We return to the original five X-Men! Check out a new adventure of Professor Xavier’s team as they head back to the future in The Original X-Men #1 by Marvel Comics!

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THE ORIGINAL X-MEN #1

Writer: Christos Gage
Artist: Greg Land and Jay Leisten
Colorist: Frank D’Armata
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Sarah Brunstad
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Cover Price: $5.99
Release Date: December 20th, 2023

Previously in X-Men: The original five, X-Men consisted of Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Beast, Iceman, and Angel, and they worked to bridge a gap between humanity and mutantkind. However, they were once sent to the future and then had their memories wiped out before returning to their timeline.

BACK TO THE FUTURE

The Original X-Men #1 starts with a simple fight against the Plantman when the X-Men are suddenly set to meet with the Phoenix from another universe. Phoenix warns them that another version of Marvel Girl wreaked havoc on their multiverse, using her psychic powers to destroy Magneto and slowly manipulate their opposition.

Heading to Earth-696, they devise a plan to talk to other X-Men and tell them of the Phoenix’s evil. First, they fight Angel and Iceman but slowly convince them that they may be right and that they might be psychically controlled by this universe’s Phoenix. They then talk to Beast and then Cyclops. However, their actions aren’t unnoticed as Phoenix shows up and kills Cyclops outright. Ms. Marvel creates a psychic chain to unite the minds of everyone on Earth, allowing Phoenix to shed the Jean Grey skin and reveal herself to be Onslaught, which was created after destroying Magneto’s mind. Onslaught and Jean Grey split into two separate entities and sent the Original X-Men home before engaging Onslaught.

The Original X-Men asks for their minds to be wiped before returning home, but the story is far from over, as Onslaught is not dead, and perhaps we need a Band of Logans to help.

A LOT GOING ON

The narrative arc of The Original X-Men #1 had many moving parts but was very simple overall. The X-Men go to the future to fight future versions of themselves to remind them who they once were. Simple and elegant, but perhaps complicated. This may seem contradictory, but reading a time travel story is never simple. However, because of the familiarity of the tropes, it felt simple. The creative team did a good job presenting this information, but I have seen this done narratively before, so I wasn’t terribly engaged. What caught my attention was the art style. I really liked the linework of this story, followed by the coloring. Every page has exciting things to look at without overwhelming the reader with detail, which sells the comic to me. But if I had to separate the art from the narrative, I would just see a fun story that doesn’t have a lot of room for depth due to how much time investment went into presenting a complicated but straightforward storyline. Good work by Christos for balancing all these elements, and great job by the creative team for their work and consistency.

BOTTOM LINE: WORTH A READ

I don’t think this storyline is going to be a must-read event. But The Original X-Men #1 is undoubtedly worth a pickup just for nostalgia and a break from the complex modern themes. With that in mind, I’ll give this book 4.5 out of 5 stars and am convinced to pick up the next story in the arc when it comes out in March.

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