I Reads You Review: ALL-NEW X-MEN #6

ALL-NEW X-MEN #6
MARVEL COMICS

WRITER: Brian Michael Bendis
ARTIST: David Marquez
COLORS: Marte Gracia
LETTERS: VC’s Cory Petit
COVER: Stuart Immonen and Wade von Grawbadger with Marte Gracia
VARIANT COVER: Chris Bachalo and Tim Townsend
28pp, Colors, $3.99 U.S.

Rated T+

All-New X-Men, a Marvel NOW title, is set at the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning. Here, Storm, Wolverine, Beast, Iceman, and Kitty Pryde try to keep Professor Charles Xavier’s dream alive. Meanwhile, Cyclops/Scott Summers, one of the original X-Men, has become a highly controversial figure and is the public face of a new mutant revolution. He and his teammates: Magneto, the White Queen, and Majick, are gathering new mutants as fast as they appear.

In a desperate bid to stop Cyclops’ activities from triggering a mutant apocalypse, a dying Beast/Hank McCoy goes back in time. He brings the original X-Men: Cyclops, Jean Grey, Iceman, Beast, and Angel, back with him. He wants young Cyclops see what he has become, so that he might change his ways and change his future.

All-New X-Men #6 opens after the original X-Men decide to stay in the present (their future) in order to save all our futures. Adjustment is difficult, however. Jean’s telepathic powers awakened for the first time. Angel is the only original X-Man who has not met his future-self. Cyclops has the most difficult time accepting what has happened, and that leads to a showdown with Wolverine.

With Brian Michael Bendis still writing, All-New X-Men is still good. His thoughtful, character-centric writing focuses on Marvel’s mutants both as people and as heroes. This makes All-New X-Men something like an evening teen soap opera / primetime drama.

David Marquez is now the artist on All-New X-Men. He replaces the team of Stuart Immonen and Wade von Grawbadger, who were the artists on the series’ first story arc. The results are mixed. Marquez storytelling is low-energy and his drawing style is bland. One of the problems with artists drawing from complete scripts is that they can become art robots, and Marquez’s art does lack a human touch. The robotic coloring doesn’t help.

Thank God for Bendis.

A-

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux