2.144 (509) All Star Superman #1 ... DC ...

There was a time ... waaaaay back when both Marvel and DC were not relaunching their core titles every 2 to 3 years ... back when they wanted to tell a character with a twist ... they resorted to mini series or even alternate universes and thus for the purists you can follow the main publishing schedules while for the rest, like, who hardly ever buy DC, we love it as we can dip in when the storylines suite us

And this is one heck of a storyline ... 12 issues ... Morrison and Quitely ... and so much happening in each issue that you know it is not padded ... and the artwork despite its sparse linework ... never once feels like rushed but so perfect ... same goes for colorist ... and inventive villains

So here in this first issue naturally we get a brief on Clark Kent and Superman's background but they didn't waste time so as not to drag things out ... in fact SPOILER ALERT ... they start with a huge action scene of something going wrong in the sun and dear old Superman coming to the rescue ...

And between the switch in scenes ... we get the feeling that there is something more than an exploration mission gone wrong or that an astronaut is the villain of the piece ... of course there is Luthor but what is his ultimate plan as at this point he doesn't even give a damn about being caught? But our summation here is weak ... the actual flow of the storyline has so much going on in it that you just have to download illegal copies (whoops) and read it and if you like it we encourage you to track down the floppies or the TPB

Gorgeous piece of work

Ratings: 9/10

2.143 (508) Black Panther 1998 #1 ... Marvel ...

There is every now and then the usual hoo-ha about how there are not enough character of diversity in the world of comics. But for me, I am Asian and in my 30 years of reading comics, I have never felt the need for this. If the story warrants it, fine but if not, it's no big deal. I just don't think it should ever feel forced upon for the sake of political correctness

And this issue is just plain awesome. I was not a fan of the Panther and except for knowing him to be from an African country that has Vibranium and advanced technology even though they still behave tribal? I know next to nothing

So when I picked this up waaaaay back when it was coming out in floppies, it was merely to flip the pages ... and please note that I am also not a fan of Tex's art but for some reason the tale within captured my attention and off and on I followed it for a good four years plus!

I mean when you open this comic and you read the first page? Come on! How awesomely funny is that? You just have to try it

Anyway, let's get to specifics. At the point of this series launch, Panther is arriving to America because of some potential frame up accusing of him being involved in some scandal or other. Naturally he bring in his troops i.e the 2 warrior women and an elderly giant of a man. As he is both royalty and head of State, the US govt attached a liaison to him to sort of be his guide but unofficially be the eyes and ears of the US govt. So intro Mr Ross

Mr Ross plays a prominent and comical role throughout the 50 or so issues becoming the soul of the series for me. He is a shrimp of a man who is not afraid to show his weaknesses and is obviously an office person more than a field person

And he is also sleeping with his superior!

Now this series flips all over the place, past and present from scenario to scenario. So you really have to pay attention but it is time and effort well-spent SPOILER ALERT what the cover doesn't tell you is that the ending has yet another guest star. Throughout this issue, it's more political intrigue and some fisticuffs than anything else but that last 2 page? Wow! It leaves you wondering what else may be coming because you see ... Ross' door was knocked (not a joke) and when he opens it ... outside was Mephisto (the devil) waiting to come in (say what?)

Ratings: 8/10

2.142 (507) Moon Knight 2011 #1 ... Marvel ...

Well, well, well ... when Marvel relaunched Moon Knight with super hot artist Dave Finch, it was reminiscence of the previous Moon Knight series that was limbering towards its end and cancellation when new artist Stephen Platt brought it out of the doldrums. Unfortunately Platt moved on to other things and well, Finch being that good but albeit slow, has to move on too ...

And so Marvel must have thought to do it differently this time around by using uber hot writer Bendis (Avengers) and paired him off with critical darling artist Maleev (Daredevil) but honestly ... while interesting the series was middle-of-the-road at best ... and it lasted for all of 2 story arcs or 12 issues if you are counting ...

