X-Men #1 is here, and we’re feeling … fine

The X-Men rise from the ashes! Yes, that’s what we’re going with for the flagship debut. X-Men #1 is written by Jed MacKay, drawn by Ryan Stegman, inked by JP Mayer, colored by Marte Gracia and lettered by Clayton Cowles.

Tony Thornley: I feel like there’s about 10 different clichés we could use for the fact that we’re standing here again. So I won’t use any. But you, dear reader, can imagine that I used the one of your choice, how about that?

Matthew Lazorwitz: “Second verse, same as the first.” That’s all I’ve got. I’d say we were looking at a bold new era. But it’s not exactly bold and it’s certainly not feeling new. That doesn’t mean it’s bad, mind you, but we’ll get into that.

The Tour

Tony: So the framing device (or maybe B-story depending on your thoughts on literary devices) of X-Men #1 does not help it out one bit. It is one of the most common tropes in X-Men literature, at least recently. 

Just like we got in Wolverine & the X-Men and House of X, and probably four other relaunches that aren’t coming to mind right now (as well as countless other stories that are just openings to other arcs), a new character is given a tour of a (sometimes new) X-base by a familiar character. Unlike those others though, the only novel thing we got out of this tour is character beats.

That said, I do find this small town sheriff character interesting and I like MacKay’s Beast.

Matt: Yes on both those points. That trope — the tour — is usually done with the new student to the school, or the returning X-man. But here we have someone who isn’t an X-man, who isn’t even a mutant. And someone who, while inclined toward them, is not 100% sold on these X-Men being near her town. It gives us an outsider’s angle.

As for Beast, well…

You and I reviewed a lot of X-Force, Tony. And in our final review, I said that I was concerned that old-school Beast would just sort of get a pass and be happy-go-lucky Beast all over again. But here we see that, while he has that joie de vivre that we expect from Avengers-era Beast, there is something under it. He knows the sins that “he” committed, and he knows there are years (decades in our time) of memories he doesn’t have that he views as the wages of sin. And that haunted vibe is something that will give this Beast the layers I want to see.

Tony: I don’t remember if I said it in one of those reviews or just in a chat, but I’m repeating it here: After this issue, I fully expect a “Trial of Beast” storyline where this version of Hank has to deal with the evils wrought by his future self. It might be a metaphorical trial, but I see it set up right here.

Legitimately though, this issue reminded me of why Beast used to be one of my favorite X-Men. His personality is so straight from the ’80s and ’90s that I can hear George Buza’s voice delivering these lines. Stegman draws him so much like George Perez’s version that it’s impossible not to make a comparison.

Ultimately, I liked this tour, even if it seemed pretty simple. Here’s Glob Herman in a hydroponics lab. Here’s a breakroom. There’s Xorn (“Say hi, Xorn!”) and … then Magneto shows up being Magneto.

Matt: I have to say, before we get into anything more serious, that Glob gardening? If it turns out he is also developing fungi, this might be the comic written expressly for CXF Editor-in-Chief Emeritus Zack Jenkins. 

Tony: Who, might we add, has sworn off this era of X-Men.

Matt: But seriously, folks, Max is being a total buzzkill here. Hank is going out of his way to try to get the neighbors to like the X-Men, and here’s their crusty old grandpa yelling at clouds. Or warning them that he still has the gun he brought home from the war and you better not mess with his kids. 

Tony: This goes back to the common theme of this issue. I really liked this beat. It’s probably the characterization that most closely matches the characters in the Krakoa era. It’s more verbose than “you have new gods now,” but it is VERY Magneto.

I am a little bothered by the chair, though. Obviously, something likely happened to Magneto between X-Men #35 last month and here. But it’s a little tired to go back to the mystery box that nearly every Marvel series has dipped into in the last 18 months. I think every relaunch except Avengers and Captain America has done it (in fairness to Iron Man, Gerry Duggan resolved his by the end of issue #1).

That said, a minor character-centric mystery is more welcome than, say, the beginning of the current volume of Amazing Spider-Man.

Matt: Or Guardians of the Galaxy. Or Fantastic Four. Ad infinitum.

