X-Men Blue, Vol. 1: Strangest

X-Men Blue (Collected Editions)

by Cullen Bunn, Jorge Molina (Illustrator), Matteo Buffagni (Illustrator)

Like a bolt from the blue, the original X-Men reunite - like never before! This time, Jean Grey takes her place as leader, and Cyclops, Iceman, Angel and Beast must follow her into action as they seek to bring mutant criminals to justice and restore a heroic sheen to their team. But how can they do that when their new mentor is their old mentor's arch-frenemy? That's right - Magneto has joined the original X-Men! But due to their long history with the Master of Magnetism, not everyone on the squad can put old rivalries aside... With tensions rising, can the X-Men come together to be a cohesive force for good? Or will ulterior motives and personal quests derail the entire enterprise? At the end of the day...who can be trusted?

COLLECTING: X-MEN: BLUE 1-6

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, X Men, Superheroes, Graphic Novels Comics, Fiction

144 pages, Paperback

First published August 2, 2017

About the author

Cullen grew up in rural North Carolina, but now lives in the St. Louis area with his wife Cindy and his son Jackson. His noir/horror comic (and first collaboration with Brian Hurtt), The Damned, was published in 2007 by Oni Press. The follow-up, The Damned: Prodigal Sons, was released in 2008. In addition to The Sixth Gun, his current projects include Crooked Hills, a middle reader horror prose series from Evileye Books; The Tooth, an original graphic novel from Oni Press; and various work for Marvel and DC. Somewhere along the way, Cullen founded Undaunted Press and edited the critically acclaimed small press horror magazine, Whispers from the Shattered Forum.

All writers must pay their dues, and Cullen has worked various odd jobs, including Alien Autopsy Specialist, Rodeo Clown, Professional Wrestler Manager, and Sasquatch Wrangler.

And, yes, he has fought for his life against mountain lions and he did perform on stage as the World's Youngest Hypnotist. Buy him a drink sometime, and he'll tell you all about it.

Visit his website at www.cullenbunn.com.

Reviews

[Baba · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cullen Bunn continues in the X-Men world, this time it's the All-New X-Men rechristened X-Men Blue. Interesting changes as each of them try and distance themselves from their future legacies. Marvel Girl now leads, Hank's dabbling in magic, Cyclops isn't leading, Iceman's come out and Angel has fire wings! Almost each issue has a different villain, which actually works, but the best thing, their new mentor! 6 out of 12 Three Stars.

2019 read

[Sam Quixote · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have no idea why this X-Men series is called “Blue” and no explanation is given either! One thing’s for sure: Cullen Bunn wrote down a list of things you’d associate with the X-Men and then proceeded to tick them off here. Seriously, this is the most generic, boilerplate X-Men book I’ve ever read.

The original, young X-Men from the past (are they ever returning back to their time??) fight Juggernaut in the opening scene. Wendigo and Wolverine fight in the snow before the X-Men fight some Sentinels, Magneto postures, and the team boringly battle alternate reality mutants in Madripoor. The only thing different is that Beast can do magic now but who fucking cares?

One of the villains is Bastion whose entire motivation revolves around him setting things up so he can pointlessly battle the X-Men over and over, ad infinitum, for the sake of it. I can’t tell if it’s a subversive commentary on this inane comic or accidental but Bastion is basically representing Marvel in a Marvel comic - meta!

Flat and uninspired in every single aspect, X-Men Blue confirms that the X-Men comics are still in the toilet.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really, really like the set-up, concept and tone of this book. It has great artwork, too (apart from #6, which wasn't really a filler issue but certainly felt like one due to the substandard artwork). I think Cullen Bunn has a good handle on these characters and has their voices spot-on. In fact, if it weren't for one thing, this would have been a five star rave review.

That one thing?

BLOODY PARALLEL UNIVERSES AGAIN!!!

