Young X-Men, Vol. 1: Final Genesis

Young X-Men (Collected Editions)

by Marc Guggenheim, Yanick Paquette

In the wake of Messiah CompleX, there are no X-Men and young mutants Rockslide, Blindfold, and Dust are alone and directionless. Until the day Cyclops recruits them to hunt the new incarnation of the Brotherhood - and kill them! Joined by a pair of new recruits, the young X-Men learn a hard truth about the world post-Messiah Sometimes old allies make for deadly enemies. Collects Young X-Men #1-5.

Genres: Comics, X Men, Graphic Novels, Marvel, Graphic Novels Comics, Comic Book, Superheroes

80 pages, Paperback

First published December 3, 2008

About the author

Marc Guggenheim grew up on Long Island, New York, and earned his law degree from Boston University. After over four years in practice, he left law to pursue a career in television.

Today, Guggenheim is an Emmy Award–winning writer who writes for multiple mediums including television, film, video games, comic books, and new media. His work includes projects for such popular franchises as Percy Jackson, Star Wars, Call of Duty, Star Trek, and Planet of the Apes.

His next book, In Any Lifetime, coming from Lake Union Publishing on August 1st.

Guggenheim currently lives in Encino, California, with his wife, two daughters, and a handful of pets.

Keep up to date on his latest projects with LegalDispatch, a weekly newsletter where he shares news and notes about writing, comics, and the entertainment industry.

Reviews

[Alex E · Rating 3 out of 5]

After the X-Men are disbanded, this group of young X-Men are kind of left by the wayside. Feeling lost and without any kind of direction, they are surprised at Cyclops approaching them to essential be the new X-Men. But there is treachery afoot, as not all is as it appears...

I really like that Marc Guggenheim conveys the youth and inexperience of this team by falling so easily for the trap that is set. Because as a reader, it's pretty well telegraphed that something fishy is going on. But the young team seems unaware or at least confused enough to let things just flow along. So when the secret is revealed Pierce is impersonating Cyclops and just fooled the young heroes into killing the old X-Force team. , they fall right in line and fall for the ruse.

Once the dust settled, they pay the price for their naiveté. Guggenheim paints an interesting picture of just how fractured the Messiah Complex aftermath has left people, and the consequences of the fallout.

Recommended for fans of the young X-Men team.

[Tomás Sendarrubias García · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pues volvemos al universo mutante después de la pausa de los espías, y vamos a viajar atrás en el tiempo para volver a esos días inmediatamente posteriores a Complejo de Mesías. El primer bebé mutante desde Dinastía de M había nacido, y todos los equipos con una X en el nombre andaban tras él mientras Cable intentaba mantenerlo a salvo y Bishop todo lo contrario. La Patrulla-X se había disuelto, o por lo menos, disgregado, y los jóvenes de la Nueva Patrulla-X no habían corrido mejor suerte. Y a nivel editorial, el equipo de New X-Men pasaba a gestionar la nueva X-Force, de modo que quedaba un hueco (por así decirlo) para los mutantes más jóvenes. Y ese hueco es el que iba a tratar de llenar esta colección, Jóvenes X-Men, que llegaba de manos de Marc Guggenheim, que ya había gestionado de forma más o menos correcta varios cómics de Spiderman, y Yanick Paquette, dibujante que pese a su apellido se estaba haciendo un nombre en el mundillo. Además, contarían con las portadas de Terry Dodson (lo que queda bastante bien, ya que Paquette tiene un dibujo que podría parecerse al de Dodson).

