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All-New X-Men (2012) (Collected Editions)

All-New X-Men, Vol. 1: Yesterday's X-Men

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It's a blast from the X-Men's past! Professor X's original five students - Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Iceman, Angel and Beast - are plucked from the past and brought to the present. But what they find - the state of their future selves, and the state of Xavier's dream - is far from the future they dreamed of. How will these young, idealistic heroes react when faced with the crushing knowledge of what their future holds? And how will the embittered X-Men of the present deal with their past coming crashing forward? When the original team comes face to face with their counterparts, it isn't a peaceful meeting - and one of the X-Men will be forever changed. Brian Michael Bendis and Stuart Immonen blaze a new trail for the X-Men! Collecting ALL- NEW X-MEN #1-5.

112 pages, Hardcover

First published April 9, 2013

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About the author

Brian Michael Bendis

4,341 books2,466 followers
A comic book writer and erstwhile artist. He has won critical acclaim (including five Eisner Awards) and is one of the most successful writers working in mainstream comics. For over eight years Bendis’s books have consistently sat in the top five best sellers on the nationwide comic and graphic novel sales charts.

Though he started as a writer and artist of independent noir fiction series, he shot to stardom as a writer of Marvel Comics' superhero books, particularly Ultimate Spider-Man.

Bendis first entered the comic world with the "Jinx" line of crime comics in 1995. This line has spawned the graphic novels Goldfish, Fire, Jinx, Torso (with Marc Andreyko), and Total Sell Out. Bendis is writing the film version of Jinx for Universal Pictures with Oscar-winner Charlize Theron attached to star and produce.

Bendis’s other projects include the Harvey, Eisner, and Eagle Award-nominated Powers (with Michael Avon Oeming) originally from Image Comics, now published by Marvel's new creator-owned imprint Icon Comics, and the Hollywood tell-all Fortune and Glory from Oni Press, both of which received an "A" from Entertainment Weekly.

Bendis is one of the premiere architects of Marvel's "Ultimate" line: comics specifically created for the new generation of comic readers. He has written every issue of Ultimate Spider-Man since its best-selling launch, and has also written for Ultimate Fantastic Four and Ultimate X-Men, as well as every issue of Ultimate Marvel Team-Up, Ultimate Origin and Ultimate Six.

Brian is currently helming a renaissance for Marvel’s AVENGERS franchise by writing both New Avengers and Mighty Avengers along with the successful ‘event’ projects House Of M, Secret War, and this summer’s Secret Invasion.

He has also previously done work on Daredevil, Alias, and The Pulse.

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Displaying 1 - 30 of 485 reviews
Profile Image for Baba.
3,806 reviews1,259 followers
May 30, 2021
Sooooooo ... the first time I read this I was so absorbed with hating the concept of bringing the original X-Men team back from the past (as teenagers), that I didn't fully appreciate just how well Brian Michael Bendis masterminded such a great and believable story around his realisation of the progression on the X-mythos; especially when I realise and accept that the logic behind Beast doing what he did, being so on point! At heart, I still hate the concept though! Why? Because it can never be truly done properly because in the real/created Marvel continuity the original X-Men coming forward say 15 years would have been surely at least distracted by the change to their world, especially with he huge number of mutants, superheroes, digital technology etc.? Still 8 out of 12 for this solid read :)
Profile Image for Will M..
327 reviews655 followers
August 11, 2015
I've been wanting to read X-Men since forever, and I can't seem to remember who recommended this to me. It was either Jeff or some other non-goodreads friend of mine. I'm really glad he recommended it, because this was a good read.

Basically Beast wanted to change things for the better and pulled the original X-Men from the past to try and influence the current Scott. Would it work out like he wanted to? Read and find out.

What I didn't like or really wanted to happen was to read more of Magneto and Wolverine. I know Wolverine is not even on the cover, but he's basically X-Men for me. This being my first legit X-Men graphic novel/comic in years, I was really hoping to read more of him. I remember reading a lot of single issues of the original X-Men run when I was a child, but I can't remember anything from them at all aside from Wolverine and Cyclops were both my favorites. Aside from that though, I had no problems with this graphic novel. The artwork was really likable and the plot was good too.

