Customer Reviews

Essential X-Men, Vol. 1 (Marvel Essentials)

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I missed out on comics as a kid. It wasn't that I was denied them, I just wasn't very interested, being more of a book kid.

Oh, I read a few, but very few of the sort of comics you probably think of when you think of comics. I read all the Tintin and Asterix books, for instance, and collections of Peanuts comics were among my favourite books, and still are. But as for American 'comic magazines', my only experience of them was a stack my grandparents once bought for me from a book exchange for a couple of dollars. Of those, I have vague but fond memories of some early 70s Batmans, and of what I presume were reprints of the famed EC horror comics. And I remember some fairly improbable claims about sea monkeys and X-ray glasses. But otherwise, my knowledge of comics is pretty much limited to what I've picked up on the Internet, where my interests often seem to bring me into contact with comics fans.

So comics are a gap in my pop culture knowledge that's been bugging me for a few years. Hence, when I saw these 'Essential' books going so cheap I bought one, picking the X-Men because I liked the movies. The 'Essential' series collects consecutive sequences of old Marvel comics, in cheap, poorly-made, monochrome editions, printed on thin grey paper like newspapers used to use, and with cheaply-glued covers that are likely to fall off within minutes (mine did, and I'm a careful handler of books). In other words, you probably won't be able to pass this down to your grandchildren unless you already have some. They are, however, cheap enough for some harmless ("Approved by the Comics Code"!) entertainment, or to satisfy your idle curiosity about what kind of things American comics are (or were). A fan would probably prefer a book that reprints the comics with their original colour, on nice white paper, properly bound. And such books are available, for a price.

The comics collected here are not, as a neophyte might expect, the first issues of the X-Men comic. Those were published in 1963 (yes, I've done some research), with a cast consisting of Professor X, Cyclops, Jean Gray -- who we new readers know from the movies -- and the less familiar Beast, Iceman (a minor character in the movies), and Angel. (Unlike the other X-Men, Jean Gray's superhero name isn't used in the movies, and in this book we discover why -- it was 'Marvel Girl'.) Later, Havoc and Polaris were added to the cast. The comic was cancelled in 1969, after 93 issues. The first 20-odd issues are available as Essential Uncanny X-Men.

The comic was revived in 1975 with a partly new cast, more closely resembling that of the movies. Essential X-Men Vol. 1 collects the first 27 issues of the revived comic. The first, Giant Size X-Men #1, introduces angry Canadian secret agent Wolverine, Russian farmboy Colossus (seen briefly at the start of X-Men 2), German circus performer Nightcrawler, angry Native American Thunderbird, Irish screamer Banshee, and African goddess Storm. It's something of a disappointing 'origin' for these characters; which may be inevitable when so many characters must be introduced in so few pages. Wolverine's backstory, as seen to good effect in the movies, seems to have gradually developed over many years in the comics, and there are only occasional hints of it in this book. Of the original cast, Cyclops and the Professor stick around, with the rest departing in a huff. Jean Gray would return fairly soon; and Thunderbird, with a personality rather too much like Wolverine's, but less interesting, would depart.

The early issues are fun, in a comic book sort of way, but there's something missing there. It's too much what I expected comics would be like: ridiculously-costumed people fighting and tough-talking; bad guys saying "Now I will kill <X-MAN'S NAME>!", and then another X-Man saying "Not while <OTHER X-MAN'S NAME> lives!", and then hitting them, and so on. Everyone seems to be able to make long speeches during apparently rapid action, as if they're somehow all talking at thirty words a second. It's a bit like TV wrestling, if TV wrestlers were more eloquent. And audience research seems to have revealed that the fans loved it when the new X-Men fought the old X-Men, so there's a continuing effort to find new ways to make that happen, sometimes within just a few issues of the last time.

And then Chris Claremont began writing the comic and, later, John Byrne began drawing the pictures, and I think contributing to the writing. These were names I recognised from comics fans encountered on the internet, who would speak them with awe. And fair enough. Pretty soon, the quality and sophistication of the writing and artwork take a vast leap upward; now we have non-linear narratives; original, epic cosmos-spanning story-lines; convincingly evoked emotions besides anger and revenge; and some neat mythic stuff. These guys aren't content with giving the audience what it thinks it wants; they're giving it something a hundred times better, something it couldn't have known it wanted till it saw it, because if it could have imagined anything half that much fun it would have been writing comics, not reading them. And there seems to be a rapport between writer and artist, the writer creating stories that enable the artist to draw to his strengths, creating striking, memorable images such as the fairground scenes in issue 111.

Now we find some storylines that I can understand comics fans remembering fondly decades later: the 'Phoenix' sequence, which sets up the later 'Dark Phoenix' saga which is said to be pretty good, and is collected in Essential X-Men Vol. 2; the epic storyline in which the mystery of Professor X's nightmares is solved and we meet his intergalactic soulmate, while the X-Men participate in a Star Wars inspired adventure in another galaxy; the X-Men fighting a resurrected morally ambivalent god in a tropical Antarctic 'lost world'.

Some of the better aspects of the comic, or of comics like this in general, have found their way into episodic TV in the last decade or so, especially the long-running 'story arcs', and the planting of 'seeds' for future stories many issues before they would begin.

In amongst this great stuff, there's still plenty of quirky 1970s comic silliness. Several consecutive supervillains wear nothing but underpants, a big belt, a cape and a helmet. There are constant references to previous issues, including issues from the 1960s, and to events that happened in other comics, so it's got more footnotes than a Penguin Classic. Storylines evidently in progress in other comics are mentioned, possibly with the intention that the reader will feel a need to buy the other comic to find out what's going on. Characters from other comics repeatedly appear for no particular reason, sometimes playing some minor role that could have gone to any random extra or been omitted entirely without harm, sometimes just appearing for a single panel because someone seems to have thought 'I'll bet the readers will want to know what the Avengers think about all this!' I lost count of the number of times now-obscure big-haired 1970s blaxploitation-inspired heroine Misty Knight showed up. But I was enjoying myself too much to be annoyed by any of this. All just part of that old-time comic reading experience. And Misty was kind of cool.

It was a little sad to realise that these comics would have been in my local newsagent at about the time I was the right age to start reading them. Was that cover a little familiar, I would ask myself occasionally. Did I once glance at it in passing, 25 years ago, on my way to the book section? I think they would have been a great part of my childhood.

First - a warning - there's a very specific reason why this book, which ordinarily would warrant 5 stars, only get 4, and that's because it's printed on very cheap paper, in black & white and with a very soft and fragile cover.

There. Grumbles out of the way, this is THE place to start for those curious about the saga of the X-men, but can't be bothered to search out the original comic books in second hand stores and feel intimidated by the massive amount of other titles readily available.

Another thing, this really should be called "The Complete X-Men, vol. 1", not the "Essential", because this is the entire "modern day" saga, starting with Professor Xavier assembling the "new" team of X-men.

It's well deserved that this version of the X-Men became a leading force in modern comics, as Chris Claremonts writing, which was excellent throughout his entire spell with the series, for the first time brought focus to the STORY. Sure, there were good stories written within the field of super-hero comics (DC were better than Marvel, in my opinion), but this was the first time quality of writing became as much a tour de force as quality of drawing.

Later on, Claremont drew upon the (then) formidable talents of John Byrne, more or less re-defining what super-hero comics were about.

The fact that Claremont also managed to make all the characters, supporting cast included, come alive within the confines of the genre, rather than just including a card-board-cut-out supporting cast, stands as a testament to the quality of the series.

Long live the X-Men.

