X-Men Gold #1

Written by Mark Guggenheim
Penciled by Ardian Syaf
Cover by Ardian Syaf
Published April 5, 2017

    Lydia Nance, director of the Heritage Initiate, goes on the Fact Channel to continue the schism against mutantkind. Meanwhile on the streets of New York, the X-Men Gold Team assembles. Terrax attacks and the group's ground attack isn't working. Kitty Pryde orders Storm and Prestige into the air to take the villain for a ride. Storm hits him with a lightning bolt, while back on the ground, Colossus holds up the building while Kitty and Logan use Nightcrawler to port to the top of it. As Logan leaps off the building and attacks Terrax, Prestige knocks him out with a barrage of bricks. As Colossus loses his grip, Kitty phases the entire skyscraper and rides it all the way to the ground.
   As the X-Men collect themselves, a crowd develops while Kitty walks out of the rubble. As the majority of them jeer, she introduces them to their skeptics... but with the intro adds that she understands they have a long way to go rebuilding the public's trust. Back at their new home base in Central Park, they enjoy some R&R with what else - a softball game. Logan gives props to the once youngest x-protege while the extremely tired "I thought we weren't supposed to be using powers" gag is once again dragged out. Logan tells Kitty how he used to think these games were a waste of time but now how much he appreciates them. Just then a man in a suit walks up. One of the mayor's people deliver's Kitty an invoice for the taxes and lease payments for the mansion's new residence being in the middle of town. The horror washes over her as it turns out to be a total of about 18 million dollars. Later that night, Storm and Nightcrawler watch the replay of the Fact Channel and she quotes Magneto - pointing out that maybe the X-Men have a chance to regain their revered status. Nightcrawler accuses her of sounding hopeful and asks why she tried to leave the team. She tells him that she lead the X-Men into a war - a losing one as Lydia Nance mentions the mutants' aggression against the Inhumans. Meanwhile Prestige trains in the Danger Room with Rockslide and Armor where one of them refers to her as Ms. Grey. She explains that her new name, Prestige, is new where Marvel Girl and Phoenix were too rooted in the past. While back in Xavier's old office, Kitty wonders if it's maybe not too late to go back to the Guardians of the Galaxy. Colossus walks in asking if she'd like to join her for dinner. She declines any romantic advancements as Rachel runs in to tell her someone is attacking the city.
   They walk into the Blackbird bay where Storm tells her someone's attacking the UN building. Nightcrawler climbs into the cockpit and they arrive. A hole smokes in the middle of the building. As the X-Men prepare to make their move, some familiar faces are there in some not so familiar roles. The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants prepare to square off with them and with that, we're left to be continued.
   I see there was some controversy to the penciler of this book. Some kind of religious symbolism and anti-Semitic imagery. Eventually Ardian Syaf was fired because of it, none of which should be considered a big loss because this is one of the worst penciled books I've seen come out of Marvel - especially for a first issue - in a long time. I don't know what happened to all the greats from 10-20 years ago but these newcomers leave a lot to be desired. The writing is equally weak, and just as subpar as the artwork. So far the book it replaced, Extraordinary X-Men, left it in the dust. I give this issue a 5/10 and hope Marvel isn't putting scrubs on these books. Because that sure is how it feels.

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