4/5 stars. Really good considering this is my first X-Men read in years. Btw if you hate cliffhangers then you'll probably hate this shit for quite a while. I need to read volume 2 asap. Highly recommended.
Profile Image for Anne.
4,377 reviews70.2k followers
July 9, 2014
3.5 stars
I didn't hate this at all!
That sounds silly, but when I realized that this one was about bringing the 'original' X-Men from the past into the future, I was pretty sure I would not love this title.
And the cover looks lame.
In fact, I thought I had accidentally picked up one of the books that are marketed toward kids.
Yes, I've done that before...

So Scott has gone off the chain, and the remaining the X-Men can't agree on how to handle him.
If they openly fight him, they might start a Mutant Civil War, and if they do nothing, then everything Charles worked for goes down the drain.
So.
Beast is undergoing yet another mutant transformation thing, and he knows that this one is going to kill him. He's kept it to himself, but the thought of leaving this mess when dies is weighing heavily one him.
Then Bobby says something along the lines of, If the old Scott could only see himself now...
Hmmm. It triggers a crazy idea to start rattling around in Beast's head. He decides maybe a Hail Mary play is their only chance. So he goes back in time and pulls the young Scott, Jean, Bobby, Angel, and himself out of their timeline, and into his, in the high hopes that somehow it will make a difference.

I thought it would be goofy, but it turned out to be pretty interesting. I'm looking forward to what's coming next in this title!
Profile Image for Kemper.
1,390 reviews7,401 followers
November 7, 2017
Sometimes it seems like the X-Men do more time traveling than Doctor Who.

Following the Avengers vs. X-Men crossover, Cyclops has gone a little kooky. He’s now working with Magneto and Emma Frost to openly recruit new mutants while attacking humanity. The current X-Men fear that directly confronting him could kick off a mutant civil war so Hank McCoy decides that the best way to stop Cyclops is to let the young Scott Summers get a look at what he becomes. Hank takes a jaunt into the past where he recruits the original team of X-Men, including his own younger non-furry self, to come back to the future.

I had a lot of doubts about this concept, not the least of which was making even more of a hash of what remains of the X-Men’s timeline as well as giving us yet another live version of Jean Grey to kill off someday. However, I gotta admit that Bendis did a very good job with this. The dialogue doesn’t rely as much on humor as he usually does. Instead, he sets up a lot of intriguing things with the young X-Men being pretty much horrified at the way things have turned out for all of them.

I wasn’t sure how this works as a time travel story either. If the original X-Men are in the present seeing their future, wouldn’t that mean that it’s going to change? They get around this for now with the explanation that when they return to the past that Professor X will certainly read their minds, know what happened, and then wipe the memories from them. (But no one seems concerned about Xavier knowing the future after that?) Plus, if one of the team gets killed in the present wouldn’t that wipe the current version out of existence? This is a point that should come up more considering that Wolverine very vocally considers the idea that killing young Scott would save them all a lot of grief later.

But I was able to set that aside for the more intriguing questions that Bendis and company are playing with here, the ideas of what someone would think of themselves and their fate if they could see into the future as well as considering what warnings a person might offer to a younger version of themselves.
Profile Image for Gianfranco Mancini.
2,255 reviews1,008 followers
July 9, 2019


Beast takes Original 5 X-Men from the pages of X-Men #8 (1976) on a time travel trip, and risking to end their lives (and space-time continuum...) just because he wants to punish older Scott Summers turned terrorist showing him previous better version of himself...



This could have been a great tribute to X-Men's history, but storyline, besides a few good scenes, was almost unexisting.



☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆ to Immonen's artworks.

Profile Image for Terence.
1,133 reviews366 followers
December 7, 2015
Everyone has different ideas of how they would live if they knew their death was coming soon. Hank McCoy is no different except he thinks bigger. After a conversation with Iceman, Beast decides to bring the original X-Men go the future to stop Cyclops from traveling his radical path.
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I expected to hate Yesterday's X-Men because the overuse of time travel makes me crazy, but this first volume was really well done. Beast came up with a solid plan of using the original X-Men's presence to stop Cyclops from causing more harm than good.
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I also liked this volume because it didn't revolve around the original X-Men. A lot of attention was being paid to Cyclops revolution along with Beast's condition.

