Original X-Men #1 - Marvel Comics

ORIGINAL X-MEN No. 1, February 2024

Described by its New York City-based publisher as a celebration of “the X-Men’s Sixtieth anniversary with an original X-Men adventure by Christos Gage and Greg Land”, this one-shot certainly appears to contain plenty of action-packed elements to keep the majority of its readers entertained. Indeed, apart from some seriously contrived alternative universe hopping, which allows Professor Xavier’s earliest team of teen mutants to know everything that is going to happen to them in their future, the thirty-page periodical’s plot is loaded with great nostalgia, laugh out loud humour, enthralling drama, and even something of a surprise ending.

Foremost of these sense-shattering successes is surely the way the adolescent Angel and Iceman manage to convince their older counterparts that the poor choices they’ve made to help enslave Earth-696, have badly undermined the moral legacy of their long-dead mentor. So difficult an argument could so easily have caused this comic’s creators to become bogged down in multiple panels of dialogue-heavy discourse. However, the American author quite brilliantly circumnavigates any need for that by simply having proficient penciller Greg Land sketch Warren Kenneth Worthington III seeing the way his junior self is staring at him; “And all it takes is one look to see how much of a hypocrite sellout you are.”

Similarly as well worded are the reasons needed to persuade the likes of the grey-furred Beast and infatuated Cyclops of their evil-doings in the name of ‘saving the planet’. Gage neatly emphasises the fact that this villainous take on the X-Men are still good people at heart, and that they all secretly suspect their version of Phoenix is mentally manipulating them so as to shield them from any doubts their criminal actions are causing. This means each of the team members only requires a little ‘push’ back in the right direction to cause them to repent their villainous stance and team-up to tackle "one of the most powerful beings in the Marvel Universe."

Sadly, this book is therefore only arguably let down by its aftermath, which acts very much as a blatant advertisement for the upcoming mini-series “Weapon X-Men” – featuring ‘a multiverse of Logans banding together.’ Considering that this particular publication is supposedly a celebration of the mutant franchise’s aforementioned milestone, this unashamed incentive for bibliophiles to continue the storyline in a different title smacks of insincerity, and may well leave a bad taste in the odd fan’s mouth.

The regular cover art to "ORIGINAL X-MEN" #1 by Ryan Stegman, J.P. Mayer & Brad Anderson