100 books
—
17 voters
Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.
Start by marking “First Team: A Marvel: Xavier's Institute Novel” as Want to Read:
First Team: A Marvel: Xavier's Institute Novel
(Marvel Aconyte Novels)
by
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
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
Get A Copy
Paperback, 352 pages
Published
March 23rd 2021
by Aconyte
(first published March 2nd 2021)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Reader Q&A
To ask other readers questions about
First Team,
please sign up.
Be the first to ask a question about First Team
Community Reviews
Showing 1-40

Start your review of First Team: A Marvel: Xavier's Institute Novel

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
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

*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 ...more
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 ...more

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 ...more
Next up on that slat ...more

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
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

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
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

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
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

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
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

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
...more

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
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

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
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
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
Other books in the series
Marvel Aconyte Novels
(1 - 10 of 11 books)
News & Interviews
Why not focus on some serious family drama? Not yours, of course, but a fictional family whose story you can follow through the generations of...
182 likes · 65 comments
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »