What If?…X-Men #1: I Have No Mind And I Must Think

The dream dies before it could even be born. Through a horrific twist of fate Cassandra Nova slew her brother Charles Xavier in the womb, causing a chain reaction that broke the entire world. The X-Men now mirror her twisted view of the world, but there is still a small spark of hope waiting to burst into a savior’s flame.

The final issue of What If?s 50th anniversary ends a fairly strong note all things considered. Whereas the Uncanny X-Men What If from this volume followed what would happen if Scott Summers stayed with Madelyne Pryor after Inferno (complete with disastrous results), this issue takes place further behind in the timeline. With a shift that occurs before the X-Men were even created. Nova was the big bad of Grant Morrison’s iconic “New X-Men” run, but since then she has been used sporadically (most recently in Jed McKay’s current run on X-Men and in the Deadpool and Wolverine movie) and oftentimes not to the heights Morrision used her. Here she takes center stage and the results are as frightening as you would expect.

Ashley Allen has been consistently building her profile with Marvel’s Merry Mutants over the past couple of years with this story potentially being her strongest outing yet. Allen crafts a horrific tale filled with suspense around every corner. Nova’s warped vision of the world informs her actions and explains how she turned mutantkind into her twisted dolls with the bleakness of the situation is also on full display. Even by the end, the small glimmer of hope feels fleeting, but still worth fighting for.

Sumit Kumar’s wispy pencils and Sonia Oback’s dark colors help enhance the story’s dark tone. There are some very visceral and gory panels in this book and Nova turning into an eldritch horror is suitably frightening to witness.