The following is a review of the “X-Men: Second Genesis”
graphic novel by Chris Claremont, Len Wein, Bill Mantlo, and Bonnie Wilford.
We’ll begin this review with a look at the characters, then
an examination of the plot synopses of the book, then move on to my personal
thoughts in reflection to the graphic novel, my accessibility reference, and
finally my numerical score and recommendation of the book. Unfortunately and
regretfully this will contain spoilers, and I apologize, but they are necessary
for the point of reviewing the graphic novel as a whole, but these spoilers are
not completely major, mostly minor, no it shouldn’t ruin the book by being
revealed.
We’ll start with talking about the X-Men in general. The
X-Men are a team of mutant “super heroes.” A mutant is a person with powers
that people don’t usually have. This is caused by a genetic mutation at birth.
These powers typically manifest upon puberty. The “scientific” term of a mutant
is homo superior. Because “normal”
humans don’t have these powers, many are afraid of mutants, and a large faction
hate mutants and want them all dead (the only good mutie is a dead mutie) or
arrested and contained. The X-Men were brought together to learn to use their powers
to benefit all mankind, with the vision of peace between mutants and “normal”
humans. They often come up against “evil” mutants who wish to overtake “normal”
humans and establish mutant dominance and superiority. Their base is Xavier’s
School for Gifted Youngsters, located in Westchester, New York (ironically
where I live). This is where they live and train to use their powers and as a
cover so their location is a secret. The X-Men are Scott Summers/Cyclops, Bobby
Drake/Iceman, Jean Grey/Marvel Girl, Warren Worthington III/Angel, Alex
Summers/Havok, Lorna Dane/Polaris, and their leader is Charles Xavier/Professor
X. Professor X has a device called Cerebro, which can locate mutants all around
the world. Cerebro detects a powerful mutant on the island of Krakoa, so strong
it defies classification. Professor X sends his X-Men on a mission to locate
this mutant. However, only Cyclops comes back, the other X-Men missing somewhere
on Krakoa, potentially held kidnapped. Professor X feels he needs more mutants
to go to Krakoa to find the mutant and rescue the X-Men, so he recruits a new group
of mutants to do the task.
We’re now going to talk about the team that goes to the
rescue, but we’re only going to talk about three of the aforementioned X-Men
before we talk about the rescue team.
We’ll start with the founder and leader of the X-Men,
Charles Xavier/Professor X. Professor X is considered the most powerful telepath
on the planet. An accident has left him in a wheelchair.
Scott Summers/Cyclops: he has powerful optic blasts, but
has no control over them and must always wear glasses or visors made out of
ruby quartz, the only thing that can hold them back.
Jean Grey/Marvel Girl: she is a telekinetic and has minor
telepathic abilities.
Now we’ll talk about the rescue team in order of their
recruitment.
Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler: a teleporter with blue fur,
three fingers, two toes, and a tail who in Germany is considered a demon and is
about to be killed before Professor X arrived to rescue him.
Logan/Wolverine: he has a skeleton coated in the
unbreakable metal adamantium, three claws in in this hands, and a healing
factor than can help him recover from any wound. He is also called “Weapon X”
and is an agent of the Canadian super team Alpha Flight before Professor X
recruits him and Wolverine offers his resignation.
Sean Cassidy/Banshee: he is an Irish man who has been
with Interpol, the NYPD, and even been a villain before Professor X recruits
him. He has a sonic scream which he can use to fly with.
Ororo Munroe/Storm: she controls the weather and in
Africa she was considered a goddess before Professor X recruits her.
Shiro Yoshida/Sunfire: a Japanese man who can fly and
generate and control fire.
Peter
Rasputin/Colossus: a Russian farmer before recruited by Professor X, who can turn
his body into organic steel.
John Proudstar/Thunderbird: an Apache with super strength
and tracking skills.
So, anyway, this group of mutants travel to Krakoa to
find the mutant and rescue the X-Men and are surprised to find out the mutant
is actually the island itself. Upon defeating it, the X-Men and the new group
of mutants return to Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. All of the new
recruits except for Sunfire decide to stay and be the “New” X-Men. However, the
“Old” X-Men decide they have stayed at Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters long
enough and are grown enough to move on with their lives and decide to leave.
The only X-Man who decides to stay is Cyclops, who must say goodbye to Marvel
Girl, the woman he loves.
The “New” X-Men go on to train in the use of their
powers, and are called to NORAD base in Valhalla when Count Nefaria and his
Ani-Men have taken over and plan to unleash the nuclear missile upon the world,
the Doomsmith Scenario. The X-Men are able to defeat the Ani-Men, but Count Nefaria
attempts to escape in a plane. Thunderbird destroys the plane, but unfortunately
does not survive the crash.
