X-Men: First Class #1 (of 8)

Writer: Jeff Parker
Penciller: Roger Cruz
Inker: Victor Olazaba
Colorist: Val Staples


X-Men: First Class chronicles the untold adventures of the original X-Men. In the first issue Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Beast, Iceman and Angel take on an unknown intelligence that may or may not be a mutant like them.

This series is the latest in a number of comics that have served to expand on the adventures of the original X-Men. While at first it appears to be a reimagining of the adventures of the team, editor Mike Paniccia, in his letter at the back of the book, states that these stories fall “within the continuity structure of Marvel’s established universe” and that writer Jeff Parker is “careful not to contradict later developments”. That’s good… God knows there are way too many reimaginings and reinterpretations of the X-Men and other comic book characters out there.

What bothers me about this series though is that it doesn’t really seem to take place in the regular Marvel timeline at all. For one thing, the X-Men all have brand new costumes that have never been shown before. But I can buy that. The X-Men switch costumes so often you’d think the only required course at Xavier’s was fashion design. What really threw me for a loop were the constant references to the issues and technology of the current day. The Beast talking about global warming several times. Iceman mentioning e-mail and X-Box. Are we supposed to believe that the X-Men just popped up a few years ago? And when, in all of the X-Men comics, was Cerebro ever a talking computer that taught the students?

What this book really seems like is a Marvel Adventures X-Men comic that someone decided to promote to the regular line of books. The evidence is there - Parker has written several Marvel Adventures books, the X-Men are the only major characters to not have their own Adventures series and most of the Marvel Adventures books feature slightly younger versions of regular Marvel characters whose adventures take place in the modern day. And honestly it reads like a Marvel Adventures book. A simple “kids” book. Or Marvel’s idea of a kids book anyway.

It’s not all bad however. Parker’s characterization of the original X-Men is some of the best I’ve seen in a while. Each character is an individual person, even characters like Iceman and Angel, who have been pretty underdeveloped over the years. He also uses Iceman’s letter home to his parents as a way to explain the set-up of the book rather than neglecting new readers and expecting them to understand everything. And Roger Cruz’ is definitely showing what he can do with the art in this book. He’s not skimping on anything, from character design to detailed backgrounds. Though some of the art seems rushed towards the end of the book, this is some of the best art I’ve seen from Cruz in years.

So, for a Marvel Adventures “kids” comic, X-Men: First Class is actually kind of good. Not great, but better than most of those titles. But as an in-continuity mainstream series? I’m just not buying it.

Say, does anyone remember when Joe Quesada wanted to streamline the X-books of pointless, unessential books and thought that John Byrne’s X-Men: The Hidden Years (which also revealed untold stories of the original X-Men) was one of those books? Just thought that was sort of funny considering this is pretty much the exact same book with different creators.
 

Special thanks go out to Jeremy Shorr, owner of Titan Comics for allowing us to use his advance preview books for review purposes.

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