The Essential Uncanny X-Men (X-Men (Marvel Paperback)) [Paperback]

Stan Lee (Author), Jack Kirby (Illustrator)

Product Details

• Paperback: 528 pages
• Publisher: Marvel Entertainment Group (August 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0785107304
• ISBN-13: 978-0785107309
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 6.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,355,485 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Stan Lee is a man who needs no introduction. Nevertheless: Having begun his career with wartime Timely Comics and staying the course throughout the Atlas era, Stan the Man made comic-book history with Fantastic Four #1, harbinger of a bold new perspective in story writing that endures to this day. With some of the industry's greatest artists, he introduced hero after hero in Incredible Hulk, Amazing Spider-Man, X-Men and more -- forming a shared universe for rival publishers to measure themselves against. After an almost literal lifetime of writing and editing, Lee entered new entertainment fields and earned Marvel one opportunity after another. He remains one of Marvel's best-known public representatives.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Back to the beginning for Marvel's merry mutants, March 4, 2003

By 

Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Essential Classic X-Men - Volume 1 (Paperback)

"The Uncanny X-Men" were always my favorite Marvel Superhero group and it was not just because they were younger than the Fantastic Four and the Avengers the way Spider-Man was younger than Captain America and Daredevil. I mean, the FF were driven by the walking tragedy of Ben Grimm as the Thing and the great villains, why the Avengers started out as the Marvel version of the Justice League of America with the best of the best and then deteriorated into those superheroes who did not have their own comics. But the X-Men were victims of persecution and prejudice because they were mutants. The metaphor for teenage angst and the joys of puberty was just too obvious not to work. Plus they had a bald headed guy in charge.

"The Essential Uncanny X-Men" presents the first twenty-four issues of the comic book, which starts with the creative team of writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby but ends with Roy Thomas and Werner Roth. Issue #1 provides one of the better foundations for a Marvel comic. We begin with Professor Charles Xavier's School for Gifted Children in Westchester County, where Jean Grey breaks the boy's only barrier as Marvel Girl (the all time worst name for a superhero Stan Lee ever came up with). The original roster of the group, for those who cannot remember back any farther than the rebirth under Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum, consisted of not only Professor X's power to read minds and project thoughts and Marvel Girl's telekinesis, but the agility and strength of the brilliant Hank McCoy, the Beast; the fully functional wings of rich boy Warren Worthington III, Angel; the walking snow cone Bobby Drake, the Iceman (who originally looked like a snowman); and the power means that shot out of the eyes of the group's field leader Scott Summer, Cyclops. All gained their mutant powers when they became adolescents (although we would not learn their backstories for several years), and were rescued from fearful humans by Professor X and given a power of sanctuary. Having trained them in the use of their powers, Xavier has their working as a team. Thus we have alienation and the need to belong all wrapped up with a mixed bag of superpowers.

The other key part of the foundation is that Lee and Kirby came up with THE ultimate villain for the Uncanny X-Men in the first issue. The FF had the Mole Man, which smacked of all the monster comics Lee and Kirby did during the Fifties, but the X-Men had Magneto, the Master of Mutant Magnetism. Now, granted if his power works the way they say it does this is an invincible super villain (he can easily kill everybody in sight by either taking making a metal object a weapon or manipulate the iron in your blood if he wants to be overly creative), but the important thing here is that in the face of human prejudice over mutants ("homo superior"), Magneto agrees he is part of a superior race and is out to confirm humanity's worse fears. In Issue #4 Magneto leads the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants in a sort of mutant Civil War. Ultimately, the strongest similarity between the X-Men and Spider-Man are not that they are teenagers, but that they are heroes who are treated by the world at large mostly as villains.

The main complaint against these first two-dozen episodes is that despite this great foundation the comics are mostly standard superhero stories. The bit where Charles Xavier and Scott Summers both love Jean Grey but will not tell her their feelings is awkward at best, so the interpersonal relationships are nothing special at this point. Beyond Magneto really good villains are hard to come by; the Juggernaut is above average, but many of the others are laughable (e.g., the Locust), and even the Mimic is just an X-Men version of the Super Skrull. Even the mutant paranoia element is relatively low given where it would be in the future.

They are up to Volume 4 of "The Essential X-Men," but are still stuck on just this first collection of the original comics. This is too bad because in the next collection we would see Roy Thomas hitting his stride as the book's writer and then we get to the books drawn by Jim Steranko and then Neal Adams. Those were the early glory days of the X-Men and those volumes need to be published by Marvel as well. 'Nuff said. Final Note: Check out the great cover Kirby drew for "X-Men" #17: "...And None Shall Survive!" Nothing actually in the issue is that good, until the final pattern (which was nicely homaged by John Bryne at the end of "X-Men" #111), but I think it is one of Kirby's top 10 covers ever (not that I have really gone back and counted mind you).

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars BACK WHEN COMICS WERE FUN, August 12, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Essential Uncanny X-Men (X-Men (Marvel Paperback)) (Paperback)

Oh, to reread these rough-and-tumble stories from Marvel's early days brings a smile to my face. Sure, you wince at the hamhanded sexist portrayal of Jean Grey or the Scarlet Witch; sure, you groan at the excessively long-winded dialogue being batted about in the midst of a battle or crisis... BUT, elements are juggled in a page-turning manner. Every story features the characters doing everyday things and running into the problems being mutants brings to these situations. Every story features lots of free-wheeling adventure, not just slugfests. And, of course, there's the meetings between characters from different comics that still makes me feel all golly-gee-whiz. My favorite in this case is the meeting with the Avengers. VERY WELL-WRITTEN and fun. Even the lame-o second-rate villians are fun, to me at least! Finally, I don't think any fan can gaze at Kirby's panel revealing Magneto's return from space without saying, "WOW!" Adventure with an occasional message and lots of quirky bits of (at times misplaced) humor. (instead of heavy-handed mutants-are-hated-every-story-melodrama) Cool! Works well in the b&w newsprint format, too!

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars See How the Legend Began..., August 1, 2000

By 

Jeffrey A. Veyera "Jeff Veyera" (Matthews, NC United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Essential Uncanny X-Men (X-Men (Marvel Paperback)) (Paperback)

Those who doubt the magnitude of the debt current comics fans owe to Stan Lee and Jack Kirby need only pick up a copy of "Essential X-Men vol. 1" to become true believers. Most latter-day X-fans associate all that is good and pure with this title to Chris Claremont and John Byrne. As this collection of the first 24 issues of the title shows, however, Claremont and Byrne were truly standing on the shoulders of giants.

How many of these fans know, for example, that Lee and Kirby created many of the X-Men's archenemies? Magneto and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. The Juggernaut. The Sentinels (yes, that's right---the Sentinels!). Much of the X-Men mythos emerged from the fertile collaboration of Lee and Kirby.

Unfortunately, the X-Men were a bit of an also-ran in the Lee/Kirby stable. The stories are fearly pedestrian, the art not as grandiose as we expect from Kirby, and the title ultimately languished until Claremont and Byrne brought it back from the ashes like, well, a Phoenix.

Still, this is a worthy glimpse into the birth of a legendary superteam, and I heartily recommend this collection to X-philes everywhere.