All-New X-Men 18, Marvel Knights X-Men 1, X-Men Gold 1

All-New X-Men 18
Bendis (w) and Immonen and von Grawbadger (a) and Gracia (c)

BATTLE OF THE ATOM has finally wrapped and the dust settles to find Kitty inexplicably bringing the original X-Men to Cyclops' camp. The team officially moves in and meets their new teammates, some of whom are already at odds with them (at least one Stepford Cuckoo truly dislikes Jean), all while trying to deal with their own problems, most notably the love triangle of Hank, Scott, and Jean. Kitty's still teaching them, they have some new teachers in Cyclops and his gang, and there's drama within the ranks. Oh, and they got new uniforms.

Don't get me wrong, I'm extremely happy that BATTLE OF THE ATOM is over but I still have reservations about Kitty moving the original X-Men to Cyclops' camp, one that she has pretty adamantly refused to take part in and who she, up to now, has by and large been against. I also thought it was pretty weakly defined why she felt she needed to bring them there at all. She's reacting to the fact that the team she's been with for so long didn't trust her to make the best decision for the kids (??) and so she's decided to uproot and move to the militant X-team, despite her previous very outspoken qualms about the X-Men becoming something more militant. As if these two teams were the only two options. ALSO, if this is how things are going to play, why do we have ANXM and UNCANNY X-MEN? Won't they be focused on the same team, now? Argh.

Marvel Knights X-Men 1
Revel (w and a) and Peter (c)

The Marvel Knights line continues with a brand new X-Men book brought to us by Brahm Revel, who brings a noticeably darker tone to this corner of the world. In the first issue, Wolverine, Rogue, and Kitty head out from the Jean Grey School upon reports that kids (noticeably mutants but seemingly a bunch in general) are going missing in a small town in Virginia. Rachel Summers was inadvertently contacted by one of these mutants reaching out for help and now the small X-team is heading out that way to investigate. They manage to find a girl who seems to have pre-cog/persuasion powers and who is running out of a party after stealing drugs from a guy in that party. She flees the X-Men at first but eventually reluctantly joins up with them as they swear she'll be protected. Pretty sure there's something sketchy with her, you guys. Anyway, the gang comes to a seemingly abandoned house giving off a reading of a mutant inside. Wolverine goes through the front to investigate, sending Rogue to the back, and finds himself abruptly confronted by Sabretooth, who I'm actually getting a little sick of.

I like this book at its onset, even if I'm not a hundred percent sure of the story yet. It's already an interesting look at the characters and a darker look into this corner, something we haven't had for a little while now. Most of the books in the X-Men line right now are going for something more of a light-hearted feel, despite the tension of the situation mutants are in right now. Bendis certainly brings a more banter-filled air to the book while Jason Aaron tends to be more light in his approach to a lot of these stories as well. Brian Wood is a bit different but X-MEN hasn't really had a chance to show much of anything yet and ULTIMATE X-MEN (which I just found out today is apparently OVER, most depressingly) doesn't really count as this part of the universe (I mostly mentioned it so I could express sadness at it being over). Revel brings a darker and more mysterious story to the forefront here and his art emphasizes that. The art here is nice, a little more fluid than other X-books at the moment, with darker and more ominous colors from Christiane Peter to really sell the mystery. It's not quite like the art of MARVEL KNIGHTS SPIDER-MAN, which is going for a more experimental tone; this is still very much a comic layout but the appearance of the art looks more in line with indie books than with Marvel books. Very nice though, good opening piece. Still a bit sick of Sabretooth and unsure where this fits, as Kitty is still with the Jean Grey School and, again, is the first to express disdain at Cyclops' branch. Maybe Revel and Bendis should have had a talk.

X-Men Gold 1
Chris Claremont, Stan Lee, Len Wein, Louise Simonson, Roy Thomas, and Fabian Nicieza (w) and Bob McLeod, Walt Simonson, Bob Wiacek, Pat Oliffe, Jorge Molina, and Salvador Larroca (a) and Israel Silva, Andres Mossa, Chris Sotomayor, and David Ocampo (c)

As you might have guessed from that laundry list of legends up there, this is a 50th anniversary X-Men book featuring new stories from in-between-the-lines of old X-Men stories. The legends listed above each wrote a story set to take place between different moments of X-Men history, meant to slot nicely between the plots. It's a nice little compilation and one I can't add too much to, frankly. If you're a big X-Fan, you'll likely be best served checking out this book, even if it's not anything to really add to continuity or character or anything like that. It's a nice idea and a solid piece of X-history to boot. Fun bits here and there and old X-fans will certainly recognize the tones of each writer as not really having changed over time so it'll feel like they didn't miss a thing. Neat little book.