Magik and Juggernaut are playing Rock, Paper, Scissors. No one’s winning. Neither one of them is ever going to play anything other than rock. So neither one of them is going first.  They’re both going to have to go together. At the same time. Naturally, they’re a bit upset about this in X-Men #1. Writer Jed MacKay opens-up a whole new chapter for the beloved team in an issue drawn to the page by penciler Ryan Stegman and inker JP Mayer. Color comes to the page courtesy of Marte Garcia. 

Magik and Juggernaut are both being launched into an assault by their team lead--who only happens to be Cyclops. They’re launching themselves into a highly secure facility in Santo Marco. It’s okay. They’ve been doing this sort of thing for years. They may not like what they’re going to find themselves up against when they get there, though. The person they’re looking to get is the best there is at what he does and what he does...well what he’s doing right now is being saved by the rest of his team. What’s going to happen from there is going to be quite a bit more complicated than a simple infiltration and rescue operation. 

MacKay is struggling a hell of a lot in this issue. And he had been handed quite a lot at the end of recent events. So it's interesting to see what direction he's taking things in. He has a steady hand with an extended ensemble. And he's working with a team that is quite distinctly unlike any other that had been presented to this point. He's always been good with pacing and witty dialogue and intensity, but with this first issue of a new series MacKay shows that he has a really solid grasp of what makes the X-Men appealing: its ability to constantly change, modify and mutate basic premises into wholly new situations.

Stegman and Mayer have a powerful impact with their art. Action blasts, slams and slides across the page with added impact thanks to Garcia’s rich, dynamic color. There was a profound sense of depth about page and panel as well. The looming presence of inanimate Sentinels lurks around the edges of everything, giving powerful contrast to the very active danger resting in foregrounds elsewhere. 

The X-Men continue to find their distinctive appeal in a whole new #1. The action can be difficult to reconcile against some of the dialogue in places, but that’s been a problem with the X-Men going back to Claremont’s early days in the late ‘70s. What is important is that the heart of everything is firmly held onto in a promising new direction for a series which is leaning pretty heavily on reconstruction in the light of the fall of Krakoa at the end of the last major epoch for the franchise. MacKay and company have found fresh life in a new team with a whole new background. This looks like it’s going to be fun.

Grade: A