hes had it coming since Morrisons New Xmen run. The guy is nothing but trouble.

[renne]

The point of the book is simple and was put forth in ANXM:


Cyclops is going on the road recruiting the newly created mutants for a mutant revolution and announcing to the world that mutants wont be fucked with as long as hes around.

oh no i got that, it just seems very vague and not indicative of what the first arc is meant to be, unless it's that, in which case it's still very vague because how does that even be an arc?

[HeroxMatt2.0]

This could turn out like the Superman arc "Grounded", but with mutants!

[Quinnhop]

This could turn out like the Superman arc "Grounded", but with mutants!

Eww gross, please don't say that.

[jackolover]

It's good to know the media, Frontline, have a good handle on the story of the mutants. Frank Allen, on February 13, 2013, informs us that Utopia was illegal, but was a small price to pay to have them all in one place. How compassionate? Also, that the media don't seem to have any indication of knowing about the transformation of the P5 on the planet. Also, Cyclops in prison was never charged with anything, just that it was classified. It also appears Cyclops team have been fighting super heroes, which I didn't know about. Then the media brands Cyclops team as terrorists and Guerrila forces, and that they are loved by the youth. I look forward to more Frontline articles in UXM continuing the escapades of the group further.

As to the connection of Magneto, (wanted for many crimes, to countless to list), and SHIELD, just the tone of Magnetos tirade, tells me he is pushing his own agenda, because he wouldn't let Maria Hill interrupt his speach, even though she demands the Sentinel attack wasn't the government or SHIELD. By the time Magneto finishes recounting his story to Hill, I am convinced Mags is not running on 4 cylinders. He never lets Hill make any points and won't entertain any argument that mutants are not being victimized and attacked. It is the old Magneto making these statements, here, and I don't know why SHIELD don't just gas him and put him away in a box forever. Also, as far as Mags is concerned, he is bitter about the fact that P5 Scott took away Mags power and he has to stay that way forever.

The news item at the back portrays it as a mutant revolution. The front of every Marvel NOW book states it is a Re-evolution. What Cyclops is doing is defying then established authority of humans and establishing his own authority of the mutants. Scott is saying, "We have our own set of laws, and any humans that want to lord their laws over mutants will be dealt with". It is a direct affront at the way society works.

[jackolover]

Mutants are still treated badly by open bigots, like with the healer and the bigots in this issue. the prison Cyke was in was another exxample and there is nothing to indicate that Cap gave a damn. The govement that Cap works for stills practice Jim Crow style laws against mutants.

For the new mutants Cap is not offering protection at all since being a mutant without registering is a crime he really can't as long as he works for the government

Though I disagree with you on that Cap doesn't give a damn, (because he does, he just isn't able to get passed the whole ground roots issues), I do have to admit that the protection of mutants has got out of control. The whole MU should see that with mutants reappearing in society, that a method of collection should be instituted, so that pain and damage from the mutants powers doesn't affect the rest of society. The government should just hire Scott's team, really. That is the best way. He has the team, the resources and the means to retrain them while keeping mutant and society safe. Why isn't this the first option?

[sureshot]

Great first issue with terrific art.
But man was I disappointed and sad to see Magneto apparently betraying the team.
I hope it's a ploy, or Mystique in disguise.

It could be Mystique. With devices to simulate Magnetos powers. As well as infecting the rest of the group with neural inhibitors. Not enough to stop their powers. Just enough to make it look like their powers are not working. Would be her style. I prefer that to Magneto turning the bad guy. It's time for Marvel to use someone else. I could understand the change of heart if Cyclops and Magneto were at odds. Yet on the same time and with the same goals outright betrayal just makes no sense at the current time imo.

[DiamondQueen]

A couple sketchy dialogue moments. While I dont agree that Emma needs to be bitchier (there is more to her) I do believe she sounded odd. Would Emma say "balled these puppies"? I liked Medina. Its time we had some bigger characters...his balls dont seem to really injure though. I will continue to see hows it unfolds.

[jackolover]

I think it is more like ignoring the political circus Cap is running and doing the work that needs to be done. I don't think Cap figures in except as a potential obstacle.

