Amazing X-Men #1

Years ago Marvel Comics had a simple rule: characters killed in the Marvel Universe stayed dead. This idea, which forced deaths to both be rare and mean something, has long since been abandoned. Although I'm in favor of the old way of doing things, the current need to kill a major character every couple of years makes it hard to stick to those old rules. Thankfully for the X-Men (who have an insane history of defying death - just look at Jean Grey) the rule is no longer enforced allowing the return of a character who should never have been killed.

Amazing X-Men #1 begins on the edge of Heaven where Nightcrawler remains unwilling to fully embrace the paradise that has been rewarded to him since his death. When a a group of Dankeschön show up to storm Heaven followed by a pack of Bamfs and Azazel, the mutant is jilted out of his melancholy and into action.

On Earth the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning, and its newest teacher Firestar, faces its own problems as the Beast discovers an infestation of Bamfs who have cobbled together some kind of transporter inside the schools walls.

I really enjoyed the opening sequences of Nightcrawler and the apparent choice of writer Jason Aaron and artist Ed McGuinness to bring him back into the Marvel Universe. Although the chaos on Firestar's first day is humorous, there's a bit much of it for my tastes as the joke runs a little too long. That said, Firestar's inclusion in the title as a part of this core team certainly brought a smile to my face (as did her awkward interaction with Iceman). I haven't yet been sold on any of the X-Men books on Wolverine's side of the X-Men split, but this one I may stick with. Worth a look.

[Marvel, $3.99]