‘X-Men #1’ Review

Writer: Gerry Duggan / Artist: Pepe Larraz / Marvel Comics At first glance, it must seem weird (and maybe a little annoying to boot) that X-Men is back to #1 so soon after only a couple of years after Jonathan Hickman’s massively ambitious reworking of the franchise. But that was a different book for a different time in the mutant community. Hickman’s beefy narrative was one that had less to do with the titular team itself and more with the central players in mutantdom’s ongoing political intrigue and empire building. And now that the empire is established and punctuated by the most extravagant fashion event in recent sci-fi memory, Gerry Duggan’s run with Marvel’s mutants is making a different but familiar statement we haven’t heard in a while: Mutants are back in the superhero game. Much of the world outside of Krakoa has been painted with a thick coat of paranoia and mistrust as it pertains to the mutant community’s major moves on the world stage. Although Duggan seems to have no shortage of that in this book, he also makes a point to highlight the idea that there are those in the human world who are willing to give our heroes an honest chance. And who better to convey such an idea than hard-boiled reporter Ben Urich? A little light-hearted banter between Ben and the P.R. spin gawd himself, Cyclops does a pretty good job of establishing humans and mutants in a mode of feeling each other out and hoping for the best.

This latest incarnation of the X-Men hiding their ident…