All New X-Men Special

By Mike Costa, Kris Anka, & Jordie Bellaire

The All New X-Men must be pretty special, because they are currently involved in two separate cross-overs at the same time: Battle of the Atom and Arms of the Octopus. These teens from the past have been extremely busy in the little time that they have been in this timeline.

Scott, Jean, Hank and Bobby take a trip to the city as a bit of a vacation day. Scott and Jean plan to see a movie while Bobby and Hank stroll through the park. At some point, a vintage looking Dr. Octopus appears and ruins everyone’s good time. Don’t worry though, because the superior Spiderman shows up too. Isn’t that ironic?

This is part one of a three part mini, and this issue is written by Mike Costa. He does a great job making this book fun and not too serious. There are quite a few laugh out loud moments that make this issue enjoyable. Costa’s characterization is pretty spot on as well. His Bobby is naïve, his Superior Spidey is arrogant, and his Hank babbles. It’s also fun to see the All New X-Men branch out and interact with other heroes who aren’t the X-Men or Avengers. This was a good first issue.

Kris Anka provides the art, which fits the story, but at times is a bit uneven. There are a few scenes when Beast is shown on panel and he appears to have a flat face, or characters look like they came out of a Sunday paper. This is not to say he did a bad job the rest of the way, because for the most part it was decent. The double panel of Spidey punching Ock across the face is nicely drawn, and the humorous panel of the original five staring at one another after Spidey says time travel rarely works will make you laugh. We should cut Anka some slack on account of him inking the issue as well.

This was an interesting set up issue. Readers are left with questions as the next chapter approaches, and teaming up with the Hulk usually ends in destruction. Mike Costa is telling a fun story that puts the original five outside of their book and it is worth a read. If you have a light week on your pull list, or are a big X-Men fan, this should be a story to check out.