Brian Wood's X-Men (2013) #1 Review

Marvel Comics
Brian Wood's X-Men (2013) #1 Review
By Andy Frisk
June 2, 2013 - 18:19

Marvel Comics
Writer(s): Brian Wood
Penciller(s): Olivier Coipel
Inker(s): Mark Morales
Colourist(s): Laura Martin
Letterer(s): VC's Joe Caramagna
Cover Artist(s): Coipel and Martin

Brian Wood is one of the hottest writers in comics today. His stint with Vertigo Comics, where he wrote the long running Northlanders and DMZ, garnered him widespread recognition for his work and his current run on Dark Horse Comics' Conan The Barbarian is redefining the character with relevance. Wood's also recent, but rather short stint on Marvel Comics' X-Men series was also very well received. Now, with all the Marvel NOW! stuff still going on, Marvel Comics has handed the reigns of a new volume of X-Men to Wood and fellow hot comic book creator Olivier Coipel. Delayed at least a month, X-Men (2013) #1 has finally debuted. The buildup to the release of this issue has been astronomic in its hype. One might think that the second coming of Marvel's Merry Mutants was upon us (once again). One might be right...

While X-Men (2013) #1, with it's all female X-Men cast, isn't the greatest X-Men story I've ever read (that will always be Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's original introduction of The Sentinels in X-Men (1963) 14, 15, and 16 and Chris Claremont's God Loves, Man Kills), it was one of the best first issues to a re-launched X-Book I've ever read. Setting things up nicely for continuing readers and new ones alike, Wood manages to tie in his overarching theme from his recent X-Men run with some new developments while mixing in his ever poignant and insightful explorations of modern socio-political and gender themes.

Olivier Coipel has been one of my favorite superhero sequential artists since he and J Michael Straczynski reinvented Thor a few years ago after Secret Invasion. His artwork is genre defining and his versions of the X-Men are some of the most compelling versions since Jim Lee and Marc Silvestri first drew the characters decades ago.

X-Men (2013), based on the merits of its first issue, is looking to be the must read X-Book of the year.

Rating: 9.5/10