X-Men First Class #1 Review

No, this comic has nothing to do with the 2011 film, sorry about that if you thought so.

This comic was only exclusive through the toy deal, so, if you missed out on it, chances are you didn't buy the little set it was in that contained small figures of classic Cyclops and Marvel Girl--the latter of whom I did not know until I realized "Duh, it's Jean Grey." I don't like different names in comics, it's weird.

The sad part about this comic is that, to the people who have little to no idea about the X-Men, this comic serves them little justice in understanding how the X-Men work or who they are. It says a lot but at the same time it says nothing about them. Just like one would expect out of a Marvel comic, though, it has a good amount of action and that action is pretty cool to see.



The cover is very standard, just a white page with Iceman, Beast, Marvel Girl, Cyclops, and Angel flying westward onto the next page with "X-Men First Class" stamped on the top. Also, on the bottom of my copy, "NOT FOR RESALE." Huh, oh well. Guess that makes mine cooler.

We open with a splash page of basically the same thing we just saw, only this time the team is running toward us, a bald man's head is floating in the background, and they are in a forest. Also, three different narration boxes just to throw you off. But it's okay, I can help you there. The first one is just saying that Professor X has made the X-Men, the second one is Xavier giving an order, and the third is our story-long narrator writing to his mother from the school.

On the ensuing two pages, our team of young heroes partake in shenanigans fighting against a giant rose bush. Yup. Though it does do a good job of showing that the team is young. They're not as fully in sync as we know they will eventually be, as there is no clear leader and their attacks tend to hit each other a little.

Beast gets caught in the plant but Iceman manages to freeze the whole thing and Cyclops blasts it, destroying it. Throughout the battle we are told that this plant had some sort of sentient being behind it, as Marvel Girl was unable to tap into its mind and take over. Even Professor X can't tap into the alien mind.

The X-Men return to school and we see that Iceman and Beast are getting along well. There's even a clever joke where Beast mentions the "X-Box," which Iceman thinks is the console. However, it turns out to be a box used for the X-Men unies, so, yes, the "X-Box" indeed.

Our narrator proceeds to give some exposition on some of the other characters, showing off a scene in which Angel flies off because he doesn't feel he is up to snuff as the other students, he feels that he is only good when he is flying, otherwise he'll pretty much explode. I like this scene because it manages to give a lot of character to one whose, so far, only had a few moments of page-time. We manage to learn a lot about Angel in just a few panels, that he feels like a caged bird and that Xavier is able to relate to him on that level, and that Angel needs to know that he is indeed very special and that his mutation could come to change and influence his peers around him, especially his human ones.

Xavier is pretty awesome in this comic, not gonna lie. An excellent mentor for a rowdy bunch of kids.

Anyway, the kids go to the Frontal Lobe of the AI Cerebro (exactly how it is in the films, for those of you wondering to put an image in your head) and Xavier discovers that the sentience he was able to sense is near the school. After a small glimpse into why Cyclops wears his sunglasses, the team sets out to the forest to check it out. When they go, Angel has an odd attack which detains him from keeping up with formation of birds that appeared from the forest. Xavier contacts them and they set out for Greenland.

Because we needed more of a reason to pick on Iceman.

What I don't get, though, is that they keep saying that Iceman has no need for his powers here...yet wouldn't his powers be like mega-amplified by the cold around him? When they arrive we finally get a little look into Jean, and how our narrator is lamenting how she doesn't even have a bad side.



Nope, not a single bad side at all!

They clear a path and head toward a small drilling area, where Xavier tells them to stop drilling so that they may find what they are looking for. Before they can further explain, Xavier's brain gets taken over and we see what the Sentient has been all this time:

Basically picture tentacles with eyes at the end of them, and a lot of them and they are big. And that's what you've got here. Plus, apparently the things have been around longer than humans have, but have relegated the Earth to humanity and wish to remain in their solemnity. However, the drilling process is killing them and they want to live out the rest of their lives in peace.

We're not given much to go on regarding this species, but I'm not really buying the fact that they would just bend over and let humanity take the Earth away. These things are advanced enough to take over Xavier's brain--though we do find out it was willingly, they were still able to contact him from deep underground in Iceland--and would probably do away with regular humans in seconds thanks to insane psychic abilities. They are shown as peaceful, since they don't attack and sound forgiving. Xavier even has a nice moment where he says that the Earth belongs to everyone and free will and stuff.

Thus our comic ends with Iceman finishing his letter to his mother, expressing excitement to his mother about the opportunity to be on the team and about what the future holds.

For a comic that is supposed to be something of a deal, sold in Toys' R' Us back when it was in circulation, it's a pretty decent read. It's an interesting one for people curious about the early days of the X-Men, or just those wondering what the original X-Men team would look like and how they would act. In terms of #1's, it is a very solid opening issue for a potential series, leaving many doors open to explore.

Not too much wrong with this comic, so if you see it and are interested in the X-Men, you should be able to find it rather cheap and I'd say it's a nice read.

Next week, we take a full-series look into Star Wars Darth Maul: Son of Darthomir and see just how the Clone Wars ended and how screwed over those clever guys got by having the show cancelled.