X:Men Blue #1

Writer: Cullen Bunn

Artist: Jorge Molina & Matteo Buffagni 

Colorist: Matt Milla

Letterer: Joe Carmagna

Cover Artists: Art Adam & Peter Steigerwald

Editors: Mark Paniccia & Christina Harrington 

Editor-In-Chief: Axel Alonso

Recap and Thoughts: Well, here we are, on the first issue of the second X-Men team, which is the Blue team, composed of our favorite time displaced teenagers. This is a reunion for the Original Five team, as Jean Grey had been with the Extraordinary X-Men team post Secret Wars. I must say the first thing that pops out at me in this issue is the lovely cover done by Art Adams, who has done sporadic covers for X-Men titles since the 80’s.

Now on to the issue proper, we find our young team inside the Blackbird bantering as they prepare for a mission. They find a yacht in the Mediterranean Sea and once aboard, run into classic X-Men villain, Black Tom. A battle begins, the problem is once they subdue Black Tom they discover he tends not to travel alone and he is accompanied by you know who; the Unstoppable Juggernaut.

After a serious of close calls trying to get out of his way, this entertaining fight goes to the top deck of the yacht where they keep getting their collective rear ends kicked. Beast saves the day with his new dark magic and then Jean tries to get them safely to port with her powers. They decide to head back to base in Madripoor,  where they debate whether they are doing the right thing since mutants have been given a second chance. Once they go into the main room, the big first issue revelation becomes clear as we find out that it is MAGNETO leading the young team. 

But wait, there’s  more. We have a surprise backup story of a young man, on the run, persecuted by the authorities. He heads deep into the woods and we come to find out he is hunting for the classic Wolverine villain, Wendigo. Hmm, who could this young man be and why is his first appearance against a Wolverine villain a coincidence? The Wendigo attacks the authorities and our mystery man gets shot in the head, before coming back up. Once this happens, we see claws pop out and him warning the sheriff to run. As the sheriff leaves, she hears a battle in the background which is where we end the story. It has been revealed that this is Ultimate Jimmy Hudson, who is Wolverine’s son from the destroyed Ultimate universe; seems he is poised to join this team in the future.

Conclusion: This issue has great writing by Cullen Bunn and fantastic art by Jorge Molina, but usually these first issues are great. I hope they can keep up the quality, the new status quo of the team is exciting due to a new mentor and new team dynamics. The Jimmy Hudson reveal is also exciting, as the team needs a wildcard, like Laura Kinney’s Wolverine, in the previous iteration.