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First Team: A Marvel: Xavier's Institute Novel

(Marvel Aconyte Novels)

Robbie MacNiven (Goodreads Author)

4.29 · Rating details · 14 ratings · 10 reviews

Marvel’s mutant heroes return when a remarkable student rushes to save his family but ends up in a whole heap of trouble, in this gripping Xavier’s Institute novel

Victor Borkowski – aka Anole – has adjusted well to life at Xavier’s Institute, gaining control over his reptilian mutant powers and the respect of his fellow students. However, when he discovers that his parents ...more

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Paperback, 352 pages

Published March 23rd 2021 by Aconyte (first published March 2nd 2021)

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Feb 28, 2021 Briar's Reviews rated it really liked it

Shelves: marvel, superhero, fantasy-supernatural, fiction, ya-obsessions, netgalley

First Team by Robbie MacNiven is an excellent X-Men, high fantasy read.

If you're seeking a fun, fantasy read that brings Marvel characters to life then this book is for you! It's a long read but it is mighty worth it!

I wasn't aware of most of these Marvel characters, but I am sure many comic book fans will be aware of them. Even if you don't know them, Robbie MacNiven gives you enough background and history to help you. You don't need to worry about going into this book blind! The character dev ...more

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Feb 20, 2021 Emmett rated it really liked it

Shelves: netgalley

*I received a free ARC of this book by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

As an X-men fan since I was but a wee one, I was excited to read First Team. Despite being unfamiliar with the X-men it focused on, I more than enjoyed the read and now have an appreciation for a new cast of characters. While I am not sure if those unfamiliar with Marvel’s world would be keen to read this, I think any X-men fan will find it hard not to enjoy.

Robbie MacNiven’s pacing in this novel was fantastic. The *I received a free ARC of this book by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

As an X-men fan since I was but a wee one, I was excited to read First Team. Despite being unfamiliar with the X-men it focused on, I more than enjoyed the read and now have an appreciation for a new cast of characters. While I am not sure if those unfamiliar with Marvel’s world would be keen to read this, I think any X-men fan will find it hard not to enjoy.

Robbie MacNiven’s pacing in this novel was fantastic. The initial set-up was great and there was plenty of background story for characters mixed in with the relentless action. The relationship building between the characters and the time spent establishing Anole’s backstory with his family were a pleasure to read. Of course this read comes with a bit of corny dialogue and overly convenient coincidences tucked in here or there, but that is wholly expected with a novel set in this universe.

I’m also impressed with the decision to put not one, but two queer characters front and center in the novel. Anole was so fun to read about and Graymalkin really added a unique perspective to the team and the overall story. I will definitely be looking out for more material featuring them in the Marvel universe.

Overall, this novel is 1 part high-octane thriller, 1 part coming-of-age story, and 1 part heartwarming meditation on the importance of family and friendship (yes, I did say heartwarming- it honestly is). If you are a fan of the X-men or Marvel in general, I think you owe it to yourself to pick this one up!

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About Marvel Entertainment
Marvel Entertainment, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, is one of the world’s most prominent character-based entertainment companies, built on a proven library of more than 8,000 characters featured in a variety of media for over eighty years. Marvel utilizes its character franchises in entertainment, licensing, publishing, games, and digital media.
For more information visit marvel.com. © 2020 MARVEL
#Marvel #MarvelEnt #Aconytebooks #review
...more

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Jan 20, 2021 Austin rated it it was amazing

Can I just say how incredibly exciting the tie-in game is right now? This is probably the most fun it’s been in years. Titan Books is the new Dark Horse with Predator and Alien novels along with Marvel reprints and new books. Encyclopocalypse Publications just crushed it with the Wishmaster novelization and more coming. And then there’s upstart Aconyte with their incredible Marvel line. Aconyte has a wild slate ahead ranging from a mobile tie-in book to a Dark Avengers novel.

Next up on that slat Can I just say how incredibly exciting the tie-in game is right now? This is probably the most fun it’s been in years. Titan Books is the new Dark Horse with Predator and Alien novels along with Marvel reprints and new books. Encyclopocalypse Publications just crushed it with the Wishmaster novelization and more coming. And then there’s upstart Aconyte with their incredible Marvel line. Aconyte has a wild slate ahead ranging from a mobile tie-in book to a Dark Avengers novel.

Next up on that slate is today’s topic. First Team by Robbie MacNiven, the second book in the Xavier’s Institute subcategory. I’ve already covered the first book, Liberty and Justice For All by Carrie Harris. If you missed that review, I loved that book greatly. It was exciting to see a modern, diverse book that drew from Bendis and Aaron rather than Claremont/Byrne. I had a lot of hope the second book would continue that. Did it?

We’re in blissfully simple story territory here. Xavier’s Institute student Anole goes home to see his parents. His hometown gets overrun by the Purifiers, an anti-mutant cult seeking Anole. His home gets destroyed, his father taken, and his mother injured. Anole, with friends Rockslide, Cipher, and Graymalkin, searches for his father. Much superhero fun ensues.

