Preview: ALL-NEW X-MEN #1 by Brian Michael Bendis & Stuart Immonen

Today Marvel released the first preview images from All-New X-Men #1 by artist Stuart Immonen. Here the modern Beast confronts untimely versions of himself, Scott, Jean, Warren and Bobby. How does the reunion all go down? How is it even possible? We’ll have to wait until November 7th to find out!

ALL-NEW X-MEN #1
Written by BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS
Art and cover by STUART IMMONEN
It’s a blast from the past as the original five students of Professor X – Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Iceman, Angel and Beast – are plucked from the past and brought to the present. But what they find, the state that their future selves are in and the state of Xavier’s dream, is far from the future they dreamed of. And how will the X-Men of the present deal with their past coming crashing forward?
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99
On Sale November 7

 

Comments

  1. Love Immonen’s art. Looks interesting.

  2. Really like the art and he concept is interesting, but I have kind of lost faith in Bendis. He used to be one of my favorite writers, but the last few years, I just can’t get into his work. I might check out a trade later on.

  3. This looks sweet.

  4. Beast meets Beast has me suddenly intrigued.

  5. Can’t wait for this. Probably my most anticipated Marvel NOW book.

  6. I’ve never read any X-Men books and I know nothing about it, is this a good book to jump on board with?

    • Do it.

      The water’s fine.

    • Yes!

      While I’m sure this will be pretty accessible, I think part of the enjoyment of the X-Men is discovering the history of what came before. While there aren’t any legacy characters (in the vein of Flash or Green Lantern), and trying to nail down these characters’ ages will drive you insane, the conceit of Xavier’s school gives the X-Men a loose sense of legacy in the way that there are different “graduating classes” that interact with each other.

      I’m thinking this story will really bring that element into focus.

  7. I really dig the Jared K Fletcher Logo treatment on this. Retro Modern but contemporary.

    Concept for the book sounds interesting…i hope its fun.

    • I’ve been waiting to hear your opinion on this since the X-Men Legacy cover was revealed. Totally agree, the logo really works.

  8. Damn. It’s been so long since I read an Immonen drawn title. I almost forgot how fantastic he is. Almost. I’m really excited about this one.

  9. I nominate Immonen for addition to the “Can Draw All The Comics” list.

    • Definitely. If there is one reason I want to get this book monthly, it’s him. Unless Bendis comes out and says this is paced differently than the rest of his books though, I’m gonna get the general consensus/trade wait this one.

    • Doesn’t a list run contrary to the whole “Draw All the Comics” idea? If anything, we should have them all fight to the death. Last one standing gets to draw all the comics.

      “Are you not entertained?!! Is this not why you are here?!”

      🙂

    • We need a list because — obviously — Drawing All The Comics would have a significant negative impact on a person’s physical well-being.

      We need a pool of talent waiting in the wings to avoid any interruptions of service. 😉

    • So they just draw til they die of exhaustion? We literally draw them to death?

      I like where you’re goin with this Ken. 🙂

    • Hey – when I say “All the Comics” I mean “ALL THE COMICS”.

      Just trying to be pragmatic, you know?

    • I can dig it.

  10. I like the looks of it. I like Bendis’ actual writing as in pacing, dialogue, etc. But sometimes he overlooks important backstory moments. If he can be disciplined and attentive here, we might have something cool.

    • Yea, he does tend to run roughshod over continuity. I don’t think X-Men fans will let that kind of stuff slide, especially playing with that first group.

  11. IMMONEN.

  12. looking forward to this even tho I’m not the biggest fan of Bendis

  13. Details of how it happens aside, doesn’t this sound like basically the same idea as in Bendis’ Spider-Men where two versions of a character somehow crossover into the same (universe / dimension / time period) meet themselves and/or their significant others who might not currently be alive back home?

    • I get what you’re saying, but boiling stories down to generalities is sure-fire path to thinking nothing is original.

      But mostly I disagree because I think there are fundamental differences between stories that use time travel as a plot device versus stories that use alternate universes as a plot device — the biggest being that time travel stories always have the whole butterfly effect to worry about. I can’t think of any “time travel to the future” stories right now, but I imagine there’s a whole host of issues that can be dealt with in that kind of set-up.

      I have no doubt we’ll get to see Scott and/or Logan be weird around young Jean, but just because Bendis recently wrote Ultimate May having a similar scene with 616 Peter doesn’t mean we’re in store for the same story.

    • I don’t think it’s going to be the same story, but I’ll bet there’s going to be a real tearjerker scene for modern Scott once he realizes that Jean is ‘back’ and that it’ll be similar to the 616 Peter sitting down with Ultimate May & Gwen. As one of the iFanboys said in their podcast, that’s why you do a story like this.

      There’s usually a time travel paradox invoked when two versions of the same character from different time periods meet that leads to destruction of the timeline. I wonder how Bendis will explain away that two versions of the same character should not be able to co-exist simultaneously?

    • I feel like I’ve read/heard Bendis allude to something bigger regarding Time in the Marvel Universe. Something like it’s becoming less stable overall because of all the trime travel that’s gone on in Marvel history.

