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Not To Be Outdone: Coming Soon Uncanny X-Men #1

By Andy Frisk
June 12, 2011 - 12:51

All comic book press has been focused on DC Comics this past week due to their announcement of yet another universe wide reboot that has been met with mixed feelings at best, and a very healthy dose of dislike from me. With the best Marvel Comics based movie made now playing on the big screen, and starring none other than The X-Men, Marvel Comics' best property (at one time), you'd think the big wigs at Marvel Comics would be joyously basking in the glow of all the great press that their latest film has received and the afterglow of all the toxic garbage that was dumped upon DC Comics this past week. This is not the case though. Marvel Comics decided to announce the news this week that they too will be getting in on the already boringly repetitive renumbering craze. (Remember just a year ago when all of Marvel Comics' book started to return to legacy numbering and then DC Comics joined the bandwagon by renumbering Wonder Woman? Wow, are we that fickle of a comics buying public that we will jump on EVERY gimmick and renumbering scheme that the Big Two throw at us?). Come October there will be a brand spanking new Issue #1 of Uncanny X-Men, which held the title of the longest consecutively numbered sequential art series in history for...wait for it...ONE WEEK.  Surprisingly though, I am actually looking forward to this re-launch, as it gives me (and I'm sure a whole host of other wayward X-Fans) a real reason for coming back and a real jumping (back) on point that doesn't look to totally destroy the Marvel Universe or alienate long term current X-Men readers, even though it signals the end of the longest running consecutively numbered series in the history of comics.

That distinction now falls to DC Comics' Vertigo imprint Hellblazer. Which will itself probably cease to exist sometime soon now that John Constantine is part of an offshoot of the the Justice League and a regular denizen of the DCnU (or is it DCUn....or is it just simply NewDumpCraponUlongtimereader?). The only thing that spares Uncanny X-Men #1 from bearing the brunt of my recent free spewing bile (don't worry I'm almost over it...stay tuned for my final words on the whole DCU reboot debacle) is that it's not a reboot...it's just another "change to the status quo."

Admittedly, I haven't read an X-Men book regularly in about 15 years. I've wandered back to the X-Men related racks at my local comic shop now and again over the years, but the history, the overwriting, and the excessive plot and character swings that each new writer who takes up the writing chores on Marvel's Merry Mutants seems to have to stamp upon the franchise are just too confusing and, in many cases, simply stupid. My affinity for Superman throughout the years has only been rivaled, and for a pretty substantial time period superseded, by the X-Men franchise though. I diligently read and collected Uncanny X-Men and New Mutants throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, and kept loose tabs on my second favorite heroes of all time throughout the years after Chris Claremont's exit from the series (I won't address his return...I'm almost out of bile...). While Marvel Comics' renumbering of their flagship series can only be seen as a sales gimmick, it looks like it has way more potential than the Don'tCraponUsplease reboot, and it is going to bring me back into the X-Reading Fold once again it seems.

The key difference with Uncanny X-Men #1 is that it looks like a pretty interesting story and has a bona fide and superb writer behind it in Jason Aaron. The X-Event leading up to the relaunch of Uncanny X-Men is SCHISM. This event centers around Scott Summer (Cyclops) and Logan's (Wolverine) battle for the heart and soul of the X-Men. Yes, can anyone say Civil War X? The difference though is that this battle looks to be the product of a longtime tensions between the two, and hopefully (and this is just my hope) leads to a resurgence of Prof. Xavier as the X-Leader and a return to a Gifted School for Youngsters type setting that is sorely missing from any X-Title being published now. Maybe Magneto can take over Utopia and Prof. X can start up the school again? Maybe Uncanny X-Men can star Prof. X's group and X-Men can star Magneto's? Either way or anyway, Marvel Comics looks to be doing what DC Comics needed to do instead of relaunching its entire line with a bunch of screwed up looking versions of their classic heroes. Marvel Comics is providing a solid jumping (or re-jumping) on point for current or wayward X-Readers without destroying the X-Continuity (as frayed as it is), radically changing the mindset of any of the long term characters as radically as DC Comics is looking to with Superman, or alienating (and royally pissing off) long term readers.



I never thought I'd say this, but something other than a particular artist or writer's take on a Marvel Comics character is garnering my attention, and some of my potential comic book allotted spending budget. Copiel and Straczynski's Thor was the last Marvel Comic book to command my serious attention, but it was because of Copiel and Straczynski. FF has drawn my attention too, but Jonathan Hickman is the reason here (not the relaunch). True, Aaron is part of my re-emerging affinity for all things X, but it was the announcement of the re-launch, the superb new X-Men movie, and, more importantly, the interesting story that SCHISM is looking to tell leading up to this relaunch that are what might potentially return me to the fold of X-Men readers. Marvel Comics, if you're reading, here's your chance to win me back from all things DC Comics and give me the desire to once again "Make Mine Marvel." Don't screw it up. 

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12