Written by Kieron Gillen
Illustrated by Billy TanWhen the dust settles from the X-Men’s Schism, a line has been drawn, and every mutant must choose. Who will they follow – XXXXXX or Wolverine? Either way, with mutantkind cut in two, things will never be the same. Setting the stage for this month’s WOLVERINE & THE X-MEN #1 and November’s all-new UNCANNY X-MEN #1, Kieron Gillen (UNCANNY X-MEN, JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY) and Billy Tan (UNCANNY X-FORCE, NEW AVENGERS) take us through the ranks of the X-Men as they choose their destiny.
I’m one of the two ridiculously crazy long-time X-Men fans on the site, and I’ve been approaching this whole deal with a lot of excitement. It seems like the books are being sent in a great direction with top creators on hand to guide them well.
This issue is really the kick off issue that really illustrates who goes where. Does it work?
Find out after the jump.
You know, for a book that really didn’t necessarily need to exist (everything could have just happened realistically, or been covered later in flashback in the new books post Schism), X-Men: Regenesis was actually a very entertaining and rewarding read for long time X-Men fans.
But before we get into that, let’s talk about the one thing that read awkwardly: the caveman fight between Wolverine and Cyclops that represented the battle for the variety of X-Men cast members that was going on in the pages. Sure, it was nice to have a visual of who really goes where and who ends up where, but it is a pretty heavy handed and overdone metaphor if I’ve ever seen one.
There was too much good elsewhere to not like the book overall though.
I think the thing I liked the most was that it, in a lot of ways, felt like the X-Men’s very own version of the showdown in Cameron Crowe’s “Jerry Maguire” between super agents Maguire and Bob Sugar. Both sides furiously competed for the affection of cast members, recruiting them with their own pitches and their own reasoning (I especially enjoyed Wolverine’s efforts to bring in Bobby Drake first – it’s really the perks of beer hanging around all of the time that would sell me too) but ultimately getting who they get because of each person’s deeper personal beliefs. And in this version, I’d say Psylocke is “Cush” and Emma Frost is Rod Tidwell.
Kieron Gillen does a fantastic job of answering some of the major questions people had in this issue. Those questions include “why is Psylocke on two teams?,” “does Cyclops realize his entire team is filled with former villains?,” “how do Polaris and Havok end up back with X-Factor?,” “how did Quentin Quire end up on the Blackbird?,” and, perhaps most importantly, “how the hell does Toad end up with Wolverine?” Fans were clamoring for answering and this book does an excellent job of convincingly laying out the why’s behind everything, as well as laying out the proper motivations for Wolverine, Cyclops and the rest.
There are a lot of excellent moments throughout that ring very true for the characters. In particular, I enjoyed the scene with Beast (bonus points because Gillen gets to write Beast and Abigail Brand together again) especially when he takes time to call up Cyclops and gloat. He may be a super genius with a smoking hot green haired half alien girlfriend, but even he can’t resist some serious one-ups-man-ship.
He also gets an opportunity, alongside this week’s equally good Generation Hope #12, to have a swan song effort to his cast of characters from that book. He takes that moment and performs ably in that regard.
One other thing I greatly enjoyed was the simple act of including two pages at the very end with each upcoming books cover (Uncanny X-Men and Wolverine & the X-Men respectively) and including who is going on what side. It isn’t anything big, but for someone who likes to see how everything routes, it works wonders (especially because it reveals that my boy Chamber will be rocking it for Team Wolverine along with his former love Husk).
Continued belowBilly Tan’s art, for the most part, is really solid. He actually does a pretty convincing job of selling the Lord of the Flies beatdown scenes between Wolverine and Cyclops, with the coloring from Andres Mossa giving those pages a very rich feel. He also adds a lot of emotion to sequences, particularly the parting between Kitty and Colossus, sharply contrasting the emotionless state of the current form of Piotr Rasputin with the pure emotions of our beloved Kitty Pryde.
There are some gaffes in the book – pay attention to Bobby’s hands when he’s talking to Wolverine – but overall it is a really solid looking book.
For a long time X-Men fan, this book is a real gem to read. I love seeing how everything plays out and how naturally it works from the stories that came before it. For me, this issue is a great example as to why Gillen and Jason Aaron are going to be perfect fits for this new generation of X-Books. They are reverent to the past without being beholden to it. They push the stories without breaking natural story arcs. They get the characters. Really, if you do those three things, you get me as a reader of your X-Books.
Sign me up guys. This book wasn’t perfect or even arguably necessary, but it was a really, really solid intro to the new status quo.
Final Verdict: 7.5 – Buy
