Uncanny X-Men by Bendis vol. 1: Revolution

We got one half of Bendis’ take on the X-Men, with the time-traveling original team, in the first volume of “All-New X-Men” a couple months back.  Now we’re getting the half that focuses on Cyclops’ outlaw group in this latest relaunch of “Uncanny X-Men.”  If nothing else, the writer owes a real debt to Kieron Gillen for setting all this up in the “Avengers vs. X-Men:  Consequences” miniseries where Scott Summers found himself awaiting death and martyrdom in prison before realizing that he needed to escape in order to protect the new mutants emerging into a world that hates and fears them more than ever.  Read as a follow-up to that, it works quite well; though, your ultimate enjoyment of this will likely hinge on how much you like Bendis’ writing style.

Make no mistake about the new “Uncanny” as it is very Bendis-y in terms of style with the opening issue being framed around a dialogue between S.H.I.E.L.D. operative Maria Hill and a member of Cyclops’ team whose identity remains hidden until its end.  It reads a lot like his other superhero work on the “Avengers” titles with its clipped exclamations, and lengthy exchanges where the characters work out their issues instead of or before the fighting starts.  The first issue is pretty engaging as it sets up the team’s modus operandi — rescuing emerging mutants before they can be apprehended by local law enforcement, gives them a new threat to face in the appearance of new Sentinels backed by an unknown source, and the presence of a traitor on their side as well.

There’s actually a fair amount going on amidst all the talking in the issues collected here as we get to see the team taking on the Avengers, their visit to the Jean Grey School from the team’s perspective as seen in the latest volume of “All-New X-Men,” and team member Magik’s powers going haywire as a result of a power struggle in Limbo.  Some of these things are more interesting than others as the visit to the school leads to Emma psychically hashing things out with the Triplet Cuckoos as they see their former teacher as a shadow of what she once was and go about mentally poking her with a stick to find out what’s up.  

The encounter against the Avengers is less so as the dialogue between the two teams does a good job of building things up to an anticlimax.  Scott makes some good points about what’s being done to ensure the safety of new mutants, but it’s clear that he’s bent on seeing things from his own perspective as he handwaves away the efforts of his brother and Wolverine to make human/mutant interaction work.  Then there’s that bit about how he killed Charles Xavier while under the influence of the Phoenix force, which he appears utterly determined to being under the influence of this cosmic entity rather than accept any kind of personal responsibility for it.  This is good stuff, but it leads to one of their new members simply taking the Avengers off of the board instead of the throw-down that it appeared to be building up to.  I’ll admit that I’ve always found Bendis’ dialogues to be better than his fight scenes yet it still feels like a cheat.

I also have issues with the fact that this was done by one of their new members, Eva Bell a.k.a. Tempus, who has the ability to stop time in localized areas.  Seeing it used like this makes it appear to be an instant “win” button for the team and some limitations need to be established if there’s going to be any tension to the fights that she gets involved in.  However, hers is the most interesting of the new mutants.  We’ve got Christopher with healing powers, Benjamin who has chameleon-like abilities, Fabio who can project gold balls out of his body.  Fabio is also desperately hoping that “Goldballs” does not stick as his mutant name.  They all seem like fairly agreeable people who have acclimated rather well to being “rescued” by Cyclops’ team, which is part of the problem.  These characters have yet to reveal any distinctive personality traits and are generally okay with being abducted from their previous lives.  Granted, they all acknowledge that this is more interesting than their previous lives and Eva even gets to visit her mom which sets up the Avengers conflict.  It all feels too easy, and I’d love to see what would happen when they rescue another new mutant who doesn’t want to be part of their team.  How’s Scott going to react to someone who doesn’t see things his way?  Given how the character has been portrayed over the past few years, I can’t see that being a civil discussion.

To be honest, I’m still impressed with how the various writers who have tackled the character have managed to maneuver the character into his current situation.  I may have mentioned this before, but it bears repeating here.  Keep in mind that for decades Cyclops was established as the uptight leader of the X-Men who wore his “boringness” like it was a badge of pride.  Then, starting with the decimation of the mutant population in “House of M” we saw him take a commanding role to unite the remaining mutants and embrace an “ends justifying the means” mentality for keeping his race alive.  This eventually led to him driving a wedge between Wolverine, Beast and a good portion of the other X-Men in the run-up to “AvX.”  Now, after all that went down in that crossover, we’ve got a character still trying to be a leader to his people yet going to rather extreme lengths to do it while also trying to cover for the fact that he’s not entirely in control of his powers and still hasn’t accepted his role in the death of a man who was a mentor to him.

My point is that Cyclops in his current state is a far more interesting character to read about than he has been in years.  Even though he’s trying to do the right thing and has some success with it here, the foundation he’s building from is incredibly shaky and may collapse at any moment.  It’s not something that I generally want to see happen, but the ensuing dramatic firestorm should make for some exciting comics.

It also appears that with this volume Chris Bachalo will be drawing the X-Men in one way or the other for the rest of his tenure at Marvel.  If that is the case, then I have no complaints about it as the man certainly knows how to create visually interesting art regardless of the situation.  Though Jason Aaron gave him more outlandish things to work with in “Wolverine and the X-Men,” Bachalo shows that he can handle Bendis’ dialogue-heavy style well with his expressive characters and panel arrangements.  Frazer Irving takes over for the beginning of Magik’s storyline at the end of the volume and his work here is a dramatic change from what I’ve seen from him at DC.  Where his art there had a very precise, almost computer-generated, look to it the issue that we see here has a more natural pencil-drawn look to it which I find just as appealing.  Even so, Irving excels at “spooky” art and he’s the perfect choice to illustrate a story that takes place in Limbo.

Now the thing I haven’t addressed yet is whether or not anyone who isn’t already a fan of Bendis or the X-Men will find this appealing.  The answer to both is a fairly resounding “NO” as the writer doesn’t change up his style much here, though there is more incident to the issues being collected.  As for this being a good “jumping on point,” this certainly isn’t the place for lapsed X-fans to start reading as this does flow directly out of “AvX” and the “Consequences” miniseries that followed it (which is really quite good and worth reading if only for the moment where Wolverine tries to kill Cyclops, only for the latter to take all the fun out of the act).  However, if you’re like me and you like the writer and have been reading these comics for years then there’s certainly no reason to stop now as this collection shows “Uncanny” to be in good hands and heading towards better things in the future.