Comics: X-men Battle of the Atom #1

Battle of the Atom brings together the past year’s worth of X-stories, centring on the X-men being divided into two camps, split between Cyclops and Wolverine, with Cyclops being seen as a terrorist. Beast brought the original X-men forward from the past in the hope that seeing what has become of their mission to unite mutants and humans would encourage them to change things. A team of X-men from the future appear to warn the present team that if they don’t send back the time-travelling X-men it will lead to a terrible future.

The first issue mostly centres on an exciting battle scene, with the past X-men first travelling to fight a new mutant on a rampage then facing off against an army of sentinels. It’s an interesting way to begin the event, promising much action in the future of the series. Present day Cyclops’ team of X-men arrives to assist in the battle and when a sentinel fires a mortal shot at past Cyclops the present day version disappears. The past version is healed immediately and the present day Cyclops reappears but it makes everyone suddenly aware of the dangers of having the time travelling X-men around.

It sure has taken them a while to come to this realisation, especially with essentially everyone in the universe telling them that is a terrible idea. It basically feels like they have delayed from this moment for a while with All New X-men having run out of steam about six months ago, so it is great that this time travelling storyline has finally come to a head. The introduction of the future X-men seems to come at the worse time, when they were just about to send back the past characters anyway.

The artwork throughout the issue is great, although it can be a little distracting how it switches between artists. Three artists draw the issue: John Cho, Stuart Immonen and Wade Von Grawbadger, but they are able to mostly maintain a similar style and all characters look true to form throughout. The action scenes appear to be mostly drawn by Immonen, them flowing incredibly well and being totally fluid, as I have come to expect from the artist.

[Originally published on: www.vadamagazine.com]