I am getting SO SICK of plots that revolve around parallel universes and time travel! PLEASE give it a bloody rest, Marvel! It IS possible to write a story WITHOUT alternate universes and time travel... Sheeesh...

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

The All-New, original X-Men get their third reboot. How does Marvel expect any of their readers to keep up with these books when you need a freaking road map to figure out what to read next? I like the idea of Jean leading the team but having the genius scientist Beast learn magic is just stupid. Nothing is explained in the book, why they are working for Magneto, why the Ultimate X-Men pop up after their reality was destroyed in Secret Wars.

The art in the book is a mess. Four of the six issues have multiple artists and the art is often just sloppy. That doesn't bode well for a new book. Surprise, surprise, surprise. Another lackluster X-Men book from Marvel.

[Rory Wilding · Rating 4 out of 5]

When it comes to Marvel, they have relaunched their bibliography several times in recent years than what DC has done so and although they don’t do a complete clean slate in rebooting their comics universe, there are more #1s on their titles that one can question where to begin. As for the X-Men, I've personally struggled about where to start when wishing to commit to a whole run because there are so many titles, although I chose wisely as my introduction to the mutants was reading Joss Whedon and John Cassaday's Astonishing X-Men.

Early this year, Marvel started a new initiative entitled ResurrXion that sets up fresh starts for the X-Men titles in order to establish a new status quo for the franchise. But once again, there are many titles being released and I proceeded to bang my head about where to begin. Fortunately, as a continuation of Brian Michael Bendis' All New X-Men series that began in 2012, Cullen Bunn's X-Men Blue seems to be an ideal place to start; plus my favourite colour is blue.

After learning they are from a different timeline, the time-displaced X-Men (Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast, Iceman and Angel) align themselves with their former enemy, Magneto, and operate in secret out of a base in Madripoor. Under the leadership of Jean Grey, who retains her original title of Marvel Girl, you get these youthful members still adjusting to their lives in this new timeline, as well as the fact that they've join forces with Magneto, a man who has opposed the X-Men over the decades and plans of mutant supremacy, to now trying to accomplish Professor Xavier's dream of peace and equality.

Along with its sister book, X-Men Gold, the colour-coded names are a reference to storylines from the early 1990s as Blue is an attempt to heavily acknowledge the X-Men's history and modernise those classic elements. What we get with these initial six issues are single stories that lean more to the old-fashioned superhero storytelling by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, as established in #1 in which the five original X-Men battling the unstoppable Juggernaut. Yes, it is as simple as a team of pretty youths taking on a giant monster.

However, there are some things that are new, not least for their dashing new X-uniforms, from Hank McCoy, who is often the scientific genius is now an aspiring mystic, to Angel who is no longer feathered but has wings of cosmic fire. As I've said before, this book feels more like short stories than a full arc and this mashing of old and new elements shoved into each issue can be a bit much, and yet Bunn keeps it consistent, largely due to the dynamic with the team who are young, still learning and are actually having fun whether they've in or out of their costumes.

Despite the impressive artistry of Jorge Molina and Julian Lopez as well as the bright colouring by Matt Milla and Irma Kniivila, all of which show off superhero spectacle such as the reintroduction of the Sentinels, the transition between them (and multiple artists) can be jarring, which always a recurring problem with several X-Men titles.

It may not be a big game-changer, but Cullen's mashup of the old and new gives X-Men Blue a modern yet classic heritage in this world of mutants, that makes me excited for what future adventures await for the OG five X-Men.

