When solicitations came out for the first wave of Fall of X titles, the premise, lineup, and initial artwork for Dark X-Men immediately grabbed my attention. Honestly, they had me hooked at the mention of Madelyne Pryor. The series finally debuted this week with DARK X-MEN #1 from Steve Foxe and Jonas Scharf. While the first issue showed promise, it felt like the potential for the series wasn’t fully realized yet.

For those unfamiliar with the series’ setup, Madelyne Pryor’s role as Limbo Ambassador has given her a front row seat to anti-mutant demonstrations and vitriol. As such, she’s grown tired of “the humans” and decides it’s time for a new team of X-Men. made up of mutants who have sought asylum at the Limbo Embassy, to protect other mutants who remain on the run or in hiding from Orchis — and she plans to help them by any means necessary.

Foxe does an interesting job creating a level of complexity for Madelyne that has been sorely lacking in previous story arcs for the characters. Her motivations for forming a new team and having lax rules on what they do in battle are explained and you can understand her thought process. Her interactions with Havok are also great — in one scene she burns the sheets as she gets out of bed to don her classic outfit while Havok cries ”those were Egyptian cotton sheets!” Throughout their scenes together, Havok comes across as a doormat and it’s hilarious. Poor Havok (but not really). There’s even a tongue in cheek backup story from Foxe that details the work Havok took on to get the Limbo Embassy up and running, including interviewing mutant asylum seekers. I’m not sure if we’ll get these type of flashbacks in future issues but it was a fun treat here.

I wish Foxe would have spent a bit more time with the rest of the characters that make up the Dark X-Men team as they kind of just show-up together as a team during the issue’s main conflict. Characters such as Emplate, Zero, and Azazel haven’t had a lot of visibility during the Krakoan Era and it would have been nice to get a little bit more story for them. It was also weird to find Gambit, Archangel, and Maggot randomly working together without any explanation on how the trio got together. As much as I love what Foxe did with Madelyne, I’m hoping the rest of the team gets more visibility in future issues. There’s one full page showing various niche mutants around the Limbo Embassy and I just wanted to know more about their lives!

Scharf and colorist Frank Martin put the dark in DARK X-MEN #1 with their approach to the main story’s art (the backup Havok story also had colors by Martin but Nelson Dániel was on art duties). The duo utilized a lot of heavy lines and dark shadows throughout the issue and it made it hard to grasp what was happening in certain panels where characters seemed lost in the darkness. In panels that weren’t so heavy on the shading, Martin’s colors were a highlight including panels highlighting Azazel’s teleportation, Gambit’s kinetic energy, and Madelyne’s powers. Scharf’s design for the Mercy Crown, a demon Cerebro that Madelyne had hidden away, was awesome.

Clayton Cowles also deserves a ton of credit for the book’s lettering work. There are so many sound effects done in interesting ways that feel organic and naturally blend into the scenery. It’s all very effective throughout the major action sequences.

Overall DARK X-MEN #1 had some highs and some lows, though Foxe and team appear to have ample opportunities on where and how they take this story. There are several plot points and character introductions, outside of the main team, that are left dangling by the end of the book which have me intrigued to see how they unfold. Also, Madelyne Pryor.

Rating: 6.5/10