When the world turned against Krakoa, these five mutants lost their lives… but their mission as X-Men is just getting started. To preserve Xavier’s dream, they must accomplish the impossible – or die again trying! Dead X-Men #1 spins out of Rise of the Powers of X and that is its weak point.

Written by Steve Foxe, Dead X-Men #1 features the team of Frenzy, Prodigy, Jubilee, Dazzler, Cannonball, and Askani. The team make-up catches the attention, it’s an odd one we haven’t really seen before. That opens up a lot of potential as how the X-Men teams gel together is part of the fun. We get a little bit of that here but the main focus of the comic is the mission. Towards the end of Rise of the Powers of X, Professor X hinted at his plan to attempt to right the nightmare timeline that has been spun. It seems that Dead X-Men will focus on that mission.

The mission is interesting and involves hopping around various timelines trying to data dump Moira McTaggert’s memories to figure out a perfect point to engage her. The goal is to stop the madness before it starts. It’s the usual time traveling/timeline destroying insanity that is the X-Men and their current era is full of. It feels rather appropriate in a way to end it all like this. But, if you’re not fully bought into the current Fall/Rise storylines, then the series is one to ignore. It feels like it’s the core mission of what’s happening that’ll lead to what happens next.

Unlike say Wolverine (which I’m enjoying) or Resurrection of Magneto (which I am not), Dead X-Men feels like the “core” story for Rise of the Powers of X, that to itself is a series itself. It’s not a side story tie-in, it’s a vital piece of information. It can’t be picked up and enjoyed on its own, like the first two series mentioned, or the other “main” X-Men comics, it’s very much tied deep into one of the two main “event” comics, almost like an extra storyline that can’t be fit within those pages.

The team itself is interesting and while seemingly and odd one for this sort of important mission, that’s part of the story. Unfortunately due to the rather rushed urgency of the mission, we don’t get quite the personalities playing off of each other, it’s not quite the “fun” type of X-Men team you’d expect. They’re serious. This is serious.

The art features the trio of Jonas Scharf, Bernard Chang, and Vincenzo Carratu with color by Frank Martin and lettering by Cory Petit. It all looks pretty good but beyond the new settings and new takes on familiar characters, the visuals never quite pop. There’s some muddled moments actually and moments that should really hit, don’t quite do it. It’s one where the art services the story but doesn’t stand out from it.

Dead X-Men #1 isn’t a bad comic but it’s an “event” comic in every way. If you’re not bought into the current X-Men transition story, it’s one that won’t jump out. But, if you’re completely here for it, it’s a vital chapter of what happens next and how it happens.

Story: Steve Foxe Art: Jonas Scharf, Bernard Chang, Vincenzo Carratu
Color: Frank Martin Letterer: Cory Petit
Story: 6.75 Art: 7.25 Overall: 6.8 Recommendation: Read

Marvel provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review

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