I've been wondering where all the other ladies at--especially the fan-favorite ones--and this title series answers that question. Written by Brian Wood and illustrated by Olivier Coipel, it stars an all-female cast fronted by Storm, Rachel Grey, Kitty Pryde, Psylocke, Rogue and Jubilee. I know it seemed odd that they didn't just re-brand this title into something other than the generic "X-Men" one. I've been aware for a while that there is an ongoing MARVEL NOW! title about all the X-heroines but I couldn't for the life of me figure out which one was it until I googled it properly. So why not renamed this title into 'X-Women' or something like that? From what I know, 'X-Men' is one of oldest titles of the Marvelverse and, in technical terms, this will be the fourth roster released from it since the sixties. Hence, the original title for this particular relaunch should be "X-Men Vol. IV" and that is why I'm labeling my titles with that tag from now on.
And no, I really don't know why they didn't just re-brand this and maybe it doesn't matter. After all, two issues in and I was enjoying myself. I was happy to see Rogue because she's been my childhood favorite from the beginning and I haven't had many opportunities to read about her being awesome since I started my X-Men comics diet. On the other hand, I've been so in love with Kitty Pryde since The Astonishing X-Men and her pivotal role in the Days of Future Past collection, so seeing her working with the other gals was so cool. Storm and her Mohawk are here too which was grea although I wish she'd be able to contribute more to the next stories of this series than just stand there, looking glorious and queen-like (which she really does a great job at, mind you). Rachel Grey and Psylocke, who are awesome psychics, are meshing pretty well together too (though I miss the nineties Psylocke look, to be honest). But the real heroine of this story arc Primer is Jubilation Lee, one of Wolverine's teenage protégé and supposedly the kid that children will relate to in the cartoons, X-Men: The Animated Series.
I don't really have strong feelings of either fondness or dislike over Jubilee, and her character did go through a lot of weird shit--the weirdest one had to be when she became a vampire...or something. It's as weird as it gets. So this story arc was about her rescuing a baby from an orphanage that was bombed. She traveled back to the States to seek refuge from the Jean Grey School of Higher Learning but was being stalked by a man the entire time. When she managed to reconvene with her friends, some peculiar disaster happened en-route, mostly due to the kid who somehow possesses powers. Thanks to teamwork, Kitty, Storm and Rogue were able to wrap things up and get Jubilee and the baby to safety while Rachel and Betsy confront the man who had been stalking Jubilee. It was no other than Subtle, one of the X-Men's alien villains in the old days. He started talking about his twin sister and how she is out for revenge because he cast her out during fetal stage or something like that. Said vengeful twin had piggybacked with the baby and now she found a better body to possess and its no other than Karima, Omega Sentinel whom I was well-acquainted with since she played some vital role in Chris Claremont's Excalibur Vol. III.
Apparently, Subtle's twin sister named Arkea can hack machines and use them (god, so original) and she attacked Beast and Rogue in the laboratory while wearing Karima. Kitty would have killed her easily; all she needed to do was to phase through Karima, but Kitty was concerned that their friend may still be in there somewhere so she restrained herself. Unfortunately, Arkea got away, but Subtle promised to help them stop her. Jubilee, meanwhile, named the baby Shogo and is now fully responsible of him. She was more than excited to be a single mother. And that's what happened in the first two issues. The third installment is going to be the conclusion of this arc. I like how everything is going so far so I'm reserving any harsher judgments. It's not that amazing but neither is it completely terrible. I'm giving it a solid 7 for now.
RECOMMENDED: 7/10
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