What If? X-Men #1 Review

Writer: Bryan Edward Hill

Art: Neil Edwards & Giannis Milonogiannis

Colors by: Rachelle Rosenberg

Letterer: VC’s Clayton Cowles

Published by: Marvel Comics

The What If? series of comics from Marvel have always been a treat to read and with their return this month, I couldn’t wait to dive into them. The tagline this time around is “Terrific tales of what could have been await you this October!” and I was sold.

However, What If? X-Men really does miss the mark and the whole point of what made this series special. This reads a lot more like what DC is currently doing with their series of Earth One graphic novels - using the toys available but giving it a brand new setting / history - then a “what could have been?”.  

A quick recap: the world is basically the world from Ready Player One - everyone is bio-modified users interconnected within a neural simulated environment called “Cyberspace”. This is basically a long-winded way of saying everyone is using virtual reality.

Within this “cyberspace” there are people who the Exe Gene (get it?) who can modify this world. Because of this  they are feared and hunted and why exactly is not really expanded upon because of the nature of the one-shot. Edward Hill is using the X-Men toys here, but has completely changed everything else.

Neil Edwards and Giannis Milonogiannis with Rachelle Rosenberg have art duties in this issue and it wasn’t really for me. The first part of the issue (with Domino, Cable and Charles Xavier) was nicely drawn but way too sketchy when it came to the inks for my taste. The second part of the issue where Domino is within the  cyberspace was way too simplistic, in my opinion, and even felt rushed at points.

All in all, this issue was pretty disappointing. Because of all the issues written above, for me at least, the whole premise of the What If? Series falls apart. The whole fun of this series was taking a pre-existing storyline and spinning it on its head. This issue instead just uses pre-existing characters and dumps them into a completely new story that will be too easily forgotten.