As part of the generation that grew up on Sliders and Quantum Leap, the concept behind this comic is nothing new or amazing in and of itself. To compensate for this, Winick tries to prove that in this first arc that events will have reprecussions and that nothing can be taken for granted. Besides the evolving group dynamic there is also a death and a turncoat that no one saw coming. Winick doesn't do these things just for the shock value, however, instead everything feels like a natural part of the storyline while at the same time heightening the drama of the series.
I've already gone on the record as being a large Judd Winick fan and if I wasn't already one, this book would be enough to convert me. Winick's humor and creative situations is what keeps this book going. His dialogue is witty but to me the true gem is in his captions. He has the ability to use the dry narrative voice with an amazing ability to either touch us or make us laugh.
I only wish I could be as complimentary of the art as I am of the writing. Mike McKone is good (his drawings of Morph is actually on par with if not better than Winick's words) but he's just not great. His figures aren't as dynamic as they could be and sometimes its hard to read the characters' expressions (there's a panel where Magnus [the son of Magneto and Rogue] learns of his father's presence and is shocked, instead it looks as if he just has gas). Also McKone has some consistency issues in terms of character designs for Blink, Thunderbird and Nocture [the daughter of Nightcrawler and Scarlet Witch]. Despite these set backs though, his art is quite nice.
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