Yesterday's X-Men was a good start to the All-New X-Men, but I'm still wary about how this massive time traveling story will play out.
Profile Image for Richard.
1,020 reviews446 followers
February 4, 2017
The X-Men comics were my favorites when I was younger, and I wanted to jump back into reading them with a more contemporary story. The X-Men have been around for a while, embedded in our zeitgeist with many different iterations, and sometimes it feels like they've told every story they could. Not only that but one big critique that many people have is that the universe has gotten too big, with too many characters, and it can get a bit overwhelming. That's why I think that this story arc in the debut volume of All-New X-Men is so cool. Bendis not only was able to find a fresh, clever idea, but with this idea, he was able to bring the focus back to the basics: a core, familiar group of mutants, the original five!

Because the X-Men can't figure out how to handle Cyclops, who recently broke bad and is now modeling himself as a mutant revolutionary with Magneto and the White Queen at his side, Beast has the dumbass genius idea to go back in time, gather up the original five teenage students of Xavier (Cyclops, Jean Grey, Iceman, Angel, and Beast himself), and bring them back to the future to see if they can talk some sense into mean Cyclops and show him how far he's fallen. What could possibly go wrong?



So this first volume isn't exactly jam-packed with mutant action but focuses more on fleshing out the cool concept and it's ramifications. How would the act of bringing the past versions of the X-men to this time affect the time/space continuum? How would the younger versions feel with seeing what their future lives entail? How would today's Cyclops react after seeing a younger version of himself and Jean Grey, the wife he's lost? And speaking of the young Jean Grey, she's the real star of this show who provides the book's heart. She begins to develop her telepathic powers and it's not the easiest thing, especially under the circumstances.

I'm excited to see what happens next, and I think it would be awesome if Bendis used this time travel incident and tied it into established X-canon. For example, it would be so interesting if, by going into the future and developing her abilities there, that's the way that the Phoenix Force was initially able to tap into Jean Grey, jump-starting the popular Phoenix Saga? So many possibilities...
Profile Image for Kristen ꒰ა ♡ ໒꒱.
150 reviews25 followers
August 5, 2018
i had no idea what to expect from this other than one panel of warren that’s in issue 6 i think, but i wasn’t disappointed at all! i thought this story is very intriguing and this is a good set up for a volume one.

it’s not overly action packed and it’s not overloaded with new information, which i think is good for a volume one. but i found its lacking in backstory of what happened with magneto, emma, cyclops and magik. also there are times when the time jumps are confusing.
February 13, 2020
The Good: The artwork and production values are outstanding, and the story is off to a great start. As a longtime comics fan, I mostly enjoyed this one.

The Bad: Some parts were confusing; I hope further plot details will be explained in later volumes.

Score: 4/5
Profile Image for Nicolo.
2,818 reviews167 followers
May 7, 2013
The X-Men has become more interesting in the aftermath of Avengers Versus X-Men (AVX), but the new X-Men main writer isn't content with the already fertile soil for stories. He throws a substantial wrench into the works by bringing back the original teenage X-Men straight from the pages of the Silver Age X-Men stories by Stan Lee and Kirby. There will a price to pay for this gross abuse of space-time but this new direction has already been in the works since he relaunched Avengers after Siege. Still, it is good to see Jean Grey back in an ongoing series again.

Bendis has done excellent work with a teenage cast before, a prime example would be his Ultimate Spider-Man work, so I can see why he would bring in the original X-Men. Initially. the five were brought back by a dying Beast to be the ghosts of Christmas past to Cyclops, to remind him of his heinous crime of murdering Charles Xavier. Now, the original five are here to stay to prevent a mutant civil war and to restore Xavier's dream.

The art is as excellent as any of the franchise's storied past. Stuart Immonen is producing the best art of his career and colorist Marte Gracia is making a name for himself with his vibrant coloring.

I read this collection digitally in Comixology and I'm glad Marvel included the bonus material from the hardcover. This feature was missing from prior digital/print combo releases and I'm glad Marvel learned from that mistake. I would have wanted to see all the variant covers included with the AVX digital collection, but I'm happy that this digital version has all the covers from the first five issues.

