This week in Comics we got two big Number One’s beginning: Marvel’s X-Men (with an all woman team!) and Vertigo’s The Wake. While I’ve had a long time break up with Marvel until late, I was pretty excited to hear about the new X-Men book (I actually didn’t hear it was an all women team until much later!) To hear Scott Snyder was doing another Vertigo book was also exciting, as I am a big fan of American Vampire (which one can hope will come back from hiatus soon.)

X-Men is being written by Brian Wood with art done by Oliver Coipel. Off the bat I enjoyed the art right away, even if I do take some issue with Marvel’s style of printing (very thin paper), it still transferred well. One thing I noticed right away is that the book felt like one of old X-Men books I used to read as a teenager…and less of the “I’m going to have to read 900 books to understand what is going on right now” feeling. You have to admit, even when you start a Number One book there is that feeling sometimes, and you don’t get that with this. Another important note to me is that there was no explanation as to why it is all women, it just feels like a naturally held together book. It doesn’t feel like a cash grab or a ploy, just that this is how it is. They did modernize the characters a bit, which is something I felt was needed, even if that does mean keeping Jubilee a vampire (one of my big hang ups.) I do recommend picking this one up, even if it is just to try it out. It doesn’t feel like a Marvel tie in book and its not one you’ll have to know everything that is going on in every Marvel book to know what is happening.

The Wake is being written by Scott Snyder with art by Sean Murphy. To be honest, I was expecting more off the bat. I had to rethink if I thought American Vampire was slow moving at first, and I think I did. Now that’s not to say not to pick it up, at all. I actually got the feelings of Jurassic Park from it, only if it was conducted with whales. Its a old story idea with a new writer at the helm, and Snyder holds the talent to make it a fresh new thing. Sadly I was not able to read as in-depth as I would like (see: quickly reading so that I knew what to tell people before selling it to them) but I fully intend on giving it the real read, the one that it needs and deserves. If you are looking for something a little more off the wall and a less superhero-y, I would definitely pick up The Wake this week.

That’s it from the comic shop clerk this week! Check out next Friday as I take you down to Retro City with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye and Robots in Disguise!