But Cap has too. This is Caps circus, because he formed it after AVX. The whole progression of this is to eventually make society see the mutants like the Avengers. The problem Steve Rogers has is the scale of the operation he is dealing with. You look at NA and Avengers at the oment, and Cap can't get away from that to scratch himself, never mind him trying to deal with new mutants. I though Cap delighted Havoc to be his ambassador to the mutants to do what Cap was supposed to do. Bendis, why hasn't Havoc taken a front stand in this book, along with Cyclops? Cyclops should be going directly to Havoc and throwing Sentinel scrap on Havocs table and telling him to fix this, look into this, and make sure this never happens again.

Remenders story is the Havoc story, granted, but it has now become very obvious the intentions of Cap to protect the mutants, have died in the water, what with the other distractions Cap has in other books being overwhelming. I see there is a role as a defacto Cap in Havoc, to be the official envoy to the mutants problems much like the old role Riordan used to fill. I forget the organizations name. It used to have that mutant in it from the future, who wanted to kill Hope.

[jackolover]

Maria hill is always bitch (my apologies to dogs). Magento is playing that idiot, the only thing in doubt is why

I can only hope that Fury consults with Hill and tells Hill to just humor Mags, but just let Cyclops collect new mutants, because that's working right now.

[capesNmasks]

Maria Hill is one of the good guys? she has be a murderous sociopath since NA#6. Was she a good guy when she tried to take out Cap in the CW?

In that case, yeah. Even though Tony and Maria went about it the wrong way, Tony and Maria were more in the right than Steve was during Civil War (in my opinion).

[jackolover]

Art: By and large, I liked the art in this comic, and prefer it to Bachalo's work in WatXM. It's a bit more restrained and clean, which I think Bachalo can afford to be given how far he's drifted over the years into heavier and heavier stylisation. His greatest weakness right now, I think, is that when he short-hands something, like the human form for example, he really short-hands it and things can get ugly and blotty pretty quick when he does this too much, and that tends to be the case during some of his action scenes. Sometimes it can come off as charming, but most of the time it just makes me think about other really talented artists who put effort into every aspect of the frame. Bachalo can do this too, so I think a bit more effort on his part to produce a more finished product could make his work here a true return to the form.

Dialogue: I must concede to disliking Bendis' writing more often than not, but when it does fit the cast and tone, it fits very well. I don't think it comes out very well here. He has this passion for repeating simple statements (You're trying to kill Scott Summers? That's your plan? You're trying to kill Scott Summers. And I'm telling you that if you kill him all you will do is martyr him. No one's trying to kill anybody. Etc. There is more talk of killing Scott Summers the next page too, for your reading pleasure.). Basically, once you've read one of Bendis' dialogues, you've read all of them, just with the subjects and predicates swapped around to fit the simple plot/theme of each book.

Plot: Let me just get this out of the way: I'll be surprised as hell if Magneto isn't playing the SHIELD. It's so obvious that one might feel encouraged to think it's intentionally so, but no, I'm pretty sure it's just super-fucking-obvious and that's that. I AM, however, extremely excited to see Maria Hill again and I hope that she's a recurring character in this revolution plot line. Speaking of which, Bendis doesn't reach too deep here, drawing on his tried and true tropes of questioning the established authority, setting up 'average people' as being almost sheep-like in their support of underdogs (Sorry to tell you this, Bendis, but Scarlet is a moron and a grotesque mockery of real life efforts to right social injustices and fight abuse of power. I reject your infantile view of the world, one that belies the fact that you write comic books for a living instead of coordinating real life social movements.) Anyways, it's a shallow premise that we're told to accept, and so I wish I could just move on from it to other elements of the plot but... there aren't any. It's the first issue. There's no antagonist yet and the trajectory is pretty vague. What are Cyclops goals, really? Does he actually have any besides plucking up and training new mutants? Bendis needs to provide something more tension-inducing here, but I can be patient and wait for that.

