Join the Revolution!: A Look at Marvel Now’s Uncanny X-Men #1

Title: Uncanny X-Men #1

Author: Brian Bendis

Artist: Chris Bachalo

Publisher: Marvel Comics

Rating: T+

Release date: February 13, 2013

Verdict: Top Marks!

When Brian Bendis and Marvel comics announced that Bendis was leaving the Avengers franchise after almost 10 years, it was only a matter of time before Bendis was tackling another of Marvel’s big tent pole franchises. Other than Spider-Man, which would have been a long shot due to his ongoing work on Ultimate Spider-Man, the X-Men were the only real choice. Sure…Bendis is going cosmic with the new Guardians of the Galaxy series; but as the cosmic stuff has done well for Marvel, it has done nowhere near the same kind of business as the Avengers or X-Men, and the brand recognition just wasn’t there yet. When the dust cleared…it was the X-Men.

Mr. Bendis made his X-debut in November with All-New X-Men, which has burned up the shelves giving us 7 issues in less than three months. I would complain, but the issues have been a great read, so I consider myself lucky. This past week, Bendis’ second monthly X-book, Uncanny X-Men, debuted. Bendis’ All-New X-Men follows things from Wolverine’s school’s perspective, but this series follows Cyclops’ crew and their shenanigans. Just like his run on Avengers and New Avengers, Brian Bendis is striving to make these two distinct books with a cast that doesn’t overlap all that much. With a cast as large as the X-Men (maybe even larger than the massive Avengers roster), this is a good thing.

With Chris Bachalo on art, I had high expectations….and after reading this issue, I realized that they were met. Bachalo’s art is like nothing else coming out nowadays. The man has been around for years, mostly in the X-office, and he’s not lost a single step. Each page layout is brilliant and his colours (he colours the book too) are awesome! No one uses shadows and shading quite like him. I know that at the pace Marvel plans to release this book that Mr. Bachalo’s artwork will only grace these pages for about three issues in a row before another artist is forced to come on, but hopefully he’s back for more down the line. Not only was the artwork beautiful, but the writing was great too. As a Bendis fan, I can really tell that his creative juices are flowing. Some of the Avengers stuff this last year or two has seemed a little “par for the course” like he was going through the motions, but now that he has a new assignment, all that I love about his writing is shining once again.

Overall, a great read with a fantastic reveal on the final page. this book is going to be about the mutant revolution and I wouldn’t have any other writer tackling it. I’ll be back for the next issue for sure. Will you? Sound off in our handy comments section and let us know not only what you thought of this issue, but what you think of all the X-books in this new Marvel Now! landscape J .