With that griping out of the way (sorry, readers) let's get on with this review. As the last series finished not that long ago, the first few pages ... I guess it is directed at new readers who are probably fans of Bendis or Maleev because we actually waste time retelling the origins of Moon Knight. If it is for a fan of the Knight, well, they know his origins so why bother eh?

The fun starts several pages into the comic as we see Marc enjoying the high life once more as a wealthy bloke only to disappear as he is summoned. SPOILER ALERT And to our utter surprise we see him popping up to the rooftop to confer with his Avenger buddies because for those not in the know, Moon Knight was actually an Avenger for a while

Naturally the problem is that with the past few years of nonsense going around with the heroes, new and old villains are popping up and staking their interests and here in the new city where Knight is operating, he is tasked to find who is the new Kingpin more or less

As he does his runaround bit, he encounters a strangely garbed ex villain who is in a costume but not the one that most fans of Marvel would know and recognize and hence ... feels so weird ... anyway to make a long story short, inspite of the fight and drama, this guy is still not the ultimate villain i.e. there is still someone at play and that someone was not revealed even at the end of this issue for you see, this villain? He has somehow come across an Ultron and is trying to sell it to the other guy

But what is surprising and you should put up with this book until literally the last page is the last page reveal because wow what a reveal it is. It is of such a monumental reveal that will make you wonder about the next issue. Wonder but not necessary put it on your pull list unless you have the extra bucks

For me, while I do like Maleev's work, I am not a fan and would not buy if his name is on the cover and in this case, thanks to Finch's previous series, this feels like a huge fall from standards. Sigh!

Ratings: 4/10

2.141 (506) Shadowhawk vol 1 #1 ... Image ...

Continuing our trend from the previous few reviews, here is another first issue from one of the original Image co-founder - Jim Valentino. Now Jim has been the one that gets the odd critic approval more from his storylines rather than his artwork because he doesn't do much of that over-pouches, gigantic boobs with odd poses stuff (not that he didn't try every now and then)

Anyway he is one of my favorites simply because of the first 15 or so issues of Guardians of the Galaxy from before the movie with the original team. For some reason, when he started, before he developed his own signature style, the artwork is so cool with space faring types of people kicking all kinds of ass and the fast-paced action all the time

Unfortunately here in his own book, Jim lost all control and goes full fledged Jim. Now I loved his enhanced covers and I actually enjoyed the story but I think he would have benefitted from a good editor so that he doesn't come out too preachy

You see, Shadowhawk initially comes out like a tv series with a few limited series telling a larger tale which is great. And in this first issue, we are shown a number of sccenarios that hints at who Shadowhawk could be

At this point, we see someone dresses up, coming out and kicking the crap out of thugs of all sorts. And to ensure that Shad is a tough guy, his "thing" is to break the backs of the baddies ... here we mean literally he cracks the spine so that they will be paralyzed for life and can spend the rest of their lives regretting their action i.e. even less merciful than killing them. I guess that's grim and gritty, eh?

In the meantime, we all see all sorts of machinations but so far more or less, it's human level type of bad guys with a bit of low level supervillainy

Now allow us to skip the tale a bit ... basically if you follow this story, you will find that Shad is actually an African American who has been infected by some vicious asshole with the HIV virus. And as the story progresses he goes all over the Image Universe trying to find a cure ... yes ... it is that preachy ... regardless of what Valentino and team might say in the back pages of the books. Ah well ...

Rating: 5/10

2.140 (505) Savage Dragon ongoing #1 ... Image ...

Here we go again ... another embarrassing review moment as we checked and realized we have never done a single review on Erik Larsen's super awesome Savage Dragon series. This is one of two series that started the Image revolution that until today is still running, the other being Spawn. Now while I am not a big fan of Erik, neither do I dislike his work. There is a lot of energy in his lines and at this early stage of his career, his work has a lot of lines and details before he morph more and more into a Kirby-esque homage (see Dragon above #75) ...

