This title had up until now been the home for reprints of the original X-Men stories while the stories of the new team would appear in Giant-Sized X-Men. However Marvel decided to cancel the Giant-Sized line entirely. Thus it was decided that the New X-Men would appear in this title beginning with this issue. I daresay a lot of fans weren't unhappy to see the reprints go, especially if they had already read the older material.
The first thing that is done is to answer the question from the previous story, namely what were they going to do with thirteen X-Men. The answer to that was simple. Some would depart. Thus we have a changing of the guard. With exception of Cyclops the older members of the team took their leave and headed out into the world. Cyclops stayed because he felt this was the only home he could be comfortable in, especially given the nature of his powers. The new recruits, with one exception, opted to stay, though a couple had to be coaxed/persuaded to stay. The one who left was Sunfire, who had only agreed to help them on that one mission. He has no use for the West and thus takes his leave.
Now that we have the team together it is time for a mission. In this case Count Nefaria and his Ani-Men have invaded one of the main bases for NORAD and has activated the Doomsday program. What he doesn't realize is that if the program is not shut down in a certain time it will automatically fulfill its function, which is to launch the entire US fleet of nuclear missiles. The US military asked the Avengers for assistance but those heroes are unavailable for some reason. Thus The Beast contacts the X-Men to see if they will tackle it, which of course being heroes they will. The military isn't all that happy to have their help instead of The Avengers but beggars can't be choosers, as they say. On the other hand Count Nefaria is more than happy to see the X-Men. They are old sparring partners and he is more than happy to finally eliminate them. At the end of the story The X-Men is attempting to get into the base but Nefaria has blasted them out of the sky and they are falling to earth. And that is where we leave part one.
All in all this was a good issue. It made sense for the original X-Men, sans Cyclops, to leave. The cast was a bit too large and needed to be chopped down. As well, by focusing on the newer members it gives us a chance to see how this team comes together. Admittedly Wolverine and Banshee weren't exactly new characters but they hadn't appeared that frequently. Having Sunfire leave was also a smart move as he had always had a dislike for The West and as such probably would have been a problem all the time. Besides, if necessary he could always be brought back. Using Nefaria as the villain was also a good touch. You likely didn't want to start them off against one of the major villains in the series, such as Magneto. However Nefaria was still quite a capable enemy so if they are victorious they will have earned it. The count, for those unfamiliar with him, was introduced as a leader of the Maggia, a crime syndicate. It would appear from this story he still is. One thing is that he has no superpowers, but doesn't stop him from being a very formidable foe.
All in all a very good story. I know it has been reprinted at least once but it is possible it has been reprinted more than that. Happy reading.