Comics Review – All New X-Men and Uncanny X-Men

Another review in my quest to find new comics to read! I have looked at the New Avengers, and at the Uncanny X-Force and Uncanny Avengers. I think between these I have found one that I think will be short lived, one that I will probably keep reading to find out where they are going with it, and one that I am probably good with.

However, in my original post where I hit the end of some comics, I got a great recommendation from Michael Allan Leonard of Public Domain. He recommended two of the new Marvel X-Men line-up: the All New X-Men, and the new run of Uncanny X-Men.

I read these in the wrong order: I checked out the Uncanny X-Men first, and then the All New X-Men. Mistake! So let’s look through these in the right order.

The All New X-Men

The All New X-Men starts by showing the break between the two camps of X-Men, after the fallout of Avengers vs. X-Men. As I have spoiled before, and will spoil again, things went south at the end of Avengers vs. X-Men. So even more than before, when Wolverine and the X-Men became a thing, there was a big difference between the X-Men.

Basically, that Cyclops is kind of now more of a villain.

But he still is a hero in his mind, and still running a school in his mind, and he and his companions are working on putting together a group of new mutants, rivaling the already existing Jean Grey School that Wolverine runs. A school, that looks like this:

Is that Magneto you see helping build it? Yep.

Okay, so this group ends up in Uncanny X-Men, so I’ll get back to them in a minute. But to try to show Cyclops what he’s really doing, to show him what he was like when he was young and idealistic, Beast decides to bring the young original X-Men forward from the past to come face-to-face with Cyclops. His hope, I guess, is that he can send them back and Xavier will wipe their memories. So it won’t break the timeline. Much. Right?

It’s an incredibly interesting way to do a reboot without doing a reboot, to do the old story in the modern world, to have your characters confront their own pasts and character development. Plus, the original X-Men in current continuity? Beast is big and blue but also the most whole; Iceman in some of the comics at least currently has the Apocalypse seed inside him; Warren Worthington technically died and a new person is kind of living inside him; Cyclops is a villain; oh, and Jean Grey is dead. A fact that young Jean has to deal with:

Jean Grey is really kind of the front runner in this comic, and it’s her one place to shine because otherwise she’s dead – compare that with many of the other X-Men, who appear in many of the titles (and Wolverine in all of them). You have young Jean, Phoenix still to come in her future, still dealing with learning her powers, far too powerful for her own good – and now knowing how her whole life will play out. She’s out to change things. And this, more than anything, is what is fascinating about this comic.

Uncanny X-Men – Volume 3

I guess there was a second volume? I was reading the original run back in the 90s with comics well into the hundreds, so starting back at one with an original title like this is tough. And they’re leading with a couple of the original characters, too: Cyclops, and Magneto.

Except now they’re villains. I mean, like so:

Yep, talking back to the Avengers. Harsh.

So they spun this title out of the All New X-Men, continuing some of the mutant-collecting and school-starting plots. Which also involves confronting the Avengers, Wolverine & The X-Men, and the media. Sentinels. Basically everyone.

However, from there, they needed their own plot, so they went with it. The art changed, although color stayed stark, something this title has really done so far. But they end up in Limbo, where Magik draws her power. And the art for Limbo was pretty excellent:

So I am pretty intrigued by this comic. Their powers are falling apart, their new mutants scared of them and very hesitant, how will this group of villainous sorts who want to be heroes become heroes? It’s like starting over, but with a huge amount of baggage. I don’t know if they can do it.

And meanwhile, after as awesome as X-Treme X-Men was, there is one more reason I will keep reading this comic – to find out more about this: