The X-Men have come a long way over the years. From students of Professor X to leaders of a whole mutant nation, these characters have been a cornerstone of the Marvel Universe for a long time. This new series revisits a classic version of the X-Men to tell a previously untold story.
The family tree of the Summers family is incredibly complicated – riddled with time-travel plot points and genetic mutations. It’s not going to get any easier to follow either as “X-Men: Legends #1” goes back to a time before the mutant island of Krakoa to add another branch to that family tree.
The X-Men have had a complicated past with a race of aliens known as the Shi’ar. When they return to Earth and launch a series of assaults, Cyclops and his brother Havok fight off a group known as the Crystal Claws but not before they accomplish their mission of abducting their grandparents.
Meanwhile, Adam-X, a mutant with an even more mysterious past than any of the aforementioned others, has a run in with another former member of the X-Men who brings him back into the fight. He thought he was done dealing with the Shi’ar but he was very wrong.
As is usually the case when unfamiliar characters meet for the first time in the Marvel Universe, Cyclops and Havok go toe to toe with Adam and get an idea of just how capable he is. But there is also so much more to their relationship and the Summers family tree is growing again.
This nostalgia-driven issue is a lot of fun for fans of the X-Men from the 80s and 90s. It’s not only the face that we jump back into what should be a much simpler time for these characters, but also the incredible artwork that will have the X-Men: The Animated Series theme playing in your head the entire time you read it.
As for that simpler time, that concept kind of gets tossed aside by focusing this first issue on the Summers family and even adding a new wrinkle to further complicate things. On top of that, including the Shi’ar, with their difficult political landscape, only add another layer of potential confusion. Still, if you have a basic working knowledge on the history of the X-Men and can allow yourself to not get bogged down by all the details, this is a fairly easy issue to read.
This issue also builds the start of a much bigger story. With Adam-X at its center, this can be a very different story that changes the way the X-Men operate forever. The potential for future ramification is immense as the current landscape of mutants is very delicate with family and politics at its core. IT will be interesting to see how this impacts the operations of Krakoa.
All in all, this is a must-read for fans of the X-Men who grew up in the 90s. The artwork alone is worth the price and getting back to a time in which the X-Men were actually the X-Men and not an island of mutants trying to find their place in the world is very refreshing.
You can check out “X-Men: Legends #1” here.