This is a great jump-on point for anyone intrigued by the storied history of the X-Men. Bringing the original X-Men to the present means that new history is being written and now would be the best time to be part of it. Whether digital or print, this is the book to help you start on your X-Men journey.

Originally reviewed on The Raving Asgardian, my personal blog on comics and its myriad forms.
Profile Image for Subham.
2,945 reviews83 followers
February 23, 2022
This was a cool volume as we have Beast recruit the young x-men from the past to show them what Scott has become in the present and well its a nightmare and war on all sides as the X-Men are disgusted by what they see and we have Scott recruiting his own team and its sorta fun seeing the team coming together! And then the various conflicts and melodrama as the Young X-Men confront the adult cyclops, war on all sides, their return and the young Jean learning her fate and well a new mission statement for them and interesting tidbits between young scott and jean!

Its a great volume and I love the insane idea of bringing the young x-men together in such a fashion and well upend the status quo suddenly and its crazy idea and thats why I think it works so well and the conflicts are amazing but the main thing is the art of Immonen which is crazy good and like some of my favorite ever like just wow! A must read volume for X-fans.
Profile Image for Frankh.
845 reviews168 followers
September 1, 2015
This is everything I ever wanted in an X-Men story that I never thought I needed and everything I ever needed that I never thought I wanted. Brian Michael Bendis' first volume collection of All-New X-Men for the current Marvel Now! initiative is, simply put, A-MAH-ZING. Illustrated by Stuart Immonen, the first five issues comprised in this collection were endlessly entertaining and gripping.

The idea of bringing back the original first class of the X-Men from Stan Lee's run in the sixties (composed of Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Beast, Angel and Iceman) by having them time-travel to the future (or the present Marvel timeline) where things are less than idyllic (some may say a colossal clusterfuck), is a bold storytelling strategy. It could have easily been a failure. But writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Stuart Immonen were not intimidated by this daunting task at all. The first debut issue opens with Hank McCoy's journal entry where he admits that he is once again going through the next stage of his beast mutation which is all kinds of hellish pain and he stresses that he may not survive this one at all.

In the aftermath of the Phoenix Force dispersing in the cosmos which signaled the rebirth of the mutant gene, several unsuspecting youngsters discover their powers (which, as we all know, get mostly triggered by stressful situations) and were being hunted down by government factions to contain them. Recent fugitive and no longer anyone's favorite person, Cyclops, started recruiting said mutants to join his "revolution". By his side were his on-again, off-again paramour and partner Emma Frost, Magneto and Magik. The X-Men were bothered by the escalation of Scott's brutal ways especially Beast who may or may not die during the new stage of his physical mutation. Desperate, he traveled back in time to forewarn and beg the original core five members of the X-Men to come with him to stop Scott from unwittingly committing what he deems is a "mutant apocalypse".

I consider myself a fairly loyal Cyclops fan. It's a love-hate relationship at the beginning considering his archetypal role in the X-Men as a whole and his often closed-off personality. While he may inherently be a decent and noble person with heroic motivations--the "golden boy" to be exact--he is often alienating because he tends to be guarded even around people he is supposed to trust. It's only when he's with Jean (and later on, Emma) that we see the more sensitive and human side of Scott Summers, and, naturally, those are the stories where I enjoy reading him most. In contrast, Wolverine (Logan or James Howlett) may be of a pseudo-anarchist "black sheep" but his outsider status even among other outsiders heralded him as a quick fan-favorite because everyone roots for and sympathizes with the moody guy who may talk back against authority and challenge the one in charge (Scott, mostly) but is also ultimately the one you can depend on because once you earn his loyalty, he will go to hell to cover your ass.

It's only an intriguing progression then to see him become the headmaster for the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning alongside Ororo and Kitty Pryde. Unlike Scott who readily accepts the leadership role from the get-go, Logan has had a complicated avoidance issue about it but has always had the potential and providence to lead and teach. But this is about Scott and we see that all the grooming from Charles Xavier; all those years of expectations and preparation, as well as the betrayals and trials of trust he experienced with said father figure, has all led to this.He has now become the ultimate outsider trying to forge a path that goes against everything he used to believe and stand for. He even has freaking Erik Lehnsherr (Magneto) on his side! He never would have worked with the guy, let alone form an alliance with him.