It is also in this sequence that we get the first instance of MacKay’s social commentary. The fact that this was a company town whose main employer was a factory that builds Sentinels opens up two very specific references in my head. The first is to the people who are willing to support unpleasant (and I use that word loosely, rather than more direct ones) political candidates who run on economic prosperity but have terrible records on social issues. But more than that, this reads like Confederate monument talk. Yes, these were killer hate robots. But they were OUR killer hate robots. I’ve read a fair amount of MacKay. His work has been largely apolitical, but it does feel like he’s he is trying to show some awareness of the metaphor now that he’s writing X-Men.

Tony: That’s one thing I like about MacKay. He’s pretty solid about leaning into what he’s writing to elevate it. Comics are political, yes. But X-Men comics, they’re on a different level than any other Big Two books.

Hack Job

Matt: On the flip side of X-Men #1, we have the X-Men’s more action-oriented team on a mission to rescue Wolverine and some newly manifested mutants. Again, this is something we have seen over and over. I don’t know if MacKay is doing it intentionally, but I feel like he’s calling that out by creating a villainous threat, the Fourth School, who are intentionally derivative. They’re part U-Men, part Orchis, all second string. 

Tony: And just like the tour is so reminiscent of everything else, so is this. I even joked that the actual action plot of the issue is almost exactly the same plot as Hickman’s X-Men #1 from 2019.

Matt: What I see here is MacKay again reaching for modern social commentary. These guys are your internet-radicalized racist incel losers. They don’t have a philosophy of their own. Instead, they take bits and pieces of other people’s vile philosophy and Frankenstein it together into something awful. It’s not subtle commentary, but sometimes it doesn’t need to be.

Tony: I didn’t think of it that way, but it is a pretty accurate conclusion to draw. This is otherwise a pretty standard X-Men plot. A bunch of racists are doing something bad under cover of “darkness.” The X-Men show up to bust them. Then they save the day.

Now, in my mind, this could be very intentional. If it is, I like the choice. Because, as with the tour, the novel parts of this A-story (and really, the interesting and novel parts of the whole issue) are in the character work. Scott is just good old reliable Scott Summers. He’s exactly the same as always, but that’s not a bad thing. Psylocke is a scalpel and a woman of few words. Magik and Juggernaut are bickering like siblings. Idie and Quentin are bickering like exes.

I’m a big character-work guy. I want high concepts and interesting plots in my comics, but if good character work isn’t hand-in-hand with those, I check out pretty quick. It was legitimately my biggest fear with Hickman taking on the X-Men five years ago. He did ultimately write the character stuff really well, though.

So I liked this, even if the plot was bare bones and a little derivative. And derivative isn’t a bad thing if you’re trying to do something. It’s like using a trope — they’re OK if you’re aware they’re a trope and use them as a tool and not a crutch. And having followed MacKay on his other work, he’s good with that. Look at Blood Hunt. It knows what it is and leans into it. He’s not trying to elevate the event. He’s taking the summer popcorn action flick and having a hell of a lot of fun with it.

Matt: Agree on all your points. For me, the Juggernaut/Illyana stuff really sung. I want more of them ASAP.

This Is How You Remind Me

Tony: So either this is a weird coincidence, or the overarching plot of “From the Ashes” is the mysterious and global mass activations of X-genes. There’s the nameless six new mutants that Wolverine went in to save (offscreen just before this issue opens). There’s the upcoming Exceptional X-Men series that deals with new mutants. There’s the Outliers in Uncanny X-Men.

It’s an incredibly interesting plotline. I’m game for it, but it’s barely given space on the page. So I’m not entirely sure if it’s an actual plot direction or if it’s just a coincidence.

Matt: I’m hoping you’re right. An interview in Marvel’s free preview magazine/comic had MacKay talking about how separate everyone was, how broken by the events of the end of Krakoa all mutants felt. That either felt like a metaphor for how disconnected everyone feels since COVID or an excuse for these books to not have the cohesion of the early Krakoan era. I like the idea that despite that disconnected feeling, the books will have some undercurrents, some subtle weaving of elements that will eventually come together. 

And that’s not to mention the mysterious figures who seem to be manipulating the six mutants and the Fourth School. We don’t know if they’re this book’s big villains or something grander. I’m content, from this issue, to see where that goes.

Tony: Also, all the stuff that was set up in the FCBD special and the end of X-Men #35 wasn’t even mentioned or acknowledged here. For the flagship launch of this new era, that seems like a pretty big oversight. I mean, this is a 32-page, $6 comic, they could have fit something in regarding those earlier teases. Even if it was a backup story with Javier Garron art (like X-Men #35) instead of part of the MacKay/Stegman main story, it would have put a lampshade on those plot elements to make it clear they’re important.

