X-Men #1Writer: Chris Claremont and Jim Lee
Art: Jim Lee and Scott Williams
What Went Down: This was a double sized issue, so this is gonna be a long description. It is the dawn of a new age for the X-Men, where it’s out with the old and in with the older as the original X-Men rejoin the team. But our story actually begins in space where a group of SHIELD agents (the ones in the green space suits) are pursuing a band of mutant fugitives (the ones in the yellow space suits) who have hijacked a space ship. Magneto interrupts, destroying all the ships, and taking everyone aboard his base, Asteroid M. The mutant fugitives convince Magneto to come out of retirement because his people need him. Meanwhile, officials in Russia are panicking because Magneto’s base is orbiting right above their country, and they are about to execute something called The Magneto Protocols (more on this next issue). This in turn concerns President George Bush and Nick Fury, who are worried that a war between Magneto and Russia might escalate. There is only one hope for the safety of the world.
Over at the newly rebuilt X-mansion, the X-Men are testing their base’s defenses… except later it turns out that everything took place in the confines of the holographic Danger Room, which is basically the equivalent of the Holodeck on Star Trek (Feel. So. Nerdy). Wolverine wins the exercise, waves his claws really close to Xavier, and gets in a fight with Cyclops over it, thus reestablishing that they really don’t like each other.
Nick Fury calls the X-Men and explains the conflict of the story to them. Everyone is conflicted because Magneto used to be an ally, but was also their greatest enemy. The team is split up and the Blue Squad is sent to intercept Magneto, who is stealing nuclear missiles from the Lenningrad, a Russian submarine he sank back in Uncanny #149.
The Blue Team attacks; Magneto is surprised by how aggressively his former teammates are fighting him. He flees, but not before detonating one of the missiles which destroys a bunch of Russian fighter planes, knocks out power in Russia, and knocks Rogue all of the way to Genosha, an island off the coast of Africa.
Upon returning to Asteroid M, Magneto expresses his frustration at fighting his former allies. Fabian Cortez, one of the mutants he saved earlier, uses his powers to heal Magneto, and then takes the rest of his group, now called the Acolytes, to Genosha to find Rogue… for some reason, probably revenge.
The Acolytes attack and kill Genoshan soldiers, and capture Rogue, until the rest of the Blue Team arrives and another fight ensues. Wolverine recognizes Cortez’s smell, but never brings it up again. Psylocke remarks about how strange it is that she chooses to fight up close rather than just using her telepathy to take out enemies. The fight is interrupted by Magneto, who acknowledges that his Acolytes were wrong to attack Genosha, but refuses to leave them to be persecuted by the local government. The issue ends with Moira MacTaggert throwing a hysterical fit and blaming herself for the entire conflict.
How It Was: A very good start to what would become Marvel’s number one franchise. Jim Lee’s pencils are quite enjoyable to look at, and the story is very fast paced and has some nice one-liners to add some levity. The nice thing is that even though a lot of things were getting swept under the rug in a hurry, such as Magneto’s turn as a hero, Claremont still takes the time to acknowledge the characters’ uneasiness about it. The great thing about Claremont’s Magneto is that he is not necessarily wrong in this instance. He just wants to procure the nukes as a means of deterring other world powers from threatening him. The X-Men on the other hand just want to prevent an international incident, but why is it wrong for Russia to feel threatened by him when Magneto already feels threatened by Russia? Also, all of the fight scenes are very bright and exciting. There is an especially good sequence where Magneto gets knocked inside the submarine, comes face to face with the remains of all the men he killed, and is overcome with guilt and memories of his own childhood in a concentration camp. Even though this is a hitting of the reset button for him, this is still a really great issue for Magneto.
On the negative side, a few details stick out. All of the Acolytes, other than Cortez, are really, really boring—so much so that they all die after this arc. There’s Delegado, who can grow, Chrome, who can turn people into other substances and fly, and… uh, some girl, who can… err… well she uses a gun. They’re all one-dimensional zealots, none of whom really stand out. On top of that, there is the needlessly complicated defection of SHIELD agent Harry Delgado to the ranks of the Acolytes. Wolverine brings up the fact that he’s not sure whether it is the same Delgado or just a mutant with the same name or he’s being brainwashed, but then it is never brought up again. And speaking of confusing, the opening team exercise doesn’t make a whole lot of sense; it appears that the X-Men are assaulting the mansion to “capture” Jean and the Professor, but if they are actually in the Danger Room, then what are the walls and sewers connected to, and how do they actually get to the control room?
And now a few minor character nitpicks. Some of the dialogue stands out as particularly dreadful, such as Wolverine exclaiming out loud, “We’re s’posed t’be working t’gether, as a team! But what the heck… man wants to play lonewolf, he can take the consequences.” Also, Psylocke acts like a complete moron by not taking advantage of her powers, and even realizes it herself. Being generous, this can be written off as an effect of her body transfer, although that story hadn’t been worked out yet. And Moira’s nervous breakdown borders on sexist caricature when she won’t stop crying despite every character explaining to her why she isn’t to blame. Women can be so emotional, I guess, but this portrayal is really at odds with the strong, brilliant, machine gun toting lassie that we’ve all grown to know and love. Oh, and it’s kind of weird that Professor X never really deals with the recrippling of his legs. Think about it, how many characters can say they’ve been crippled twice? Actually today it’s more like three times, with a fourth possibly on the way. In spite of all of this, it’s still a solid effort. The lack of interesting new villains is overshadowed by the dynamic portrayal of Magneto, and Claremont is able to demonstrate that he knows these characters inside and out.
B+
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