Anyway if you start with this, it does feel like you are in the middle of a story. The good part is that there is sort of a one page flashback sequence somewhere in the middle of the story. Another good part is that there is not a lot of panels wasted on exposition on the origins of Dragon and the bad? It feels like you are in the middle of a story (hehehe)

Now on to the tale proper SPOILER ALERT at the start of this tale, and for many years, Larsen wants Dragon to have the same persona as Cable and Wolverine i.e. a man who cannot remember his past but that in no way takes or retracts from the reader's enjoyment of the series as it supposedly add a layer of "mystery" to the protagonist and in this case, Larsen made all the right calls because the series at the start is really enjoyable

We start with a Dragon who doesn't remember who he is or how he came to be the Dragon looking like that, all green, super strong, regenerative abilities and with a fin on his head. What is even more add is that before being found by a police officer in a burning field, a fully grown adult, there is no record in any of the news media about there ever having been someone like him and hey we are talking fin head okay? So mystery set and in place

Well, our police officer sort of placed him with a family member who then got iced by the super villains in Chicago and that is how the Dragon ends up as a police officer which is how we opened the first page of this comic

And in quick succession, we are shown how the Dragon is a bad ass by how fast he takes down nasty villains without even second's worth of hesitation employing violent means to win and to save lives, be damn with the consequences and the paperwork ... which when you even stop to think is weird ... because hey it is America, the land of being sued and suing

Hah

Aside from that, we also see that his first buddy, the police officer is quickly having huge personal stress problems that are hinted at here. And then as the Dragon wants to confront the powers of Chicago, he is being directed at other superpowered issues .. here we refer to Ricochet and her brutish mate ... SPOILER ALERT ... these are characters that are being introduced here who will then become members of Freak Force ... a team that will assist Dragon in future law enforcement ... so you know this is just a chance for gratuitous fighting but hey it's comics and that's what we want! Hahaha!

So is it worth the time? Yes if you like loads of action and a comic that takes more than 20 mins to read because each page? Has tons of words from balloons to this and that. Hehehe! Awesome!

Ratings: 6/10

2.139 (504) WildCATS vol 1 #4 ... Image ...

Wow this issue is just plain awesome. If you have followed this tale from 1 to 3, you will be left wondering how Lee and Co are going to finish the tale in just a normal sized issue but you know what? They did it and did it well to the point that it doesn't feel .. rushed or forced ... it's just that great

Now for those who have yet to read this but may be interested, please note that you should just look at the cover and enjoy that cover and stop reading this because this is a review not a preview and I do not want to spoil it for you but hey that cover? Wow, right?

Okay this is the end of the first arc of this new series and the players at this time are:

1. Wildcats - obviously
2. Youngblood - from Rob Liefeld's corner of the Image Universe as they are assigned to protect the VP of USA who is at that time possessed by alien baddies and this means, the blood were being used
3. Alien baddies
4. Alien and semi-alien mercenaries
5. Regular folks

So it's battle royale as the blood found out the truth and took sides with the cats to bring a world of pain on the baddies. They were close, very close to unleashing their ultimate weapon to take down our world. The price to stop this was high to the cats

And to my utter surprise, the battle actually ended with several pages left in the issue for us to get a feel of what is going to come next in this series and I am so glad it continued ... at least for the next dozen issues

Ratings: 9/10

2.138 (503) WildCATS vol 1 #1 ... Image ...

Wow I am so embarrassed to admit that while the CATS was my early fave from when Image comics launched ... until now ... at 503rd review only am I here doing this review. I checked our list and realized that for some odd reason, I did 2 and 3 and 0 but not 1. Why? No F-ing idea! Anyway, so here we are and so let's get started

Everyone who reads comics in today's world still knows Jim Lee. So I am not going to waste time extolling his virtues in terms of awesome pencilwork and storytelling abilities but instead I am going to say that he is paired with an awesome colorist of his era and this entire issue is well balanced from the subtlety to the bold color moments. Just plain great!

