Review: Battle of The Atom #1

Battle of The Atom #1

Twas a fantastic start to the fall crossover that sets the stage for what looks like a promising event.

RECAP

The book opens showing Illyana  taking a trip to the future to see the outcome of the presence of the present day mutants. We get a glimpse of the future x-men in battle with several sentinels.The rest of the story jumps in on what I  guess is an average day at JGS. Bendis continues to give delightful little looks into the time displaced youngsters’ interactions and adjustment to the JGS. Baby Iceman’s about to start a cafeteria foodfight when Cerebro alerts Kitty to a new, powerful, mutant. Kitty and the original mutants go out to get a handling it. The mutant just so happens to be a “career criminal” who suddenly realized she could conjure dragons and started wreaking havoc. 

The team doesn't even get to deal with her enough before sentinels show up! And shortly after that its old cyclops (in an incredible display of his…. different… powers) and his team to the rescue. They all manage to contain the sentinels but not before young Cyclops gets hit. He almost dies (or DID die), at which point old cyclops vanishes without a trace from the scene, but is brought back in time by the new healer, at which point old cyclops reappears.

The fallout of Cyclops's near death is that all the JGS staff decide it’s time for the young mutants to go home. Before they could even start up the time cube though it apparently starts itself up and out pops the X-men from the future we’ve been dying to meet.

WHAT I LIKED ?

There’s a lot to like about this  issue and it did very well at setting the stage for the remainder of the event. We’re left with questions about the effect the time displaced X-men are having on the future of the X-men. Why did Cyclops vanish when his young self almost died?

Good or evil I LOVE the new mutants look and powers.

The art is fantastic.

It’s almost adorable to watch the young cyclops as he displays the selfless heroics you’d expect from the young less-scathed version of himself. It’s a reminder of who I believe older cyclops is deep down despite the directions his older self has taken. I think most of what he does comes from a good place.

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE ?

Nothing I can think of.

I give it an 8