Yeah, let me cut to the chase here. I dug this a lot. Not quite as much as Liberty and Justice For All, but I still had a blast. This is a tight, fun little read that feels incredibly fresh. There’s almost no fat in the book with a plot that moves from point to point agilely. It’s as simple as stories get but that’s how comic books should feel. This utterly drips with comic book energy.

That’s not to say it’s style free. MacNiven knows his imagery. There’s not one page of the book that didn’t feel as visual as the source. I could imagine every setting to the smallest detail and the action pops boldly. It’s one cracking read.

I also really liked the character work. Anole is an intensely likable lead, an openly gay protagonist unburdened by the usual family trauma. That he has a tight bond with his family actually gives a nice contrast with his much more troubled peers. There’s not enough superheroes showing why an untroubled life is actually quite dramatic. And I love that Anole being gay is as casually played as it would be if he was straight.

If I have a gripe it’s that his friends are a bit redundant. Graymalkin and Cipher have extremely similar power sets and similar backstories. They’re not bad characters but they all blend after a while. I get why this was done but it did wear on me a bit.

This is a minor gripe about a book I’m more than happy to recommend. I loved this read and I am in for the line. If this is the future, it shines.

This book was given to me by NetGalley for an honest review

About Marvel Entertainment

Marvel Entertainment, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, is one of the world’s most prominent character-based entertainment companies, built on a proven library of more than 8,000 characters featured in a variety of media for over eighty years. Marvel utilizes its character franchises in entertainment, licensing, publishing, games, and digital media.

For more information visit marvel.com. © 2020 MARVEL

#Marvel #MarvelEnt #Aconytebooks #review ...more

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Feb 10, 2021 Louisa Heaton rated it it was amazing

This book was given to me for an honest review.
Such a fabulous story by MacNiven. This book will please both the YA market, as well as adult readers as they read about Anole and his battle with the Purifiers.
The characters are brought to life so well, that you really cheer them on when they get into dire straits and all the aspects that make these characters mutants are so perfectly depicted and fit well into the X-men Universe.
I would happily read more from this author and feel confident that t ...more

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Mar 31, 2021 Gabriele | QueerBookdom rated it liked it

Shelves: queer, young-adult, science-fiction, contemporary

DRC provided by Aconyte Books via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Representation: gay protagonist. Black deuteragonist, gay deuteragonist, Latine deuteragonist.

Content Warning: violence, homophobia, vivisepulture, death, fanaticism.

First Team: A Marvel: Xavier’s Institute Novel by Robbie MacNiven is an adventure-packed, superhero novel, starring three spectacular and gifted young heroes.

Victor Borowski, also known as Anole, is one of students at the Xavier’s Institute, where they ar ...more

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Feb 08, 2021 Hira Chaudhary rated it liked it

I received a free copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

I really wanted to enjoy this book because I was drawn in by the fact that we have a Marvel book centered on a queer character. But the story lost my attention after a few chapters, as the plot became very contrived and predictable and lost in an unengaging storyline. Victor was an interesting character and I liked his love for his family and the fact that he was one of the few whose home life was happy and co ...more

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Mar 14, 2021 Michael Botterill rated it really liked it

I have been provided with an advance copy of the new Xavier’s Institute book First Team by Robbie MacNiven, published by Aconyte Books, so here is the honest review I promised in exchange for the book.

So here is an important disclaimer which is always important to put out there first. I have a casual work contact with Asmodee to demonstrate board games for them in stores and at conventions. Asmodee being the parent company of Aconyte the publisher.

Secondly I am a friend of Robbie on Facebook, an ...more

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Mar 19, 2021 Peyton F rated it really liked it

I've been reading comics for years. I love YouTube channels like Comic Drake, Variant, and Comics Explained. But the X-Men? I couldn't really get into them. It was something about the whole saga, how X-Men ruled the 90s comic landscape and changed everything. I couldn't really get into the movies, I loved Evan Peters as Quicksilver, and Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, but I just couldn't understand the whole idea of mutantkind, or the time-travel shenanigans, the deaths and the resurrections, or... D I've been reading comics for years. I love YouTube channels like Comic Drake, Variant, and Comics Explained. But the X-Men? I couldn't really get into them. It was something about the whole saga, how X-Men ruled the 90s comic landscape and changed everything. I couldn't really get into the movies, I loved Evan Peters as Quicksilver, and Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, but I just couldn't understand the whole idea of mutantkind, or the time-travel shenanigans, the deaths and the resurrections, or... Deadpool. Comic-fan blasphemy, I know! I just couldn't get into Deadpool for the life of me!

I needed something that was a palate cleanser, an introduction that was easy to follow, easy to know. The idea of Xavier's Institute is such a cool one, it's like Harry Potter; a school full of powered individuals, with powerful teachers, learning how to hone their skills to be helpful in the rest of the world. First Team by Robbie MacNiven fulfills that desire and need.