[Molly™☺ · Rating 3 out of 5]

55% | C+ | Good

"And you know we're not playing around because we use codenames"

The original X-Men squad, now led by Jean Grey, have teamed up with Magneto in order to fulfil Charles Xavier's dream of a peaceful mutant and human co-existence

First thing I need to establish is the fact that I have zero idea what's happening timeline wise. Beast is now a magician and Angel has flaming wings? I've just got to the point where I let it be and don't question it anymore. Apart from the confusing multiverse / universe / whatever the heck is happening shenanigans, it's a pretty fun read with a noteworthy main line-up. The team's dynamic is great, and it's amazing to see Jean leading for once. Iceman provides a lot of witty one-liners which lends a much needed element of comedy in between the jumbled plot progression. There is some semblance of a set up for future volumes, but I fear it may get messy to the point of being incoherent.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

The good -- the original five-man (sorry, Marvel Girl) mutant band is back together in all their adolescent glory, spanning the globe to bring readers a constant variety of super-heroics. Sharp uniforms, snappy banter, and lots of teamwork-related 'SHRAKKOW!' (to quote a Cyclops optic blast) action. Lastly, the old-school descriptive 'corner boxes' are back. The best one? Jean Grey's "Team Leader. About Damn Time." Rock on, MG!

The bad -- Hank 'Beast' McCoy is dabbling in the mystic arts?! No thanks. (He's slightly redeemed with his karaoke bar warbling of "Twist & Shout," though, later in the story.)

The unexplained -- Angel has "wings of cosmic fire." I apparently missed THAT prior story-line.

So maybe it was more style over substance, and the alternate reality / universe angles can be vexing, but I liked it.

[Michael Hicks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a bad start to this X-wide relaunch (yes, another one), following the X-Men vs Inhumans stuff from the last batch of X-books. Cullen Bunn sets up a number of threads that I'm interested in seeing play out, including the appearance of some other Ultimate Universe characters that have been dumped in the 616 following Hickman's Secret Wars. There's also a nice old-school vibe here, which I had fun with.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 4 out of 5]

X-Men Gold and X-Men Blue both try to recreate the well-loved Claremont era of the X-Men, when the team were as much heroes fighting villains as they were symbolic icons of oppression (or science-fiction dystopias or whatever). Of the two X-Men Blue is more successful.

That's in large part because it tempers its super-hero fights with character. There's considerable attention paid to who these young X-Men are, and how they are growing and changing. It's not all just about hitting the bad guy.

However, X-Men Blue also seems to have a better handle on continuity than its Gold counterpart. The villains draw upon recent continuity in interesting ways, offering the next step int he continued narrative of the X-Men, whereas Gold felt much more like random one-off encounters that would soon be forgotten.

I honestly don't love the direction of either of these comics, which I think are abandoning their opportunity to excel by moving so thoroughly back into the superhero genre, but for what it is, this one earns at least 3.5 stars, generally due to superior writing.

[Blindzider · Rating 2 out of 5]

I primarily picked this up because of Cullen Bunn, however, I'm not a big fan of the young, original X-Men being in the current timeline. They are teenagers and the book feels that way, which sure, maybe that's a way to bring in new readers to the X-Men universe, but for someone who's read pretty much the entire history of the X-Men, there's isn't of much interest to me here. The team members have already been modified slightly since they've been here, and now after Secret Wars, many of the villains have been tweaked too, all in an attempt to develop new stories, but in a way, rehashing the old ones. This volume also attempts to bring in a replacement for Wolverine, but why not just have Wolverine? The art never gets above average, and sometimes even changes midway through a book. Not jarring, but noticeable. There's not really anything wrong with the series, it just clearly isn't written for me.

[Logan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good! So these X-Men comics have been pretty hit or miss for many people, for me I've been really enjoying both titles (Blue & Gold), but both for different reasons. Gold I feel is more for older readers who want a serious comic, where as this this is more for younger readers or readers who just want a fun comic. Overall though I enjoy the stories presented here, I like the fun tone of the book, and I also liked the funny quips they would make that always made me smile! Bunn has written a pretty competent and decent X-men comic. Artwork is also bright and colourful throughout making it a pretty enjoyable to read and look at!

