Extraordinary X-Men #1

By Jeff Lemire, Humberto Ramos and Edgar Delgado

There were many questions about what was going to happen to characters and teams after Secret Wars, but none may have been as important as the future of the X-Men. With a terrigen mist bomb going off that awakens Inhumans, mutants also seem to get poisoned. As we take a look at Extraordinary X-Men #1 this week, we see the ripple effects the bomb has had on the mutant community.

Jeff Lemire has been known for putting out quality books, so him doing an X-Men series seemed like a step in the right direction for the franchise. Extraordinary X-Men #1 offers a few answers, but obviously, not all of them. Much of this issue centers on Storm gathering mutants so they can be protected from the mist that is killing and sterilizing mutants. Lemire writes Storm all right this issue, but as a leader she allows Magik to rescue mutants by herself; seems kind of dangerous for an endangered species. Another problem with this issue is the ridiculous addition to Colossus’ family life. This could just be a miss in the continuity department, but Peter’s home life was always shown as being one of the warmest and most loved parts of his existence. Lemire adds an odd side note that doesn’t quite fit in anything ever shown. On the positive side, the mystery of what Cyclops did is very intriguing. Lemire plays this well in the introductory issue and it will likely be a good plot point for future issues. Scott seems to be one of the most hated men in the world, and while characters talk about him, they never go into detail about what he did. As far as first issues go, this was decent, nothing great, but not terrible either. This may be a series that needs time to get going.

The pencils are handled by Humberto Ramos with colors by Edgar Delgado. In the past Ramos’ art has seemed excessively cartoony, but his work this issue looks like the best it’s been in a while. There are definitely some off panels, on a few Nightcrawler’s face looks too long for instance. Ramos nails Teen Jean’s look this issue. There are a lot of full-page spreads that Ramos nails as well. Magik rescuing a mutant from certain death comes to mind. Ramos really did a nice job on the pencils here. The colors by Edgar Delgado seems to be a perfect fit for Ramos’ style of art. His color palette is kind of light and fun, which matches the pencils. This was an impressive debut for the art team, here’s hoping they can keep it up.

Extraordinary X-Men #1 wasn’t anything particularly epic. It was a decent intro that will more than likely take time to build up. Jeff Lemire was fine in his debut as an X-writer, but he didn’t wow us like Joss Whedon on Astonishing X-Men. The art team carried the book for this first issue and should look to build on a strong performance.