Uncanny X-men #1
Written By: Cullen Bunn
Art By: Greg Land
Release Date: 1/6/16
Remember when people thought that Marvel was trying to phase out the X-men from their universe, well this is the third team book for All-New, All-Different Marvel. So I think we can all agree that Marvel is still very involved with the X-men.
Plot Summary
Magneto recuits his own team of X-men. The Uncanny X-men now consists of Magneto, Psylocke, Sabertooth, Monet, and Archangel. Edgier characters that are hoping to find purpose.
The team are trying to deal with mutants’ current threat, the Terrigen mist. Most of this issue is one big action scene with the team locating a group of fearful mutants placed in containment pods.
Story
I have been enjoying both All New X-Men and Extraordinary X-Men, but I am not in love with either series. I’ve been a big X-men fan for a long time. So it’s weird for me not to be excited for any of the new titles. Especially because I feel all of these titles have potential and interesting rosters. Now this leads me into Uncanny X-men.
Out of all of the new X-Men titles this was the title I was least interested in, which bothered me because I should be excited about the X-Men’s flagship book.
The Uncanny X-men title is always at it’s best when there is a good roster and interesting relationships, and my biggest problem with Uncanny X-men #1 was that there was no interesting relationships. Instead the issue felt like one big action scene, which didn’t make me care about the characters.
This book focused on the Terrigen mist plot, a story which has already been established in the other X-Men team titles. Of course it’s interesting to see what side Magneto and his team take on this situation, but I think that part of the story could have been tackled in the next issue.
A first issue should have a hook for new readers, and this issue didn’t tempt me to buy the next issue.
Art
Land’s art has always been an acquired taste for me. I like him on certain books and not on others, but I think his best work is on the X-Men titles. That was proven for me with this issue.
I really enjoyed his action scenes and he shows character expression very well through their eyes.
But a recurring complaint I have with Land’s style of artwork is his facial expressions. When Monet smiles, it’s haunting and I don’t think it’s suppose to be haunting. But the facial expressions were a bit better in this book compared to his work on Iron Man.
Verdict
Uncanny X-Men has an interesting edgy group of characters, who sadly don’t show their chemistry in the first issue.