Before the Fall: Mutant First Strike #1 - Review/Spoilers

[ARkadelphia]

I thought this was really well done. I didn’t know half the characters in this issue, but watching them work together (and separately) to achieve a common goal is what the X-Men should be about.

[CoCoBandz]

He called her a soulless ginger.

[Jesse James]

I a a sways love issues were multiple lesser usedutant appear. This one gave my all I needed this week

[Kingdom X]

I thought this was a very good example of what Steve Orlando's Marauders could have been had he not veered too much towards a sci-fi/grand epic direction which ultimately fell flat for me.

Conversely, the grounded approach worked really well here and was reminiscent of some of Claremont's best stories of mutants working together to help regular people. Despite the enormous cast, Orlando manages to give cute spotlights to multiple characters and his penchant for digging up obscure characters and use their powers in new and effective ways was excellent.

I also very much enjoyed the art, the X-uniforms had a good reason to be there and worked on most of the characters for me.

Mutant First Strike really made me wish this had been Marauders from the get-to rather than the Shi'ar/Threshold saga we got instead.

100% agree. I really enjoyed the premise and characters in this issue. Overall it does feel a bit out of place because it’s a sort of “what could have been” one-shot instead of directly setting things up since Orlando is just writing Iceman during FoX. Sons of X had a clear purpose to serve as a conclusion to Legion of X, and the remaining two are supporting the narratives of books that are still ongoing.

It was also nice to see Bishop in a positive light, doing his job well after a mixed showing in his own book.

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

It was a fun first issue and made me curious about a Mutants Unlimited book. Where the X-men rotates in various volunteers to deal with certain issues like JL Unlimited.

[Kurolegacy]

It was a nice enough heroic outing for the mutants, I dig the white and red jackets, that being said it didn't really move the overall narrative forward nor did it give us much of an insight into what to expect in Fall of X. I've been 100% onboard with the Krakoa era but it is starting to irk me how many wheel spinning books they've put out. During Covid I could understand it, but I think it might be time to trim the line down a bit and accelerate the stories.

Sadly the wheel spinning makes a lot of sense when you consider that they deviated from Hickman’s planned story by staying in phase 2 of the story for as long as they did. At that point, the ship kinda became rudderless, just drifting aimlessly with them maintaining status quo just for the sake of it rather than because there was a good story to tell. Kinda feels like it came at the detriment to the overall story.

[Micabe]

This issue made less sense than the matching uniforms everyone was wearing.

[Dream Boy]

Count me in among those that liked this as well. Really cool to get such a diverse cast working towards a common goal. Hope we get to see more like this.

[Rnap22]

This was pretty good. I liked the concept of the response team. I’d be interested in seeing more of a team like this with rotations in team members based on the crisis. X-men are the heroes and this team would be like “the first responders” to a disaster. I may not have known everyone but it was nice to see members using their powers in a crisis.

[Slicknickshady]

A few Nature Girl mentions.

[Micabe]

Did anyone else notice how there was nary an Avenger, Defender, or Fantastic Four member present anywhere during said emergency?

[Thievery]

The idea that the X-Men would save a city of people and not receive the credit that they deserve isn't exactly new. I know that the story was meant to show the X-Men score some sort of good public relations to set up FoX, but I honestly found the actual story to be boring and uninteresting.

I get that readers are excited to see so many unused mutants get panel time, show their powers, and get a few speaking lines. That was a neat. I just kind of feel that a set up story for Fall of X might have benefited from a smaller cast who provided a little more tight insight might of worked better. I hope that I explained that in a way that people will understand it.

Maybe the point of this comic was to build sympathy for some of these characters because they end up captured or killed and Marvel wants you to feel bad for them?

Did anyone notice that Angel's costume changed part way through the story? He starts off wearing his old X-Factor costume and then the costume switches to a version of his halo outfit. I read the story a few times, and the change in costume looks like it happens during the first several hours of the X-Men arriving, not after the crises was over.

[Uncanny X-Man]

He called her a soulless ginger.

LOL that cracked me up.

[Thievery]

The best thing to happen in this comic was when that Watchdog called Jean a soulless ginger.
Just my opinion.

[norj]

Did anyone else notice how there was nary an Avenger, Defender, or Fantastic Four member present anywhere during said emergency?

Orchis probably waited for those groups were busy so that they couldn't undermine Orchis's message.