Dawn of X continues to amaze! Magma returns to Nova Roma, leading a crew of young mutants to answer an urgent distress call! Asmall attack on Krakoa grows into something much bigger, thanks to the villainous Yellowjacket! Can Captain Kate's crew of Marauders swat him before his sting pays off? Nathan Summers, the young Cable, has a destiny leading the youth of mutantkind in rebellion...so why not start now? The New Mutants are back from space, and they've brought intergalactic trouble for the X-Men! Excalibur chart a new mission - and their destination is the Starlight Citadel! And in the heart of South America, X-Force finds a growing problem that threatens to destory everything they've built!
COLLECTING: NEW MUTANTS (2019) #8, MARAUDERS #9, CABLE (2020) #1, X-MEN (2019) #8, EXCALIBUR (2019) #9 and X-FORCE (2019) #9.
Jonathan Hickman is an American comic book writer and artist. He is known for creating the Image Comics series The Nightly News, The Manhattan Projects and East of West, as well as working on Marvel Comics' Fantastic Four, FF, and S.H.I.E.L.D. titles. In 2012, Hickman ended his run on the Fantastic Four titles to write The Avengers and The New Avengers, as part the "Marvel NOW!" relaunch. In 2013, Hickman wrote a six-part miniseries, Infinity, plus Avengers tie-ins for Marvel Comics. In 2015, he wrote the crossover event Secret Wars. - Wikipedia
The big addition this month is a new Cable series featuring young Cable. It was just OK. Mostly Cable hanging out in Krakoa. I never expected the Space Knights from ROM to play a part of the first arc though.
New Mutants #8 An Ed Brisson issue that doesn’t suck, cool! Hopefully there’s more to come, looks like Hickman is off this book for good.
Marauders #9 Another excellent issue from Marvel’s best series.
Cable #1 Great first issue, loving all the swearing 😂
X-Men #8 The Brood is here! Great issue, tons of cool stuff happens as X-Men and New Mutants converge.
X-Men #9 Killer cover by Yu. Broo is king of the Brood! Killer work by Hickman and Yu.
X-Force #9 Continuing from issue #6, the floronic entity as grown something fierce and after some fun quiet moments to kick off the issue, X-Force is sent to investigate. Cool chapter.
A bit of a disappointment after the last volume, this collection features an interesting New Mutants story where we get to see Magma in a mentor position helping Boom Boom and Armor recover from the fallout of their adventures with Beak and Angel. It's a solid downtime story that introduces some new threats to the Krakoan population.
The Marauders issue takes a break from the Kitty Pryde mourning to deal with a potential infestation. Apart from the flagship title, Marauders has consistently been the highlight of the new X-Men books. I'm enjoying how they show why Sebastian Shaw is useful to the Krakoan population, and not entirely a villain, even though he continues to play by rogue rules (not to be confused with Rogue rules).
I don't care about the new Cable title. It was fine. I like Armor. I like Pixie. But the whole children's folk tale/Space Knight angle doesn't interest me in the least.I hope it gets better.
The two X-Men issues in this could have been consolidated into one and then crossed into the New Mutants (which it sort of does). I do enjoy seeing how Vulcan fits into the Summers clan/Krakoan community in thie New Normal, but I thought these issues spent a lot of time spinning their wheels and being proud to be mired in X-mythology/Guardians mythology/Starjammers mythology and not advancing the plot too much until the very end. I DO enjoy where it ended up, though.
The issues of X-Force in the last volume were fantastic. I was somewhat intrigued that this issue was going to be all Down Time with the team coming together in a new and unClaremont like fashion (drinking and playing ... Krakoan Roulette?) but once the adventure started, my interest waned. The whole Flower/Plant aspect of this new X-World isn't that interesting to me. I care much more about how the culture has shifted than I do about battling the Plant Cartel's many ... petals.
I'm still enjoying the series and the way these volumes are collected, and recommend them to all X-fans, but when a series goes beyond five trades or so, there's always going to be a couple of volumes that don't live up to the quality of the others. This is one of those volumes.
Unfortunately, this became available after I've read all the way through Vol. 13, so I'm just filling in the gap.
New Mutants - Didn't care for the cartoony art. It's a side mission, whose primary purpose is to introduce yet another threat lurking in the shadows. Also, I'm starting to get tired of issues starting off with a team trying to rescue/bring mutants back to Krakoa. Sure, that's probably a realistic idea, but it's starting to feel like lazy writing.
Marauders - It was enjoyable seeing how the mutants would take care of this particular problem. So far the only title Duggan writes that I don't mind reading.
Cable - No thanks
X-Men - Found this to be quite satisfying. I liked the Kree catalyst for the whole event and seeing the X-Men go against an unsurmountable army of Brood was fun. The ending was funny but a little bit of a let down. Not sure what the long-lasting effects are of the ending.
