I’m not sure what to think of the current decision Marvel has made to make Ed Brubaker and Billy Tan the new creative team on the Uncanny X-Men. Chris Claremont has been at it for a very long time, although I’ve been less than impressed with his current work, and it’s sad to see him taken off of the title.

It’s not, however, sentiments that are making me doubt the direction the series has taken. Rather it’s the story. The X-Men are blasting off to space to help the Shi’ar empire:

“Beginning in Uncanny X-Men #475, a new team led by Professor X take off to the other end of the universe to stop a revenge-hungry Vulcan. It’s up to the team comprised of Nightcrawler, Marvel Girl, Warpath, Havok, Polaris, and a surprise member to save the Shi’ar empire from his wrath.”

When Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum started writing and drawing for Uncanny X-Men way back in ’75, they did so by putting together a whole new team of X-Men lead by Professor X who, after a few issues, blasted off to space to save the Shi’ar empire.

Why on Earth is Marvel repeating the same story? It was cool n the 70’s because it was new. Why not have this new creative team come up with something… well, creative? Re-hashing old stories is not cool.

Of course I haven’t actually read the comic yet, so it may be that Brubaker and Tan do a wonderful job of revisiting the X-Men’s past and rocketing them in to the future. I’m trying not to get too overly-critical on this one, but I really think that Marvel is just playing off of the success of it’s yesteryear by trying the same formula: new team of X-Men, new writer and artist, X-Men in space.