By Jedi of Doom

X-Men #1
Written by: Victor Gischler
Art by: Paco Medina
Cover by: Adi Granov
Marvel Comics
Price $3.99
Release Date: July 9, 2010

Well the first issue of a brand new X-Men title is here, the title of this new series is just being called X-Men and it is going to be replacing X-Force as a primary X-Men title. It still has the X-Men based out of their base on Utopia, but they are more involved in San Francisco.

This new series is penned by Victor Gischler and drawn by Paco Medina. The artwork in this issue done by Medina reminds me a lot of the artwork done in Uncanny X-Men and in X-Men: Legacy.

My main problem with this issue, the first in the “Curse of the Mutants” story arc, is the story done by Gischlerm which involves the X-Men learning about a new threat to San Francisco, vampires. The book opens with Pixie and former X-Man Jubilee in a café in Union Square where a mysterious man takes his shirt off and begins to smoke and then proceeds to explode covering 24 people with blood, including Jubilee. So it becomes the mission of the X-Men to find out why this event happened.

Gischler really starts off strong with the story at the beginning of this book, but somewhere in the middle it really gets lost. The story from the middle to the end becomes very predictable in which every reader knows what is happening with Jubilee. I think this whole vampire thing now has run its course. I know Marvel uses vampires when it comes to the character Blade, but I do not think they belong in X-Men. In my opinion the two big things this book has going for it is the artwork and the fight between Wolverine and a vampire warrior.

Overall I really think that this comic is not worth the $3.99. I really think that this series should have been a one-hot instead of a start to a brand new series.

I give X-Men #1 a 3 out 5 because the artwork is the only thing that really carries this book.