      I kind of hope Ben Grimm as Blackbeard is the root cause of it all.

  14. I was hoping for a more substantial preview, but this is looking pretty sweet so far. I love the first class of X-Men and look forward to seeing how they interact with themselves and the rest of modernity.

  15. I love alternate reality, dimension hopping, time- travelling stories,
    so the premise of THIS comic is ALREADY a WIN for me.
    That coupled with Bendis writing, and Immonen art., how can this go wrong?

    Maybe Bendis was practicing for this in the recent series SPIDER-MEN series.
    (Not that he NEEDS practice or anything).

    On a side note: Remember the show SLIDERS?

  16. I really hope Bendis can bring the same quality to this book that he brings to his ultimate Spiderman.

    • Classic comic book hope. I’ve been hoping that for a long time. After Siege he really gave up trying on every book except USM.

  17. What I think I like about this book is that it has a very specific point of view. Too often, it feels like a team book is thrown together just because it can be. For example — and this is not to fault any of the creators — I could not tell you why ASTONISHING X-MEN exists right now. Again, that’s not a slight on the stories being told in that book — just that the appearance of the book doesn’t seem to carry any sort of unique world view.

    At first, the time travel idea behind this series seemed more like a “storyline” than an ongoing series. But in a way, I find that to be the strength of the concept — I don’t know how it works as a series, but I do know it has a specific point of view. That’s enough mystery to intrigue me, and enough concept to at least sell me on checking it out.

    • Well said. I feel the same way.

      I’m looking forward to this for the same reasons I was looking forward to Wolverine and the X-Men. It’s a fresh idea, or at the very least a fresh twist on an old idea.

  18. This sounds really intriguing, but I’m concerned about a number of things. Putting Bendis on another team book, especially one filled with teenagers, seems a little suspect. He normally writes really good dialogue, but his Avengers characters all sound alike. Also, this premise fills REALLY close to Spider-Men, which is a great book, but is really better for a mini-series. I can only take so many instances of the five original X-Men meeting their future selves and being horrified by everything’s that happened before the book sinks into schtick territory. I’ll probably wait to here the word on it and then check it out in trade, also cause I almost only ever read Bendis in trade.

  19. Does anyone know if Bendis is planning another multi-year run?

  20. I gotta say, it’s pretty tough to make Classic Iceman look cool, but Immonen succeeds admirably on that cover.

  21. I’ve gotta believe that the original 5 being in the present is only the first storyline and hopefully causes changes to the way the current team goes forward. In any event, I’m really excited for this. AND!!! Original Cyke looks “Slim” without looking ill-proportioned (cough cough Frank Cho).

  22. I was all set to pass on this but Immonen, you glorious bastard, has me on board (at least until they begin bttlign Norman Osborn).

  23. Can’t stand = Bendis.

    Must have = Immonen.

    Now I know EXACTLY how Sophie felt!

  24. Things I want:

    Bendis writing a non-Avengers book (besides USM).
    Immomen on a monthly.
    An X-Men team that I can care about.

    Well played, Marvel.

  25. For me, this is a very bad and unappealing direction to take, not a good idea. I’ll still try and read an X-men book or two, the ones I dig, but the excellent flagship title being replaced with this… ughh Marvel. Ughh.

  26. Question for anyone that can help me here. Marvel says this isn’t a relaunch or reboot. So are the rest of the X books going to continue along side of this, or is everything ending and we will just have the 1 or 2 X books?

    • Avatar photo Paul Montgomery (@fuzzytypewriter) says:

      A few of them are continuing at least through the end of the year in addition to the NOW! titles. Uncanny X-Force. Wood’s book. Astonishing.

    • Paul,

      Thanks for the answer. In a way that’s disappointing to me. I wish they were bolder like DC was when they decided to do the new 52.

    • It’s not about being bold . There’s no reason for both companies to do the exact same thing, just because it worked for one doesn’t mean it’d work for the other.

    • I get what you’re saying, and I agree. I long for those days when there was just one or two X-Men books, giving the stories some focus and allowing for changes to actually happen to the characters. Sadly, that’s not really the business model for Marvel these days.

    • @PsychoJudgeDredd: Exactly, especially when the longterm success of the New 52 has yet to be determined. We’re a year in, and I’ve already lost interest and dropped about 80% of the DC books I picked up last September. Marvel’s more gradual approach — by cutting down the amount of novelty associated with the relaunch — might result in it having more longevity before things get stale.

      @CaseyJustice: I don’t think it’s sad that Marvel publishes so many X-books because there’s clearly been a market for them. If they couldn’t make profitable 2nd and 3rd tier X-books, they wouldn’t. To ask them to cut back is like asking them to leave money on the table. That said, I get your point. But I imagine it’s a tough balancing act with so many beloved characters: too few X-books and people complain that they never get to see their favorites in action, too many X-books and quality suffers or the world loses cohesion.

      With the exception of a couple books (that I admittedly don’t read, so I may be wrong), I think the X-books have been pretty good about having unique takes that justify their existence and play into the larger post-Schism direction for the line. However, while I’m enjoying AVX, I would have loved to see the X-books have a little more time to play with the post-Schism status quo before jumping into the event.