Storm, Rogue, Psylocke, Jubilee, Rachel, and Kitty Pryde.  I can tell by the cover that this is going to be a kick ass girl team.

Having a sense of being followed, Jubilee contacts the X-Men.  When Storm, Rogue and Kitty arrive at the train Jubilee is a passenger on, they discover that she is harboring an infant she claims to have rescued.  Then all hell breaks loose.  The train has been tampered with and it’s up to the women of X-Men to defuse the situation.  Shortly after that, Jean Grey School For Higher Learning receives an unexpected, yet unwelcome visitor.  John Sublime, super villain and enemy of the X-Men, seeks their help for a crisis that he alone cannot handle; taking down Arkea Prime, his evil twin sister.

Brian Wood is the writer of this action packed series.  The pacing is fast but easy to follow, and I love the realistic dialogue and character interactions.  All the characters have distinct personalities, which makes the story more exciting to read.  I feel that Wood did a great job with the set-up of the story, beginning with the narrative on the first two pages.

The art team consists of Olivier Copiel (pencils/inks), Mark Morales (inks) and Laura Martin (colorist).  This team did such a great job at visual storytelling, that you really don’t need text to understand what is happening.  I love the cover art, especially Psylocke, Storm and Kitty.  Their facial expressions alone are enough for me to know not to mess with them or their teammates.  Each panel is finely detailed and realistically drawn.  The characters are so lifelike.  A couple of the baby’s facial expressions had me laughing.  Kitty Pryde has always been one of my favorite X-Men characters so I loved seeing her phase in and out of the train.  The lighting and colors in the panels are great, with my favorites being Mercury throwing that book at Bling (ouch) and the train explosion.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, a good story needs a good script AND good artwork.  You cannot have one without the other.  X-Men #1 goes over and beyond a good script and art.  It deserves the adjective of SUPERB.  This creative team needs a round of applause.  And then a standing ovation.

This Marvel NOW! title by Marvel Comics is sure to not only retain its’ loyal X-Men readers, but to gain new readers as well.  You already know one of those new readers, ME.  I don’t recall ever reading X-Men titles, but I have been glancing through them for years (my husband is a loyal X-Men fan) and have become familiar with most of the characters.  I definitely plan to read the next issue because the super villain on the last page of this issue is sure to cause havoc.

VERDICT (drum roll please)

I highly recommend X-MEN, the Marvel NOW! title by Marvel Comics.