[MARVEL MASTERWORKS] - X-MEN [TPB] (ENG)
by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby (Illustrator)
Telepathic teacher Charles Xavier assembles his first recruits - Cyclops,
Angel, Iceman, Beast and Marvel Girl - and trains these young mutants to use
their unique genetic to protect a world that fears and hates them! Also
featuring the Avengers and the first appearance of Magneto, the Brotherhood
of Evil Mutants and Ka-Zar!
Collects The X-Men #1-10
The Children of the Atom, drawn from the pages of the X-Men, first bowed in late 1963, yet another creation of Jack Kirby and Stan Lee from the ever-burgeoning House of Ideas. The X-Men would rank as the third costumed hero team book in the Marvel stable, behind the family drama of the Fantastic Four and the super-heroic squabbling of the Avengers, but would never reach the popularity of those titles for many, many years. The series would be handed off from one creator to another after Stan and Jack removed themselves from the title, and it would fluctuate in quality greatly in its first incarnation. In fact, the X-Men title would run for only 66 issues before settling into a long period of dormancy, the title only being kept alive as a bi-monthly string of reprints.
The first ten issues, however, are essential reading (and I don't mean to be read in black and white!) The X-Men mythos as we know it today was hardly in evidence, but Stan and Jack laid the seeds down with an innocence that is remarkable, as we now know how this title would (eventually) change the world of comics forever. The foundation of the X-Men is built from the alienation of a minority through the fear and ignorance of the culture at large. (A thinly veiled reflection of the racial prejudice that seemed to rule popular thought? Absolutely.) And this minority, capable of amazing powers and known as mutantkind, had to band together in a variety of ways to protect themselves from harm. These X-Men were simply naive teenagers, brought together by the powerful mutant telepath Professor Charles Xavier. At his school, which was to the outside world an elite prep school, the kids were put through tests, both mental and physical, to harness their powers and come to terms with their lot in life.
In these pages you will get to know the team as it would stand until 1975, the "old guard" of X-Men being Cyclops, Marvel Girl, the Angel, Beast and Iceman. Jack and Stan developed an interesting array of powers for at least a couple of these characters- the standouts being Cyclops' powerful optic blast, which made for an evocative rendering artistically, and Iceman, who started out looking like a clownsome snowman but had soon developed into a sleek, chic, super-cool super-hero. The Beast's and the Angel's powers were more run-of-the-mill. The Beast has super-agility and the Angel could fly. However, as X-Men they were endowed with freakish abnormalities from which their powers sprang! The Beast was a hulking animalistic looking man, with massive feet that he could use to balance on the head of a pin! And the Angel had great, big, feathery wings- like an angel, natch! But this writer's favorite character is Jean Grey, aka Marvel Girl. This redhead possesses the power of telekenesis- the ability to manipulate objects with the control of her mind. The romance between her and Scott Summers, aka Cyclops, is only burgeoning through these first ten issues, and wouldn't come into full bloom until much later. But it's hard not to read these stories with a sorrowing wistfulness knowing what the future has in store for this innocent young lady, at a time decades hence when she and her powers would explode at the epicenter of one of the great stories in comics history, in the very pages of the X-Men.
You will also get to know this team of teenagers' leader, the indomitable Professor X. Confined to a wheelchair though he may be, he is hardly in a position of powerlessness. His total control over the mind is the very thing that gives his the distinct ability to assemble such a team of youths and train them in the faculties of their powers. That, and his absolute dedication to the idea that mankind and mutantkind can live together in peace, if only fear could be eliminated from both their worlds.
Standing in the middle of that ideal is the central antagonist of the X-Men, Magneto! This arch-villain is present in the majority of stories in this first volume of Masterworks. He assembles his own rabble of mutants- EVIL mutants!- in an attempt to overpower mankind and assert the dominance of mutantkind. The Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver make their very first appearances as innocents in the thrall of Magneto's command. Longtime mutant menaces Mastermind, the Blob and the Toad also make life hard for the X-Men. And won't life be hard? Much like a Shakespearean plot device, the central theme of mutual respect between mutant and mankind will hardly ever be resolved. Instead, it only makes for a never-dull basis for which many great stories will be told down the line. This first volume of Masterworks, reprinting the first ten issues of X-Men, is integral to an understanding of the mutant universe and its place in the Marvel universe. Not to mention, it's good reading!
-- by Gormuu
Scripted by Stan Lee and Roy Thomas
Pencilled by Jack Kirby, Werner Roth and Alex Toth
Foreword by Stan Lee
Could it be that X-Men Vol. 2 isas good as Vol. 1? In the feature page essay for X-Men Masterworks Vol. 1, I mentioned that the first ten issues ofX-Men were "essential reading", and I implied that later comics in the series might not be able to stand up next to them.That somehow, the remainder of the X-Men Silver Age (especially the period before Steranko and Neal Adamscame on board for art chores!) were perhaps "optional."
After rereading X-Men Masterworks Vol. 2 in preparation for this essay, I will now spend a little time emphaticallydisavowing any such implications. The X-Men comics reprinted in X-Men Masterworks Vol. 2 are not only important to the legacy of the X-Men, but they're great comics, too! For this writer, it was one sustained period of fun to reread these four-colorcomics, and just as much a thrill as the first flush of X-Men fandom one might have gotten reading the first ten stories.
For one thing, Jack Kirby is still around! Heheld on through issue #11 for primary art chores, with inks by Chic Stone, one of his better delineators. By May of 1965, whenthat issue was published, Jack's attention was needed elsewhere in the Marvel stable, so for the next several issues he providedonly layouts. While Stan rummaged around the comics scene to find a permanent artist to pencil the X-Men, #12 had the honorof being providing pencilled characters by comics legend Alex Toth. This issue, which features the first appearance of the Juggernautand juicy details of Professor Xavier's origin, stands as one of the great Marvel comics of all time, and certainly one of its mostcreepy and suspenseful!
With issue #13, a permanent penciller was on board, and it was none other than Jay Gavin! Well...not really. You see, Jay Gavinwas a pen-name for Werner Roth, who was forced to use the fake name as he was currently under contract with another comics company at the time. (Can't have that moonlighting, can we? Werner would put his real name in the credits starting withX-Men #23.) With five issues to get used to drawing the X-Men with Jack Kirby's outstanding layouts providing direction, Wernerslowly grew to make the X-Men his own. Like Don Heck, his work isn't looked back on as historically important or dynamic as Kirby, Ditko or other favorites, but there is something really cool about his figure work that I quite like. Smooth, rounded and cartoonish, Roth's linework had a knack for crafting goofy charm, as best exemplified in this book by Lucifer's army of robots in issue #21. Hardly threatening looking, they explode across the page like barrels being shot out of a catapult. And while his layouts may nothave been as cool as Kirby's (his rendition of Dominus, for example, surely would have been left in the dust by the King), he wasable to turn in panels of high drama. For an example, again, I turn your attention to issue #21, page nine. The third panel of the pageis a wonderfully suspenseful drawing, with Cyclops desperately clinging to a water pipe as he holds onto the girl he loves, the water torrents threatening to pull both down to their drowning deaths unless the Angel can fly to them in time! Before you consign one suchas Werner Roth to lesser status, realize that it's panels like that that show there's more to his talents than maybe you've considered!
One other definitive creative change takes place in this run of X-Men comics, and that would be the installation of Roy Thomas as permanent writer. Since both he and Werner Roth would manthe X-Men for the next couple year's worth of issues, this is a significant change. With only a couple issues in this book to judge, Roygot his feet wet with a high degree of verbosity, let's just put it that way! This was one of his first comics jobs, and I'm sure the formerfanboy turned comics pro was beside himself with the idea that he was helping turn out a monthly team book.
But what of the stories? Well, there are several majorones in this book. The most important would have to be the introduction of the Sentinels in X-Men #14, which is the first part of a three-partepic in which the seeds of anti-mutant hysteria really begin to come to the forefront. Previously only hinted at, this hysteria beginsto erupt in the actions of regular, normal people on the street. It's one thing for the X-Men to be attacked by Magneto or Lucifer, but quite anotherto be attacked by a normal citizen tossing a brick at them. This kind of hysteria is ominously synthesized in Bolivar Trask and his highly-publicanti-mutant mania. To protect mankind from its perceived threat, he created an army of giant robots called Sentinels that would hunt down, captureand then destroy mutants. Trask's arrogance takes him and his Sentinels in unexpected directions however, and the three-parter that wouldintroduce X-Men fandom to the Sentinels stands as one of Marvel's greatest dramas.
Preceding that storyline is the two-parter that introduces Cain Marko, aka the Juggernaut. It also entices the reader with judicious samplings of the life of Charles Xavier, in which it is revealed that Marko and Xavier are half-brothers and share a common history. Other issues inX-Men Masterworks Vol. 2 include a key story in which the Stranger is introduced, and Magneto is whisked away by a universal power far greater than he! Also, the two-part Lucifer story reveals even more of Professor Xavier's secret origin, as the X-Men head out west to facethe evil space alien in a setting that surely could have been an inspiration for Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind!
