Starting in the 1970s, Marvel began to have these little “introductions” to its titles to give new readers a really quick rundown on what the comic book series was about. Marvel Editor Scott Edelman wrote a lot of them (as part of a lot of his “anonymous” writing back in that era), but I know that sometimes the main writer of the book itself did their own introductions, so I don’t know if this is by Edelman or by Chris Claremont, but whatever the case may be, the intro was as follows:

Cyclops, Storm, Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Colossus. Children of the atom, students of Charles Xavier. MUTANTS-feared and hated by the world they have sworn to protect. These are the STRANGEST heroes of all! Stan Lee presents: The Uncanny X-Men!

That was the hook of the book, the X-Men would save the world, but the reason why they were the X-Men and not, say, the Avengers or the Fantastic Four, is because while the X-Men would save the world, the world actually HATED them, because they were mutants, and the world hated mutants. However, what would happen if the world DIDN’T hate and fear mutants? Gail Simone cleverly brings that idea up in the latest issue of Uncanny X-Men.

Uncanny X-Men #10 is from regular writer, Gail Simone, fill-in artist Andrei Bressen, regular colorist Matthew Wilson, and regular letterer, Clayton Cowles, and picks up from where the previous issue left, with the new teen members of the X-Men (typically referred to as “The Outliers,” in part a reference to the fact that all four of them are outliers in that their mutations are mostly hidden, which Simone has been using to compare them to people with “hidden” disabilities, and how that is a whole other situation in the world) having gone to the mall to try to have some fun (and get some new cilvilian clothes, since they’re all attending high school now), and promptly get attacked by new Sentinels who are built using the raw material of stray dogs (think We3). At the end of the previous issue, it appeared as though one of their teammates, Deathdream, might have been KILLED by the Wolfpack Sentinels!

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How do the Outliers step up in a big way?

Calico was an incredibly sheltered young girl, whose mother convinced her that she wasn’t a mutant, so when the Outliers got together, she assumed that it was a mistake that she was being hunted along with the other mutants. Her closest friend had been her horse, Ember, with whom she has a psychic connection with, and is able to transform Ember into a pegasus with her powers. As we find out right here, even when Calico is far away from Ember, she can summon Ember to her side, and help fight the bad guys.

Meanwhile, Jitter’s power is that she can mimic anyone’s ability in the world…but only for a minute, and so with her friend bleeding out in front of her, she has a minute’s worth of combat medic training to save her buddy (plus, of course, whatever she can remember from when the ability wears off. Like, if she learned how to dance in a minute, she’d possibly still remember some of the moves when the power wears off). Meanwhile, Ransom’s mutant power comes from a black hole that he has for a heart, so that when he gets hit by kinetic energy, he can sometimes absorb him. He is also in great shape just on his own, as he grew up on the streets getting into a lot of fights growing up after his wealthy parents cut ties with him due to him being a mutant (last issue we learned that he is related to Sunspot, the former X-Men member).

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How does this change the idea of whether the X-Men are “hated and feared”?

Obviously, the Outliers show up for each other, and they help hold off the Wolfpack, even as Wolverine and Jubille arrive to help, as well (amusingly, they’re all irked at Jubilee for trying to convince them that malls are a lot of fun, as, of course, Jubilee used to basically LIVE at the mall). The key, though, is that the Wolfpack go rogue, and the teenage heroes heroically save the other innocent people at the mall, and now suddenly the X-Men are VERY public heroes!

Meanwhile, earlier in the issue, Nightcrawler is visited by the woman whose child he saved a few issues earlier (It was an INCREDIBLE scene, as he automatically assumes that she’ll get angry at him, or even blame him for the kid almost being hit by a car, and instead, she kisses him and calls him an angel). She has brought him all of the German desserts she could research and make for him as a “Thank you,” and Nightcrawler begins to wonder whether he even really NEEDS the X-Men if the world begins to accept the X-Men. If the world is cool with the mutants, then you can really just be any superhero you’d like, right? You don’t need to just stick with your fellow hated and fearedm mutants.

It’s an interesting concept by Simone, and I look forward to seeing it developed. Bressen did a fine job filling in for the book’s main artist, David Marquez. We’re right back into a crossover next issue after a crossover in issues #7-8, so it’ll be interessting to see if the X-books begin to tie in more now that they are all better established now.

Source: Marvel