But these are desperate times and although his methods have drastically changed, Scott still wanted to serve and protect his own mutant species even if it meant murdering humans along the way. So, I guess it makes sense that Magneto signed up and allowed Scott to take the reigns. The most baffling thing about this, though, is Scott doesn't really hate humans unlike Magneto. Scott has become completely apathetic of humans unlike when he was young aTnd hopeful and wanted to live in peaceful co-existence with humanity. Now he commits atrocities with human casualties as if he was merely stepping on an insect that happens to be on the pavement where is he walking.

So listen up! This is my most favorite Marvel Now! X-Men title to date, and I don't think that's ever going to change especially after finishing this installment. As I've said before, the Original Core Five (OCF) from Stan Lee's sixties era became endeared to me thanks to Jeff Parker's X-Men: First Class which I just ate up with as many servings as possible. Now it looks like the same thing is going to happen again with All-New X-Men. The most compelling thing about the premise of this story is the timey-wimey aspect of it. The idea of bringing back the old and traditional fivesome to the present world so they can see how the dream they wanted to achieve as mutant pacifists was left utterly in pieces, all thanks to no other than a radically-changed Scott Summers, would have been silly on paper at first; but Bendis and Immonen created something worth the reading experience. This series, I think, is a great callback to the classics while still maintaining the integrity of the evolution of the new blood. Simply put, IT IS UNDENIABLY...



One of my favorite moments came in the fifth issue with Jean Grey. After seeing and feeling for herself the chain of events that will happen after and during her death, rebirth, Dark Phoenix struggle, death again and resurrection again then final death (yup, she felt ALL of these deaths in one single telepathic look into Beast's memories and it was devastating), Jean made a decisive motion to stick around and fix what was broken. They took it to a vote with Scott immediately backing up Jean, claiming that if they decide, they should do it unanimously. Only Warren was opposed to it.

Afterwards, young Scott tried to talk to Jean but was cruelly brushed off in the last scene of this issue that really broke my heart. I don't know what's going on in Jeanie's mind but I theorized that after seeing the man her first love became, it was a rude awakening for her. Jean used to be crushing so hard on Scott back when they were young, and she never doubted him, almost blindly believes in the goodness he has shown time and time again when they are together. Upon her death, the man she loved and admired became the things he himself fought hard against and this failure that is about to come is unforgivable for her. This may seem harsh and narrow-minded because the Scott who is with her now is still the idealistic dreamer who does want to stop his future self from becoming "evil" but Jean's decision to distance herself from him was understandable. She can't be around the boy she loves and still stay objective with her number-one priority which is to take back the dreams of Xavier the man she loved in the future has so utterly ruined.

In a nutshell, Brian Michael Bendis' All-New X-Men has started out strong for this volume and is one of the most phenomenal X-Men titles released from the Marvel Now! roster and you should be reading this masterpiece-in-the-making by now.

RECOMMENDED: 9/10

DO READ MY REVIEWS AT:


Profile Image for Shannon.
918 reviews267 followers
October 9, 2018
What do you do when a leading X-Man is out of control? You go back into the past and grab his ideal youthful self and bring him and all of his young friends to the present. What ensues is different and thought-provoking.

MY GRADE: B plus.

Profile Image for Molly™☺.
804 reviews55 followers
June 17, 2022
Time travel with a decent execution. Watching both the current and the old team interacting with each other makes for some interesting character moments, especially when you have the young counterparts seeing and reacting to themselves. The time travel elements can feel a tiny bit muddled, with the time skips not being overly clear. It isn't narrative shattering, but it does make it more complicated to follow than need be. However, the main problem is the fact that it further highlights just how much they have ruined Scott Summers as a character; although, it is rather cathartic watching young Scott see what he's become.
Profile Image for Donovan.
725 reviews80 followers
August 30, 2016
Honestly, I can find no fault here. The writing is superb, the artwork is gorgeous, and the characters are fleshing off the pages. I've finally found some X-Men I can burn through like I was eight years old.
Profile Image for Sesana.
5,711 reviews337 followers
September 9, 2013
I just don't care for the premise of this book. The idea of bringing the teenage original X-Men forward in time just doesn't appeal to me in the slightest. This may have something to do with the fact that I'm not terribly interested in any of the original X-Men, not in their teenage states. Cyclops just got interesting five minutes ago, after all. So this just isn't the book for me, and I'm not surprised that I didn't really enjoy it.

