X-Men: Divided We Stand #1 Review

X-MEN: DIVIDED WE STAND #1
Written by Mike Carey, Matt Fraction, Craig Kyle, Chris Yost & Skottie Young
Art by Brandon Peterson, Jamie McKelvie, Sana Takeda & Skottie Young

It might be my love of New X-Men talking, but I thought this issue was the best bang for your buck this week. It had something for everyone and, with the exception of the Cannonball story, were all great stories.

As I said, this is a NXM fan's wet dream, as it features not one, but three NXM centric stories from the former creative team, one by Yost and Kyle, one by Yost alone and the other by artist Skottie Young, a long time collaborator on NXM.

The first by Y&K featured one of the "background" characters from their run, Nehzno. He wasn't featured very often, but he's easily recognizable, as he's the black boy with the vibranium tattoos all over his body. This story was easily my favourite of the bunch and is just a quiet story that added a great deal of depth to a relatively unknown supporting character. If you've been upset with Hudlin's Black Panther treatment, you'll enjoy this story's use of him, as it makes me wish Yost and Kyle would do a Panther mini or ongoing based on their understanding of Wakanda, Black Panther and Storm.

In the end, this is a tale of isolation and xenophobia. While Nehzno is used to mutant prejudice and hatred, the Wakanda people have no problem with them and openly accept them in their culture. However, Nehzno's father is a Russian and Nehzno's tattoos make him stick out like a sore thumb, leading to him to the inner monologue about how he hated the noise and distractions of the New X-Men and only wished to go home and, now that he's home, he's completely unwanted and he longs to be back with the people he tried so hard to distance himself from. It's an excellent story and I would have paid cover price for this one alone, as you can tell by how much time I spent describing it.

The remaining NXM related stories follow how Hellion and Anole handled the disbanding of the X-Men. Anoles is a great little story where we see how the X-Men lifestyle, where they faced mortal dangers, death and military-like lifestyles every single day has made it almost impossible for him to return to his loving family and accepting small town. The X-Men's "school" barely taught him anything and he was way behind his classmates when he returned to a normal school. He also punches Northstar in the face.

Hellion, on the otherhand, woke up from his near death experience in Messiah Complex to find everything taken from him. No more X-Men, his friends are all scattered to the wind, his teachers have put him up in a hotel and left him to fend for himself. He's angry and upset and seeks out Magneto in an attempt to try and make the X-Men love him by joining their greatest enemy and lashing out at them. I was a little upset with how easily he found Magneto, but his rejection of Hellion and pointing out the things I stated above capped off a nice short story that gave us a little heads up on what he's been up to lately.

Finally, there were two other stories in this issue, one showing Cannonball brooding and angry over the disbanding of the X-Men, leading to a barroom brawl in his hometown and him flying off angry, and the other featuring one of the creepiest depictions of Nightcrawler I've ever read. He's disguised as a priest and tracking down Scalphunter, of the Marauders, who is working in a diner in the middle of nowhere. I assume he's after others as well, but he stalks Scalphunter for a week or so, constantly spouting religious beliefs and views, before attacking him in his trailer. What follows is Nightcrawler putting a beatdown on Scalphunter and then verbally berating him and telling him he forgives him, as he's just a clone of a clone of clone and has no soul and isn't worth killing. It was an interesting take and I'd like to see this aspect of Nightcrawler explored more. Scalphunter is seen at the end of the issue embracing religion with a crucifix necklace and some script written on his trailer.

All in all, this was a great book and if this Divided We Stand series can keep this up, it'll be on my pulllist as long as Marvel publishes it. Seriously, buy this book if you have any interest in X-Men.

Verdict - Must Read

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