Comics

Exceptional X-Men #1 by Eve L. Ewing & Carmen Carnero

Here's the third (and final) main series in the "From the Ashes" X-relaunch. (I'm not picking up most of the other books — there's way too many to go in for all that. The exception is Wolverine: Revenge, which is a limited series from great creators. I say "exception" — not sure it's even really part of the new range, per se.)

All of which sort of raises an interesting point, because whereas X-Men and Uncanny X-Men both feel like cornerstone major titles for the range (what with both featuring variant teams of X-Men and most of the best-known characters split between them), Exceptional feels more like one of those low-key additional titles. It's very much about Kitty Pryde (more comic-famous than general-famous, having not appeared in the animated series and only in a couple of the films), with complications from Emma Frost (similarly, better known to comic fans than those who, like me, have come to X-Men more from other media) and then three brand-new characters rounding out the main cast (two of whom are on the cover of this issue but haven't even been introduced yet).

None of which is a criticism. Indeed, being notably different to the other two 'main' books works in its favour. It feels very much like how an X-universe TV series might've begun in the '00s or '10s (these days, an X-Men series would have Marvel throwing movie-level money at it, so wouldn't need the 'grounded'-ness of this).