Though new comics did just come out for yesterday, May 25, I thought that instead of just picking up midway through storylines, I’d jump back a couple months and play a quick game of catch-up from the start of the new direction of Blue/Gold era X-Men. That means our starting point will be March 29’s releases in which we will be looking at X-Men Prime #1 which gives this whole era its launch, as well as the wrapping up of All New X-Men #19, in which the time-displaced original X-Men come back together to get in place for their new book X-Men: Blue.
Anyway, since we’re doing an “everything old is new again” redo for the X-Men line, Prime is a good enough nostalgia title for nerds like me to appreciate. But before we jump into it, let’s talk about just why X-Men so desperately needed this rebranding for its line. After all, once upon a time, X-Men was Marvel’s flagship property, top of sales, with some stuff that simply could do no wrong. Unfortunately, those days are long gone. Numerous redos, new directions, retreads, and shocking twists and turns moved X-Men way past the status quo, far beyond uncharted waters, and pretty much to Hell. Actually, in the storyline, that can be taken literally.
Three years ago. many were introduced to the Guardians of the Galaxy. The success of the first movie surprised many. Among the five main characters, the two most recognizable actors were only doing voice work, Vin Diesel as Groot and Bradley Cooper as Rocket. Zoe Saldana was hidden behind alien makeup. At the time, Chris Pratt was just some goofy guy on Parks and Recreation. Then there’s former pro-wrestler Dave Bautista rounding out the cast. Not exactly the standard formula for a success. But it was successful. The Marvel machine was rolling, and word of mouth on the movie was incredibly positive. The movie went on to gross over $770 million world-wide at the box office.