As for the characters, I'll just provide a quick run-down. Nobody particularly shines, there's not really much room for that here, but only Emma really bothers me. She's not simply under-utilised, she's just... useless. Presumably Bendis is aiming for a state of being compromised with regards to her, not just as far as her powers go but emotionally as well, but without taking that beyond conjecture himself she's just not interesting. I also think that Bendis and Bachalo both stumble a bit where the healer mutant is concerned. He's still got no identity to me and his powers are extremely vague and... hand-waved. He could've been handled better, and if he used his powers to heal Magneto then it should've had some sort of visual cue, not necessarily dazzling rays of holy light but... anything. Tempus is being played up as the most important of the new mutants so we'll have to wait and see if Bendis can give her a personality to go with it. Speaking of powerful characters with no personality, the strangest thing to me (after Emma) had to be Magik. She didn't seem herself in this issue. She lacked a certain decisiveness that we've come to expect from her and that flies in the face of her getting more powerful as a result of the Phoenix Force. Again, it's just the first issue, but I think Magik's relative lack of characterisation speaks to a trend among the cast in this issue, and hopefully Bendis will let them be more distinct in time.

I find it hard to grade first issues, so I won't here. I like the art and I'm excited to see SHIELD playing a role. I'm not as excited for the actual X-Men, however, and a light case of Bendis Dialogue makes me a bit concerned for what's to come. All in all, I'm calling this one average, and I think it's going to have to start doing something interesting or it stands to be overshadowed by ANXM.

A lot of your concerns on characters is because Magneto was telling the story. This is how Mags sees these characters so he clouds the story with his own bias.

[jackolover]

It could be Mystique. With devices to simulate Magnetos powers. As well as infecting the rest of the group with neural inhibitors. Not enough to stop their powers. Just enough to make it look like their powers are not working. Would be her style. I prefer that to Magneto turning the bad guy. It's time for Marvel to use someone else. I could understand the change of heart if Cyclops and Magneto were at odds. Yet on the same time and with the same goals outright betrayal just makes no sense at the current time imo.

I can see that since AVX, the defined roles of Scott and Eric have been confused. Ever since Magneto went to Utopia, there has been a discrepancy between Mags past role as mutant revolutionary, and his subjugation to Cyclops.

The other point has been that the perception of the fans is that Cyclops has become the new Magneto. Cyclops was doing what Magneto should have been doing, and so fans couldn't reconcile that the hero Cyclops was behaving like a revolutionary.

So here we come to the new stage of mutant development. Mutants are now reappearing on the earth, and Avengers have made a treaty with the mutants. But one thing hasn't changed, and that is that the humans haven't changed their attitude to mutants, only the super humans have changed. But then we are progressed along the way, as far as the status of the X-Men is concerned, because it used to be a semi-authorized band of protectors, and now, since AVX, it's status has changed to a sort of unformed mass. I'd like to think that the X-Men had an authorized status like the Avengers, but nobody will give them that status. They just formed an Uncanny Avengers and said that will be good enough. Well it isn't.

Along comes the jail break and now Magneto, Magik, and Cyclops are in the same room together and they listen to what Cyclops has to say. What Scott says is very scary, because it goes back to Utopia and the isolation they once had. Nobody wants this, least of all Magneto, who thought AVX was going to release mutants to freedom. To Magneto, Cyclops is just that return to the prison of segregated mutant world, whereas he thought the world was now ready for mutants. Somehow Mags has to get rid of Cyclops, and then the world will see mutants can be given their freedom.

I know that's naive of Magneto, but I can easily see that with Xavier dead, and Xavier saying to Beast in New Avengers, "I only hope my death was worth it", it clearly wasn't worth it, so Magneto wants to get to the point where Charles' sacrifice was worth it. I see Magnetos treachery as a panic response, considering the backward step Cyclops is taking the mutant cause.

[Dylan85]

I wonder if Magneto is playing S.H.I.E.L.D. and Cyclops. In All-New X-Men we know Mystiqe is working with a team to cripple the X-Men, or at least pit them against each other for her teams gain. Could Magneto be putting the Brotherhood back together? I think Magneto is all for the mutant revolution, but his ego can't allow himself to not be the leader of the revolution. Magneto may think that Scott is destined to fail and by pitting not only the X-Men against each other, but Shield on them as well, then who will have time to stop the revolution? The revolution that Magneto has worked almost his entire life to put in motion...