X-Men: Grand Design #1 by Ed Piskor

X-Men: Grand Design #1 Reviews

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  Artemy

  X-Men: Grand Design is a series meant to recap and retell the history of X-Men from their very beginning up to modern days. The first two issues cover everything written by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, and you would think that cramming 60+ issues worth of story into two might not be the best idea. Fortunately, Ed Piskor is a talented man when it comes to condensing huge chunks of history into small, digestible parts, and he does a great job of retelling all the major events from the first several years of X-Men and incorporating the future retcons made by Chris Claremont and others. It's a great way to familiarise yourself with the long and incredibly convoluted history of X-Men. In just one maxi-sized issue you get the gist of the first few years of X-Men comics, omitting Stan Lee's clunky writing style but getting most of his and Jack Kirby's unbridled imagination. Of course, Grand Design doesn't really read like a regular comic — there is no real cohesive narrative as it often has to cover issues-worth of story into just a couple of panels. But that's inevitable when you compress that much information into that little space, and it's a reasonable tradeoff considering how much of X-Men's history you will learn by reading just one single issue. Piskor's fantastic art style is just a bonus at this point, but its importance for the book can't be overstated — even with such harsh space restrictions he manages to experiment with paneling, layout, colour and design, breaking the monotony of regular grids. The art is what really elevates this book and makes it a much better choice than, say, reading a Wikipedia article. Overall, X-Men: Grand Design is probably the best way to brush up on your X-Men history, and is highly recommended.
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  Vinton Bayne

  This is just the best thing ever. I can't even express my love for this. What a beautifully woven history of the X-Men. Can someone please give Piskor all the money to keep making Marvel histories?
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  Jesús Miguel

  The X-Men have been for a veeeery long time and this project sounded crazy when it was first anounced. It's amazing how Ed Piskor put together, organized and told the story of all the characters in this very first stage. I can't wait to read the following issues. Definitely, it's going to become a basic reading for any new comic book reader that wants to get into this group of superheroes.
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  C. Varn

  Piskor has fun here recapturing 60s Silver Age art and plotting, streamlining the origin of the X-men, and keeping some of the Silver Age silliness while downplaying its inconsistencies and continuity mistakes. Piskor does retcon the Pheonix Force and Mr. Sinister back into the Silver Age to make it more consistent with later arcs, particularly early Claremont, but it is a lot of fun and is a way to get a grasp on origin stories and timelines that have become nearly impossibly convoluted at this point otherwise.
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  Siona St Mark

  Wow, this was really cool! It's a nice overview of the origins of the original X-Men and some of their villains. The pages were made to look like an aged comic book which was a really nice touch!
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  Jaq Greenspon

  This is a remarkable feat! Even more so is the list of source materials at the back. What a great jumping off point for any X-Men fan. Can't wait for the next installment!
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  Álvaro Arbonés

  ¿Cómo se pueden contar más de cincuenta años en un cómic de menos de cien páginas? Resumiendo mucho. Pero no resumiendo como hacíamos en el colegio. Resumiendo como un ejercicio de deconstrucción, selección y remontaje; no limitándonos a contar las cosas tal y como fueron, sino re-escribiéndolas. Contando una historia diferente, pero que sumarice el corazón de todo cuanto ha ocurrido durante esos más de cincuenta años.
  
  Eso es lo que hace Ed Piskor en X-Men: Grand Design. Con la excusa de El Vigilante haciendo un informe de todo lo que ha visto durante el último medio siglo, en este primer número de X-Men nos cuenta los orígenes de los mutantes y sus atribuladas vidas. Centrándose sobre todo en Charles Xavier, con sitio para Ciclope y cómo se convirtió un pobre niño judío en Magneto, el cómic cubre toda la historia desde los orígenes conocidos del gen mutante hasta la creación de la patrulla X original a la llegada de Jean Grey, con una pequeña parada para hablar de Arcangel por el camino.
  
  El resultado es un cómic de dibujo increíblemente personal, perfecta comprensión del ritmo y la narrativa que consigue hacer inteligible ya no una historia larguísima, sino una cantidad obscena de pequeñas historias entrelazadas, poniéndolas en común no como una densa meta-historia, sino como una historia en sí misma. Una perfecta reconstrucción de todo lo que han sido los X-Men.
  
  Al menos, hasta que llega Jean Grey. Porque este sólo es el primero de dos números. El primero de una colección de seis cómics sobre la historia de Marvel. Y que saldrá a partir de aquí, es algo de lo que cabrá hablar en otro momento.
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  Rick

  Take a lot of liberties in retelling the early formation of the Uncanny X-Men. Unfortunately, it also many things out of context and chronological relationship in order to make it all fit into the premise of a Grand Design. It only partially works for me. The art is also very unique and often captures a lot of the tension and pathos of the narrative, unfortunately it is also just as often reminiscent of a middle school student with a lot of talent, but not a lot of training - very edgy, angsty and alternative, but also very undisciplined and amateurish.
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  Patrick

  I don't know what I had expected, but this wasn't it.
  
  The throwback style of the art was kind of a slap to the face initially, but I totally got into it after a couple of pages.
  
  If Part 2 is anything like this one...it's going to be something special.
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  Trey Piepmeier

  I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this. It's a lot of fun to get decades of confusing comic continuity distilled down. I do wonder if Piskor took some liberties in the interpretation of X-Men history, but I don't really care one way or the other.
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  Mike

  So excellent! I LOVE Ed Piskor, and applying his historical narrative style to the X-Men is pure bliss for the reader.
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  Brennan

  Holy crap this man is a genius, and tackling a bold comic series by making a mini series of ALL of the X-Men's convoluted history into a single timeline. Marvel has hit a gold mine with this comic!
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  Matti

  X-Men: Grand Design neemt je mee naar een vervlogen tijdperk waarvan je zelf misschien geen deel hebt uitgemaakt. En toch is de comic en de uitstraling ervan meer dan een gimmick.
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  Utena

  This issue's review can be found here:
  
  
  The Book Reviewer
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  Mr. Cody

  Phenomenal
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  z

  picked up for Piskor's artwork, which is phenomenal