We follow Victor Borkowski, a mutant with Lizard abilities. His hero alter-ego? Anole. With scaly skin, an expandable tongue, camouflage abilities, and wall climbing similar to Spider-Man, Anole wants to join the ranks of the X-Men, and he's already one step ahead by attending Xavier's Institute for Gifted Youngsters.

Victor is obviously a step out of normal, thanks in part to his green skin and the fact that his parents are bother middle class, working, powerless humans. So, when the Purifiers - a cultist group bent on eradicating mutant-kind - attempt to subdue Anole, kidnapping his father in the process, Victor must figure out how to put a stop to this, all the while working with his friends Cipher and Graymalkin, fellow mutants while he travels to take down the Purifiers and rescue his father.

I have to say, I loved this story. It was a quick read, simply because the style and pacing was amazing. MacNiven really understands these characters, and when we jump from perspectives, it is seamless as the powers are set, they're never really augmented to fit the standards, and we get a good feel of what these characters feel. Even in prose, a comic novel reads like a comic, and that is, in no way, a bad thing. Comics are GREAT with dialogue, and the great things about comics is the writer typically does this thing where the character's thoughts are shown in a little thought bubble. Here, however, those thoughts are told in an energetic, quick way. It doesn't intrude or interrupt on action or dialogue, it's naturally said.

I honestly think that's why it was such a fun read. It was engaging and to the point, and the perspective changes kept the suspense up, as we may learn the villain's motives in one chapter, and in the next we have Victor trying to track him down, or Cipher trying to help a character in the Institute. It keeps you on your toes.

This feels like Harry Potter, Superheroes, and the road-trip excitement of "Percy Jackson and the Olympians," wrapped into one, and man was it engaging. I couldn't put it down when I really got into the thick of it!

That's the issue I have, however. The pacing was really good, but it had a slower start than normal in the beginning. Of course, I'm glad it was a lot more character-driven, and we got a feel of Vic and his friends, his family, and the looming threat of the Purifiers, but around the forty percent mark it started to get exciting, and didn't really slow down in it's pacing until the end. I like comics (and now prose based around superheroes... maybe more than comics itself) because you can go one minute with character-expanding dialogue, and the next is an epic battle. I just was left wondering when it would happen, and I felt a little on edge waiting for it as I flipped from page-to-page.

And my-oh-my am I left with questions about what universe this is supposed to be! As a comic geek, placing the correct universe something is in is important to me. Anole has been a staple of X-Men comics since his first appearance in "New Mutants" back in 2003. So, is this story in the main marvel universe (Earth-616)? Or does the Aconyte set of novels have it's own, separate universe with all of their different superhero novels, such as The Harrowing of Doom and Domino: Strays to, most recently, this and Elsa Bloodstone: Bequest? It keeps me thinking, but man, is this version of the Marvel Universe interesting! There's minor references here that I'm sure fans will get a kick out of, and I'm not going to spoil any of them, but the keen reading eye will surely have no trouble catching them.

I think the villain is an interesting one, I've loved "evil bloodlust cult" as a main antagonist since Far Cry 5's Joseph Seed and the Project at Eden's Gate, and Xodus and his crew is a really engaging group that I want to know more about.

All-in-all, I think besides the pacing issues at the beginning with the whole buildup of the conflict, this novel is a 4 stars out of 5 in my book. I REALLY Recommend this as an introduction to what the X-Men is as a group. It was what I needed, especially with the rumors of them eventually entering the Marvel Cinematic Universe soon.

Once again, SPECIAL THANKS to the people at Aconyte and Marvel for giving me a copy of this! It was truly a joy. ...more

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Apr 06, 2021 Christopher Owens rated it it was amazing

A Xavier’s Institute novel

I received an advance reader copy of this book from the publisher via Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

When a mutant-hating cult attacks his hometown and takes his father hostage, X Man-in-training Anole (Victor Borkowski) has to rely on his friends to help him rescue his dad and survive. I’ve been a fan of prove superhero novels since the 1990s and I’m so glad and Marvel and Aconyte Books are issuing more of this type of book. I’m not a close follower of the ...more

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Mar 01, 2021 Michael Dodd rated it really liked it

Compared with many of his peers at the Xavier Institute, Anole – otherwise known as Victor Borkowski – knows that he’s had a remarkably comfortable life for a mutant. When his parents are threatened by the anti-mutant extremist group known as the Purifiers, however, he gets first-hand experience of the hatred that many mutants suffer under, and finds himself relying upon his found family at the Institute – particularly close friends Cipher and Greymalkin – for support in his mission to track dow ...more

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About Robbie MacNiven

Robbie MacNiven

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Robbie MacNiven is an author and freelance journalist living in the Highlands of Scotland and currently enrolled as a student at the University of Edinburgh, studying History. His ambition is to become an author in much the same way that a 5 year old, when asked what he wants to be when he grows up, will say “a fireman” or “an astronaut.” He takes thin but wholesome comfort from the fact that the ...more