X-MEN: THE CHILDREN OF THE ATOM # 1-6
This one was easy for me. Though most fans aren't sure what to consider it (canon or non-canon), to me, it fits right in and serves as the perfect prelude to the era to come. As Mutant paranoia grows, fanned by William Metzger and his band of militant teenagers, Charles Xaviers starts looking for students to teach and train to use their powers for the good of humanity. From there, we follow the lives of Scott Summers, Warren Worthington the Third, Hank McCoy, Bobby Drake, and Jean Grey as they learn to deal with their powers and eventually become Xavier's students - the X-Men. Along for the ride are anti-mutant teen Chad, FBI Agent Fred Duncan, and Magneto.
The story, as it unfolds, is one of paranoia. The world is just beginning to learn about Mutantkind and is being shown all the wrong images. The government is starting to get riled up by both the public perspective and Metzger's movement. Meanwhile, Magneto is recruiting forces for his Brotherhood. And Charles Xavier and the pre-X-Men members are stuck in the middle of all this.
Joe Casey does a fantastic job of depticing a far more realistic story of the X-Men coming together (as opposed to the stories that appeared in the late 60's that featured aliens, lynich mobs, Atlantians, and super-villains). He fashions a story that intersects classic super-heroics and real life. Every now and then, we get to see a television program that are clear lifts from real-world ones, each one dealing with Mutants.
Each character is solid and stands on their own and lend themselves to the story as a whole. The journey each one of them take is interesting and as the lives of the X-Men intertwin, we see the personalities of the X-Men we know begin to develop and grow.
What makes this story even more interesting are the vague hints we're given to future events. Mr. Sinister (Inferno), Cable (Cable/Wolverine: Guts and Glory), and the fact that Xavier is protraying the mansion as an actual school (Uncanny X-Men # 353). These are just subtle enough not to interrupt the story and wouldn't really be obvious to the casual reader, but to someone who has been reading X-books for 14 years . . . yeah, it's pretty neat.
Steve Rude does an excellent job and his unique style fits the tone of the book perfectly. It's quite unfortunate that he wasn't able to finish the limited series. That being said, Paul Smith, Essad Ribbic, and Michael Ryan do a fair job of filling in.
Ultimately, "X-Men: Children of the Atom" kicks things off and gets the ball rolling. This was merely a prelude . . .
"This is just the beginning. The genetic lines have been drawn." - Magneto
~W~
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