Writer: Marc Guggenheim
Artist: Yanick Paquette
Publisher: Marvel Comics

I’ll be honest, it was solely my Podcasting Co-Host’s exuberance that motivated me to pick up this book. As with most things that get him excited, his exuberance was wasted.

My first question when I saw the solicitation for this book was “why?” It has been about 15 minutes since Cyclops disbanded the X-Men at the end of Martyr, oops, I mean Messiah Complex. Since then, ol’ Cyke has founded 2 new teams, X-Force and now Young X-Men.

So why did he bother disbanding the X-Men in the first place?

My issue with this book isn’t the production. Guggenheim does a decent job of setting up a very straightforward first issue. There’s flashbacks, there’s foreshadowing (someone’s going to die, but who?!?!), and there’s a “shocking” ending. But all in all, nothing terribly ground-breaking. I have never been a huge fan of Paquette’s art, his run on Ultimate X-Men wasn’t very memorable, but given the sub-par cast of Young X-Men, he did what he could.

The problem with Young X-Men is the same problem I have with most X-Books these days: Who ARE these people? From the (by my count) 4th X-man who turns into a wolf, incredibly named Wolf Cub, to the wannabe-Thing Rockslide, there isn’t a single person on this team that I know, or care about. Rounding out the mediocrity are Blindfold, Dust, and a couple of random dudes who I don’t recognize AT ALL. Call me a purist, tell me I am living in the past or whatever you want, but I need at least ONE MEMBER of an X-team to be an experienced, recognizable character. This book reads like the current underwhelming New Warriors series. It’s cliche’, it’s not visually interesting, and to be honest, it’s pretty boring.

The X-Men used to be the coolest thing about the Marvel U. They were outcasts, dark and gritty. Now (with the exception of Astonishing X-Men) they seem like a contrived, RC Cola version of what they once were. It seems like the fight to save the world that fears and hates them has become the fight to see what other whiny story-that-will-change-everything-but-really-wont-change-anything we can jam down reader’s throats. I had great hopes for the Divided We Stand storyline for this very reason, but all it’s produced so far is a terrible Cable series and the downright boring Young X-Men.

The X-Men are adrift in a sea of mediocrity, and I really hope Marvel can find a way to throw them a line. Soon.

-JM

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Tags: Divided We Stand, Messiah Complex, The Starting Gun, X-Men, Young X-Men

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