X-Treme X-Men #1
Written by Greg Pak
Pencils by Stephen Segovia
Inks by Dennis Crisostomo
Colors by Jessica Kholinne
Letters by VC’s Joe Sabino
Covers by Julian Totino Tedesco and Salvador LaRrocca with Marte Garcia
Marvel Comics
Release Date: July 25, 2012
Cover Price: $2.99

After reading X-Treme X-Men #1, I found myself doing something I haven’t done in years….actually CARING about the X-Men. Although I’m a huge fan of “The Wolverine,” the X-Men as a whole, seems to bore me. I haven’t really cared about them since the late 80s/early 90s when it was Beast, Angel, Cyclops, Marvel Girl, and Iceman. I’ve tried a bunch of differnt times to get back into them, almost every reboot or restart, to fail time and time again…until now.

Writer Greg Pak writes a VERY entertaining first issue, actually a very entertaining issue in general, here putting a spin on the X-Men team that we haven’t quite gotten before. A team of X-Men from a different dimension are sent on a mission by a Charles Xavier floating head to destroy 10 different Charles Xaviers across the multiverse.

Also, did I mention they have a teammate from the Marvel 616 universe? NO? Well, they do. And it’s the most awesome mutant ever created. Yes, it’s Dazzler. Honest to God, Dazzler is THE stand-out character in this issue and Pak writes her perfectly. I would totally read a standalone Dazzler series written by him. The rest of the cast is Wolverine, Emma Frost, and Nightcrawler (all from an alternate universe) combine uneasily with Dazzler and that’s honestly half the fun. My only genuine complaint about the issue is that 3/4’s of the team are from the alternate universe while Dazzler, is from “our” universe. So, basically three of them are on the same page, but not Dazzler. I hope in future issues, they pick up some more teammates from different universes, so there’s a little more tension in the team.

Artist Stephen Segovia is fantastic here. I’ve liked his work on Dark Wolverine and it’s even better here. You can tell he’s totally at home with a team book, and all his pages are laid out great. Nobody gets short changed on screen time here, which is great. He also does a fantastic job portraying the few alternate universes that we see a glimpse off. He gets to modify some familiar costumes for the alternate universes and he does an exceptional job with these. Fantastic art!!

I would highly recommend picking this issue up. It’s fun, exciting, and just a great comic in general. Whether you’re a die-hard X-Men fan or not, there’s something for you here. I honestly hope this title is around for a long while, because it’s the one X-Men title that I’ll buy for the duration. Highly recommended.