All-New X-Men, Vol. 1

All-New X-Men (2012) (Collected Editions) #1-2

by Brian Michael Bendis, Stuart Immonen (Illustrator), Wade Von Grawbadger (Illustrator)

It's a blast from the past as the original five students of Professor X - Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Iceman, Angel and Beast - are plucked from the past and brought to the present. But what they find, the state that their future selves are in and the state of Xavier's dream, is far from the future they dreamed of. And how will the X-Men of the present deal with their past coming crashing forward?

And then:
Yesterday's X-Men continue to adjust to a present day that's simultaneously more awe-inspiring and more disturbing than any future the young heroes had ever imagined for themselves. And things get even more dangerous when the shape-changing terrorist Mystique targets our young time-travelers...starting with Cyclops!

Collecting: All-New X-Men 1-10

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, X Men, Graphic Novels Comics, Superheroes, Fiction

272 pages, Hardcover

First published October 14, 2014

About the author

A comic book writer and erstwhile artist. He has won critical acclaim (including five Eisner Awards) and is one of the most successful writers working in mainstream comics. For over eight years Bendis’s books have consistently sat in the top five best sellers on the nationwide comic and graphic novel sales charts.

Though he started as a writer and artist of independent noir fiction series, he shot to stardom as a writer of Marvel Comics' superhero books, particularly Ultimate Spider-Man.

Bendis first entered the comic world with the "Jinx" line of crime comics in 1995. This line has spawned the graphic novels Goldfish, Fire, Jinx, Torso (with Marc Andreyko), and Total Sell Out. Bendis is writing the film version of Jinx for Universal Pictures with Oscar-winner Charlize Theron attached to star and produce.

Bendis’s other projects include the Harvey, Eisner, and Eagle Award-nominated Powers (with Michael Avon Oeming) originally from Image Comics, now published by Marvel's new creator-owned imprint Icon Comics, and the Hollywood tell-all Fortune and Glory from Oni Press, both of which received an "A" from Entertainment Weekly.

Bendis is one of the premiere architects of Marvel's "Ultimate" line: comics specifically created for the new generation of comic readers. He has written every issue of Ultimate Spider-Man since its best-selling launch, and has also written for Ultimate Fantastic Four and Ultimate X-Men, as well as every issue of Ultimate Marvel Team-Up, Ultimate Origin and Ultimate Six.

Brian is currently helming a renaissance for Marvel’s AVENGERS franchise by writing both New Avengers and Mighty Avengers along with the successful ‘event’ projects House Of M, Secret War, and this summer’s Secret Invasion.

He has also previously done work on Daredevil, Alias, and The Pulse.

Reviews

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

The current state of the five original X-Men isn’t ideal. You have: dead, dying, homicidal “terrorist”, crazy and lapsed CPA. Wouldn’t it be interesting if their teenaged selves could be brought back from the past to hopefully shock the remaining present team (this would be more for the benefit of the homicidal “terrorist” than the others) into a bit of self-reflection?

Sure it would.

So Hank McCoy borrows a time traveling lawn mower and heads back in time to convince the kids to take a trip.



So begins an awkward adventure for everyone.

If you could borrow a time traveling lawn mower and travel back in time is there any advice you’d give your younger self, Jeff?

Thanks for asking, random Goodreader. Off the top of my head:
1. Stay away from grain alcohol.
2. Female drummers in all-girl Goth bands are the devil.
3. When you put together furniture and have lots of parts left over, it’s never a good thing.
4. “Put it in your pipe and smoke it” is just an expression.

So the teen-aged X-Men get a chance to meet up with their present day counter parts.



Yep, awkward.

The two X-Kids that have it the roughest are Scott Summers and Jean Grey.

Summers is immediately ostracized because not only has his future-self killed Charles Xavier but his future-self is a dick.

As for Jean Grey: She has to cope with the fact that she’s died a couple of times, been taken over by the Phoenix Force, killed a couple of billion beings as a result and just discovered her telepathy powers.