Matt: We’re talking about this as the flagship launch, but if we take the stuff from FCBD as the lead-in to this era, it almost feels like Uncanny X-Men is the flagbearer, no? The FCBD story was a Jubilee story, and written by Gail Simone. But X-Men is now the default title, and Uncanny X-Men the one that hasn’t been on the shelf for the better part of five years. Still, a little more bang for the buck would have been nice.

Tony: Yeah, if MacKay hadn’t co-written the epilogue in X-Men #35, I wouldn’t have even thought to look for connections to it here. It does make it seem like Uncanny is going to be a bit more of the standard bearer, though.

But in the positives, I do like Scott and Hank’s chat to close X-Men #1 quite a bit. Even with Hank’s massive gap in memory, you can feel the bond between them.

Also, we haven’t talked tons about the art. I had a lot of reservations about Stegman on this book. They’re not completely resolved, but I feel a lot better about his presence. The actual details of the art are VERY much still Stegman. I know he and Mayer have worked together for ages, but I really wonder what he’d look like with a different inker? But regardless, his layouts and how the figures move through the page have shifted a little. I’m reminded a bit of (once again) George Perez, which is interesting considering Perez never drew X-Men consistently. There’s an energy to Stegman’s art that’s more comic book traditional than the ’90s-inspired style of his Spidey and Venom work.

Also, Gracia on Stegman looks good. So glad Gracia has learned how to add to his line artists’ work rather than just doing exactly the same thing he does with Pepé Larraz on every one.

Matt: Here’s my dirty little secret: I don’t think I have ever read more than a few pages of Stegman’s work before this. I never read any of his Venom or Vanish with Donny Cates, which is the lion’s share of his work, so I’m coming in here completely fresh. It’s … fine. I definitely can see a bit of Spidey in here, but it’s not as twisty as I expect from someone who drew that much Venom. He does make very expressive faces, which I’m a sucker for. The sheer look of shock on the sheriff’s face throughout, the shifting moods of Beast and Magneto’s look of superiority (also Glob being friendly), really helps sell those character moments.  

Tony: And yes, his Cyclops looking very young is almost a “Liefeld’s feet” meme at this point, and while it’s true, it looks better for the most part than the previews pointed toward.

But saving the last-page reveal for, well, last: Scary as hell to see that massive, frozen Sentinel as the final image of the issue. Effective last page. Think it’s a Sword of Damocles, or just a cool final moment?

Matt: I can hear the squeak of the sword stretching that rope. That bad boy is not as dead as it looks on that page, if you ask me. We’ll just have to wait and see.

X-Traneous Thoughts

• I think our friend and colleague Robert Secundus summed up this issue best in the ComicsXF Slack: “I’d say it’s in top tier of post-Claremont X-Men comics. After Krakoa, it’s fine.”
• Calling Magneto Max frequently works, even if it’s the Hank who’s 40 years (our time) behind doing it. But also, Hank calling him Max is perfectly in character for the bounding blue Beast of Defenders and Perez’s Avengers.
• This team might have the most generations reflected in a formal team in a while: Two of the O5, a New Mutant, three Morrison-era characters, one of the Five Lights, two reformed villains and … Psylocke. I’m not sure exactly what generation she counts for. [Ed. Note: And notably, no one from the “All New, All Different” generation, with Psylocke coming in closest to that group.]
• No appearance in the book by the Caliban-looking guy on the cover. Is he just a generic mutant they’re saving? Or a seed for something upcoming?
• I double checked, and the massive frozen Sentinel did not appear in either Avengers “Fall of X” issue.

Buy X-Men #1 here. (Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, ComicsXF may earn from qualifying purchases.)

Matthew Lazorwitz

Matt Lazorwitz read his first comic at the age of 5. It was Who's Who in the DC Universe #2, featuring characters whose names begin with B, which explains so much about his Batman obsession. He writes about comics he loves, and co-hosts the podcasts BatChat with Matt & Will and The ComicsXF Interview Podcast.

Tony Thornley

Tony Thornley is a geek dad, blogger, Spider-Man and Superman aficionado, X-Men guru, autism daddy, amateur novelist, and all around awesome guy. He’s also very humble.