Review: Uncanny X-Men #1 By Brian Bendis and Chris Bachalo

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uncanny1

Uncanny X-Men #1
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by Chris Bachalo, Tim Townsend, Jaime Mendoza, and Al Vey

The short of it:

SHIELD gets a secret visitor, in the form of a traitor on Scott’s X-Men. Maria Hill, Nick Fury Jr, and Coulson are all there, and this insider on the X-Men is there to tell them everything. About the state of the mutant race, the sheer amount of them popping up across the globe. That Scott is not the hated and reviled villain that SHIELD and the Avengers love to view him as, and that the disenfranchised masses have gathered behind him. That the people see him out there, helping mutants, saving lives, defying authority to do what he feels is right. People are absolutely eating it up, they love it, they love the face of rebellion. SHIELD isn’t too happy to be told any of this, it’s not really that much news. Not like the reveal about the shorted out powers. That’s the traitors true piece of information.

A new mutant debuted yesterday, a guy in San Diego named Fabio. A man tried to rob him and his powers manifested, balls popping out of his body and bouncing everywhere. The cops gleefully attack him, beating him, tazing him, excited to have busted a mutant whose only crime was developing powers. This looks like a job for the X-Men, complete with new costumes and their two new members. They want to help Fabio, as opposed to letting the cops take him in for the capital crime of being born different. This leads to SENTINELS! GIANT SENTINELS! SMALL SENTINELS! SENTINELS OF ALL SHAPES AND SIZES! The X-Men take the fight to these giant killer robots, and we get to see what our ‘heroes’ have to offer. From Magneto’s fighting with limited power, to Tempus’s time powers, and our healer keeping them, all the way through Scott’s lucky shot.

The traitor wants SHIELD to know that killing Cyclops would be a mistake, that the last thing they want is the man to become a martyr. That they should reveal the truth about him, and they should watch him flame out…sooner than later.

What I liked:

  • Normally I don’t open with the art, but HOLY BALLS! Chris Bachalo is fan-fraking-tastic! He’s been one of the best artists that Marvel has had for years and years and years, and in this issue, not unlike the last few books he helped launch, his art puts it completely over the top. The book is absolutely gorgeous, and the fact that he’s coloring for himself just makes it that much more spectacular. Every page is more than worth the cost of admission.
  • Scott’s place in pop culture is something I had hoped would be clarified in short order, and this issue goes ahead and handles that without issue. For as much as the Phoenix Five incident should have pushed him towards villainy, all the public sees is this mutant freedom fighter that is trying to save his people from the fascist government that would lock them away for being born different.
  • Brilliant use of Sentinels.
  • Magik is all over the fight scene with her sword right out of Final Fantasy 7. She gets pretty much all of the on-panel kills, and it’s all handled in the background.
  • The broken powers does make the group more interesting, especially in Scott’s case. I just have to wonder how long that will last.
  • Scott’s new look works so much better in execution than it did in the concept art. The exaggerated X replaces his visor and makes for a much cooler symbol for the rebel leader than just his classic visor.

What I didn’t like:

  • I have never liked this, and I never will like this, but the act of arrested someone simply for being a mutant. Yes, Fabio’s ball powers went all sorts of crazy, but the man is screaming for help, he’s openly confused, and the cops first instinct is to hit him will full on brutality. And then after tazing him be stoked that they took out a mutant. Replace ‘mutant’ with ‘black’ and you have, what I imagine, to be a regular police issue back in the 60’s. It’s effective racism, yeah, but I still don’t like it. I personally try to convince myself that people are better than that.
  • Magneto’s new costume is the only one I don’t like, and it’s just because the idea of him in white is just really….I dunno. I mean, yes, it clashes with everyone else on the team wearing white, but it’s also just odd to see him go from the infamous red and purple to white and black. He’s almost Future Foundation Magneto.
  • Emma is kinda boring without her telepathy.

Final thoughts:

The traitors reason for doing what they do is completely sound and logical, though it was relatively apparent by the second panel who it would be. I’m not going to spoil it here, but they quickly narrow down who it could be into a very easy pool of choices.

Scott’s celebrity, as seen in this issue, really makes a lot of sense out of his treatment over in All-New. Only having a look at a college, and a few magazine covers, did nothing to really put over how big Scott’s message of revolution induced freedom has gotten with the masses.

Magik is a fucking badass in this issue. She leaps around like some sort of super ninja with her giant sword and just cleaves giant robots into tiny bits. This may be one of the best uses I’ve ever seen of her.

The Mighty Marvel Style is a very simple thing best defined by four artists whom have incredibly different styles. John Romita Jr., Mark Bagley, Adam Kubert, and Chris Bachalo. Anything they draw instantly feels like a Marvel title, and, on top of that, a HUGE deal. They might not be Marvel’s stable of big name artists, but they’re the ones that clearly mark a book as one of Marvel’s important ones.

The new mutants are working for me. Bendis is going outside of the box to find their powers, and it’s proving to be unique. I mean, yeah, we’ve had healers before, but Fabio is like a crazy mutant Speedball, and Eva has one of the most original powers I’ve seen in years.

I’m never going to get tired of saying this, but who knew that Bendis was such a natural with the X-Men? I feel like such a dick for hating on him so hard for all those years he wrote Avengers, because now I have to regularly explain that all is forgiven thanks to his X-Men. I’m not a hypocrite, he’s just a much better writer on this franchise than he was with the Avengers.

The 50/50 baby variants have been the most awesome variant cover program Marvel has ever done.

Overall: 9.5/10

A lifelong reader and self proclaimed continuity guru, Grey is the Editor in Chief of Comics Nexus. Known for his love of Booster Gold, Spider-Girl (the real one), Stephanie Brown, and The Boys. Don't miss The Gold Standard.