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Die "Original X-Men" der 60iger sind meine X-Men; das Staunen über diese Mutanten, alleine schon der Begriff "Mutant" waren DAS Superheldenerlebnis aus meiner Zeit in kurzen Hosen. Dass ausgerechnet diesem Team kein Erfolg beschieden war und es vor dem Aus stand, bevor Chris Claremont die Sache in die Hand nahm, verstehe ich bis heute nicht. Für jüngere Leser sind Claremonts X-Men die "klassischen" X-Men, während ich mich nach einer sehr, sehr langen Comic-Auszeit lange damit herumschlagen musste, wer alle diese vielen neuen Teammitglieder waren, die sich nun die X-Men nannten.
Die X-Men Blue hatten also einen besonderen Reiz für ich, denn "Like a bolt from the blue, the original five X-Men reunite - like never before!".
Aber, und das musste mir klar sein, es sind nur die gleichen Personen (obwohl ich fast schon geneigt bin zu schreiben: Figuren, denn ihre Charaktere entsprechen dem alten Team nicht mehr). Jean Gray ist jetzt die Anführerin des Teams, was ich sehr begrüße, da sie immer ein Favorit von mir war. Leider fehlt ihr die "Eleganz", die das Erscheinungsbild der 60er Jean geprägt hat.
Warum Hank McCoy sich jetzt mit Magie beschäftigt und Warren Worthington der III. jetzt Flügel aus "cosmic fire" hat, ist mir auch noch nicht ganz klar. Da muss irgend etwas zwischen den All-New X-Men, soweit ich sie gelesen haben, und der neuen Blue-Reihe passiert sein, was ich verpasst habe. Und genau das macht diese Reihe für Einsteiger auch nicht so leicht: Ein Team, dass durch die Zeit reist und auf das Team trifft, dass viele Jahre und einschneidende Erlebnisse später aus ihm geworden ist, dazu dann mit Charakteren aus anderen Multiversen konfrontiert wird, kann nur schwer seine Identität behaupten. X-Men Blue thematisiert diese Problematik, will zugleich aber nicht auf komplexe Verwicklungen verzichten. Ich bin nicht sicher, ob mir nicht ein paar Abenteuer im klassischen Stil besser gefallen hätten.
Zur Artwork: Die Zeichnungen sind okay, mir persönlich aber ein wenig zu cartoonhaft. Aber dafür ist das Coloring sehr ansprechend und sympathisch und gleicht manches aus.
Insbesondere Jean Gray ist manchmal nicht besonders liebevoll gezeichnet, ich denke, man wollte hier ganz bewusst auf das tolle Aussehen verzichten und eine noch sehr junge, fast mädchenhafte Frau vorführen, die empathisch ist und zugleich die schwere Aufgabe hat, ein Team zu führen.

Immerhin: Mir hat der Auftakt so gut gefallen, dass ich die Serie noch weiter verfolgen werde.

[Logan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good! So these X-Men comics have been pretty hit or miss for many people, for me I've been really enjoying both titles (Blue & Gold), but both for different reasons. Gold I feel is more for older readers who want a serious comic, where as this this is more for younger readers or readers who just want a fun comic. Overall though I enjoy the stories presented here, I like the fun tone of the book, and I also liked the funny quips they would make that always made me smile! Bunn has written a pretty competent and decent X-men comic. Artwork is also bright and colourful throughout making it a pretty enjoyable to read and look at!

[Sesana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good, actually. Concentrating on just the time displaced original X-Men is a good choice, and the fact that they're secretly working with Magneto is a great twist. But the art is kind of not good. It probably doesn't help that every single issue had a different team on the art. And the introduction of Jimmy Hudson from the Ultimate universe was probably the last thing this book, or the MU as a whole, needed.

