t’s a Summers family reunion in X-Men #1, by writer Jonathan Hickman, artist Leinil Yu, inker Gerry Alanguilan, colorist Sunny Gho, and letterer Clayton Cowles. Beyond that moment of family togetherness, the Orchis Initiative is still in the picture, preparing for the next step in their war against mutantkind.

It all begins with a flashback to when Cyclops first got his ruby quartz visor from Xavier. He was just a boy, afraid to open his eyes when Xavier gave him a new way of looking at the world. In the present, Storm, Cyclops, Magneto, and Polaris storm the last Orchis stronghold on Earth. They find a mysterious black-skinned posthuman girl, who tries to make them forget they see her before translocating away, and a bunch of mutants Orchis held in stasis. They take them back to Krakoa. At the Forge, the leader of the Orchis Initiative arrives, Doctor Devo, and has a discussion with Karima, the Omega Sentinel, about what happened at the Forge. At the Summers House, located on the moon, the family has come together for dinner. Alex and Scott give their father Corsair a Krakoan flower that will allow him to go to the house at any time from anywhere. At the end of the night, Scott and his father have a heart to heart discussion about what’s going on, and Scott reveals he has a new focus in life- the people he loves, not the ones who hate him. At the Forge, Doctor Devo meets with Doctor Gregor. She’s bitter about the death of her husband and angry at Devo for not being there, but she reveals a secret to him- that she may be able to bring her husband back.

Hickman splits the issue’s focus between Cyclops and the Orchis Initiative, and it works wonders. The last time readers spent any time with Cyclops was in Rosenberg’s Uncanny X-Men run, and he was on a fatalistic path. This Cyclops is completely different. Hickman writes him as a new man. He’s still a soldier, first and foremost, but he’s no longer focused on just the fighting. Krakoa has given him a new lease on life and provided him with a new way of looking at the world. Before, he was always just fighting for his people’s survival as they constantly lost ground. Now, mutants have a place in the world and a power they never had before. He knows he still has to fight, but now he has more to fight for. He has a reason to live in a way that he never had before. Hickman does a wonderful job of showcasing all sides of the character in this issue and adding something to him that he’s never really had before- hope.

On the flip side, Hickman works to set up the Orchis Initiative as a continuing threat to mutants. The posthuman girl is a big development. The technology to make a posthuman shouldn’t even exist yet, meaning time travel of some sort. It lays out some interesting questions- does Orchis have access to time travel, or was the posthuman sent back to them? Is she the first generation of posthumans, like the ones seen in X-Men Year One Thousand in Powers Of X? From there, he introduces the boss of the Initiative, Doctor Devo. He’s the man who created the Forge, and he sort of blames himself for the X-Men’s successful attack on it. At the end of the issue, Doctor Gregor reveals to him that she may have a way to bring back her husband, which, if true, draws a parallel between Orchis and the X-Men. The X-Men have mastered resurrection, and if Orchis has as well, it puts them on near equal footing.

Leinil Yu’s art is pretty good. His art pencils are clean, the only real drawback is the lack of detail on background characters or long shots. His work on characters in the foreground is great, though. He’s able to capture a lot of emotion, making the dialogue pop. As an aside, Magneto’s white costume is very eye-catching, and colorist Sunny Gho takes a page from Marte Gracia in finding ways to make it shine against the background.

X-Men #1 is an excellent introduction to Hickman’s new era. He focuses on Cyclops and mutantkind’s biggest threat- the soldier who will lead the charge and the enemy he will face. He tweaks Cyclops just enough to make him a new man, and it’s a welcome change. Rosenberg tried to reconcile the soldier with the boy scout and ended up making the character a bit too fatalistic. Hickman makes sure to give Cyclops something new- hope. He’s not just fighting for his people, but for what he loves. He has his whole family surrounding him, and he’s fighting for them as much as he is for mutantkind. It’s a new facet to the character, and it makes him that much better. With Orchis, Hickman introduces some new things about them into the mix, establishing that even though they’ve lost their Mother Mold, they are still a threat. Leinil Yu’s art isn’t perfect, but it does a great job of getting a lot of the emotional beats of the story across. This is just an excellent comic. It really has it all- action, set-up, intrigue, and fantastic characterization. The X-Men are back.

Grade: A