I greeted the new and improved X-Men with less than open arms. I had been a big fan of the original Uncanny X-Men, which had gone out in a blaze of glory with comics drawn by Jim Steranko and Neal Adams. When Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum revived the title in 1975, after "X-Men" had been reduced to a reprint comic, I was not overly thrilled with the decision to jettison most of the original group. If Cyclops had not stayed then I might have given up on the title right then and there, but this was the old days when you could still buy every title in the Marvel universe for about five bucks (remember, this was when you could fill up your car and get change back on a $5 bill). So I stuck around and saw how Claremont, Cockrum, and John Byrne turned the "X-Men" into one of the premier comic books in the land.

The original strength of the X-Men was that their being hunted mutants served as a subtext for various issues involving social prejudice. Claremont and Cockrum put that in an international context by having Professor X go around the world to recruit his second generation of merry mutants recruiting from the mountains of Kenya to behind the Iron Curtain. This time around we find not only that the X-Men are no longer all white, they are also not all as young as before (Banshee qualifies more as a contemporary of Charles Xavier). Also thrown into the mix is their disparate temperaments; early issues always have Wolverine and Thunderbird in a contest to see who can blow up first.

This first volume in the "Essential X-Men" series (not to be confused with the single volume released of the "Essential Uncanny X-Men") contains "Giant Size X-Men" #1 and issues #94-119 of "X-Men." The new X-Men are put together to rescue the old X-Men, at which point the question becomes: what do you do with thirteen X-Men? The answer is to get down to a half-dozen by having all of the original X-Men leave except for Cyclops, to have one of the new X-Men decide not to play, and then you are down to seven, one of whom is doomed to die (and if you pay attention to the group logo on the cover you can see that they telegraphed their choice from the start).

All things considered, the new X-Men are an improvement over the original group, not only in terms of their powers but also in terms of their secret identities. I mean, all things considered all Angel could do was fly and the Beast was a muscular acrobat with lots of brains (the decision to make him blue and furry admits to the character's liabilities). Storm is an exotic elemental queen trying to fit in with regular folk and Colossus remains a man-child at heart, even in this brave new world. Most importantly, Wolverine makes the Thing look like a cuddly teddy bear, giving the group a dangerous edge. Claremont liked to skate as close to that edge as possible, and eventually he would send the series over the edge with his Dark Phoenix plotline.

Ultimately the idea of recreating the X-Men is more interesting than most of the particular stories being told in this collection. Far and away the best storyline is after Bryne comes on board as an artist when the new X-Men have to encounter the first and still greatest villain in the series, Magneto (#111-113). As Cyclops says when the bad guy finally emerges, "Lord, no! We're still nowhere near ready." What makes this work is that this is not an ultimate battle, but rather it is the first of many major conflicts between these characters. The aftermath in Ka-Zar's Hidden Land (#114-116) is also above average and the arrival of Lilandra holds the promise of taking the X-Men to the stars and beyond. Clearly Claremont and Byrne work best when they open up the scope of their stories to three issues or more. This first collection is devoted primarily for establishing the foundation for what is to come, but by the end Claremont and Byrne are clearly moving upward and onward.

For less than $14 plus shipping you can get introduced to the essential Uncanny X-men. This is a five star deal. Yes, the comics are not in color. Also, the comics are printed on plain paper, little better in quality than news print. However, you're getting a graphic novel that would cost over four times as much if you got it in color and on good paper. This is a nice way to get into the X-men universe at an inexpensive cost.

The reader is introduced to the new X-men. It's over 31 years since the "retool" date and many of these characters are going strong. There are Wolverine, Storm, Cyclops, and Nightcrawler in this comic. All have been in the recent X-men movies. It gives great praise to Chris Claremont that his writing has stood the test of time.

The comics go from the inception of the new X-men to the start of the Phoenix saga. The X-men annual of 1975 introduces us to the new X-men. Some of the mutants have been around, like Cyclops, and some were the bad guys, like Banshee. They form a new team to save the old X-men from a new evil.

Where the comic books gets real good is in the new Uncanny X-men comics. At that time this reviewer was a kid and really enjoyed the "James Bond" like setting in the comic Warhunt. The X-men must save America from nuclear war. The result is the X-men win but at terrible costs.

