This month is the 50th anniversary of the X-Men from their first appearance in September 1963. X-Men: Battle of the Atom is a celebratory mini-series that acknowledges one of Marvel Comic's most beloved titles and cast of characters in a story that, going on the first issue alone, manages to span all five decades (and then some). And it's actually pretty good. With Battle of the Atom, Brian Michael Bendis seems to be doing a rehash of arguably the X-Men's most famous storyline, Days of Future Past, opening with Illyana Rasputin going to the future to see Sentinels and mutants fighting once more and ending with... well I won't say but it's very similar in structure is all. For newer readers wondering why there are doubles in this book, Beast went to the past to bring back the younger versions of the original X-Men in an effort to make Cyclops see reason (he's currently a wanted fugitive) - that I think we can all agree failed - with these original X-Men choosing to stay in our timeline, ironically making the All-New X-Men the oldest versions of the X-Men. These X-Men led by Kitty Pryde (who is bizarrely calling herself Professor) ominously head to Phoenix, Arizona where a new, powerful mutant has appeared. Enter Sentinels. Bendis impressively manages to tick a lot of X-Men boxes with this issue. We've got the original X-Men cast appearing in the anniversary issue, alongside the current versions of the X-men, we've got those classic X-Men villains, the Sentinels, and Bendis touches on a dystopian future story. But if you've been reading Bendis much this year, you'll know the guy really likes using time-travel in his narratives these days - used perhaps most stupidly in Age of Ultron - which you would think would put an end to that trope being used again but no, he ruins this book too by having time-travel once more play a key part in the story. That's the ending though which I won't say anything further about, only to say I audibly groaned when I saw it. Time-travel in All-New X-Men has actually been a pretty successful plot device. Having the young versions of the X-Men interacting with the current versions of the X-Men has been fun and the stories have been very enjoyable. But it raised the question of why they're staying indefinitely. Won't it affect history and the timeline and other cliche time-travel questions? Bendis addresses this (at last!) in this issue so it looks like the conundrums he brought about with his time-travel plot devices will be resolved in this mini-series - though the younger versions reactions are ridiculous. What isn't explained is how Illyana is able to time-travel when the space-time continuum was supposedly broken after the events of Age of Ultron - didn't anyone learn anything about time-travel from that story?
Battle of the Atom #1 is a solid start to the Event. It's got the big, bold mutant action you'd expect in an X-Men Event, it's got mutant vs. humans issues, plus it has all kinds of X-Men, past and present. Bendis' writing and plotting is faster and snappier than his usual which is definitely a plus and he's expertly able to juggle a sizeable cast without making it seem like he's leaving anyone out. Frank Cho's art is really good and I was glad to see he didn't go overboard on the T&A like he normally does. Stuart Immonen and Wade von Grawbadger also contribute great art but all three artists are able to find a style in this book that's similar making it hard to distinguish between who did what pages. But that ending... I really hope Bendis doesn't do another Age of Ultron with such a promising story.
Battle of the Atom #1 by Brian Michael Bendis, Frank Cho et al. is out now