By Brian Michael Bendis, Stuart Immonen, David Lafuente & Wade Von Grawbadger (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-561-1
Following the poor choices and horrendous paths taken by assorted mutant heroes over the last few years, and following the events of Avengers versus X-Men, MarvelNOW! reshaped the continuity, taking various factors of X-iterations in truly bizarre directions.
At the dawn of the Marvel Age, some very special kids were chosen by wheelchair-bound telepath Charles Xavier. Gloomy Scott Summers, ebullient Bobby Drake, trust fund brat Warren Worthington III, insular Jean Grey and simian genius Henry McCoy were gathered up by the enigmatic Professor X – a man dedicated to brokering peace and achieving integration between massed humanity and an emergent off-shoot race of mutants, no matter what the cost.
To achieve his dream he educated and trained the five youngsters – codenamed Cyclops, Iceman, Angel, Marvel Girl and The Beast – for unique roles as heroes, ambassadors and symbols in an effort to counter the growing tide of human prejudice and fear.
Over years the struggle to integrate mutants into society resulted in constant conflict, compromise and tragedy, including Jean’s death, Warren’s mutilation, Hank’s further mutation and eventually Cyclops’ radicalisation.
The formerly idealistic, steadfast and trustworthy team-leader Cyclops was even killed Xavier before eventually joining with old comrade Magik and former foes Magneto and Emma Frost in a hard-line alliance devoted to preserving mutant lives at the cost, if necessary, of human ones.
Abandoning Scott, his surviving team-mates and newer X-Men Wolverine, Storm and Kitty Pryde stayed true to Xavier’s dream, opting to protect and train the next mutant generation at the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning…
When The Beast realised he was dying, he became obsessed with the notion that the still starry-eyed First Class of X-Men could bring Scott back from his doctrinaire madness and ideological race war obsession. To that end McCoy used time-travel tech in a last-ditch attempt to fix everything: risking the entire space/time continuum by bringing those valiant, callow youngsters back to the future to reason with debased, possibly deranged Cyclops.
The gamble paid off in all the wrong ways. Rather than restoring Scott to reason, the confrontation simply hardened the renegade’s heart and strengthened his resolve.
Moreover, even though McCoy’s younger self cured his older iteration, young Hank and the rest of the X-Kids refused to go home until “bad†Cyclops was stopped…
The modern world changes extremely rapidly. New mutants are now appearing in increasing numbers, all with more impressive talents than ever before. Worse still, through careful orchestration and by avoiding visibly unprovoked acts of violence, Cyclops’ Extinction Squad are winning the trust and respect of many oppressed sectors of humanity: the poor, the disenfranchised and rebellious, the young…
Following a very public humiliation of the Government-sponsored Uncanny Avengers, the internecine mutant conflict heats up when Cyclops and his allies visit the Jean Grey School with a chilling proposition. Convinced of inevitable extinction at human hands, Scott proffers a place to any student wishing to join his own academy: one dedicated to training mutants to fight and survive rather than wait for mankind to turn on them…
The psychically conjoined, socially-challenged and ruthless Stepford Sisters (Celeste, Mindee and Phoebe) readily accept but nobody is more shocked than the elder Cyclops when teenaged Angel also agrees to ditch his former classmates and switch sides…
Scripted by Brian Michael Bendis and illustrated by Stuart Immonen with Wade Von Grawbadger, Out of Their Depth – re-presenting All-New X-Men #11-15 from May to August 2013 – picks up mere moments later as Warren’s incredible decision provokes a massive row amongst adults and students alike.
Her newly-awakened psionic abilities in overdrive and unable to filter out the thoughts and emotions boiling round her, Jean lashes out, taking control of Angel’s mind. Her arbitrary actions are countered by the Cuckoo triplets and a bloody battle looks certain to erupt between the factions until teen Scott dramatically brings them all to their senses.
With nothing resolved, the Extinction team simply teleport out with their new recruits as, a continent away, a third faction makes its move…
Shapeshifter Mystique had already attempted to seduce the naïve 16-year old Scott, but when that failed she simply moved ahead with her own scheme. Now she, feral berserker Sabretooth and illusion-projector Lady Mastermind embark on spectacular robberies, amassing a literal mountain of cash, whilst leaving “proof†that Wolverine and the time-lost X-Kids are responsible…
Back at School Jean has an educational heart-to-heart with Professor Kitty about controlling her new abilities and the ethics of using them before Wolverine leads them all after Mystique.
They don’t get far before being intercepted in ‘All-New X-Men VS Uncanny Avengers’…
The combined human/mutant team is lead by Scott’s younger brother Alex – now more than a decade older than his sibling. The search for answers and explanations is difficult: none of Cyclops’ classmates even knew he had a brother at this stage of their lives and the confrontation between the adults is fraught with tension.
Suddenly Jean’s telepathy scans the Scarlet Witch‘s thoughts and the mind-reader goes ballistic.
Wanda‘s greatest shame is the period of madness when she murdered many of her Avenger allies and used her probability magic to eradicate millions of mutants with a wish. The inadvertent revelations burn into Jean’s brain and she responds with a storm of unleashed psionic fury…
As the situation escalates, in London The Bank of England is pillaged by “The X-Men†and Captain America grudgingly allows sometime-Avenger Wolverine a chance to handle matters himself…
The torturous trail leads to a warehouse where Madame Hydra, Silver Samurai and a small army of Hydra stormtroopers are engaged in cautious, dangerous negotiations with Mystique.
The mutant’s incredibly audacious plan – and the need for untold billions in cash – is revealed, only to have the dickering disrupted by Kitty and Wolverine ambitiously ambushing everybody.
They had previously ordered the kids to stay back and keep safe but the quartet are just teenagers and thus biologically unable to follow adult instructions…
The frantic melee seesaws on a knife edge until in the midst of the chaos Jean seemingly transforms into the dreaded Dark Phoenix, and by the time the Avengers arrive the battle is over and the kids triumphant.
This is an action-packed collection of clashes and capers but is also wonderfully heavy on the light-hearted humour and hi-jinks which so distinguished the original mid-1960s run: filled with smart, plausible characterisation, delicious extrapolation plus hilarious one-liners and childish stunts…
The final tale herein, illustrated by David Lafuente, opens a whole new world of possibilities when Jean’s still-erratic telepathy leads her to discover that one of her dutiful classmates has loved her from afar for decades…
Since she arrived all she has dwelt upon is her star-crossed lovers’ destiny with Scott Summers – and how she will die.
Is it any wonder then that she takes the lead with her silently suffering young admirer? Scott too is rebelling against his future… only his response is to play hooky with the other junior X-Man and head for New York City to meet girls and have the kind of fun he never believed his powers would permit…
To Be Continued…
Out of Their Depth also includes a beautiful cover-and-variants gallery by Immonen, Leinil Francis Yu & Nick Bradshaw and the now standard 21st century add-on of AR icon sections (Marvel Augmented Reality App) which give access to story bonuses once you download the free code from marvel.com onto your smart-phone or Android-enabled tablet.
™ & © 2013 Marvel & Subs. Licensed by Marvel Characters B.V. through Panini S.p.A. All rights reserved. A British Edition published by Panini Publishing, a division of Panini UK, Ltd.