All in all, I have to proclaim this book as just as worthyof shelf space in a definitive X-Men library as Vol. 1 is. There's so much great stuff here, it would be a shame to miss out on it if you think theonly good stuff is the really early comics and the really late comics in the Silver Age run. I strongly recommend this volume.
-- by Gormuu
MARVEL MASTERWORKS - X-MEN v2 [TPB] [ENG]
Join the original X-Men - Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Beast, Angel and Iceman - in these early adventures from the days when Marvel's Merry Mutants were more the quirkiest quintet in comics than the worldwide wunderkinds they are today. Across ten issues, you'll see the X-Men confronted by a host of villains weird and varied - from Count Nefaria and his horde of henchmen to the Locust and the Aztec-inspired Kukulcán. You'll also witness the first appearance of X-Men mainstay Banshee and read the rare stories when a sixth mutant member, the Mimic, joined Professor X's squad. Also featured are the beginnings of the long-ranging Factor Three saga, and the classic battle between Mimic and the Super-Adaptoid - and all are painstakingly restored to offer the best presentation of these Marvel classics! Collecting X-MEN (1963) #22-31
by Roy Thomas (Author), Jay Gavin (Illustrator), Werner Roth (Illustrator), Jack Sparling (Illustrator)
The calm before the storm.
This is the penultimate volume of Uncanny X-Men Masterworks before the classic "Dark Phoenix Saga"comes to full flower. While the comics that make up the core issues of that storyline- reprinted in Uncanny X-MenMasterworks Vol. 5- are rightly consideredas some of the best comics ever published, these stories are ones to savor as well. Uncanny X-Men MasterworksVol. 4 carries the reader through the year before the bombast of the Dark Phoenix, when there was the creeping paranoia and dread that readers latched onto surrounding Jean Grey.The cast of the X-Men sensed something different about her...something not quite right.
Jean's slow immersion into the all-consuming power of the Phoenix Force is the main subplot of the stories reprintedin this book, but on top, there are some legendary storylines readers can sink their teeth into. Chris Claremont, John Byrneand the rest of the team were humming on all cylinders, and X-Men was becoming firmly entrenched as the most popularcomic of the day. And...it still is!
The X-Men's long and arduous "Odyssey" waswrapped up in X-Men #121, so this Masterworks volume starts fresh with the team getting back to life as normal atXavier's school. Of course, "life as normal" means constant conflict for this team of mutants, and they no sooner haveenjoyed the time off of a "day in the life issue" (X-Men #122), than the madcap assassin Arcade consumes them inside a plotso insane it involves a deadly amusement park filled with giant pinball machines, bumper cars with big teeth, and robotsin the form of the Hulk and Magneto!
Their next big battle is against Proteus, erstwhile Mutant X, and mad mutant son of Moira MacTaggert. After the team isreunited with all their old friends- especially Jean Grey- they must face what they declare as the greatest threatof all. Proteus is a mutant who feeds on host bodies, stealing their mind, body and soul. Much like Galactus, this is an urge that is insatiable, and after a string of deaths left in his wake, Proteus must be taken down by the X-Men, and, tragically, his mother Moira holds the key to his utter destruction.
The reader will also meet Jason Wyngarde, adashing young man who shadows Jean Grey's every move. Using an array of mutant powers, he dupes Jean into "timeshifts", transporting her back in time to the 18th Century, where she is fooled into thinking she's of that time. These personalitycrises that Jean finds herself in profoundly confuse her sense of identity, which is the tipping point for the emergence of theDark Phoenix powers. The run-up to that emergence, as well as the mystery behind Mr. Wyngarde himself, takes placehere.
The final storyline captured in Uncanny X-Men Vol. 5 is the first half of the Hellfire Club story. From X-Men #129-131, we meetthe leader of the mysterious Hellfire Club, Sebastian Shaw, who guides this secret society of elitists towards an unknown destiny.All we know about it is that it's grounded in evil! Shaw's right-hand mistress is none other than Emma Frost, better known as the White Queen. Later a valued member of the X-Men, in her earliest incarnation- reprinted in this book- she is the icy anddeadly telepath determined to achieve her missions, and kill all who get in her way.
Two new mutants premiere in this volume: Dazzler andKitty Pryde. Dazzler is a singer trying to make it in the business, and one thing that sets her apart is her mutant mastery of light. Shewould be the first "mutant" spinoff title in the Marvel stable, as a year after trying her out in X-Men and other titles, she got her own book. Butin her first appearance, she is swept up alongside the X-Men in the fight against Emma Frost.