For the tale itself, well, as an opener, once again, there is great balance between introducing us to the main protagonists, the heroes, the villains and a few side plots. It opens with flashes of the past somewhere in Antartica where something happens but mind you if you read this series you will find that this flashback ties to a future issue and so this is relevant

Next up we are introduced to a midget, Jacob who starts off as a drunken street bum but within a few panels WOWZA we find out he is just a billionaire who enjoys slumming it and he has no recollection of who he was in the past until a weird looking silver lady found him and then with her assistance somehow made him into the billionaire that he is

Naturally at this point he supports her and her wishes. I mean, who wouldn't? But he still didn't believe her that he is going to be some sort of hero-saviour in the war amongst alien races. Yes, this is not about mutants but rather 2 alien races that crashed on earth years ago and each have grown hiding amongst the humans as humans developed and evolved. In addition, some of the alien spawn have intermarried with earthlings and their progeny now shows unique abilities

So with his wealth, our friend Jacob has been busy collecting these special individuals and housing them and training them to defend us mere mortals against the eventuality that some day, the bad aliens will come a calling

And who are the aliens? Well they are called Dire Wraiths ... nope that's from Rom ... they are called the Brood ... nah but they do look a bit like Brood but hey does it matter if the story line is awesome?

We are shown a few scenes into the baddies hideout as they too consolidate their moves and we are shown that amongst the baddies are 2 strong factions. One is muscle for hire and one, typically, world domination. So they are culling the weak from their world while planning to take over the world. That last page with the reveal of their mole in USA government? Rich!

Anyway to ensure that there is enough action, we also get to see the training of the good guys and a few small scum they encountered. For those who do not know the CATS the important members are:

Warblade - green hair and can stretch his hands like Mr Fantastic except he has these hands that can turn into metallic claws ala Wolverine

Maul - who can grow big and strong except the bigger he grows the dumber ala the old Hulk and he is purple too

Zealot - supposedly one of those good aliens who learned to fight and founded a sisterhood of warrior women who then went on to hire themselves in the world of men (say what). She is your obligatory bad girl dressed in her undies and wielding blades

Grifter - the loner who acts tough and wise cracks supposedly one liner funnies (though rarely do I find it funny) and jumps around shooting at things just like Gambit in his jacket

And then for the more boring members:
Adrian or Hadrian - the robotic guy who looks like human and can fly and shoot beams from his hand
Void - the silver lady who can teleport and supposedly very powerful but throughout the series we are rarely shown and thus rarely understood why she is supposedly very powerful as she is always taken down easily

There are a few more to go as the series progresses but for this issue, that's it. Good art, good story, good characters. If you haven't, then you need to read it

Ratings: 8/10

2.137 (502) Youngblood vol 1 #3 ... Image ...

If you thought our last review indicated a lot of goings-on, well, this next issue continues that trend. So for this review, let's try to list them like a fan's letter to the comic style with bullet points:

1. Cover - AWESOME. Regardless of what some may say about the posture or the shading, all I can say is that it projects so much awesomeness in terms of power and what each of the characters are all about that the pose actually works!

2. First part - the first few pages of this comic continues from the last with Prophet now taking on the SPOILER ALERT robotic bad guys supposedly sent from his future by his nemesis. Prophet has no choice because after his battle with Team Youngblood before teaming up with TY, they were exhausted and most of this encounter happens off panel and we see Proph as last man standing. Ah well ...

