Marvel teased REALM OF X #1 with a question: “Leaping straight from the astonishing events of this year's Hellfire Gala, the unlikely team of Magik, Mirage, Marrow, Dust and Typhoid Mary find themselves stranded in...Vanaheim?” That question mark is doing a lot of important work there. After reading this debut issue, I have some questions for the series. What’s the point? Who thought it made for a great concept? How many more issues are there going to be? Why?

Torunn Grønbekk’s story is completely lifeless. Aside from Magik and Dani Moonstar, we really haven’t spent much time with any of the book’s other mutants (Morrow, Dust, Typhoid Mary, and Curse) in recent titles, so some character build-up would have been nice. Instead, much Grønbekk’s dialogue is centered on shallow banter that fails to elevate any character. Even worse, Magik has become completely neutered of a personality. She’s lost her powers here, we get it. It’s not the first time that’s happened to her and it’s never stopped her personality from continuing to shine. Grønbekk succeeded in making mutants seem uncool.

The story leans heavily into the Vanaheim prophecy that foresaw the team’s arrival at the expense of building any palpable tension. We also get a big bad “reveal” at the end that was entirely predictable and repetitive from other recent storylines. I won’t spoil who it is here. All I’ll say is that I find it hard to believe this character will introduce any new story elements that make this book a must-read.

I also struggled with a lot of the book’s illustrations by Diógenes Neves. Characters’ faces often felt awkward and unnatural. Magik looks down right strange in certain panels. The Venir people inhabiting Vanaheim looked like generic viking people and there wasn’t much world-building being done visually to make up for the lack of world-building done by Grønbekk’s story. Rain Beredo’s colors are distinct when given the chance in certain scenes, but much of the book is plagued by a bland color palette. I guess that’s the perfect complement to a bland story?

One issue down and this book already is veering towards the worst parts of Excalibur and Knights of X. It’s a shame that Magik and Dani are being wasted in this title when their powers/personalities could have played really well in Fall of X’s main books.

Rating: 3/10