But Jean Grey becomes a force to be reckoned with. You go, Marvel Girl.



There’s plenty of future shock moments and confrontations to keep the reader engaged.



Cyclops + Magneto = Best Buds. That’ll go over well.

Bottom line: This edition combines volume one and volume two of this series - All-New X-Men, Vol. 1: Yesterday's X-Men and All-New X-Men, Vol. 2: Here to Stay. Except for the Angel/Angel meet-up, which is perfunctory and dull, Bendis does a nice job not only putting a new spin on time travel hijinks, but making the X-titles he’s written fun to read.

[Jirka Navrátil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Skvělý začátek pro čtení xmenů. Scott Summers je stále čurák.

[Aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm very glad Bendis isn't on Avengers anymore. He'd gotten so stale in that side of the Marvel Universe that he was starting to blatantly retread the same stories and setups. Now that he's moved over to X-Men (among other series), he can finally put his creative juices to work on fresh characters and scenarios.

He's really hit on a fantastic idea here. The original X-Men, specifically the 1960s team of Cyclops, Jean Grey, Iceman, Beast, and Angel, are brought to the current time period by the current Beast in attempt to convince the current Cyclops to change his violent, revolutionist ways. It's a really, really smart spin on the overdone "X-Men are brought to the future to solve a future problem" formula. This time, the PRESENT is the problem. The ACTUAL present in the canonical Marvel Universe has gone to shit, so the old X-Men are brought forward to try and save it. It's a great commentary on the direction the X-Men franchise has taken over the past 10 years or so, all while using a classic X-Men device.

That said, I still found this book to be pretty frustrating at times. I'm not sure if it's Bendis's fault or editorial's, but so much of the action in this book feels like stalling. Characters waver back and forth on decisions, retread old conversations, have the same debates repeatedly. It takes Past Cyclops seemingly FOREVER to meet Present Cyclops (I think 9 full issues?), and that's kind of the whole premise of this series. I have the luxury of reading a bunch of these at once, but if I was reading this month-to-month I would pull my hair out. I mean, the final issue of this collection ends with a twist that is ONLY for the reader. All of the characters know what's happening, why hide it JUST from me? It's the comics version of clickbait.

I'm sure I'll keep reading this for the time being, but I do hope it kicks into high gear soon. There's only so much moping I can take.

[Robert Kirwan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is like a comfort read for me!! I always love coming back to BMB's run on X-Men!! Great place to start for newbies I think as this was the re-launch of the Marvel now series!!

Artwork is beautiful and really distinctive!! I think the colour offsets the tone of the content really well!! TBH this is the best drawn X-Men next to Bachalo's work on Uncanny for this run and Cassidy's on Astonishing X-men. A real treat for the eyes

<3 <3 <3

[The Sapphic Nerd · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is basically the first two volumes of All-New X-Men collected into an oversized hardcover. Best way to catch up on a series that's already so far ahead, right?

It's good. Not amazing, or groundbreaking, or anything especially memorable. I didn't feel any big emotions or get too worried about the characters. I did, however, maintain enough interest to feel positively about the book and want to see how characters would react to meeting their older/younger selves. None of the characters really stand out, but I did like seeing Kitty Pryde take charge of the younger X-Men, and Storm is her usual regal self. There were a few moments between Kitty and Jean Grey that were also nice. I still don't understand why people love Scott Summers. Mystique gets an interesting scene later on too.

I really like the art. Stuart Immonen just draws things in a way I love to look at. And some of the colouration is really good.

All in all, it's an interesting concept that has potential, but I don't think it was executed as well as it could have been. Bendis could have done a lot more with young characters dealing with their future selves. It ends up falling in the "decent if you want an X-Men read but I wouldn't read it again" category.