3. Next part - unfortunately we will have to wait for issue 4 to see the conclusion of Proph's side as we now jump to the main YB team headed by Shaft as they spend a few pages on downtime handling admin work

4. Side plots - naturally all good comics needed this and here we have creatures looking like Kombat in outerspace chatting away and gritting their teeth and posturing around

But guess what? All the above? Not even half of the comic. Now without further SPOILERS you can imagine actually how much is happening here in this comic - sub plots, main plots, characterization, all that and more and so many of these new characters would spin off into their own limited series and ongoing (short lived or otherwise). It's just amazing if you are a kid and getting your hands on an issue of a comic like this ... just plain ... wow!

Ratings: 8/10

2.136 (501) Youngblood vol 1 #2 ... Image ...

Admittedly, if you are to read this without knowing the history in detail of this issue's release, you would probably feel that it is somewhat dated especially in the colouring department and to a certain extent, the storylines but hey when this came out waaaaay back in the 90s, inspite of all this, it was HUGE. The sheer anticipation of what else creator Rob Liefeld can throw at us, his loyal fans, was simply AWESOME

In this issue, we finally, as the cover indicates get to see Prophet - and as typical comic teasing would have it - is he friend or foe? Well as far as we are concerned, that cover alone makes you want to turn the pages to find out because colouring aside, that is one awesome looking character

And when you turn to page 1, hey, guess what? More new characters in the form of the Berzerkers. At this point, I have no idea who these people are (but they are going to have their own limited series not long after their debut here so that should tell you a little bit more about their impact) but the fact that on page 1 you have them? Whoa!

As for the storyline proper, well, basically some superpowered earthlings were defending against an invasion from Darkthornn's dimension or some such place. And in the course of such things found someone encased in a tube (no this is not similar to the Avengers discovering Cap). However, while they debated long over it, before they know it, our man in the tube managed to be ... free ... and naturally with gritted teeth, a hard fought battle ensued. We see that Prophet is one tough cookie even though none expected him to be that fast or strong i.e. he is no Hulk or Quicksilver but his skills and ability to bear with the pain made him an opponent that gave the entire Youngblood team a run for their money

Oh yes, before we forgot, in this issue there is yet one more new character - Kirby the shortie who smokes and has like gazillion guns blazing every time! Hah!

Ratings: 6/10

2.135 (500) Star Wars 2015 #1 ... Marvel ...

It's our big FIVE HUNDREDTH review ... and how can we cover anything but the year's BIGGEST SALES comic - the new STAR WARS. Hehehehe! Enough with the caps, yes? Actually this issue would have been granted a 10/10 if not for the cover. Seriously. Look at it. Could they not find someone who can do better for such a monumental issue? How about someone like P Craig Russell/ Alex Ross/ Arthur Adams/ Bill Sienkiewicz? Right? Ugh!

Yes it is by John Cassaday but ... it still looks weak ... sorry!

Anyway, similar to our review of Vader, this issue takes place after the destruction of the Destroyer. So feeling that the Empire is going all over the place panicking and witch hunting, our friends in the Rebel Alliance realizes that here is yet another awesome opportunity to press home their advantage and go all out trying to kick the Empire's butt

The opening sequence is plain awesome as it feels exactly like the movie where after the rolling titles and summary we get a space ship zooming down to a planet. SPOILER ALERT. And before you know it, our friends Han/ Luke/ Leia is on a roll trying to infiltrate and destroy whatever they can get their hands on

Naturally to complicate things, they ran into a slave pen and being the good guys that they are, they try to accommodate. However, as if that wasn't enough, along comes Vader and this is totally unexpected. What was meant to be mayhem earlier is nothing when you add Vader into the mix. Here we get to see an angry Vader who coldly sacrifices his loyal troops just to proof his point. Just ... wow!

And lots of Stormtroopers get their chips cashed in too!

Suffice to say, the story and interior artwork are just perfect. Feels so good that it could have been taken off from panels in a movie!

Ratings: 9/10

2.134 (499) Planetary #1 ... Wildstorm ...

Finally a break from Marvel to ... Wildstorm ... at this time I am not sure if they are Image or DC and I couldn't be bothered to scrutinize the fine writing at the bottom of the page. Hah! Who cares?

