Civil War II: X-Men 1 review

With the terrigen clouds being the source of new inhumans yet killing mutants, it’s only inevitable that the two races would eventually collide. Whether or not that happens in this X-Men focused mini-series, that is the central focus. This issue does a lot to set up the premise and each characters’ side, and much more efficiently than the main event so far. But is it good?

This comic starts off with Magneto’s X-Men breaking into a sealed room with a bunch of rich, selfish mutants in Dubai who are avoiding the coming terrigen clouds, bringing along the poorer mutants in town. This alone is a great Magneto moment, and one I completely agree with. Of course, things turn bad when the servers reveal themselves as Prime Sentinels. Storm’s X-Men team shows up and the two teams work together to save the civilian mutants and tear apart the sentinels. It’s a great way to open up this comic.

The rest of the comic is a debate between Storm and Magneto regarding Ulysses from Civil War II (the inhuman who can see the future), with several members from either team chiming in. There’s a short but amusing conversation between Inverted Sabretooth and Old Man Logan (meeting for the first time as far as I know), a moment where Jean Grey psychically owns Psylocke and a surprise X-Men switching teams on the very last page. The conversation feels much more even than the main event so far, with Storm’s diplomatic approach being nice, but Magneto’s not wrong about the Inhumans doing virtually nothing to stop the terrigen mists from killing mutants. Cullen Bunn’s writing is very tight and focused here.

Andrea Broccardo’s art is pretty good. It’s a smooth look with a fair amount of detail, especially the debris in the fight scene and the shiny buildings in the backgrounds. Facial expressions do a good job at conveying emotions, whether Storm’s thankful look after Magneto saves her from an attacking sentinel, Jean Grey’s fury when Psylocke reads her team’s mind without permission or Psylocke’s concerned look when Magneto starts ranting near the end. My only real complaint is that some characters look too young, partly because of the smooth look. Psylocke almost looks like a teenager in a couple panels, and Magneto looks like he’s in his mid-30s. Jesus Aburtov’s colouring is great. Everything’s bright, colourful and appealing. If Bunn’s Uncanny X-Men series had art more like this instead of Greg Land, I would probably stick with it.

This is a great start to the X-Men’s involvement with Civil War II. Not only does it explain everything you need to know about terrigen mist, but it actually feels like a self-contained story that doesn’t rely on the main event. Also, Storm’s team actually does some superheroing, unlike the very slow pace in Extraordinary X-Men where they mostly defend themselves. If the story concept interests you, by all means check this out.

8.5/10