[Travis Duke · Rating 3 out of 5]

(3.5) Gulp... Cullen jam packed this lots of action. In comparison, this book has little individual story lines and deal with the x-men as a group and I prefer it this way. The young team is getting a new break after the IVX and I am glad they leave the school and kind of start anew. Lots of big baddies in this book with Juggernaut, Bastion, and a few others which i also liked a lot. Although the Bastion part was pretty silly, " i must save you to...kill you later... oh really?!? Anyways, we also get the alternate Wolverine, Jimmy returning and he is very wolverinish and I really like x-23 as the "new wolverine" so im conflicted. The art is great and dare I say I look forward to the x-men...

[Jesús De la Jara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Este primer número de la Serie Blue de los X-Men pone las bases del nuevo grupo formado por los X-Men originales desplazados del pasado, esta vez capitaneados por la joven Jean Grey y todos bajo la guía de Magneto. Aunque esto resulte bien extraño y poco explicado en el número lo hace interesante por los giros que sabemos siempre puede ofrecer Magneto.
El cambio de escritor por lo menor por ahora promete pues está enfocándolos de otra manera y parece que las cosas volverán a ser interesantes y peligrosas para los jóvenes X-Men.

[Gabrielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally finished this, been on my TBR for years, and of course the X-Men latest arcs are somewhat repititions of previous arcs..... I've followed up and read about the time displaced X-Men and adventures in this series gonna be a hoot .....

Will continue reading up on the series, thanks to Comixology Unlimited!

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

[Read as single issues]
Woo, another X-relaunch. Please let this one be more successful than the last one.

Good news: It is.

X-Men Blue is the next phase of All-New X-Men, and it remains the strongest X-book by miles. Cullen Bunn refocuses the team around Jean Grey, with Magneto as a leader, and pits them against time-and-space displaced mutants (welcome back to the Marvel Universe, Jimmy Hudson), as well as wendigos, the seedy underbelly of Madripoor, Bastion, and Mister Sinister, all in six action packed issues.

The art's a little more all over the place, since Marvel haven't quite grasped the double-shipping schedule properly yet, so we get Jorge Molina for the first three issues, with Julian Lopez, Cory Smith, and Ray Anthony-Height sharing the second three. It's a mishmash of styles, but none of them let the side down too dramatically. I do wish Jorge Molina had gotten more time to finish his issues though, because his visuals have been really impressive the past few years and that doesn't show quite as much here.

The character work is great, the action is fun, and it's nice to read an X-book and not want to sigh heavily for a change.

[Robert Kirwan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun but nothing spectacular

[47Time · Rating 4 out of 5]

Angel has wings of cosmic fire. Finally something cool about this character. The volume is made up of short stories that slowly complexity to each character, but make little change to the status quo. The exception is a new member half-way through the book.

The young, time displaced X-Men face Black Tom Cassidy and his sidekick Juggernaut. The fight ends when Beast uses his magical powers to send Juggernaut to hell or something. Then the big reveal - Magneto is guiding this team and, while satisfying his goal to help mutants, is doing a good job of showing regular humans that some mutants are good guys. After reading his mind, Jean trusts that Magneto wants to help mutantkind. Still she ensures that the team is ready to face him, a task that is a challenge even in Danger Room sessions.

Since this is an X-Men comic, we gotta have a fight with Sentinels. Interestingly, these Sentinels are trying to help mutants. Now I've seen everything. They were created by Bastion who, unlike his past self, had a change of heart regarding mutants when he saw the effect of the Terrigen Mists. Of course, he only wants to save mutants so he can later destroy them. It's almost funny, if it weren't so silly. The X-Men see through his claims of aid and attack. Bastion's programming is still on aid mode, so he just teleports away.

What was this comic missing? A Wolverine. A young one this time. It's Logan's son Jimmy Hudson from another dimension some of the X-Men visited in the past. Before he can explain himself, the New Marauders from his dimension attack. They are a team created by a female Sinister. Its members were recovered from several dimensions, brain-washed and trained as killers. Even though they have the upper hand against the X-Men, the Marauders are ordered to retreat and leave Jimmy behind. Miss Sinister shows interest in Jean, though.