El argumento es sencillo: en ese nuevo escenario que fue Divididos Resistiremos y con la Patrulla repartida por el mundo, Cíclope decide reunir a un nuevo equipo de jóvenes estudiantes para transformarlos en la nueva Patrulla-X: Arena, Vendas, Cachorro, Alud y un nuevo personaje llamado Tinta son los elegidos por Cíclope, que para la primera misión de sus chicos, les ordena hacer frente a la supuesta nueva Hermandad de Mutantes Diabólicos, que no es otra que algunos de los antiguos miembros de los Nuevos Mutantes, organizados alrededor del Club Fuego Infernal. Mancha Solar, Bala de Cañón, Magma, Karma y Espejismo se convierten así en los objetivos de esta nueva Patrulla... aunque pronto las cosas empiezan a no cuadrar. ¿Por qué iban a ser considerados diabólicos los Nuevos Mutantes? ¿Realmente el auténtico Cíclope mandaría a sus alumnos a matar a otros mutantes? ¿Qué tiene que ver con todo esto Donald Pierce y por qué Vendas está segura de que uno de sus compañeros va a morir? ¿Y quién es Jonas Graymalkin y que tiene que ver con el equipo?

Con todos estos planteamientos sobre la mesa, Guggenheim y Paquette desarrollaron el primer arco de la colección, que sin ser nada llamativo, sí que al menos es bastante entretenido. No explosivo ni nada del otro jueves, pero bueno, correcto. Y me gustan mucho Vendas y Arena, así que...

[Eric · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oof, not good.

[Daniel Simões · Rating 2 out of 5]

Young X-Men Final Genesis had every ingredient a comic needs to make me enjoy it. A new team of X-Men, filled with obscure characters most people don't know or care about. And to make things even better, I'm a massive fan of this generation of mutants in particular, so seeing characters like Dust, Rockslide, and Blindfold on the cover made me really excited.

Unfortunately, it completely missed the mark.

The biggest issue here is that the team has absolutely no chemistry. Their powers don't really complement each other to make them a cohesive team and the storyline itself was very inconsequential for me to care. I could tell this story would have no lasting consequences or develop these characters in any meaningful way. Even when one of them dies, I still felt nothing.

The highlight for me was easily Graymalkin, who I knew nothing about prior to this story, and Blindfold was also decent, though underused. All the others felt easily exchangeable.

Wolf Cub, in particular, felt completely redundant. He's essentially a knock-off Wolfsbane with a personality too similar to Rockslide. If they had cut him from the team, everything would stay exactly the same. And to make things worse, Dust (one of my favorite characters in the team) suffered a severe nerf, persumably because otherwise the fights would be much shorter. But then, why even include her on this team if that was going to be an issue? There are thousands of other mutants they could choose from. Trance, Indra, Loa, Match. I don't think any of them were doing anything interesting at the time, and all of them are far weaker than Dust.

It's really disappointing and I wish I could give it a higher rating but it simply didn’t earn it.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recently got back into one of my most favourite podcasts - "Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men" and found myself craving a good X series to read - something short (but not too short), with an entertaining storyline and even more entertaining characters who weren't your usual run-of-the-mill X-team (Storm, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Wolverine etc.) I happened to stumble upon Young X-Men by chance and was quite excited because it had absolutely everything I wanted - an awesome story by Marc Guggenheim and characters like Dust, Wolf Cub and the evil Donald Pierce who I basically knew nothing about before reading this. Now, I'm basically #TeamWolfCubFTW.

The story is simple enough - mutants are a dying breed. The last generation of mutants are recruited by Cyclops to form a new team of X Men to take down the former New Mutants who are apparently re-creating the Brotherhood of Mutants. What happens next is full of twists and turns, sassy one-liners and heart-stopping action. I was in proverbial geek heaven. This is certainly for any fans of the X-Men Universe, but I wouldn't say it's one of the best stories I've read. However, perhaps Part 2 will make me change my mind. Can't wait to read the next volume.

[MatiBracchitta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Siempre que leo algo del universo mutante no puedo evitar sentir mucha ilusión. Fue la primer serie regular que leí (hace ya mucho tiempo con Claremont a la cabeza de la saga) y tienen un lugar especial en mi corazón.

Dicho esto, no conocía a Guggenheim con lo cual no podía sentirme menos que temeroso sobre cuál sería el resultado final que vería. Finalmente el trabajo no ha resultado malo, pero tampoco sobresaliente. Es simplemente correcto.

Desde los primeros números podemos ver que algo no cuadra. Que hay algo que chirría. Me gusta como organizaron la nueva alineación del equipo, así como también la forma en que se realizó homenaje a diferentes cómics de la franquicia. Creo que en ese sentido el autor logró captar la esencia del grupo.