The “New” X-Men continue their training and face several
more threats, including the demon Kierrok, Eric the Red, the corrupted Havok
and Polaris, the Sentinels, Steven Lang, and the X-Sentinels, and are brought
to space during a solar storm. Marvel Girl was taken with the X-Men and uses
her powers to land a space shuttle in Jamaica Bay. In the process, Marvel Girl
becomes Phoenix and her powers are amplified, and gains several new powers.
The X-Men travel to Cassidy Keep in Ireland that Banshee
has just inherited, but are forced to battle villains like Black Tom Cassidy (Banshee’s
evil cousin), Juggernaut, and Magneto.
The X-Men are sent into another galaxy where the battle
against the Shi’ar Imperial Guard to save the universe.
Upon their return, the X-Men and Iron Fist clash out of a
misunderstanding after Iron Fist faces off against Sabre-tooth.
The X-Men also travel to New Mexico and team up with
Spider-Man against a group of humans who believe they are reincarnations of
Hindu gods.
Finally, Spider-Man, Havok, and Thor team up to battle
the Living Monolith.
Yeah, okay, I know, that’s a lot of stories we covered.
Now I’m sure you want to hear my thoughts and score, so I won’t disappoint you
any further. Ever since I started reading comics regularly in 2001, I have
ALWAYS been a fan of Chris Claremont’s work, and his early work did not
disappoint me. I found these stories amazing, and did not want to stop reading
the book, didn’t want to put it down, and I finished it in three days (which is
actually slow for me, but I wanted to savor it, so I spaced it out). I liked
the Easter eggs where Claremont snuck several Marvel staff (like Stan Lee and
Jack Kirby) into the panels, which some people would totally miss, but I didn’t.
The stories excited and thrilled me. I just LOVED the book. I thought the team-up
issues were great, and reading the first appearance of Sabretooth was a total
treat for me. And “Iron Fist” was my favorite Marvel Netflix show, so I thought
his issues were awesome, they did not disappoint. And the “Phoenix Saga” has
always been a favorite of mine ever since I was a little boy and watched the “X-Men”
animated series in the 1990s (I was born in 1988, by the way, so I was
basically a ‘90s brat, and we had THE BEST animated superhero series’ back
then, and don’t try to tell me otherwise because you WILL NOT win).
Still with me? Have I bored you yet? If you’re still
here, you are THE BEST (expect to see that again in a few paragraphs). Okay, my
previous readers know when I review books and graphic novels, I give you my
accessibility rating. In other words, if you’ve never read ANYTHING pertaining
to these series, teams, and characters or haven’t seen any of their movies, can
you just pick it up and read it without being confused? Well, let’s explore
briefly the circumstances that led to the “New” X-Men. Stan Lee’s first X-Men
story was released in 1963. Claremont took over X-Men in 1975. Prior to that,
the “X-Men” comic series was literally dying. The stories were just not
interesting readers and new issues were stopped, with just rereleases of older
issue that they continued numbering from before the “fall” of the X-Men. Then,
in 1975, Giant-Size X-Men #1 came out, with new characters who were older and
of all different nationalities rather than just the white American characters.
We had a German “Demon,” a Russian farm boy, an African “Goddess,” a Canadian,
an Irish, a Japanese, a Native American warrior, and a Scottish scientist/housekeeper,
such a variety. These characters were seen as more “interesting” and BOOM! X-Men
was saved, and we all know now where THAT led to, the spin-offs, the cartoons,
the movies, the video games, the trading cards, the action figures, and I’m
sure I haven’t just named everything. So if you know nothing about X-Men, that’s
fine, the history of the first ninety-three issues really doesn’t matter, it’s
a perfect jump-on point, and if you ever want to start reading X-Men, this is
where to start.
So, now the important part: my score. For those who don’t
know how I roll, I score on a scale of one to ten. One means don’t go anywhere
near this book, ten being if you read this book we could be best friends. Hello
new best friends! For the first time ever! I score this book at a ten! I felt
this book was perfection! Comic book gold! Seriously, if you read this review
and are even MILDLY interested, I want you to go out and READ! THIS! BOOK!
Seriously, if you’ve read any of my previous reviews, you know I am VERY stingy
with my scoring. So if I say it’s a ten, well, that means A LOT!
So I’m going to sign off for this review, and paraphrase
the late, great Stan Lee, face front, true believers, excelsior, Tim Cubbin…
out!
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