But I do find myself fascinated by the tension between Cyclops and the X-Men he left behind. This could go in really interesting ways, outside the pages of this book. What made Magneto such a compelling character to me was that I always felt like he had a point, and that he and Xavier were not nearly as far apart in ideology as it seemed at first. Putting Cyclops in the Magneto role brings the two sides even closer together. There's a scene, fairly early in the book, where Cyclops breaks a mutant out of prison. Why was he in prison? Because he healed an injured friend. I had the distinct feeling that the only reason that the Wolverine/X-Men faction disapproved is because Cyclops got there first.

That, for me, isn't a problem in the book. I think it's fantastic. I like that the answers aren't easy, and that I can sympathize with both sides, to an extent. Likewise, I don't mind that there's a huge variation in how characters viewed Cyclops under the influence of the Phoenix Force. Was he in control or possessed? How much blame should he take for his actions? It seems like almost every character has a slightly different opinion, and I imagine that holds true for the readers, as well. And I think it's more interesting than simply saying that Scott was/was not entirely responsible for what he did while Phoenix, full stop.

But the teenage time travelers... Not for me. Sorry. I look forward to seeing some of the tensions that I saw in this book worked with in other places, but not here, not for me.
Profile Image for Mike.
1,530 reviews144 followers
June 14, 2013
This definitely exceeded my expectations. I was first afraid that it would be gimmicky - that either the writer or the artists would try to ape the old style of the original X-Men comics, and end up "having fun" as creators at the expense of any fun for us readers. Not so - this was drawn and written as if the characters got dropped straight into modern comics, and it felt very up-to-date.

I was next afraid that they'd start talking just like in the originals, and screech every panel to a halt. Nope - these kids sounded exactly like retro people who didn't happen to have a clue what was going on. We didn't even have to wade through a bunch of "far outs" and "flower power man", which is a surprise and a gift for such a high-concept book.

Instead, we got a look at some grounded characters who just dealt with the situation Hank dropped on them. No unexplained blind rage fights, totally reasonable reactions on all sides, and no tidy tie-up for this story by the end of this arc.

I sincerely can't wait to see where Bendis takes these gangs next, and I hope this situation stays open for a few years. For a team that Bendis has never touched, this was an easy transition and a fine balance of characters and their needs.
Profile Image for Wren (fablesandwren).
674 reviews1,572 followers
September 17, 2020
This was really awesome.

Cyclops has kind of gone off the edge. He is hanging out with Magneto if that tells you anything. His old friends back at the Jean Grey Institute (because Xavier seems to be resting in peace for reasons you would just have to read about) can't seem to get him back on the right side of the fight.

So Beast has this great idea where he went back in time (because he had a time machine laying around) and visit his former self and comrades and convince them to come help show Cyclops what he has become by seeing what he used to be.



You would think that there would be some big problem with your former self and current self seeing each other and changing the time frame and changing the past and what not, but they don't really seem worried about it.

Jean Grey kind of goes crazy because she's, you know, dead in the future. She kind of takes charge, which is different from the first comics of the X-Men series. She was very focused on other things and just liked being a part of the group in the originals. I kind of loved it.
Profile Image for Monsour.
477 reviews34 followers
April 2, 2018
X-men First Class goes time travel road trip

Current Hank Mccoy kindda/sorta convince the original team to come with him to the future. But, what they find is what state of their dream and their future selves.

description

One of them grows alot of hair
The other guy becomes the lamest mutant terrorist with alot girl problem
Their's another one who get posses by a giant bird and died multiple times then die again. She also meet her alternate future daughter...
Also one of them becomes a cyborg birdman.
When the original team comes face to face with their counterparts. How will they react?

