X-Men: Grand Design Second Genesis #1 Review

X-Men: Grand Design Second Genesis is a special edition two part series, which takes readers on a trip down memory lane, showing all the major events from the very first issue of the X-Men through the Dark Phoenix Saga.

The artwork has been created by Ed Piskor and has been based on the original artwork, its grainy and looks like a comic you might find in a box in the loft from the 60’s, so its very authentic to the original style, but I’ll be honest, I found this issue to be a little hard to read, since it was rushing through all the major events, often in small panels with lots of text, something you don’t see so often nowadays.

This artwork is simplistic, with the main characters being instantly recognisable, the colours are bold but also grainy, like I used to find in older books as a kid.  It’s very interesting to see a comic book from Marvel using this retro style, offering something brand new, but feeling so old at the same time.

It’s bursting with action and has features some amazing scenes, though trying to cram hundreds of comics into one, means the pacing is quick, probably too quick, since some of these big stories lose their impact, maybe had this series had an extra issue or two, it might have given a little longer to each scene.   Yet I think the artist did manage to condensed all the major aspects of the X-Men comics into a single sitting, which is good for new fans to get a glimpse of the major moments of X-Men history.

OVERALL:  If you want a high speed take on the history of the X-Men, either to get up to date on all the happenings if your a new reader or fancy a trip down memory lane, this is a good pick up, but for me, it just didn’t click and I won’t be coming back for part 2.

REVIEW SCORE: 7 out of 10

You can purchase this comic book from Amazon/ComiXology