X-Men: First Class New Beginnings

Writer:Jeff Parker
Artist:Roger Cruz
Colourist:Val Staples
Covers:Marko Djurdjevic
Publisher: Marvel

Ive been reading comics as long as I can remember. When I was a kid my parents would buy me Masters of the Universe, Transformers or Spider-man comics and I loved reading them. Then as time went on I stopped reading comics. Don't know why but I did but 1 day in 1990 my brother had come home from work with a small collection of comics that I had never seen before. From what I remember he brought home a couple issues of Avengers Spotlight, X-Factor and Uncanny X-men. Out of all of those comics there is one I remember more than any of the others. In all fairness this 1 comic is what made me go off and start reading comics again and its why to this day I still read comics. This comic was Uncanny X-men 268. The cover featured Captain America, Black Widow and of course Wolverine, and it was cause of this character I had to know more. I had this passion to know "who the hell was this cool looking guy with knives coming out of his hands!". And so began my decent into the often confusing world of the X-men. Whilst I would love to go more into this story, I'm not going to today because I want to review this comic that I read.

Before I get on to the review I would like to put up a quick warning first to any one who has never read the X-Men before and/or is Dyslexic. I strongly advise you DO NOT ATTEMPT TO READ ANY OF THE MAIN X-MEN COMICS, why? Well they are heavily involved in their continuity and unless you have been following the X-men (on and off) for the past 20 years, you could be scared off comics for life. Marvel have let the X-Men comics go off the rails and there has been so many spin off titles that for a new reader too attempt to read any of the X-men comics is an incredibly daunting task and one that could put them off comics. What I would advise you to do is READ The Ultimate X-men or alternatively read X-Men First Class.

X-Men First Class New Beginnings is a collection of the first 4 issues of the series which follows the original class of X-men back in the day where they were the world strangest teens. These stories are not "Re imaging" the classic X-men stories, these are completely new stories and as far as I know they seemed to have happened alongside them.
There are a lot of references to their original comics but this does not interfere with the story at all. Each issue with in the book seems to be a self contained story. Whilst some of the aspects of the story have been updated such as their costumes and technology it really is not to distracting.
One nice point that I liked about the book, was the explanations as to why the X-men have different costumes to their original ones(they were damaged in a fight and the x-men are awaiting them to be repaired)and in the first issue Iceman(Bobby) is writing a letter to his mother but says he would much rather send her an email but Professor X wont let the X-men have email so Bobby has no choice but to write a letter. Also there is continuing back stories going on too. For example we get to see some of Cyclops(Scott) and Marvel Girl's(Jean) relationship developing with a little help from Professor X, he doesn't use his psychic powers to do this, but gives Scott and Jean some time alone from the rest of the X-men so they can enjoy themselves and work on the relationship. Another interesting back story in the comic is Cerebro (The mutant tracking computer) being a supporting character. When I first saw that Cerebro was being used as a teacher, I did wonder if it would end up manipulating any of the X-men and lets just say that by the end of the book I had my answer.

I really enjoyed reading this book and it really reminded me of how much I used to enjoy the X-men. Jeff Parker's writing is superb and where certain writers of the X-Men comics just put in too much exposition, he totally gets the X-men the way they should be. Roger Cruz artwork is quite enjoyable too. At first I was a little put off by how, I thought, the faces of the characters all looked the same but as the issues progressed I really enjoyed his artwork, especially in the final act of the book.Another thing I liked about Roger Cruz's Artwork was that he actually drew the X-Men as teenagers, not as over exaggerated men and women. The colourist of the book is Val Staples and he/she makes the book like absolutely vibrant but not garish.Finally Marko Djurdjevic covers are brilliantly stylised and a real treat to look at.

I really enjoyed this book and cant recommend it enough. I know a lot of comic fans see the X-men as this impregnable title that has far to much continuity but if you want to read a good X-Men comic with out all of the baggage then go read this comic. For Dyslexic readers,again if you have ever wanted to read the x-men but were to worried about it, then please go read this title. The book is advertised as an All Ages book, this does not mean it is just for kids, any one can and should go read this book.

After looking on the internet to find out how much the book cost,the cheapest place I found it was on Ebay. For some reason its not listed on Amazon. For £2.50 (+£1.50 p&p) its a bargain. X-Men First Class On Ebay

Finally a big thank you to Filthy McMonkey from the 11 O'Clock Comics Forum who sent me this book as he was my Secret Santa over there. All the best buddy!