This issue though not new shows us the potential of what the Authority and Stormwatch could be. We also have a younger John Cassaday whose artwork is already phenomenal even at this stage and Warren Ellis giving his all

As the title and cover shows, we see this as your non-traditional superhero comic. It is about a group of always three people though we are not sure why who is hired and recruited into this awesomely weirdly high tech organization where there seems to be no one else and their jobs are to go on missions that are just plain weird with potentially X-Files style except to the max

As this issue opens, we are introduced Jakita (the lady who turns out to enjoy a good brawl hence her dressing and she is the most "super hero" of the group) who comes a recruiting to a café in the middle of somewhere. The gentleman she is recruiting is one Snow (chap in white). What makes him special is he is one of those millennia type folks i.e. living below the radar but have existed for a full millennia (yup a hundred years old) with what other abilities no one is sure

The third team member is Drums and his ability is that he can tap into all sorts of data wavelengths but he needs to draw them out. We are not told all this but the artwork after a few issues sort of shows you this and hence the need to always drum or stamp his feet (weird right?)

And in this issue, they are sent to explore something that just came up on the mysterious radar blip only to discover that the "evil" is none other than SPOILER ALERT an aging Brass who has stayed there protecting the world from the "evil" after his ancient team had been decimated. He has survived but he didn't know the actual number of years (half a century) had passed by and he is still alive!

How's that for an eye opener of a first issue? Definitely makes us want to come back for more

Ratings: 8/10

2.133 (498) Darth Vader 2015 #1 ... Marvel ...

If you are any sort of Star Wars fan, be it movie/ comics/ cartoons, you would know of two things that is happening this year. First and foremost - part 7 or rather VII of the movie is coming out next month and secondly, more in relation to our reviews, the comic franchise has been shifted from Dark Horse back to Marvel ... we say back to because during the original run of movies 4 to 6, the comics were at the house of M (heh)

Anyway, what's really important is that in this issue (wow we are reviewing a current comic more or less) it is plainly AWESOME

Yes it is that good that it deserves caps. So let's say it again - AWESOME

Basically as the title indicates this is a series told from Darth's perspectives except that to make his presence more ominous there are no thought balloons. And so when you see him in that face mask coming and no words coming out ... well, it is soooo good as if watching a movie

Now for those wondering how a villain can carry a comic series, well, all we can say is try this. It starts after the end of the Deathstar ship that was destroyed by the rebels. As we all remember, Darth tried and failed to stop it and so for the first time since he became a Darth to his Sith Lord, the Emperor, he has failed. And naturally he must be wondering how the Emperor will take it. If the Emperor treats him like the way he treats others, it will be nasty

While all this is ongoing, and the Emperor is not helping by deliberately (or otherwise) showing his dealings with others of whom Darth has no idea of their true identity or purpose, Darth's head is all a swirl about the young Jedi whom he met as they were under the impression that all Jedi were thought dead and gone with ... at that time ... perhaps a failing Obi-wan scuttling a way. So this became one of the objectives in his planning ... to locate and identify and if need be exterminate

All this on top of his personal quest to track down and eliminate the rebels who brought shame to his door

What an opener of an issue. O yeah for those who like the original stormtroopers and not those from the clone wars era, you get them here

Ratings: 9/10

2.132 (497) X-Men vol 1 #115 ... Marvel ... (New X-Men)

After that last issue (review), if you are a casual reader or long time but lapsed reader of the X-Men, for sure, you know, you are going to come back for more, right? Hehehe! Because we know we did when it first came out on floppies or singles or loose issues and we actually waited for it

This second issue is no disappointment. From the cover of an awesomely smug Wolvie to the interiors and coloring, just superb and converted us into a fan of Frank Quitely

SPOILER ALERT

Sorry we re-read the issue trying to figure out how not to spoil it for you but there is just so much goodness here that it would be a literary crime for us to not do all we can to make you go read it. So without further ado, if you buy this, here is what you are going to get:

1. Ugly throwaway mutants - yup Morrison and Quitely gave us a few new characters whose destiny it is to remain useless but still interesting - look at that annoying guy with more than one physical face!

