Comic Review: X-Men Gold Volume 1

So, continuing X-Men Week, we have another new team of X-Men led by Kitty Pryde in the new series X-Men Gold.  Here’s a quick look at the first volume, subtitled Back to the Basics.

It seems the X-Men have relocated, possibly for reasons beyond their control, to Central Park in New York City.  Writer Mark Guggenheim sets them clearly in the Marvel Universe, showing them fighting non-mutant villains for brief interludes.  This team is under the leadership of Kitty Pryde, back with the X-Men after an extended absence.  The rest of her team is made up of some of the most familiar X-Men around:  Storm, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Old Man Logan, and Rachel Summers who is currently operating under the codename Prestige.

As it is, the group faces off against some very familiar foes in new configurations.  The more obvious is a new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, and then there is a very advanced Sentinel that seems less picky about who to take out than usual.  But the real villain for the X-Men has always been anti-mutant hysteria, and here a new character named Lydia Nance steps forward.  Who is she?  She’s a very wealthy media personality, one used to getting her own way and appearing as a talking head on TV, and she hates mutants.  As it is, she’s willing and able to really suggest things that are very familiar to anyone who follows current events, updating not only the Sentinels and the Brotherhood, but the anti-racism aspects of the book at the same time.  As such, let’s say 8.5 out of 10 dropped beakers.