Kitty Pryde is the mutant discovery that is most important long-term for the X-Men. The little 13-year old would get full membership in X-MenAnnual #4, the following year, but in her first appearance, Claremont got a chance to take stock in the mutant universe he had created by thrusting a 13 (and a half!) year old kid into the midst of it. Who among us that were that age couldn't identify with the "ain't it cool?" attitudeshe exuded? But Claremont wisely scripted in the stark terror of her surroundings that could quickly make mincemeat of the supposed fun of being a mutant with super-powers and hanging around the X-Men.
A nifty bonus for this era of X-Men is the giant-size annualfor the year, marking the very first annual publication for the team. (The first two were in the Giant-Size series, one the launch title Giant-Size X-Men #1 and the follow-up a reprint issue.) John Byrne took Annual #3 off and was replaced by George Perez. Not a bad trade, huh? Perez did a bang-upjob rendering the cosmic story of Arkon the Imperion charging into the X-Men's life, demanding they help save his world, and not taking"NO" for an answer. Even if it means the life of Storm! This annual is looked back on fondly by fans of the Uncanny X-Men as one of the best there is, and its reproduction in this volume is gorgeous.
This easily stands as the best Uncanny X-Men Masterworks there is....until the next one, that is.....
-- by Gormuu
COLLECTING: X-MEN(1963) 122-131, ANNUAL 3
Chris Claremont, Dave Cockrum and John Byrne took a little reprint series called X-MEN and turned it into the all-new, all-different titan that conquered comicdom. Experience the thrills and excitement of these classic tales as the X-Men battle the mutant menace Proteus, the trickster Arcade (with a little help from the web-slinging wonder, Spider-Man) and the White Queen! Witness the emergence of Jean Grey as the Phoenix, Colossus' transformation into the Proletarian, and the first ever appearances of Emma Frost, the Hellfire Club, disco-queen Dazzler and Kitty Pryde! Featuring an introduction by the X-Father himself, Chris Claremont, and an awesome annual with art by George Pérez, this one's a must-have, True Believer!
COLLECTING: X-MEN(1963) 122-131, ANNUAL 3
Scripted by Chris Claremont
Pencilled by John Byrne, with John Romita, Jr. and John Buscema
Foreword by Chris Claremont
Written by CHRIS CLAREMONT. Art by JOHN BYRNE, JOHN ROMITA JR. & JOHN BUSCEMA. Cover by JOHN BYRNE. Published in January of 2005, Hardcover, 304 pages, full color.
Reprints: X-Men #132-140, Annual #4,
Phoenix: The Untold Story #1 one-shot
and Phoenix from Bizarre Adventures #27
(Vol. 40 in the Marvel Masterworks Library)
The Dark Phoenix Saga is here.
Uncanny X-Men Masterworks Vol. 5 should by all rights carry a subtitle. As Masterworks editor Cory Sedlmeier put it, this book is the "be-all, end-all Dark Phoenix Bible." That would be my subtitle! This Masterworks volume is 300+ pagesof comics dynamism. Its power, set down in newsprint over 25 years from the date in which I write this, is still intact, andthe overall production of this Masterworks do it complete and total justice.
The story of Jean Grey's reckoning with the Phoenix Force powers was set in motion way back in X-Men #101, when shesacrificed her life to save the lives of her friends on a doomed shuttle returning to Earth during an intense solar storm. Certain she would die, she was instead reborn anew with the freak transferral of the Phoenix Force to her soul. Over the next 36issues of X-Men, and over a span of five years "real time" to loyal X-Men readers, the subtleties of her powers became a littleless subtle, the enormity of its significance even more enormous, until finally, something had to give. And, in the spirit ofself-sacrifice which marked the life of Jean Grey throughout, that which she had to give was her life...once again.
Claremont, Byrne and Austin are at the top of their gamein the issues reprinted in this book. And, too, let a resounding applause ring out for letterer Tom Orzechowski and colorist Glynis Oliver.These guys pumped out top-notch comics month after month. There are so many great pages in the books reprinted in this Masterworks, but the best simply has to be the last page of X-Men #132. The top panel is of the Black Queen, our sweet Jean Grey who has beencorrupted by the Hellfire Club's "Inner Circle" in ways they can't even imagine will come back to haunt them. They raise a toast to her, with the ironic "Long may she reign!" Meanwhile, in the bowels of the Hellfire Club's underground sewer system, Wolverine has been dismissedas dead. As Claremont intones the wishful thinking words of Sebastian Shaw- that Wolverine is dead and the X-Men will soon wish they will be-we see a hand clamber up out of the torrential stream. it grabs hold of a rusty pipe. A body pulls itself up in severe pain, above the waterline- it's Wolverine! And in the last half of the page, we see Wolverine, looking up into the shadows through the criss-crosspattern of an overhead grill. The tensile beast that he is, he whips his head around, as if he had overheard the arrogant Shaw all the way down in the sewer, and in a bristlingly composed dialogue bubble, drenched with attitude by Mr. Orzechowski, our hero giveshis defiant retort. Certainly, this page established Wolverine as fan favorite #1, and it can't be dismissed that this is one of the finest composed pages in all of comics.