2. Awesomely nasty new villains - Cassandra makes her move and while our heroes track her down and confront all sorts of new config for Sentinels and their guards, boy o boy, were they all mistaken if that was all the threat she posed because hey X people she has even more evil plans that are already in motion

3. Prof X - while Beast and Jean help him to recover, they found out to their own mental peril that once again Cassandra has plotted out her mad schemes several steps ahead

4. Cyclops - was way cool in how he handled both Cassandra and descendant of Trask

5. Ending - but nothing beats the ending of poor Magneto and his island nation! That was AWESOME!

Ratings: 9/10

2.131 (496) X-Men vol 1 #114 ... Marvel ...

In the life of a comics series, there will come a time when the usual run of creators are unable to bring new energy and enthusiasm to the book. And then it faces declining sales and potential cancellation. So from out of nowhere, Marvel brought in 2 talents that have been making waves over at DC - Frank Quitely (artist) and Grant Morrison (writer) and what a breath of fresh air they both did!

First up, they discarded the old cartoony costumes and introduced black jackets, leggings and what-not that is then shared with the movies (albeit not so cool looking even in the movies) and as you can see from the cover, a certain amount of swagger and confidence to the characters

While Morrison, he turned them from the usual angst ridden heroes into a bunch of experienced adventurers who each have their own personality. In this issue, he introduced no less than a new super villain named Cassandra Nova. At this point, we do not know who she really is except that she is like a shrunken old auntie wearing weird safari suit and appointing a legacy of Sentinel founder Trask onboard ... and they are taking a journey through various times of the human progress and witnessing how humanity has grown ... the message is there and if you follow the series you will see how well-laid out the storylines are ...

And also as a first introduction to her presence, she chose none other than to strike at Charles Xavier while he is hooked up with Cerebra

So aside from Prof X, this issue sees a very unique combination of X-characters. We have Cyclops as leader (naturally), two psychics in the form of Jean and Emma and two beastlike characters in the form of Hank and Logan

Can't wait for the next issue!

Ratings: 9/10

2.130 (495) All New X-Men vol 1 #1 ... Marvel ...

Finally we are "up to the times" so to speak as we review a series that is actually an on-going and not suffering from reboot and only three years old! Howabout that, eh? Hehehehehe!

Honestly, I avoided this book even though I have it in soft copy and hard copy simply because of the artist, Stuart Immonen. Sorry but I didn't enjoy his past work and it all looks a bit rushed and murky. But I have been pleasantly surprised and now can safely categorise him similar to Ed McG where if he has the right inker and colorist and right project, the work can actually be entertaining

And in this volume, we see the return of the original X-Men

Yup for those not in the know, this is not a slotting in between past issues kind of project but the actual teen heroes who failed to sustain the first round of X-Men comics coming back once more and in the present run of the X-tales

Background recap time: basically after all the horror of the Phoenix Five where many things were destroyed and the whole world nearly destroyed with the adult Cyclops openly unrepentant and even broke out of prison, the Beast, decided to make a time-jump into the past to bring the younger kids into the future hoping that meeting his younger self would jolt Cyclops back to his senses. He theorises that the kids would not remember this meeting because if all goes well and he sends them back to their own time, Prof X would wipe this from their minds (Huh?)

So that's the gist of it. As this is a normal length opening issue, there is already a lot going on here but what I found really cool is the fact that writer Bendis injects so much more personality into these youthful X-Men. Naturally we see Scott as being a bit uptight but still noble. What is refreshing is that Bobby actually looks younger and is annoying more fun than the Torch and Spidey while Warren is equally capable of a laugh or too!

Awesome!

Ratings: 7/10