X-Force - I guess it's natural to party all the time if you find yourself in paradise. For some reason it irks me a little to see the mutants frequently doing this. The telefloronics in South America become a bigger threat. This is like the third plant-based threat coming up against the mutants. Just sayin'.
This has been hard for me to rate. What we have is a Hickman-led mutant initiative. The sections re-printing X-Men by Hickman and Len Yu are thrilling and amazing. Then there is the rest of it. Mixed quality sums up the other offerings. (But they get better as it goes,...) But I see what they are trying to do here, and so I will be generous and give 4 stars.
Ah, *Dawn of X Vol. 9*, the mutant soap opera that keeps on giving! This volume is like a mutant potluck dinner—everyone brought something different, and not all of it tastes good, but hey, at least the company is entertaining.
First up, we have the *New Mutants* (#8), where the team’s space shenanigans come home to roost. They’ve brought back a "King’s Egg," which sounds less like an intergalactic MacGuffin and more like something you’d find in a fancy brunch menu. Naturally, this leads to chaos with the Brood, because why wouldn’t it? The young mutants are like that one friend who borrows your car and returns it with a mysterious dent and no gas. It’s messy, it’s campy, and honestly, you kind of love them for it—until you don’t. (Looking at you, Boom-Boom.)
Then there’s *Marauders* (#9), where Sebastian Shaw continues to be the shady uncle at the family reunion who somehow convinces everyone he’s not *that* bad. This issue has everything: political intrigue, mutant drama, and Lockheed the dragon being a total MVP. It’s like *Game of Thrones*, but with fewer betrayals (barely) and more spandex.
Over in *Cable* (#1), we meet Young Cable, who looks like a teenager but acts like an eight-year-old hyped up on sugar cereal. He’s got big plans for mutantkind, but first, he needs to deal with some Space Knights. Yes, Space Knights. It’s as ridiculous as it sounds, but hey, at least it’s consistent with Cable's brand of timey-wimey nonsense.
The *X-Men* (#8-9) take on the Brood in what can only be described as "alien invasion meets mutant family road trip." Cyclops and Jean Grey are there to parent everyone through this mess while Wolverine probably sneaks beers in the back seat. The Brood storyline is surprisingly fun—think of it as a chaotic sequel to every bad decision the New Mutants ever made.
Finally, *X-Force* (#9) brings us back to Earth for some eco-horror vibes with Terra Verde. Domino is dealing with resurrection trauma (again), and things are getting weird with plant monsters. It’s like someone watched *Annihilation* and thought, “You know what this needs? More stabbing.”
Overall, *Dawn of X Vol. 9* is a mixed bag of delightful absurdity and occasional brilliance. It’s got space wars, mutant politics, dragons, and even a healthy dose of existential dread—basically everything you’d expect from Krakoa-era X-Men. Sure, not every story lands perfectly (*cough* New Mutants *cough*), but when you’ve got Wolverines drinking together and Lockheed saving the day, how can you complain?
Final verdict: If you’re here for serious storytelling… well, maybe reconsider your life choices. But if you’re here for mutant mayhem and over-the-top fun? This volume delivers in spades!
This book was a bit more entertaining than Volume 8 in terms of the mix of stories in this collection, but still not quite a home run. The new Cable title makes a serious effort to help readers get to know this young Cable a lot better - I mean seriously, have we ever really gotten to know Cable this young for long? But it feels a little off, like the Wolverine book - but I definitely like the Cable title better than the Wolverine title.
Hickman's love for the New Mutants bleeds through this volume as well with the main X-Men book needing to deal with the consequences of the younger team having stolen a King's Egg without knowing what it was actually for. This volume reveals the big story there and it's quite a doozy. Sure it's a little over the top campy, but it still makes sense.
More and more I feel this big revamp's main purpose was for the writing teams to just have fun and create scenes like all the different Wolverines drinking around a table together or having different incarnations of characters who never got to meet because of death and things like that finally have silly moments of interaction. And the list goes on and on. And as far as some indulgent head cannon writing goes, it's still a lot of fun.
New Mutants 4.5 I would’ve liked seeing a deeper exploration of how railing a mission impacted the members of the team, but the story that we got was still good, and thankfully I don’t have the complaint of things not happening
Marauders 4 Finally we’re going somewhere, the problem is I don’t know why we’re going somewhere because I don’t remember Yellowjacket entering Pyro and also they kept mentioning a battle I did not remember, I don’t understand why they couldn’t just remind us what happened there, but apart from that I’m happy we’re seeing setup of the hellfire gala
Cable 3 I’m not excited about a cable series, I hated little cable he seems so arrogant, the art and the fact we’re going to be dealing with robots from space is cool tho
X-Men 2 What is up with x men not having a single recurring plot, the egg situation was pretty stupid and the resolution was even stupider please x men have an actual plot that you develop instead of just random adventures
X-Force 4 Really cool art but I’m not sure why we’re moving on so quickly from the last arc I thought that it deserved a lot longer than two issues to be fleshed out.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
COLLECTS NEW MUTANTS (2019) #8, MARAUDERS #9, CABLE (2020) #1, X-MEN (2019) #8-9 and X-FORCE (2019) #9
Issue by issue, this was one of the strongest "Dawn of X" collections that I've seen in a while. Even though I like them both, I usually rank "X-Men" higher than "Marauders," but today's the day that "Marauders" officially moved into my #1 spot. That is consistently a great title with great characters, and engaging political intrigue. This collection has the start of a new "Cable" series, and I believe this is the first time I've read a story featuring Young Cable. "X-Force" had previously been one of my favorite titles, but I'm losing interest in it, and I lost interest in this version of "New Mutants" almost immediately when "Dawn of X" started.
