The Marvel Rundown: X-MEN: BEFORE THE FALL – MUTANT FIRST STRIKE #1

This week, the X-Men face the effects of an ongoing media smear campaign. This review includes SPOILERS, but scroll down to the Rapid Rundown for a spoiler-lite blurb of Invincible Iron Man #7. 

What did you think of this week’s fresh Marvel Comics issues, True Believers? The Beat wants to hear from you! Give us a shout-out, here in the comment section or over on social media @comicsbeat, and let us know what you’re thinking.

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X-Men: Before the Fall – Mutant First Strike #1

Writer: Steve Orlando
Artist: Valentina Pinti
Colorist: Frank William
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Main Cover: David Baldeón & Israel Silva

X-Men: Before the Fall – Mutant First Strike #1 is one of a quartet of one-shot tie-in issues leading up to Fall of X, the upcoming event that doesn’t sound great for the mutant society of Krakoa. However, even divorced from the context of the crossover event, this issue is still an interesting depiction of a rescue mission and investigation undertaken by the X-Men in the wake of a false flag mutant attack.

Full Spectrum Analysis

Mutant First Strike is interesting from the very first page. This is thanks to the fact that the first page demonstrates a fascinating inversion: the first panel presents text that reads “The Granite Town” along with a wide shot of the town. However, as the panels on the page progress, the locations in the text boxes become less specific (eventually culminating in “Earth”). By contrast, the images become more specific, concluding with a panel that foregrounds a mouse with a stolen sandwich scurrying past people’s feet.

 

This page serves as an overture for the issue, which demonstrates how connections can be drawn between global events and individual actions. Throughout the issue, this plays out through many interconnected scenes that show how a plethora of individuals are involved with or affected by an attack by the anti-mutant organization Orchis.

Inevitably, this means that the very large cast of characters each gets only so much time on the page. Heroes and villains alike have very few panels. However, this simply gives a singular and more comprehensive perspective on the attack and its fallout. Furthermore, the mutant powers that are exercised are both visually and conceptually engaging. 

Also interesting are the malicious tactics utilized by the Orchis, which range from the fantastic (a “chronokinetic plug-in” causes temporal degradation, exacerbating the situation for the survivors) to the realistic (garden variety bigotry dispensed by right-wing pundits who are “just asking questions”). 

Mutant First Strike #1

While I’m not fully familiar with the current continuity on Krakoa, that wasn’t necessary to enjoy this title. Perhaps because the antagonists are torn straight from the headlines, their bigotry was instantly familiar without having the context of any previous comic book appearances. Furthermore, the examination of the thematic concepts at the core of this issue ensure that it’s an interesting read in and of itself, even removed from the issues that proceed or will follow it.

Verdict: An engaging bird’s eye view of the mutant’s complicated situation.

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Rapid Rundown!

• Invincible Iron Man #7
  • I’ve been enjoying the recent choice to put Tony Stark at odds with his own company, and this issue takes that to a whole other level. Sabotaging one of his former factories with Rhodey, Stark realizes that Feilong’s plans for mutants and the world at large are far more devastating than he thought. Gerry Duggan has been weaving this story together with his work on X-Men, and it’s a bit terrifying to see how wide-reaching Orchis and Feilong’s Stark Sentinels are becoming. We’ve known that Orchis is targeting all-powered people for a while now, but seeing the actual effect of that is starting to make the overarching story feel downright scary. Juan Frigeri brings his a-game to reveal a brand new stealth armor, known as Mark Nil, that features some interesting new abilities I don’t believe we’ve seen in an Iron Man comic before. Frigeri balances the coldness of the machines and the humanity of the characters well, along with the help of Bryan Valenza, who brings an explosive palette to the book. There’s a gruesome moment with Nimrod that brings a horrific ‘SPLORCH’ from Joe Caramagna, and I’m anticipating some worse ‘SPLORCH’-es down the line after all of this. — CB

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Next week, Black Panther #1 and Spider-Man: India #1 make their debut! Catch up on past entries in The Beat’s Marvel Rundown archive.

The Marvel Rundown is edited by Avery Kaplan.