Like the Superman franchise, the X-men franchise is one that I’ve had a hard time following over the years. There were too many bad stories to justify me keeping up with it regularly so I only ever really read it when there was a major story or change coming that interested me. “Second Coming” was one of these stories that seemed to have enough to potential to bring me in. Honestly, I really enjoyed “Second Coming” throughout and I’m really hoping that the closing issue ends on a high note when it comes out. It did spark interest in the X-men as a whole for me though and I figured what better time to start continuously following them with a new X-men #1 from Victor Gischler and Paco Medina. To be honest, I actually enjoyed it too.
One misleading thing is that this book really isn’t spinning out of “Second Coming.” Honestly, if I didn’t know anything about “Second Coming” it would have had no effect on my reading of this issue; it isn’t so much as mentioned in passing. What is useful reading here, however, is the Death of Dracula one-shot that came out recently. Some characters carry directly over from that issue and X-men #1 picks up shortly after the vampiric status quo change in that book.
Here, the Lord of Vampires comes into to San Francisco and has a scheme to apparently start transforming the entire city into new vampires, however it seems that there is an even more sinister bent to this scheme as it seems that de-powered X-man Jubilee was the actual target of the first attack. Soon, the X-men are involved and investigating and it’s becomes clear that things will quickly get out of hand if Cyclops and his crew can’t put a stop to it.
The story for this issue is all about setup. You get some brief action that is no doubt only a minor fraction of what I hope this story eventually blossoms into. It definitely showcases how much brainless fun this whole “Mutants vs. Vampires” idea could be if it escalates the way I hope. But it is important to emphasis a key word in that last sentence: brainless. There isn’t anything remotely deep about this issue. It’s fun but that’s about it. None of the intricate and entertaining vampire politics from the Death of Dracula one shot are present here. That was another book with little action but was still deeply entertaining in the way the vampires interacted with one another. I’m really hoping that Gischler will actively put more vampire society in this and the related books. Speaking of related books, there are four new vampire related books launching out of this event, as advertised at the end of X-men #1. I also hope the story can justify the need for this many books in addition to X-men.
The art here, by Paco Medina, is actually quite good. It’s very bright and colorful, surprisingly so given the subject matter present and is a nice change from the dark dreariness of "Second Coming". Medina art has improved subtly since his days on Deadpool not long ago. His art is kind of like a cartoony Olivier Coipel, which works much better than you might think. It’s a very good fit for this book and keeps what could become a dark story firmly in the grounds of fun.
Despite the quality of Death of Dracula, I really wasn’t expecting much from this book. In that respect, it surprised me. If you want a deep, intellectually challenging book, then steer clear of X-men #1; maybe the post “Second Coming” other X-men books will fit that role better when they come, but if you want superheroes against monsters, this looks like a promising start.
Overall: 8.0/10
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