Here is my ranking of the issues in this collection:
Not quite as great as the previous volume, but overall definitely good on average. Marauders remains the best X-book, and the issue here is no exception, continuing the string out Kate's death without becoming mired in mourning for somebody that will eventually be brought back. New Mutants seems to be the book that spends the most time away from Krakoa, and this time they're off to Nova Roma in Brazil to introduce another new threat. X-Force and Cable were both fine, but not exciting books. I'm not sold on the space knights thing that Cable seems to be playing with. And then there's X-Men, with a new take on the Brood. The best part about these issues is that Broo has a significant presence, and Roberto makes a really fun appearance, but otherwise I'm not convinced this needed to be two issues of X-Men, as opposed to an issue of X-Men and an issue of New Mutants.
Maraurders 9: I love all the characters in this but still miss kate. Nice little in between story to build op new things to come 4☆ Cable 1: Not a fan of the art but i really like this small simple story setting up big time and space things 4☆ X-force 9: Love the humour. Just read Jeff Vandermeer’s Annihilation before this and its great to see somekind of antropocenehorror Terra Verde. 4☆ New mutants 8: I like boom boom. Curious what this new story will bring. Great drawing 3,5☆ X-men 8: Oh oh the dumb new mutants acts gets mixed in with the main xmen series. For betterbor worse it is okay. Feels like building up to something. 3☆ X-men 9: Feels like a lot of generic space stuff with dumb space characters. Funny cliffhanger though. 2.5☆ Overall score: 3,5☆
New Mutants #8: Ehhhh, not too keen on this line-up. 2/5
Marauders #9: Just so good. Liked the fake-out that started the issue, liked the ending when things are looking down for the resurrection protocols. But, a glimmer of hope with Lockheed's (presumed) return! 5/5
Cable #1: How old is he supposed to be? Looks like a teen. Acts like he's 8. I just can't care. 2/5
X-Men #8: The Brood. A nice continuation of the New Mutants space adventures story line, which I enjoyed more than the earth-based stuff. 5/5
X-Men #9: More Brood! 5/5
X-Force #9: Uhh...something wonky with Domino's resurrection? As she's thrusting away the trauma she experienced, despite her wishes in the previous issue. And things are going south with the Flora monster. 5/5
I’m basically reusing a review across this series, as it seems to hold as things go on. Overall it’s a bunch of highs and lows. Some books are consistently excellent (Marauders, X-Force, Wolverine, and it looks like X-Factor & Hellions will join that group) while some are middling to mediocre (Excalibur being the worst of the lot, plus Cable being so-so, and the main X-Men book varying in quality from one issue to the next). I’m still reading, so the overall whole is quality, and the whole setting that they’ve established is still unique and intriguing. It’s like a house of cards that we know is doomed to fall eventually, it’s just a question of when and how)
Can super see the synergy coming across different X-titles! More and more of other series popping up in different series, love it! Makes Krakoa feel so alive!
Marauders hits with real emotional moments again!
Cable starts off fun!
X-Men is truly epic here! If you are interested in The Brood, this is a must! Lots of satisfying moments with The New Mutants and the even members of Wolverine's students!
This volume isn't bad per se but it had a whole lot of things I'm not wild about (space adventures with Vulcan, kid cable, etc...) so it was not one of my favorite volumes so far.
Still, some interesting moments and at times it almost feels like the overarching plot is at least attempting to move forward...
This is really the best way to read the X titles right now. I feel like I get the important notes of all the titles and then an issue whenever something new happens. It was interesting to see Krakoa invaded by a non mutant (Yellow jacket, of all the characters). No interest in a young Cable but then they throw in space knights.... Missing the ROM days. But mostly the mutants are self involved.
New mutants #8 - 3/5 Marauders #9 - 4/5 Cable #1 - 4/5 X-men #8 - 3/5 (why did they have to bring the new mutants into this along with their terrible writing) Excalibur #9 - 3/5 X-force #9 - 4/5
The story's are continuing to gain momentum. I'm glad to switch from Fallen Angels to Cable. Not that Fallen Angels was bad but it was engaging only to a point. Stop not a big fan of New Mutants and it's the story I'm least engaged with but it is entraining to a point