Marvel Hit Us With a Mean Pump Fake in ‘Children of The Atom’

If you’re like me, you’ve been enjoying the Jonathan Hickman orchestrated X-Men revival like Todo loves Itadori. If you’re really like me, you’ve been devouring dam near every book that has come out since House of X & Powers of X. I’m talmbout Marauders, New Mutants, X-Force, Cable, Wolverine, Hellions, X-Factor and of course, the flagship X-Men. Yeahhh, I’ve read every one except for the sus Excalibur issues. I’m invested and expect greatness, so when I heard about Children of the Atom, an exciting book about brand spankin new mutants, I was hype thinking about the possibilities.

What Could Have Been Vita Ayala was blessed with a blank canvas and the ability to create something special, something original. She set out to imagine “what would actual kids from our current time be like if they were X-Men sidekicks?” Obviously, I’m thinking Batman and Robin with wild mutant powers. Then, there’s the fact that all the promo images had these kids lined up with the OG X-Men which left this ambiguous timeline open for interpretation. Is this decades in the future? Are they the offspring of our faves? Are they from some alternate universe?

“They’ve learned from the best, now they’re ready to be put to the test!”

“But who the heck are these kids, and where do they come from? Guest-starring the X–Men!”

*Spoilers Manifesting Ahead* Then, Children of the Atom drops and the first couple pages are as glorious as I’d hoped! We got a kid shootin Cyclops lookin optical beams arou…