The volume ends with the totally skippable episode with the Raksha. There is an artist change to highlight the lesser importance of this episode.

[Alex Sarll]

Less annoying but more soporific than sister book Gold, this follows the time-displaced younger versions of the original X-Men, though of course given the sliding timeline at Marvel, when exactly they were displaced from seems to vary by the issue (if the age of heroes always started about a decade ago, how come Scott misses old-fashioned barbershops?). They're now secretly working with Magneto, for whom Bunn previously wrote an excellent solo series but here feels very flat, but mainly it's about going through the motions of standard X-stories, tweaked: Sentinels with a programming aberration straight out of sixties Star Trek, Sinister as a woman, Juggernaut on a boat. Profoundly unnecessary even before they throw in Son Of Ultimate Wolverine, a character so uninteresting that it was worth destroying a whole reality to get rid of him. Potentially profitable avenues like Bobby's sexuality and relationship get almost completely ignored (one page of him leaving voicemails). And while I quite like the idea of Hank exploring magic because his scientific knowledge is out of date, it seems a bit much for an "aspiring mystic" to be able to open and indeed close a portal to Hell on the fly.

[Cab · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun take on the X-Men

[David · Rating 1 out of 5]

An even worse poorly written hot-mess.

[Jesse A · Rating 2 out of 5]

No. Blah.

[mel · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5-4

[Aktar · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️

[Jenna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Don’t know much about the Blue/Gold spinoff series other than that it sounds quite Pokemon-ish in its naming... However, I enjoyed this actually! It was refreshing and entertaining to see the young X-Men team dashing about fighting villains. One particular scene made me snort: Cyclops deadpanning, “This is how I die...crushed by a giant...with Bobby’s voice ringing in my ears.”

Think I might try continuing this one!

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this comic which revolved around teenage versions of the X-men who were displaced in time. The story revolves around Jean Grey, Iceman, Beast, Cyclops and Angel. They use their classic powers to fight versus evil forces, and have some very unexpected encounters with presumed enemies - but are they really enemies of the X-men?
This was exciting and full of action, with an interesting story and definitely left me wanting to know more!

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is another alternate-X-continuity story, well enough done, nothing really stands out. I dunno why they call it Blue. The original team is kinda sorta rebooted back to their young ages and hijinks ensue. The art was okay; I thought it was maybe too youth-based, but I guess they were going for something different. Why Magneto and the Son of Wolverine? It was a fun read while I was flipping the pages, but my memory is already starting to fade... must be that alternate time stream closing...

[Frédéric · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't expect much of this book and so I'm not too disappointed.

It doesn't totally suck because there are one or two nice things here and there-namely the original line-up, the alliance with an apparently sincere Magneto, the use of magic -but all the rest oscillates between lousy and crummy. I think Cullen Bunn just couldn't write something good to save his life.

The team being composed of teenagers that's the overall feeling: teenagery verging on soapish. Dialogues made my ears bled, like any third-rate teenager sitcom usually does. Don't mind me, I'm a grumpy fortysomething.

First contact with the enemy in issue one is somehow representative of the book: Black Tom and Juggernaut, all being wrapped up 20 pages later. Impressive, ennit? Two boring episodes with pseudo friendly Sentinels follow but the worst is to come in issue 4: Jimmy Hudson is back from wherever. I got nothing against the guy but wasn't Secret War supposed to erase the multiverse mumbo-jumbo from going on? But who needs coherence when a Wolverine is needed to stiffen the team? Rolling eyes...

Artwise we don't fare much better. Three different artists-unamazing Jorge Molina who sometimes draws Jean with Manga-like eyes (obviously I don't like it), middling Ray Anthony Height and Julian Lopez who manages to do a decent job. They couldn't even get a consistent art team for the first arc, dammit!

Next volume should be a Secret Empire tie-in so I don't expect a more rewarding experience...