I really enjoy this story and art; to me it hearkens back to the early days of the X-men. ( )

This is kinda dated, not terrible, but that whole thought bubble thing where they're describing what they're doing, really seems kinda cheesy nowadays. Also the fact that the mutant girl who doesn't really think of herself as a superhero calls herself "Lifeguard" and she's actually a lifeguard in real life it's bad.

When I bought this I actually thought I was buying the newer "X-Treme X-men" series, but I have 3 or 4 graphic novels from this series so I'll probably keep reading, just not super excited about it. ( )

Prior to 2001, when Grant Morrison started writing New X-Men, Chris Claremont had been writing both of the core X-Men titles. When Grant Morrison's book became the flagship X-Men title, Claremont was offered a choice: he could write the other core X-Men book, Uncanny X-Men, with plot input from Morrison, or he could start a new, third X-Men title. He opted for the latter and the result is this comic series, X-Treme X-Men. How such an awful title ended up on the cover of the book I'll never understand.

Anyway, this title, X-Treme X-Men, Vol. 1: Destiny, written by Chris Claremont with art by Salvador Larroca, collects issues #1-9 of the series, comprising two story arcs. The first, "Destiny" in issues #1-4, takes place shortly before the first arc of New X-Men, and establishes the X-Treme team's raison d'être and introduces a new enemy, Vargas. This team (Storm, Rogue, Bishop, Sage, Psylocke, Beast and Thunderbird) are searching for Destiny's diaries, in which precog Destiny recorded her visions of the future. They've splintered off from the rest of the X-Men since they don't trust Professor X, the world's most powerful telepath, with future information. (I guess they've forgotten that, with Cerebro, he can track them down at any time.) Their quest takes them to Valencia, Spain, where fully half of the story is spent in an inconsequential battle, after which we are introduced to villain Vargas, who is one of those annoying villains who's stronger, smarter and faster than the heroes because the writer says so rather than because he actually does anything to make us believe that he's a smart as he's said to be.

The second story, "Godfather", in issues #5-9, takes place a few weeks later, after the events of the X-Treme X-Men: Savage Land miniseries and overlapping with some of the events in New X-Men, Vol. 2: Imperial (this story ends immediately before New X-Men #123), and has the remains of the X-Treme team going to Sydney, Australia after Gambit is accused of murder. There, they end up embroiled in a local mob war stirred up by some old enemies, and meet some new friends.

This book displays many of Chris Claremont's excesses and few of his strengths. He attempts to make the book accessible to new readers, but doesn't seem to understand that new readers don't need to know every detail about a character's background and powers; there are constant conversations with characters explaining their childhoods and character traits to each other. In fact, the talking never stops. If the characters fall through a floor, you can bet they'll fit a lengthy conversation about their predicament in in the second before they the floor below. In frantic battle? Characters will wordily explain their every action as they do it. In an empty room? Characters will talk to themselves to make sure the reader understands what they're up to. Claremont is so dependent on dialogue here that his 'Nuff Said "silent issue" would be largely incomprehensible without the context of the surrounding issues. In short, these early issues of X-Treme are some of the worst X-men comics I've read, and because they're so wordy, they seem to last forever. To Claremont's credit, he does at least make some effort to tie this book thematically to the events of the other X-books, even if he doesn't quite manage to pull it off. That said, Larroca's art is pretty, even if I'm not a fan of the Liquid! digital coloring. But the only reason this book gets two whole stars from me is that the title, incredibly, gets far worse before it starts getting better. ( )