Sin embargo, como dije antes, el plop del volumen se veía venir desde muchas páginas antes. Y esto no es del todo malo si es que guardas bajo la manga un final que pueda sorprendernos de igual forma. Pero este no es el caso. El final es bastante pocho por no decir otra cosa. Es algo del montón que termina un arco correcto, pero olvidable.

[C · Rating 2 out of 5]

Continuing the great x-read of 2017/18...

This volume wasn't terrible and it probably deserves a slightly higher rating. But it is just so disappointing when compared to the series (New X-Men) that it is replacing.

Dust and Rockslide were great to see again but the rest of the main cast is a little underwhelming to me. Ink, in particular, seems like a poor idea for a new character - he could very easily become overpowered very quickly...

There's a decent story underneath but it is forgettable in most every way.

[Terry Murphy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nothing of note here. Paper tissue characterization; skimpy and subject to tears at the slightest tug. What's most insulting by stories like these is that none of it, not a single element would happen if one character would just speak up and ask the other "why are we fighting to the death?" The plotting is so weak, and it leaves me feeling like the entire 4 issue arc was built around a single twist that makes so very little sense. Do yourself a favour: avoid this like an elevator car filled with rabid squirrels.

[Judah Radd · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kind of a boring story that never went anywhere interesting. Also, none of the New X-Men that I love the most were involved. Where the hell was Surge, Elixir or Hellion? Not to mention the fact that there were entire issues wasted on the “hero vs hero due to misunderstanding” thing. Boooooring.

Also, the art was very plain jane.

There’s one cool part. It consists of three pages where Dust defeats the Taliban. Everything else was a waste of my time.

[Mitchell Friedman · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were pieces I liked including the setup. And if they had followed Blindfold the whole way it might have worked. But something like this works better if you like the characters. And the Young X-Men come across mostly as not detailed enough or likable or interesting. And the old New Mutants are basically strangers. So not bad, just kind of random.

[Vicky N. · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this for a challenge and despite its bad rep I went into it as openminded as possible, but just no.
Flat characters, boring storyline and subpar art made for a very tough read. Would not recommend.

[TK · Rating 2 out of 5]

We are jumping through some continuity hoops to make this story work. Also lacks some of the New X-Men characters that really make this cast work.

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Before the days when Guggenheim shit the bed.

[Odo · Rating 3 out of 5]

6.75/10

[J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm going to review the series as a whole, so we will have spoilers throughout. I'm surprised the ratings for this are as bad as they are--I liked it quite a bit, and I have a lot of good things to say about it. But I guess I'm in the minority. So here's my "defense" of the series...

First off, let me say that I'm predisposed to dislike Guggenheim. The other books of his I've read have all been a bit over-the-top for my taste. However, I did like the New X-Men series that lead directly in to this one, so my incoming impression was very slightly negative to fairly neutral.

The cast of characters Guggenheim chooses is a good one: Rockslide, Dust, Anole, and Blindfold are already have nice, interesting characters left over from NXM. He adds some new characters: Ink has an interesting power base which I know is totally nonsensical, but so are most of the other characters here, so I'm going to be forgiving, since he's such a good character for the team. He also introduces Cypher or Cipher (I can't remember which spelling was the actual one), and the (totally-not-Darwin) Greymalkin. Unfortunately, both of these characters don't get explored, since Guggenheim runs out of time and the series is canceled.

There seems to be a lot of complaints about the predictability of the first story, but I don't know that this is a fair complaint: Guggenheim seems to be very intentionally repeating what happened at the beginning of the original New Mutants run, so the betrayals and surprises (while predictable), seem to be intentionally an homage to other series. And I think he tells us as much--he titles the chapters with titles ripped from classic X-Men plotlines.

These 12 issues also have some great moments: Rockslide breaking down and hugging Cyclops after Wolf Cub's death; Ink wanting the "telepathy lines" tattooed on his head (lol); the reveal of the Phoenix tattoo; the nice double-twist that, even though there was one-too-few mutants in the room, Pierce's presence doesn't explain it, since Greymalkin was hiding nearby; and so on.

