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Publisher: Marvel
Writer: Simon Spurrier, James Asmus, Chris Yost, & more 
Artist: Leonard Kirk, Michael Allred, David Lopez, & more
Cover: Dustin Weaver & Morry Hollowell

“The Ghost of Asteroid M”: When I realized this would be an anthology type book I quickly rolled my eyes and prepared to fall asleep before I hit the mid point of the book.  Well, not only did I make it all the way to the end, I was actually pleasantly pleased with the finished product.  This is the first of four issues so I’m willing to see where Marvel takes us with this spotlight on Utopia and the Mutants that live there.

The first story has Magneto and a group of the Young X-Men exploring the inner depths of Utopia (which is his former base Asteroid M) in search of Mercury as the kids claim a ghost has taken her.  During their quest they run into old Sentinels of Magneto’s and have a brief fight before eventually finding Mercury.  Magneto soon realizes that it’s not over as he notices something from his past and uses his powers to seal him away from the children to deal with the problem himself.

Road Trip features Nightcrawler and Wolverine as they are headed back to Utopia after receiving a donation from a sympathetic individual.  James Asmus does a great job with just these two characters as they debate and discuss their choices of late and the ones made by their leader Cyclops.  Wolverine admits that Scott has earned his respect with some of the calls he’s had to make lately and Nightcrawler quickly comes in with the jokes.  Michael Allred’s visuals compliment this little buddy story and though I wasn’t a fan of his X-Factor work, it fit perfectly well with these two friends.  I guess I can only take him in small doses.

Iceman stars in the next feature called Cold Shoulder as we get a glimpse of a typical day in the life of Bobby Drake.  Chris Yost puts Bobby in a bit of a spot when he makes light of a situation that comes back to bite him.  We get to see him in a role that even he’s not comfortable in, nor does he like it when a scared and confused mutant takes a hostage and he’s called upon to fix the situation.  I think Yost amped up Bobby’s jerk factor here making the story a little more effective and  Bertilorenzi’s pencils were okay, but I thought Iceman should have looked “cooler”…no pun intended there.

Now we come to the final tale of  the book which spotlights Colossus in Testament.  Our mutant artist is working on a project when his sister Illyana comes and asks for a favor.  The New Mutants need help with learning how to drive farm equipment and Illyana is visibly annoyed when they arrive. While doing so he tells them the story of how Illyana got her nickname “Snowflake” and when finished she teleports both of them back to his shop. This is when Illyana gives Piotr a dose of reality; the two argue about which one is living in the past and which one is trying to forget where they came from.  Scott Snyder’s story is a bit of a mood killer but not in a bad way.  He gives this brother and sister a moment but it’s not the typical one that would normally play out.  David Lopez’s artwork is great here without much to complain about.

Each story has a common thread; the humanity shown regardless of the character involved.  Each writer touched on that and was able to successfully bring it to the forefront in their own way. Though nothing spectacular happened, Nation X #1 made for a solid read.

Fun facts I found out while reading this book:  Namor has been intimate with a dolphin and Paul Bunyan was an “old school Mutant.”  Who’da thunk it!

Infinite Speech
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