Uncanny X-Men #1 coming in October

With all of the hype and publicity surrounding DC and their September “don’t call it a reboot” re-launch, other companies have been fighting for media attention. Marvel has garnered some of that attention with the announcement that in September their longstanding title, Uncanny X-Men would be ending. They recently announced that in October it would be back with a new #1 and they would be launching a Wolverine and the X-Men #1 alongside it. This is the results of what happens in the storyline called Schism that they are in currently and will be culminating in September.

Some people will say that this is in response to what DC is doing and they are just trying to get some of that attention now. Even if this is what they were doing I would not blame them because in a dwindling marketplace any news can be considered good news. They are actually doing a smart thing here….character progression that will take their mutants somewhere that should have been visited before.

This is fallout from Wolverine and Cyclops, who have never gotten along, essentially splitting the X-Men and making people pick sides as to whose team they will be on. According to a Newsarama interview with Kerion Gillen, who will be writing Uncanny, “each team will think that they are the X-Men”. Jason Aaron, also the writer on the critically acclaimed Vertigo series Scalped, will be writing the Wolverine and the X-Men book.
I am looking forward to this and might actually pick up the first few issues of each to see the characterization and why certain teammates pick either side. Why might Kitty pick Cyclops over Wolverine, or will she? These character moments and moments of seeing how two new teams will have to come together and be a team while dealing with the pressure of still being hated by the human race, not having all of the resources or numbers they used to have, and still having villains to fight should be interesting.

This will be on my pick up list (which is saying something, because I am not Mr. Marvel) and it should be checked out by all comic fans. I think with DC raising the bar and making their stories new, fresh and more accessible will in turn make other companies do the same to compete. There is nothing wrong with competition; it only makes things better in the long run. Comic fans (notice I said comic fans and not Marvel Zombies or DC Fanatics) should be rejoicing right now. We are going through a revival with more comic movies than ever, it is ok to like comics now, DC has raised the bar, Valiant is on the way back to publishing in 2012, and more.

The only problem we should be having is not knowing where our money for all of the goodness will come from, and having to pick and choose what we can afford. I for one will not complain about anything until I read the stories…if they are horrible then I will complain as loud or louder than anyone. I don’t think they will be though….this is one of their last shots and they know it. Maybe Marvel should “don’t call it a reboot” re-launch as well, because if it didn’t work at least they have “Mephisto Magic” to fix everything.

See ya next week-Walls