X-Men Re-read: Young X-Men v1: Final Genesis

The Great X-Men Re-read

Young X-Men v1: Final Genesis

Collects: Young X-Men #1-5
Writer(s): Marc Guggenheim
Penciller(s): Yanick Paquette

The latest teen title in the tradition of New Mutants, Generation X and New X-Men: Academy X falls a little short, mainly due to deconstructed story telling.

Quick Synopsis
Core Cast: Blindfold, Dust, Graymalkin, Ink, Rockslide, Wolf Cub

Sometimes words get associated with comic properties, like Marvel and "war" (Secret Wars, Civil War), DC with "crisis" (Crisis on Infinite Earths, Identity Crisis, Infinite Crisis, Final Crisis) "genesis" is one of those that has stuck with the X-Men. After the disbanding of the X-Men in Messiah CompleX, we focus on some of the younger ones (hence the title) the main characters we have met before are the precog Blindfold, Rockslide and Dust. These are joined sadly, by a couple of the lamest characters to grace and X-book. Wolfcub (who is essentially Wolfsbane or Feral) and Ink (who has the power of whatever is tattooed on his body). One of the worst scenes in the book is when his tattooist shows him an old X-Men cover book with lightning bolts signifying Xavier's telepathy which he gets tattooed on his head to give himself telepathy.

The main story is that Cyclops is busy with the recruiting again (like in X-Force) only this time some of the New Mutants (Dani Moonstar, Sunspot, Magma) have gone bad after Messiah CompleX and Cyclops wants this new team to take them down.

They train in the ruins of the Mansion and eventually fight the New Mutants. It emerges that "Cyclops" has really been Donald Pierce (from the Hellfire club / The Reavers) in disguise - resurrected by Bastion over in X-Force. The Young X-Men and the New Mutants band together to defeat him, but not before Wolfcub is killed.

Best Bit
The Cyclops twist is well executed.

Final Words
Not bad, the art is really good, but the new characters don't quite cut it. If this had been shorter rather than spread over five issues, the series might have stood a chance.

OK
6 / 10