And I really appreciate the planning Guggenheim put into these issues. Even though Cypher doesn't show up for 8 issues or so, she's there from the very beginning, and, similarly, the above-mentioned mutant shortage presages Ink's humanity 6 issues later. So I'm pretty bummed I didn't get to see what else Guggenheim had planned. And, even though the last few issues are a little too weird, I think building a friendship between Dust and Pierce is simultaneously really weird and really humanizing, and it seems to speak to what he was trying to bring to the characters.

Also,the art is good throughout. There are a few different artists, but without digging back through too carefully, I don't remember disliking any of them.

Anyway, this series certainly isn't perfect, but it currently has a 2.9 cumulative rating, and that's a shame. Guggenheim clearly poured some planning into this series, and I would gladly read more, if there were any. Guggenheim's "Death of Wolverine" is rated way better, as is his Wolverine Civil War book (the one where Wolverine gets skeletalized...ugh) and neither of them are as good as this. This series is also rated significantly below Kyle and Yost's run on New X-Men. And while this isn't quite as good as that, it certainly is a worthy, if slightly inferior, successor. It really is a shame it got cancelled before all his planning started to pay off.

[Adam Stone · Rating 3 out of 5]

An acceptable introduction to a new X-team that won't be around for too long.

After the events of X-Men: Messiah Complex, the X-Men have disbanded and Cyclops has to recruit a team. He chooses several students from New X-Men: Childhood's End, Vol. 5: Quest for Magik and one new member to track down the former New Mutants.

It's a fun little Assembling A Team story but it doesn't really amount to much. We learn the villain's identity at the beginning of the story, courtesy of Blindfold. We then have a series of twists that are entertaining but not shocking.

I wanted to like this more but the team feels lacking. I would have loved for Anole or Pixie or Prodigy or Hellion or at least one other major player from Academy X to lead this time. But, given the trajectory of the book, I guess it's not too surprising that this is mainly the C+ team.

If you enjoyed the Academy X books, I think this is a fun continuation but it's not quite as good.

[Brad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cyclops brings together the remnant of the New X-Men in an all-new (well, newly-branded to fit in line with the Young Avengers) team that goes after the original New Mutants, who now are living in the Hellfire Club, for some reason. It's a fairly basic new-team plot with a decent twist ending. Marc Guggenheim brings in his own new mutant, Ink, who has Tatooed Man-like powers and uses mildly annoying slang, but is interesting enough. The highlight is definitely Yanick Paquette's art. His style is not overly innovative but quite energetic and engaging. It doesn't stand out from other stuff on the shelves, but is nearly perfect for superhero stories.

[Mouse · Rating 2 out of 5]

Whoa! There's a girl with no eyes in this!!! Other than that...not much worth reading here! These characters are flat and I don't seem to want to care about them. The story is a mess and hard to follow! The Young X-Men end up mixing it up with the New Mutants (but they're actually the New Brotherhood of Evil?) in a simulation and then things get really confusing! This starts at Young X-Men #1 but it feels like we missed something and I hate when that happens. Apparently I missed a huge story arc about a mutant baby or something and all the X-Men are gone except Cyclops (whom isn't really Cyclops) so I don't know why I bothered to read this! Matter of fact I didn't bother to finish this book...

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

The X-men are gone. Cyclops recruits some young mutants to take on the Hellfire Club. The Club is full of old x-men, and to make matters worse, Blindfold has foreseen someone dying. This is a good introductory volume to a new team. It's interesting to see how dangerous Dust really is. I particularly liked the new character, Ink's powers. A good read.

[Arturo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty simple story, and predictable. Rockslide, Dust and Blindfold are joined by some new mutants. They're sent by Cyclops after the original New Mutants. One reason is Sunspot is part a of the hellfire club. ( I Think from an X-Treme X-men story). Donald Pierce is the main villain.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 3 out of 5]

A confusing premise and uneven pacing keep this book from excelling. It's still got OK characters and interesting conflict.