[Relstuart · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been mostly ignoring current comic books since Marvel Now and Brubaker leaving Marvel. I picked this one up to see how things were going in the X-Men world. Intriguing premise where the young idealistic X-Men are brought into the future to face what they have become. Mostly this is about Cyclops and about how he has broken with the X-Men and become more like Magneto preparing for war against the humans instead of following Professor X's vision. The just opens the door on the story and sets the stage. Clearly there is still a lot more to come from this story.

The art was pretty well done. There was one two page spread that we had some gutter loss on that was sad with Jean at the center, but you could barely make her out. Kinda ruined what would have been very cool.

[Pruett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredibly cool X-concept that takes a hot minute to get off the ground running, hence the four stars.

The artwork is bomb and the story is great, but Bendis has to warm up to his book. However, around issue 5 All-New X-Men gets great. The premise, which is the real zinger, revolves around the original idealistic Uncanny X-Men, them of the golden 60s yesteryears, being brought to the present to confront the older, grizzled, morally compromised X-Men of the current 616 landscape. It's a great way to examine past X-Men stories in a new way, seeing how far our characters have come as characters, as well as bringing in some good ol' youthful levity to a universe that'd been pretty grimdark, high-concept sci-fi in recent years.

In light of their current selves, past girl-next-door Jean is made scary, intrusive telepath, past team-leader Scott is made conflicted, unsure pariah, past goofball Bobby is made... a slightly funnier goofball, honestly, past young-genius Hank is made to grow up a lot faster, and past blissfully-arrogant Warren is made an embittered, terrified boy. It's excellent character work, and pays homage to their 60s origins while blazing a path to new stories and outcomes for these guys.

I'm excited to see where Bendis takes us.

As an aside, I found this variant cover incredibly heartbreaking. I'd love a print of it. Poor Baby Jean.

[Rob Marney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stuart Immonen does an excellent job drawing like a dozen characters per page and making the different versions of each look unique. There are some laugh-out-loud dialogue moments, and the characters that already talk like Spider-Man characters (Iceman, Angel, Teen Scott, Kitty) are spot on. Unfortunately, that isn't enough to make up for a dumb nostalgia-time-travel concept, then immediately undercutting that concept by making Teen Jean a Mary Sue. (She has all the powers, she never faces consequences for her actions, she gets all the splash pages, and she's appointed team leader because she's just so special.) The plot has a lot of sitting around and talking in circles, but precious little action or character development, and all the adults are reduced to one-dimensional versions of themselves. The best parts are when just one or two people are talking, but there are so many plots and mandatory crossovers stuffed into this book that it rarely happens.

The fundamental problem that makes this book frustrating where its sister title Uncanny is fun is that this is a New Mutants book without any new, interesting characters or situations. The New Mutants were fighting the Brood and developing crushes on each other by the time Teen Scott is going to the corner store in Salem Center, and being smothered by an Xavier School they don't fit in at and can't leave.

[Tom Malinowski · Rating 5 out of 5]

10 issues in one! The aftermath of X-Men vs. the Avengers have left the mutants even more divided. Xavier is dead at Scott's hand while under the possession of the Phoenix. Beast horrified at what his friend has done hatches up a plan, bring the X-Men of the past to the present so Scott can see how far into the depths of betrayal and madness he's gone. The original X-Men, young teens of Scott, Hank, Warren, Bobby, and Jean are overwhelmed at what the future portends. The five decide to stay in the present to make sure that Xavier's dream is alive and Kitty agrees to mentor them. The five stay with Logan at the Jean Grey Institute for Higher Learning...where everyone tries to adjust to these younger versions. Mystique sets a plan in motion to set the X-Men up for failure, and adult Scott tempts anyone on Logan's side to join his.

We've seen mutants from the future come to the present, with some succeeding and some overkill. Here, Bendis brings back mutants from the past to the present and it's a refreshing take to see the young, naive, versions adjusting the horrific world before them. Can their sensibility bring stability?

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Collects All-New X-Men #1-10

I previously read these issues when they were released as two separate volumes, so my review below will reflect the separation between the two volumes.

