UNCANNY X-MEN #1 (2024)
MARVEL COMICS
STORY: Gail Simone
ART: David Marquez
COLORS: Matthew Wilson
LETTERS: VC's Clayton Cowles
COVER: David Marquez with Matthew Wilson
EDITOR: Tom Brevoort
VARIANT COVER ARTISTS: Andy Kubert with Brad Anderson; David Marquez with Matthew Wilson; Jim Lee with Alex Sinclair; John Tyler Christopher; Leinil Francis Yu with Sunny Gho; Luciano Vecchio; Pablo Villalobos; Scott Koblish with Rachelle Rosenberg; Stephen Segovia with Jay David Ramos
40pp, Color, $5.99 U.S. (October 2024)
Rated T+
X-Men created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
“Red Wave”
The X-Men are a Marvel Comics superhero team. The team was created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, and first appeared in The X-Men #1 (cover dated: September 1963). The X-Men are “mutants,” and Marvel's mutants are humans born with a genetic trait called the “X-gene,” which naturally grants them superhuman abilities. Being different from normal humans makes mutants the subject of prejudice, discrimination, and violence from humans. Founded by Professor Charles Xavier a.k.a. “Professor X,” the X-Men fight to protect Earth for both humans and mutants, often battling various “evil mutants” and otherworldly threats.
Over the decades, especially over the last four, there have been countless comic book publications featuring the X-Men. The X-Men flagship comic book was entitled “The X-Men” beginning with Issue #1 lasting through Issue #141. With Issue #142, the title official became “Uncanny X-Men.? Over the last decade Uncanny X-Men has been relaunched a few times, each news series beginning with a new Issue #1.
The latest relaunch began last year (2024) during the late summer. The 2024 iteration of Uncanny X-Men is written by Gail Simone; drawn by David Marquez; colored by Matthew Wilson; and lettered by VC's Clayton Cowles. The new series takes place in the wake of the “From the Ashes” crossover publishing event and finds the X-Men without a home and without Professor X.
Uncanny X-Men #1 opens in Westchester County, New York, specifically at the former “Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters.” Diabolical forces have taken over the campus and are making plans to transform it from a school into some kind of detention center or prison.
Since the fall of the island-nation slash mutant paradise of Krakoa, mutants have been left adrift across the globe. Rogue, Gambit, and Wolverine are in Mexico, specifically Teotihuacan, where they will face a dragon. Next up is “the University of Mississippi Medical Center,” where they engage in a mission of mercy for Nightcrawler and a low-level, dying mutant boy named “Harvey X.” Before long, the quartet will encounter what may be some new mutants, but is Rogue willing to become the new leader of the X-Men? Should the X-Men even continue to be a thing?
THE LOWDOWN: I am not on any kind of comp list that provides me with review copies – PDF or otherwise – of Marvel Comics publications. That leaves me free to say what I want without feeling that a bad review could get me excommunicated. [Despite what the marketing people at publishers say, a slip-up of any kind can get a reviewer removed from a comp list.]
By the time I read this new Uncanny X-Men #1 and began to write the review, this series' first trade collection, Uncanny X-Men Vol. 1: Red Wave, had been in stores for a week and a half. I am still not going to post detailed spoilers, and I suspect there is a lot to spoil over the entire arc. I like the vibe that Gail Simone brings to the series. It is part traditional X-Men, but with an offbeat wild vibe that is similar to what readers found in New X-Men #114 (cover dated: July 2001). I don't know how new and original the new mutants presented in this issue are, but Simone seems to be aiming for a new direction in this first issue of her run on this venerable series. I think she is the first woman to be the regular series writer on Uncanny X-Men, which is disgraceful that it took decades for that to happen.
As for the art by David Marquez: his work has looked better and the storytelling has been much more potent. His graphical style was simpler and cleaner in the classic Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider-Man #1 (cover dated: July 2014). Now, Marquez is more stylish and impressionistic that he has ever been, but the storytelling here substitutes flash action for meaningful drama. The great Matthew Wilson makes the art pop off the page with his rich, earthy hues. As usual, letterer Clayton Cowles is solid, but his lettering does not get in the way of the way of the story's action.
So I don't know if I will seek out the trade for this first arc of the new Uncanny X-Men. This first chapter of “Red Wave” is somewhat intriguing, but I feel like Simone put off too much of the narrative in order to focus on Rogue's melodrama. I assume the best is yet to come, so I will recommend that X-Men fans give this series a try.
Yes. You can describe me as ambivalent about this first issue. I am still curious about X-Men comic books, but my passion for them has cooled over the years.
I READS YOU RECOMMENDS: Fans of X-Men comic books will always want to see what's going on with the Uncanny X-Men.
[By Marvel's legacy numbering, Uncanny X-Men #1 (2024) is also Issue No. 701.]
B+
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"
The first trade collection, "Uncanny X-Men by Gail Simone Vol. 1: Red Wave" is now available at Amazon.
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