Ever since the revamp, Uncanny X-Men has been playing second fiddle to more edgy fare like New X-Men and X-Force, at least as far as I was concerned. Austen's first issue of the book hasn't convinced me that Uncanny is moving up to those ranks, but it does serve to keep me interested, something that hasn't happened with Uncanny in a while. Through the use of two plots, one character-oriented and the other action-oriented, Austen gives new readers a good grounding in the current status quo of the team without forcing the continuing readers into reading a boring recap, and the result is a promising start. Garney also looks remarkably better here than he has in past issues, particularly when he's handling the quieter moments.
Austen starts off the book by introducing yet another new mutant, but it's not someone I expect to be a member of the team. Instead, it's a frustrated young mutant whose powers are much more a curse than a gift, and seeing him inducted into the Xavier Institute and away from his rough mundane life makes for a solid main story. The tale is akin to Harry Potter or other wish fulfillment, and I suspect it will resonate with any teenage readers in that way. Austen also makes the boy likable but not perfect, and Xavier comes across the same way, so that when the two share their bonding moments, it is genuinely touching.
I'm not quite as sold on the secondary story, which finds the main cast of characters flying into some unspecified sort of danger. Part of this is down to the lackluster roster that Uncanny X-Men is currently stuck with, but partly it's because the danger is so unspecified. I'm normally willing to give leeway to new writers in establishing their villains, but since Casey's run was full of villains who didn't really go anywhere or who never got the least bit of definition, I'm a little more wary when it comes to this title. In fairness, however, Austen does serve up a traditional villain at the last, and seems to be pointing toward a pretty clear-cut bad guy in the next issue.
Garney's artwork has not worked for me in this title so far, looking a bit rushed and often sloppy, but his work here is some of the best I've seen from him in a while. The opening sequence, introducing us to Sammy and his neighborhood, is very well-realized, and it seems that Garney shines when depicting real settings, rather than fantastical ones, and then setting the fantastic against that backdrop. I continue to find some of his characters to look way too much alike, as the facial details on Nightcrawler, Angel and Iceman are all too similar and are distinguished largely through color, but in general I thought his work was very solid here.
With New X-Men staking out the bold new territory, and X-Treme X-Men servicing the Claremont faithful, it falls to Uncanny X-Men to provide a traditional but still modern read, and it looks like this new creative team is set to do just that. After only one issue, it's hard to judge whether the potential will be realized or squandered, but this is a decent first outing for the new creative team.