Issues #1-5:

At this point in the expansive history of the X-Men, things have become very convoluted, and many readers have found it hard to jump into any of the X-books. I have been hearing for months that this book is a great jumping on point for the X-Men universe, so I was highly anticipating the day that I finally got to read it. That day was today, and I can say that I wasn’t disappointed. While it was a good story, I didn’t find it all that surprising, as if followed many of the story beats that I would have expected from this time travel tale. Spoilers ahead from here on out. Beast is dying and wants to do one last good thing for the world. He time travels with little to no problems, which makes me question why we don’t see this kind of thing happening more often. Why aren’t villains time traveling all the time to do evil? There are some incredibly intelligent bad guys, but it seems like the heroes do the time traveling most often. Anyway, Beast convinces the original five X-Men to come to the present to stop Older Scott from his mutant revolution. Even though Scarlet Witch messed things up a while back, the Phoenix Force somehow jump started mutations again, and things seem to be going back to normal. Teenagers are unexpectedly doing weird things with their new powers, and Scott and his team are retrieving them and convincing them that he can help. I trust Scott on this even though he has done a ton of bad recently. The original X-Men do have a chance to confront Older Scott and Magneto, and it was awesome to think about how weird that must have been for the X-Men from the past. Seeing their #1 enemy alongside Older Scott had to be the thing that convinced them that the future is not the way it should be. On that note, this story has some interesting implications. I’ve read more than one X-Men story about someone traveling backwards from the future to try and prevent the world from turning out horrible. There is typically some person or event that they have to stop in order to avoid this bad outcome. In the story we’re discussing right now, the bad timeline that Beast is trying to change is the mainline Marvel universe’s timeline. Beast believes that the 616 Universe is not the way that it should be, and he is taking it upon himself to try and stop it. This is fascinating because if his mission is successful, we may see the Marvel universe re-written from its early days forward.

Issues #6-10:

This continues to be a great title to read. One of the marketing quotes on the cover of the book said, “The possibilities seem endless because the story treads on genuinely new ground.” I really believe this quote is true about the series. I love seeing the young versions of the original X-Men learning about this new, messed up world. I may have mentioned this in a past review, but there have been so many comic stories where a team travels to the future and finds out that things are super messed up. Therefore, they change things in their present to avoid this horrible future. The disturbing thing about this story is that the horrible future that the original X-Men want to change is the current status quo of the Marvel Universe. The story we’ve been following for 50 years leads to a world that is dark and (possibly) wrong.

A word of warning for those purchasing this volume…The Avengers appear on the cover, however they have a very minimal role in the story of this volume. They appear briefly in one single issue that makes up this collection.

(Spoilers)The original X-Men stay pretty true to their characters from the 1960’s, other than Jean Grey. She has really stepped up, and in many ways, she has become the new leader of the originals (over Cyclops). Meanwhile, young Scott is losing it because everyone prematurely hates him. He hasn’t technically done anything wrong yet, but everyone knows that he is destined to. The relationship that once happened between Scott and Jean seems all but shattered. Especially by the way that Jean tapped into her full mutant powers too early. She messes with Angel’s head in a way that she shouldn’t have, and she actually changed him (temporarily). What she did was a violation, and the other X-Men know that. Young Jean Grey is definitely traveling down a potentially dark path by misusing her powers so early on.

Kitty does a good job of taking on the role of their new Professor. She really wants to train them, but like some of the originals wondered, I’m not sure why she is focusing so much on training them when their ultimate goal should be to send them home.

The appearance of some well-known villains, specifically Mystique, added to the story as she tried to manipulate young Scott. However, I had no idea who Lady Mastermind was. Also, why are there so many villainous blonde women in this volume (e.g. Lady Mastermind, Magik, Emma Frost)? I wasn’t always sure who I was looking at because they all wear a similar black outfit. In fact, Emma’s new costume, and Lady Mastermind’s costume are nearly identical.

