X-Men: First to Last HC – Review

Written by Chris Yost; Now: Penciled by Paco Media, inked by Juan Vlasco, and colored by Mrate Gracia; Then: Art by Dalabor Talajic, colored by Juan Vlasco.

The Story: One of the apes who got the crap beaten out of him with a femur bone in 2001: A Space Odyssey has his own bone to pick with Cyclops.

The Good: Chris Yost knows his X-Men. He’s stated before that his goal is to eventually write Uncanny X-Men, and after reading his work on X-Force and New X-Men, it’s kind of weird that he hasn’t been approached for the job. First to Last is an Uncanny story rudely marginalized as a filler arc for Gischler’s X-Men run. But it’s that high stakes story that was missing from much of Fraction’s run of Uncanny from the time this came out (Quarantine…why was that story so long?). But Yost’s story, all taking place in one day, has so much weight and so much potential impact, that not being told in the flagship book is simply disrespectful.

And just as the title suggests, this story has both classic X-Men goodness (protecting a world that hates and fears them!) and some new juiciness (mutantkind was being watched over for all these years?) Yost’s story, that staggers between the current era of the X-Men (or, the era right before Schism) and the “First Class” era of Cyclops, Beast, Marvel Girl, Angel, and Iceman, gives the reader the unique opportunity to see just how much team has changed since its offset. Beast is no longer a member; Angel is a homicidal hero; Jean is dead; Iceman is jaded; and Cyclops…Cyclops went from boy scout to general. But we also get to see changes in other characters too. Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver we see starting to question their father’s choices in the “Then” segments. Toad we get to see as a lackey being pushed around by both his peers and his enemies in the past, and then taking drastic measures to not be pushed around in the present. Xavier…isn’t even in the “Now” segments, which is a point in and of itself. His dream doesn’t really matter anymore. But the biggest change is by far seen in Magneto. In the “Then” segments, he is totally willing to wipe out humankind when the Evolutionaries make the offer, but in the “Now,” (SPOILER ALERT) when they return to him with the same offer, he refuses, stating “I laughed at Charles Xavier and his dream. But my dream cost me my children…it cost me everything!” He might not be saying that he’s abandoned his beliefs, but he now sees them as a downfall and not a virtue.

X-Men Giant-Size #1 – Review

By: Christopher Yost (writer), Paco Medina and Dalabor Talajic (pencillers), Juan Vlasco and Dalabor Talajic (inkers), Marte Gracia and Wil Quintana (colorists), Daniel Ketchum (associate editor), Axel Alonso and Nick Lowe (editors)

The Story: First to Last, Part I: In this new arc, the Neos, another mutant offshoot of humanity (different from homo superior) is attacking the increasingly misnamed Utopia. The neo’s have lost the ability to reproduce, as homo superior had done for a while, and now that mutants are being born again, they want the secret to what’s up. This battle royale drudges up some buried memories in Scott, really old ones, from the original X-Men’s first year: He suddenly remembers a run-in with the evolutionaries that he was supposed to have forgotten.

The Review: My first reaction to reading X-Men Giant-Size #1 was: “That was pretty cool.” Superb art led the way, starting with a planet-scape, then dipping under the cloud-deck, and into a cave and some newborns. The detail, draftsmanship and colors were beautifully natural and the following action dramatic and clear. In the present-day, the clouds in the background of the giant neo were spectacular and the fight scene pretty awesome, although from time to time, the “cameras” zoomed in too close, and it was tough to follow the blow-by-blow. The shift in art teams between past and present was a useful tool to highlight the change in setting and there were some nice old-school touches to the scenes in the past. My favorites were the Kirby-esque action poses, Magneto’s not-form-fitting costume, Magneto’s general portliness (you get a no-prize if you remembered that he started off as a middle-aged man before being turned into a child by Mutant Alpha in Defenders #16 and then aged back to his prime adult strength by Eric the Red just before Uncanny X-Men #104), and even Wanda’s sixties sort of physique (instead of the ultra-svelte pneumatic women that populate comics since the 80s). All-in-all, some very fine artwork.

Writing-wise, Yost has brought a piece of high-concept sci-fi to the X-universe. The introduction of the mystery of the evolutionaries, the hurtling fight scene right out of the gates, and the neat resolution of the plot challenge of the neo’s all launched this arc strongly. I felt propelled along the story and wanting more of this *big idea*. The dialogue worked, and the characters were mostly honest. Where they weren’t honest (Bobby’s exaggerated quipping in two time periods, Wolverine’s idiotic back-stabbing on the neo and Emma’s inexplicable failure to wake up their best strategist while they’re being attacked), I could see why Yost had chosen to fudge a bit, for dramatic effect, but since I’ve read some pretty flawless books by this writer, I felt he’d cut a couple of corners he didn’t need to.