Earlier this month Brian Wood (Mara) and Olivier Coipel (House of M) reintroduced X-Men to Marvel NOW! with an all-female line up including Storm, Rogue, Kitty Pryde, Rachel Grey, Psylocke and Geeky Girl Bimpe's personal favourite, Jubilee.
Sporting an adjective-less title, X-Men #1 sees an old enemy come a'knocking, looking for a safe haven from an ancient evil. It also sees the return of Jubilee with an orphaned baby in tow, and this little cutie looks set to play a major role in Earth's survival.
X-Men #1 is title that doesn't focus on creating a new team (like we have seen with various Marvel NOW! stories), but instead utilises an existing female collective that already have a strong presence in the Marvel universe. It really places emphasis on establishing compelling characters and showcasing the connections between them.
Throughout the story there is consistent teamwork (as well as an amusing display of destruction at the expense of Wolverine's wallet), and not just teamwork in the sense of 'I'll go here and you go there, we'll dig you out of the rubble later,' but a real 'I'm part A and you're part B, and we both have to do this together to get to part C'. These instances really give the book pace, and drive home the fact that while individually these X-Women are capable of extraordinary things, first and foremost they are a team.
As we've seen from his work on Mara (Image Comics), Wood does a great job at breaking down the notions of the masculine and feminine domain. The outside world is now a place where women can thrive, fight fires, and stop two trains from colliding if they wish to (and these ladies do). He has created lead females who are all about getting the job done, and less about eye-candy or supporting a male lead.
Did we mention that it looks great too? Coipel has a very realistic style, not only is the baby too cute, he is also able to make these ladies look both feminine and kick arse. Psylocke is looking particularly awesome. In the train sequence, Coipel gives us a glimpse of what he can do, but also compliments the dialogue perfectly, whereby you feel a sense of tension and narrative progress without there being any real crisis.
We can't forget Mark Morales who provides some awesome colours that really make the pages pop and give each woman her own unique style and identity.
As you can probably tell, we are bowled over by X-Men #1. It is a great piece of work that looks set to re-establish strong female leads in modern mainstream comics. Fingers crossed.