Along with young Warren, I am confused as to what the deal is with the present day Angel. Last I heard, he was the Archangel, and explaining that story to young Warren will be traumatic enough. Now, it sounds like present day Angel is a clone of some sort.

Everyone keeps mentioning that if, for example, they kill young Scott, the older Scott will cease to exist. This theory has been proven wrong time after time in the Marvel Universe in past stories. Once someone travels outside of their time, they are creating a new timeline. Therefore, the young X-Men currently residing in the future are not the same people that grow up in the 616 Universe. They are now alternate versions of themselves, thus they should be able to co-exist with their 616 alternates indefinitely.

[Gerky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay, so, yes, I am a big Bendis fan. I really enjoy reading his work, especially when he's paired with a great artist (as he often is). He is a flawed writer, and All-New X-Men has a lot of flaws, but they are lessened a lot by having the books in a large collection like this rather than individually or small trades. Great art, snappy writing and some interesting bonus features at the back (but, argh, what was said in the redacted text?!). Pick it up.

[Mao · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent story. The art is...really really beautiful, but hard to read sometimes, as the panel layout is often confusing, and there are too many unnecessary double pages. But the line work and colors are gorgeous

[Ming · Rating 3 out of 5]

I should have read this before Uncanny X-Men... Although both titles do work well on their own too. I enjoyed this, and the art was quite lovely. It feels like the stage is being set, which creates a nice sense of anticipation for the next volume.

[Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun, nice and easy!

It captures the action and the adventure of the classic X-men stories, even if not the soul and the deeper meaning. But it's fun!

[J · Rating 2 out of 5]

Apologies to my buds and the two other people who follow me. No one should have to see this many comic opinions.

[Elia · Rating 3 out of 5]

All New X-men is the better of the two Bendis X books from this era. Once again, character moments are king here, as the O5 X-men teens are confronted by the hard truths about the adults they may become and how it changes their relationships with each other. When focused on that core and the consequences of their time hopping (THANKS BEAST!, it's a great story. And for 90% it's tied into those themes, even 2 of the 3 big events work well too (Battle of the Atom and the Guardians Crossover Trial of Jean Grey) and tie into that, the third one The Black Vortex, I skipped entirely and from the previously on page looks like it was more of a cosmic nonsense story than anything else. The addition of Laura X-23 about halfway through doesn't add much to the team, but Bendis finds some ways to work some solid character moments particularly with Angel and her.

The two Bendis books intertwine pretty heavily and I actually don't think they stand alone, the O5 Time travel team jumps from the Jean Grey School to Cyclops school pretty quickly.

[Dean Olson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This might be the best thing Brian Michael Bendis has ever done. Reunited with artist Stuart Immonen after their great Ultimate Spider-Man run, Bendis brings the original 5 X-men to the present to confront what the X-men has become and what they have done. Cyclops is a mutant terrorist and working with Magneto, Jean is dead, Beast has mutated into a big bull beast, Angel has lost his memory and his original wings, and Iceman is now more ice then snow. It is a great character drama as they interact with how much as change. The reactions to a strange angry mutant with claws running the school, Xavier being killed by Cyclops, and an even stranger history they don't know about. Bendis manages to stay away from his typical overuse of banter. In a few places it appears but it fits the moment. Immonen is always one of my favorites and he is the top of his game here.

[Oliver Hodson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this collection because the story was decent, although i'm dreading the eventual 'and we all did return and get mind-wiped by someone.' The plot-lines are very interesting, especially the face-offs between old and new selves, and the new teams. I didn't buy how easily mystique was able to assemble her team, but hey, hopefully she causes some interesting plots with scott later on.
Loved the moment where kitty and iceman have cap and hank's conversation for them, very funny moment!

[Stewart Mitchell]

Has some issues, but overall it's a lot of fun. I really like the way Bendis uses the X-Men of the past to subtly critique the ridiculousness of today's Marvel universe. If it wasn't so expensive I would pick up the second book soon.