Profile Image for Nicole Westen.
953 reviews35 followers
October 18, 2018
I feel like Beast's response to past Jean's question about how she dies sums up pretty much all major comic book series. "Which time?" This also feels almost like a fourth wall break in a way. The past x-men react to the cumulative history of Marvel's X-men universe kind of feels like how I reacted when I first started reading American comics.
Profile Image for David.
Author 18 books386 followers
August 23, 2013
I read this out of order, having read Vol. 2 first, but catching up wasn't too hard. The side plots do introduce the three new mutants I didn't care about in Volume 2. This is where Marvel's new split between the All-New X-Men (X-Men, original label) and the Uncanny X-Men (modern team) begins. It's a ridiculous high-concept premise, in which the Beast goes back in time and brings back the teenage versions of himself and his buddies to confront today's Scott Summers/Cyclops and hopefully shame him into being not so crazy.

Those comic book super-geniuses. They can build time travel machines, armies of self-aware robots, floating antigravity cities, and genetically engineered superpowered clones, but they sure come up with stupid ideas.

That said, from a publishing perspective, it's a great move on Marvel's part. The "All-New" X-Men (1960s-era Cyclops, Beast, Marvel Girl, Iceman, and Angel) become the fresh, fun superhero team that requires less investment in the line's history, while the Uncanny X-Men can go on being their grimdark selves with all that historical baggage.

So this volume comprised the first five issues. Beast goes back and grabs his friends, Jean Grey gets prematurely awakened to her telepathic powers (hello, Beast, that's what happens when you mess with time and space) and of course completely freaks out when she finds out that in the future she dies and Scott turns into a psycho, and that men, including X-Men, have really dirty thoughts around pretty teenage girls.

Meanwhile, the modern-day Cyclops, with Magneto and Magick, go bust Emma Frost/the White Queen free from imprisonment from the federal government. I mean, why do the Feds even bother trying to transport dangerous mutant supercriminals in heavily-armed transports? You might as well just start cutting the checks on life insurance policies.

Very good, action-packed volume with a lot of the drama you'd expected from naive teenagers forced to face their grown-up selves. Artwork was pretty good, though young Hank McCoy does not look even remotely twelve years old. Time travel issues are brushed aside, as they always are in comic books, but I notice they still never even bother to address the ethics of using telepathic powers to just erase memories or change people's minds when it's convenient. It's kind of funny how J.K. Rowling's fans have torn her apart for that bit in the Epiloge of Deathly Hallows where Ron uses a Confunding Charm on a Muggle during his driver's license test. It's horrible! It's unethical! It's a gross violation of one's person! And yet the X-Men, including the sainted Charles Xavier, have been doing that shit forever without even blinking.

Anyway, I really liked this alternate cover in the back of the volume, which for once actually made Jean Grey look like the scared, confused teenager she is.

Young Jean Grey
Profile Image for Dale Rutter.
Author 2 books16 followers
January 25, 2016
I was excited to finally get round to reading x-men and I think I chose a good starting point!
It was interesting to see the original five x-men together and going back to their younger selfs to try and change cyclops from going off the rails a little!
It was also good to see Beast in all his younger states and trying to solve why this latest mutation is affecting him.
A good story that kept me reading and I am eager to start the next one now to see what unwinds.
Profile Image for Sam Quixote.
4,665 reviews13.2k followers
May 3, 2013
A decent, if slow, start to one of Marvel's flagship titles. Beast goes back in time to bring back old Scott to meet current day criminal/fugitive Scott in an effort to remind him of who he is - a bizarre plan in and of itself! Full review here!
Profile Image for Tyler Seth Parsley.
9 reviews2 followers
July 16, 2018
I'm so late on this and I'm kicking myself for not jumping in when it was new like I wanted, but I digress.

I loved this volume. The story has really sucked me in and not only has me Xcited for the next volume, but also makes me want to go back and read the Avengers Vs. X-Men event. I've only read X-Men comics fairly sparingly over the years, so a lot of events that were brought up in this volume I am not privy to. Bendis does a good job of bringing you up to speed enough so you're not completely lost. Immonen provides some fantastic art brought to life beautifully by Gracia's colors.

I'm not going to go spoiler heavy here, but just wanted to touch on a scene that really gave me the goosies.

