As a kid I was a big fan of the X-Men. Okay, I was a big fan of superhero comics in general but the X-Men were my absolute favourite, and despite the fifteen years since I ceased buying the comics I still have a great fondness of them.

Given a chance to revisit the world and characters of the X-Men even given the difference in format, I have to admit a certain level of hope, and of trepidation. I wanted this to be good, I wanted it to be faithful to my memories of the X-Men. I'd read one or two X-Men novels in the years since stopping reading the title. They were good, and with Michael Jan Friedman's X-Men/Star Trek: The Next Generation crossover, great fun. And this title maintains the run.

The start of this book is probably its best feature. The X-Men Gold Team (Cyclops, Jean Grey, Wolverine, Nightcrawler and Rogue) wake up inside a mental asylum in Washington state, in unfamiliar surroundings and unfamiliar bodies, their minds having been switched with five of the patients.

They have no idea why they have been switched, and no powers to aid their escape. Moreover they face the prospect that the asylum patients are now almost certainly in their bodies, possessing their powers and about to gain access to Charles Xavier's School.

In many ways this book reminds me of the look and feel of the two X-Men films. For whereas in the comics the focus is on the visuals, the imaginations of the writer and artist in a visual format, the film had to ground this wildness to a level which can be filmed as live-action. And it's a feeling of being grounded in reality that pervades the entirety of this book – much to the book's (and the reader's) benefit. Removing from the X-Men of their powers makes them rely on their natural resourcefulness, rather than their supernatural abilities, brings them down to a more human level. This makes it a lot easier for the reader to connect and care for them, and to invest hope in their overcoming their situation.

There will be much in this book for anyone who is or has been a fan of the X-Men comic. And also it's human enough to appeal to readers who have little or no previous X-Men experience. So if all you have done is seen the film you might be feeling concerned about picking this up – and I can understand this – but you need not have any such fear, this book allows an easy way into the X-Men's world.

Synopsis
In the fourth instalment of Pocket's new series of Marvel novels the mutant superhero team could be the future's only hope. Jean Grey awakens in an unfamiliar room. She is weak, disoriented, stripped of her telepathic and telekinetic powers - and trapped in someone else's body. Also prisoner are her teammates Cyclops, Wolverine, Rogue, and Nightcrawler - each of their minds held hostage within the bodies of strangers as well. Who has brought them here, and for what purpose? The answers lead to a terrifying plan that threatens not only the X-Men, but all of mutant-kind.