For today, I sit down to read the second volume released in marvel’s Season One event. This time going to a personal favorite of mine, the X-Men.  My plan is to use the same format and qualities I used for the Fantastic Four Season One story in reviewing X-Men Season One. So if you would like to know more about my methods please feel free to check out the introduction review of that volume.

What I will restate for people who may not be familiar with the season one goals, is that these are designed to be in continuity retelling that will make sence to a modern audience and to take into account the personalities that would have developed for the characters along the way.

this means that they are not identical, the same, or even for some equivalent to the original early tales, but to be an easy way to get into the series, and have a basic understanding of the early tales and origins.

Story

This story was done quite differently from how they did  the Fantastic Four one.  In X-men Season one, we have mostly the telling of the events around the action of key X-men adventures right up though Uncanny X-men 18.  It does not include aspects of every story, in fact, it skips a lot focusing mostly on the X-men and Magneto and the brotherhood of evil mutants.  But also including elements from the savage land from X-men #10, and Unus the untouchable from X-men #8.

What this all boils down to, is it was focused heavily on the characters, their interactions and even the school. Told most of the time from Jean Gray’s Perspective.  This perspective makes a lot of sense, as just like with X-Men #1, this story starts with her arrival at the school, and we get to meet and know Cyclops, Iceman, Beast, and The Angel, just as she does, and see her develop into Marvel girl.

I do feel the story was well written, but at points hard to follow.  Partly because of the tenancy to skip around time as it is told, although these time skips also helped to keep it interesting.

Artwork

I will start by saying, I am not a big fan of how Magneto and Professor X were drawn artistically in this volume; but with that said, I feel the rest of the X-men was drawn well.   and then the action and the environment where done outstandingly well, with every detail imaginable accounted for.  For example I included a scene where Magneto is lifting an aircraft carrier out of the water, while also causing havoc all around the base.

In this panel we see everything from the water dripping from the ship, and people on the deck, serving to make it visually interesting. This is something that happens throughout this volume.  a high level of detail and thought into it,  making the details fit, and work with the ongoing story.

In-Continuty

While this story draws from X-men #1, X-Men #3, X-Men #8,  X-Men #10 and  ,  X-Men #17,  X-Men #18 and possibly  X-Men #7. it gets most of its story and depth from building upon what happened around and between those key issues.  Focusing more on  the inter-personal relationships and less on retelling the action. With that said, there are some wonderful scenes inspired by exiting comics, such as the savage land, although the events are told  with some significant difference, I do not feel that this ruins the original story, just gives us a different perspective.

Character Depth

Just like with the Fantastic Four volume,  Character depth in this one was second to none. we have the early x-men school dynamic told in a way that is top-notch, and second to none. We have not only the love interest between Scott and Jean developing, but tensions between her and another X-men.  All helping make the story that much richer, then we have each member with their own delema’s and developments going on as the story progresses.  In some ways,  this volume helps make the X-men feel like the teen’s and young adults that they are. 

Value Added

As a long running X-men fan, I do feel I gained something by reading this volume. and it gave some depth to the early characters, likely just as much as Fantastic Four’s volume did.

New Readers

This is where I feel this volume may have missed its mark. I feel some of the elements of this tale, may confuse new readers whom know nothing about the X-men or their history;   Little is done to develop the brotherhood of evil mutants, and the savage land is given almost no explanation.   These are things that long running fan’s would not need, but someone new, would benefit from.  I feel just a couple more pages could have corrected this and given this the value to someone new that it could have been.