Uncanny X-Men Vol. 5 also features two key Phoenix related stories from the periphery of X-Men comics. First is the Phoenix: The Untold Story one-shot, which is included in this Masterworks complete and unedited. It is important to note that killing Jean Grey was not Claremont and Byrne's first choice, and the Phoenix one-shot articulates their vision for how the story would have gone if they had editorial control. It's a stark contrast from X-Men #137, andin more ways than simply having Jean survive the experience. Also included is the 18-page Phoenix story from the black-and-white magazine titled BizarreAdventures. Issue #27 was an "all-X-Men" collection of stories featuring solo stories of Phoenix, Iceman and Nightcrawler (the latter two will, full of hope, be reprinted in the next Marvel Masterworks!) It's an interesting tale, told from the point of view of Jean's sister Sara, who recounts a dire timewhen the pair were caught in a twisted plot of Attuma, the underwater nemesis of Namor, the Sub-Mariner. Drawn in grayscale black-and-white bylegendary John Buscema, and inked by Klaus Janson, it's an invaluable snapshot into Jean's character, and makes a perfect coda for the "Dark Phoenix bible" that this Masterworks volume stands as.
Claremont and Byrne close one chapter of the family that isthe X-Men with the death of Jean Grey, but they reopen a brand new one with the admission to the team of 13-going-on-14 year old Kitty Pryde. She is granted admission to the team formally in Annual #4, with her first act as an X-Man sticking her head through a door and seeing whathappened to her friend Storm who was grabbed by a giant tentacle and sucked into a ominous black void. OK, not very exciting, but herlife story is what future Uncanny X-Men Masterworks are for!
Another member of the X-Men family is John Romita, Jr. His first work on the book comes in the previously mentioned Annual #4. The stylehe would show when he took over the book several years later is most definitely not in evidence, but his presence is duly noted in the worldof Marvel Comics, trusted as he was with delivering 35 pages of X-Men action!
Besides the Dark Phoenix Saga, this book also offers the first"aftermath" issues. Summing up twenty years of X-Men history, Scott Summers reflects over Jean's graveside in issue #138 about his past with theteam before coming to a fateful decision that would affect the team for many years. And issue #139 and 140 focuses on the buddy team of Wolverineand Nightcrawler, who leave their grieving friends behind to tramp into the Canadian wilderness, where they get wound up helping part of AlphaFlight take down Wendigo. It's a rematch Wolverine had been waiting for, and unfortunately for him, he gets! Please note, too, that the lastpage of X-Men #140 sets up the classic "Days of Future Past" storyline. It is fondly remembered by fans as one of the greatest X-Men stories of all-time, and certainly deserving a Masterworks of its own.
Still, when all is said and done, "Days of Future Past" and all other popular X-Men storylines take a back-seat to the true number one. The vast majorityof fans agree that the Dark Phoenix Saga is at the pinnacle of X-Men fables. All others are in a fight for second place. This volume deserves a spoton your library shelf as the definitive reprinting of the greatest X-Men story ever told.
-- by Gormuu
by Arnold Drake (Author), Roy Thomas (Author), Denny O'Neil (Author), Don Heck (Illustrator), Werner Roth (Illustrator), Neal Adams (Illustrator), Sal Buscema (Illustrator)
1969: The X-Men, Marvel's poorest selling title, was in dire need of a shot in the arm. Enter Roy Thomas and Neal Adams, and get ready for one of the most amazing evolutions in Marvel history! These two titanic talents threw cauti on to the wind with sensational stories that brought the X-Men in synch with the thriving youth culture of the late '60s. Adams' lavish and dynamic visuals merged with Thomas' challenging and contemporary stories to create a comic book series that throbbed with the pulse of the times like none other. Thrill to the introduction of mutant mainstay Havok, the vampiric villain Sauron, the Mutates and Sunfire; and batt es against the Living Pharaoh and the Sentinels.
COLLECTING: X-Men (1963) 54-66
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