I love the idea of Cyclops facing his younger self and vice-versa. Cyclops has fallen so far, that Hank McCoy believes that the only person that has a chance to bring a sliver of his old self back, is his younger self and the rest of the original 5 X-Men, which includes Jean Grey of course. A fallen hero coming face to face with his younger self. A young hero who wants nothing more than to do good things, comes face to face with how broken he will become. That premise alone is about 8/10 goosies for me. The scene where young Cyclops reveals himself to older Cyclops was beautifully done. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" Says the younger man. Being caught completely off guard, older Cyclops gets lost in thought at being confronted by the man he once was accompanied by the younger versions of his closest friends, and his deceased wife.

It's going to be interesting to see the conflicts that arise in subsequent issues.
Profile Image for Brendan.
1,204 reviews53 followers
November 25, 2019
4.5

Is the X-Men only dealing with time travel? I honestly seem to only read the books with time travelling. Brian Michael Bendis tends to be hit and miss for me, but that's only with the franchise books like Marvel and DC, not the self created stories. I'm actually shocked I enjoyed this book. I was not going to read it as I've been constantly letdown by various Marvel books recently, but I thought one more try. Bendis and the team have created an interesting storyline here. It has room to breath and doesn't play all its cards in the first volume.

Why the 4.5?

I rated this high as I was impressed with the artwork and storyline in motion. I was a little confused, but comic storylines tend to gel together when you're plucking from various authors and timelines. I quite liked the time travelling component, even though X-Men are forever bouncing around. How doesn't chaos theory interact with this universe? I like how time travel stories tend to be wrapped in an invisible gift wrap in this universe. This was a fun storyline overall and it has room to move going forward. I have managed to box myself into a corner with the next 6 volumes, so time will tell.
Profile Image for ˙⋆✮ Anny ✮⋆˙.
501 reviews300 followers
August 17, 2020
My first x-men comic ever. I had no idea where to start reading x-men so when I found this at the library and saw it's the 1st volume of a series I decided to just give it a go. I ended up mostly enjoying it.
There's lots of action and the storyline was a bit confusing, but interesting. The art is nice too. I sometimes had trouble with who's who since I'm not really familiar with the original x-men, but I understood most of it from the context.
Profile Image for Izza.
1,005 reviews15 followers
September 24, 2018
3.5 stars | this takes me back to my ~young days, when I watched the first two xmen movies over and over again because I had this massive crush on Jean Grey.
Profile Image for Sara Bakhshi.
1,413 reviews372 followers
April 5, 2019
I liked the idea of bringing the first ones from past to the future.
Profile Image for Gavin.
1,218 reviews90 followers
September 28, 2013
I really really loved this, more than most of the X-Men comics I've ever read. I love it because certain characters in the present take actions that we NEVER thought we'd see them do, and that's part of the beauty. Sometimes if a character acts against type, people hate it, but in this case, I love it. The art is great too, it feels like a grown-up book, and not some lame shit or attempt to have 'edgy' art or anything. Stuart Immonen has drawn New Avengers alongside Bendis' writing before, so I already know I like their teamwork, this is no exception.

There's plenty of shock value here, but the good kind, not cheap stuff. The fact that Beast makes a very controversial decision against type is part of the beauty of showing just how far things have fallen for the X-Men. I'm also happy to see Hank getting more focus than he usually does, with Scott and Logan usually getting a lot more. Obviously Scott is a major player in this storyline too, doubly important some might say.

I love what possibilities this has opened up, and how the rule book has been somewhat ripped apart for this. The directions this could go are immensely exciting for me...Looking forward to Volume 2!


***SPOILER ALERT***
After the events of Avengers vs. X-Men, Cyclops has become Public Enemy numero uno, and his team consists of himself, Magneto, Emma Frost (rather reluctantly) and Magik. The other X-Men are still recovering from the battles, and have a school to run, so aren't exactly in a mood to start another Mutant Civil War.
With this knowledge, and the fact that his mutation is changing yet again, Beast takes a comment Iceman makes to heart, and ends up going back in time to meet the Original X-Men (including himself) so that the teenage Cyclops can see what the modern Cyclops has become, and maybe stop him or shock Scott into stopping.
Let us just say, the quick throwdown between Past Scott and Present Scott is awesome. Also, the rest of the impact it has on Past Bobby, Warren, Hank, and Jean is also immense, just being in the future and seeing what has come of their dreams and work...


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