TPB Review: X-men: Chidlren of the Atom

by: Joe Casey, Steve Rude

Collects: X-men Children of the Atom 1-6

Premise: The beginning of the X-men. Before they were a team, before they were a class, they were just hiding. Professor X scours around for teenage mutants to build his vision and his school.

Review: Using a retro look and a retro writing style, Joe Casey takes the year-one style initiated in Frank Miller's Batman masterpiece and applies it to the first X-men team.

I finished X-men: Evolution Season 1 a few weeks ago, and honestly this is miles ahead with a very similar, albeit not nearly as lengthy, extended, and serialized concept. If you've ever wanted to see teenage X-men, this is the place to get it.

You're going to see Frank Miller's name pop up in this review alot because this tpb really does harken back to his year one concept. While Frank Miller's book was about a couple of characters (Bruce Wayne and Jim Gordon), this is about a team of five plus their leader, plus villains, plus supporting characters not inherent in the X-men mythos.

There's an FBI angent who plays a straight man not sure what or who to believe but begrudgingly helps Professor Xavier throughout the book because Xavier is out there to help kids. He's there to be an outsider point of view, basically supposed to represent the reader, being exposed to the mutant world for the first time. It's a cute idea, but it's been played so many times through so many different mediums. Yet it continues to work. Here it feels a little more unnecessary than usual and more like a plot element, but that may be a result of my familiarity with the x-men franchise.

Casey shows off all of the themes and the three core visions of the X-verse. It's X-men year one for goodness sakes so it's not too much of a stretch from the usual concepts. Xavier is there to build his vision of co-existence, Magneto builds a vision of mutant superiority, and William Metzger (a human) builds a vision of mutant oppression. It's the core X-men story and concept, and while outplayed, it wouldn't make sense if it it wasn't in this book.

Professor Xavier gets the most time as it really is his "baby," his vision, his team. Xavier is the driving force of this book and his plotting, his infiltrations, and his friendships that develop with the kids is intriguing to watch.

The actual team characters all get spotlights as they either attempt to deal with their powers and in one case, deal with the initial manifestation. Casey balances all of the characters and each of the charactes their chance to shine. While their characters aren't so well-developed, it fits because they're still in the prime developing stages, their still teenagers. Casey gets the most usage out of Scott Summers from the kids because he's got the most troubling past and situation. But each one gets their chance to shine. Hank McCoy is also a pleasure to watch and read in this book. In the end, it's a great sight to see them come together as a team.

As the surrounding world fears mutants because they don't understand this fear takes a violent reaction as William Metzger, a charismatic fellow, mobilizes misfit teens against the mutants. The core of the book is very classic X-men and the villain is no different. But here while familiar and in line with the core concept, it feels just a little too familiar. Metzger falls in line with the other charismatic violent humans: William Stryker, Robert Kelly, Trask. It's just another play on that type of character. Its not too much of a problem because its a realm where the X-men concept excels.

Again the art takes a nod to Frank Miller's Batman stories, who doesn't, as the television channels showing newscasts and other shows dealing with the "mutant crisis" is an homage to the newscasts in Dark Knight Returns. The book takes a retro look and it really feels like the 80's all over again, but yet the book's stays timeless. Steve Rude's does well with both the dark damp scenes, like Cyclops in the dark apartment, and the bright colorful scenes, like Jean playing with flowers.

The core is there, the characters are there, the themes are there, this is an X-men book through and through.

Final Thoughts: While this is the CORE X-men story, it's also not really new. While Batman: Year One was the core Batman story, it was really fresh and rather unexposed at the time, this X-men story isn't fresh. It's not fresh now in 2009 and I don't think it was fresh in 1999 when it came out, either. That said it is also the perfect introduction to the X-franchise for any new reader.

Final Grade: 8.0/10