Uncanny X-Men #1
Written by Kieron Gillen
Art by Carlos Pacheco, Cam Smith, and Frank D’Armata
While Wolverine and the X-Men features a new status quo and mission statement for the “Gold Team” books of X-Men, Uncanny is more of a direct continuation from the last issue. Sure, it’s a new number one and it has been freshly branded with the Regenesis status quo, but it doesn’t feel all too different from what Kieron Gillen had been doing for the last few months. He spends some of the issue establishing just what exactly this book has morphed into, and then he gets right to the point, and he does so by way of mixing together a plot created by Brubaker and Fraction when the X-Men first moved out west as well as one of my favorite X-villains…Mister Sinister!
There were no winners or losers in the Schism, well, no, the readers win, but as far as the characters go there is more of a sense of change. Uncanny X-Men has gone from the ‘premier’ title in the line to sharing that with Wolverine and the X-Men, which means that it no longer is the main feature book. What it seems to be turning into is the ‘big fight’ book, the team that deals with the world shattering threats that the X-Men have been known to deal with. The return of Mister Sinister is probably the best way to go about this, as he’s a villain more than capable of going big, something he definitely does in this issue. This book is all about scope, and Gillen seems prepared to go bigger than Uncanny has been in years.
Now, Scott’s Annihilation Team, the name he openly gives to his alpha squad, is an interesting grouping. The characters acknowledge the fact that Storm is really the only one who has never gone down the road of moral questionability, since Scott has been teetering. It’s like an Earth based team of Annihilators made up of mutants and Danger, and they expect to be taken harshly. This isn’t a camera friendly Avengers like team, this is a group of hard hitters more than capable of bitchslapping a world threatening villain and not care if the people loved or feared them for it.
There’s some good character stuff going on here too, including the first real usage of Colossus since he became the Juggernaut. We all understood that for as long as it lasts it would clearly mean a new status quo and demeanor for the character, but the most we’d seen of it is him saying he couldn’t be around kids in the Regenesis one shot. We find out the rage that being Juggernaut gives him, and there are teases about him being the one member of the team that possibly could wind up being corrupted, which would gel perfectly with the tragic nature that we’ve come to expect from Piotr. I also want to say how nice it is that Storm will be a regular in a book I actually want to read, I can’t remember the last time that happened….maybe Dwayne McDuffie’s Fantastic Four.
Yeah.
There’s a lot of humor in the book as well, and Gillen keeps it organic. In other words, Dr. Nemesis is awesome and nobody is surprised by this fact.
The first time I saw Carlos Pacheco pencil a book it was X-Men in the late 90’s, and I’ve been a fan ever since. The book looks great, and it has a big time feel to it that suits the tone well. A lot of characters are juggled in the issue as on top of the core team being established we also get a glance at Scott’s other plans for those who stayed on Utopia. The large cast is handled well, as are the various locales. From Utopia to San Francisco, and even Atlantis, everywhere looks unique, and it’s all good. Also, I really like the design work for Danger, and I’ve always been a fan of Pacheco’s Colossus, so big win for me over here.
It all comes back to Sinister, who is introduced along with the entire team on the first page. Gillen is bringing him back in a big way, and it’s about time. It doesn’t feel totally like a first issue, I mean, it seems like a good jump on point, but as someone who has been reading X-Men for a while it really just feels like the next issue to me. I understand why they relaunched with a new number one, but in the case of this book it really feels like a story that could have been told without it. Thankfully this little personal issue doesn’t hurt what is otherwise another great issue of Uncanny X-Men by Kieron Gillen, something I’m glad hasn’t changed.
Overall?
8.5/10
