Review: X-Men: Second Coming #1

X-MEN: SECOND COMING #1

Written by Craig Kyle & Chris Yost

Penciled by David Finch

Inked by Matt Banning

In May 2010, X-Men fans rushed to their favourite comic book shops to grab a copy of the first issue of the X-Men: Second Coming series, which concentrates on Bastion’s ultimate movement against the mutant race and the return of Hope Summers and Cable to the present.

Upon seeing the cover (Adi Granov did a great job on the cover by the way!) and looking at Hope Summers, I remembered right away that Matt Fraction once implied in an interview that Hope is related to Jean Grey’s possible resurrection. So could she be Jean Grey? We’ll certainly find that out some time.

The story starts with Cable and Hope being back from the future and hoping to find the X-Men. The ruins of the once haven for mutants, the X-Mansion, surprise them instead. But what surprised them more is a sudden attack by the smiley-face soldiers of the Right. Meanwhile on Utopia, an island off the coast of San Francisco where the team has relocated, the X-Men are talking over the imminent extinction of the homo superior race.

After the meeting, Emma Frost tries to comfort the seemingly worried chief commander of the X-Men, Scott Summers aka Cyclops. He then lashes out in disappointment and blows a hole in the building!!! WTH, they just made Cyclops look like a dick again!  Cyke is one of my favourites and I think he should’ve already mastered controlling his own emotions because of what the X-Men have been through all these years!

Going on, Cyclops assigns Rogue & Namor to protect Utopia, sends the New Mutants (Cannonball, Magma, Sunspot, etc) to the Midwest, and his Alpha Roster (Angel, Psylocke, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Colossus and X-23) along with Pixie and Magik to the wrecked Xavier Institute in the East Coast, where Cable and Hope are being attacked by the Sapien League. The two then run away to escape using a stolen vehicle. In the last part, the Human Council, which consists of Steven Lang, Bolivar Trask, Graydon Creed, Cameron Hodge and William Stryker, makes an appearance and they’re working with Bastion to eradicate mutantkind.

It also has a two-page spread featuring the highway scene at which the X-Men are killing these Sapien League guys (and I suppose they’re humans). Visually, it looks awesome but I’m quite against the X-Men killing people. But since that scene is yet to wrap up, do watch out for my review on Chapter 2 in the coming weeks! Overall, X-Men: Second Coming #1 is great and promising despite its dark side. It leaves the readers asking questions like “is she really Jean Grey?,” “what secrets do Wolverine and Cyclops know that the other X-Men suspect they’re hiding?,” “why all that Angel does when everybody else is breaking jaws and kicking asses is fly around? LOL,” etc. The big question though is: to save the world, who will die? (Well, you probably already know the answer to that by now lol)