Written by Joseph Kennedy
Dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun…
Aaaa yes Marvel’s current-huge-space time warping-kinda-soft-continuity-rebooting-crossover event Secret Wars is in full swing and this week we finally get a glimpse into a series for Marvel’s forgotten bastard children the X-Men.
There have been plenty of series I’ve been interested in reading with the arrival of Secret Wars; A-Force and Age of Apocalypse to name a few, but one that I found particularly interesting was X-Men ‘92. As one would guess by the cover art and titles this X-Men book brings the team back to their famous lineup made popular by the 90’s animated series that introduced myself and most certainly a vast majority of current X-Men and Marvel fans to these wonderful characters in the first place.
If you’re not up on the events of Secret Wars you would certainly be pressed to think, what the f is going on, why is Wolverine, Jean Grey and Professor Xavier alive, why does Rogue have her Mrs./Captain Marvel powers, none of this matters in Secret Wars and this is certainly not the place to explain it, if you’re interested in reading anything Marvel right now I would recommend going back and read the last two years worth of Avengers and New Avengers books to get caught up. Bottom line timespace is all messed up and the main Marvel universe has merged with the Ultimates universe, Doctor Doom is basically god here and this new world is simply known as Battleworld. In Battleworld exists multiple territories called Warzones where characters from both universes and beyond live, the world of X-Men ‘92 is one of them and so here we are.
First things first the book is an Infinite Comic meaning it’s digital only so its presented unlike typical comics, pages are quasi-animated as panels pop up as you read, it’s not a negative but if you’re someone who is used to normal pages then this might be found a bit jarring at first. Anyway lets get to the meat of the comic, so yeah the story, not much outside reintroducing us to these characters over a friendly battle of… err laser tag and vague set up of things to come though I can tell that writers Chris Sims and Chad Bowers are trying to work in the lighter elements of a 90s Saturday morning cartoon and it certainly works but it may not be for everyone.
Honestly the story isnt why I’m reading this book nor any Secret Wars book sadly since everything is going to be soft rebooted in a few months anyway I’m just looking to be entertained and honestly for a first issue there wasn’t too much there. I grew up on this team lineup, this outside the original first class IS the X-Men outside stalwart members like Colossus, Nightcrawler and Iceman so seeing them together in their Chris Claremont / Jim Lee era uniforms was absolute bliss so I do look forward to future issues as long as if some level of stakes are added.
As for the art, its pleasing to look at it and as I said before, seeing them in their older uniforms helps. The colors certainly pop and you get the vibe of it honoring the 90s cartoon and Jim Lee era. I especially enjoyed the pages and panels that were nice tributes to the animated series opening *starts humming the awesome theme* with our heroes charging at the Brotherhood of Mutants.
Bottom line was it a particularly bad first issue; no, it accomplished what I feel it’s intent was, reintroducing us to the team that was a major part of our childhood, but forgettable; outside a few panels yea I would say so. Pick it up off Marvel’s Infinite Comic site if interested but unless you have fond memories of the cartoon, you’re probably better off avoiding it especially being a mini series.
Rating: 7.5/10
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Good review, but I wish you would have mentioned that this title WILL be available as a physical print comic book on June 24th in comic shop everywhere. Calling it a “digital only” title is incorrect.