After a rather slow single story the retooled Sentinels return. Dave Cockrum's art work is second to none during this time. This is the time the buyer of the book wishes it was color. However, this is where you get what you pay for.

The end of the Sentinel story goes straight to the beginning of the Phoenix saga. What is really strange is Marvel's X-men comics were putting out stories that were years ahead of any thing science fiction books were doing. Indeed, it's a wonder that a special Nebula award was not given to Chris and Dave for the wonderful work on the uncanny X-men.

The Dark Chrystal and "end-of-the-universe" stories take up the bulk of this book. However, there is an very good comic on the re-introduced Magneto. Only one X-man can "check" Magneto, not beat him.

Now, on it's "debit" side there is a poor story on "Warhawk". This was when Marvel was having producting problems in 1977 and Dave Cockrum was unable to make a production deadline.

John Byrne takes over the art from Dave Cockrum at the end of the Starjammers/Crystal story line.

I highly encourage any Amazon.com buyer to get the Essentials X-men Vol. II for the Phoenix saga.

This comic series is a sample of the "art" form in the late 1970s. The X-men under Dave Cockrum, John Byrne, and Chris Claremont was as good as any comic ever written. Now the X-men have fame the equal of Batman and Superman. It was all due to the work of those three individuals.

This graphic novel is worth five stars. It deserves six.

These are not collector's items. The Essential series is a cheap alternative to the collector's items such as Marvel Masterworks. The editors wanted a way to get these stories into the hearts and minds of readers who either couldn't afford or didn't want to pay for those volumes or to track down the back issues. You get cheap stock paper and no color, pure story and pencil/ink artwork drive these. Bravo Marvel for printing this series.

If the word 'ESSENTIAL' is printed on any book, it had better be good, or it can simply waft over to the world of movie lies where Jan DeBont and Stephen Sommors live. But thankfully like the Spider-Man Essentials this is an extremely satisfying comic collection that chronicles the history of Wolverine, Xavier, Storm, Nightcrawler and the rest of the mutants. Both revealing just what a groundbreaking concept the comic was and showcasing some fantastic artwork, Stan Lee's X-Men comics are just fantastic, I love all these comics, perhaps too much, my bookshelves agree. But this is definitive, must-buy material. Exciting stories, gripping bad guys and some amazing twists, this is a masterpiece that deserves all the plaudits it gets. With a starting point like this, it's clear to see why the comic has endured some shaky times and an uncertain future. Kudos Stan Lee, kudos.

I actually LIKE the fact that this book is in black & white. The art in this book is amazing--very representative of the period in which comic book art reached its zenith. Without the addition of color, one gets a better feel of the craftsmanship involved.

As for the stories themselves, the title is correct--this IS essential for any X-Men fan. It tells how the New X-Men get formed. Also, the tone of comics darkened in this period, so we get X-Men fighting demons and the like. We see the New X-Men's first encounter with Magneto. We get to journey to the Savage Land, and we get the Phoenix Saga.

Definitely worth the investment for X-Fans.

This book has many back issues that are EXTREMELY hard to find. It also has the origin of the second generation of X-Men, which include Wolverine, Storm, Collosuss, Nightcrawler, and Banshee. Since I just started reading the X-Men comics, it was a great way to find oput about their past.

Essential X-men volume 1 is really good! It has the same issues the first printing has but also has some character profies,sketches,and background material. This book reprints Giant-Size X-men#1 and Uncanny X-Men 94-119! I like this book more that the first Edition because the book has material and has a better cover. these are the stories most comic books fans know as All New, All Different X-men, with Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Storm, Colossus, Banshee,joining Cyclops, and Professor X. The only thing I am not happy about this book is the it is Black & White. There is no color on the pages because It is Newsprint. B

This book contains issues # 94- 119 and Giant Size # 1 and features Cyclops, Storm, Wolverine, Colossus and Nightcrawler.