Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Beast, Iceman and Angel – the first and greatest heroes to bear the X-Men name – once traveled into their own futures and reset the course of history. Now another multiversal mystery calls them forth. Original X-Men #1 kicks off a multi-issue event series that may result in something?

Written by Christos Gage, Original X-Men #1 is an interesting comic. It’s a stealth launch of a mini-event that will have teams taking on a multiversal threat. Original X-Men #1 kicks that off playing off the team’s previous time traveling adventures. This time they must deal with corrupted versions of themselves in a different universe setting events off that will be dealt with in the next issue in the series the recently announced Weapons X-Men.

The concept of the story is decent and there’s something interesting there but keeping it in one issue feels like it works against the story. It’s too compacted and things happen rather quickly. There doesn’t feel like an organic flow from one moment to the next, it’s all a little jarring. Minds and opinions are changed on a dime with little swaying and fights end rather abruptly.

Greg Land‘s art is rather predictable. Land has his style and look and the characters and comic adheres to it. There’s some cool page layouts but overall, it’s hard to look at some of the images and not feel like you’ve seen them in Land’s previous work. He’s joined by Jay Leisten on ink, Frank D’Armata on color, and lettering by Clayton Cowles. Land to me is hit or miss, often within the same issue and this continues that. It has its positives and its negatives and it’s really a personal taste thing overall.

Original X-Men #1 isn’t bad but it feels rushed towards the end. There’s far too much that you just need to take at face value, not questioning the choice or direction. The comic has a nice setup but about halfway through the pace picks up with the final quarter of it condensed far too much. There was also a tease of when “the dust settles, one hero will remain, trapped in the world as we know it,” which doesn’t happen here, so it’s a bit odd to include it. Overall, there’s a lot of odd choices about this comic and it’ll be the end of the series where it’ll have to be really judged.

Story: Christos Gage Art: Greg Land
Ink: Jay Leisten Color: Frank D’Armata Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Story: 7.0 Art: 7.0 Overall: 7.0 Recommendation: Read

Marvel provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review

Purchase: Zeus Comics – Kindle