Essential Classic X-Men - Volume 2 [Paperback]

Yes!

If I could allow myself to post a review with only one word, that word would be "Yes". I've been a collector of the Essentials and especially the Essential X-Men for more than four years now, and while I've greatly enjoyed cruising through seven volumes of the celebrated Claremont run, I've always pined for a second volume from the sixties. I've heard about how the series was a poor seller during the end of the Silver Age and how it wasn't as great a priority for new volumes (and yet Killraven was?). I was sorely tempted to drop an extra hundred dollars to buy the material in the hardcover Masterworks format when I heard that the Essential "Classic" X-Men #2 was finally on its way. Now that I've read it, and after waiting for it for half a decade, I'll do my absolute best to provide a review as impartial as is possible.

The X-Men series under writers Roy Thomas and Arnold Drake never quite reached the heights that Stan Lee and Chris Claremont achieved, but they were still plenty of great tales to be found. Early on, the Mimic engages in a hard-hitting brawl with the Super-Adaptoid, an android that has assumed the powers of most of the Avengers (too bad the Super Skrull couldn't have swung by to make it a three-way battle of the superteam-amalgamations). Then the X-Men begin a multi-issue hunt for Factor Three, a seditious band of mutants out to trigger nuclear war and reign over Earth in the aftermath. I guess the plot was nothing new, but I still felt that it was a good "Grandiose" style of story in that it held my interest over a long string of installments. Plus it contained one of my favorite light-hearted Silver Age moments when the cash-strapped kids put on some fund raising projects in order to charter a plane to pursue Factor Three into Europe (Hey mister! Could you buy a candy bar to help send mutants like us to save the world?). Also during this saga, the Juggernaut returns and our heroes' only hope of containing him comes from a timely assist from Dr. Strange (By the Hoary Hosts of Hoggoth, what a nice guest appearance!). Magneto then resurfaces with a reconstituted Brotherhood of Mutants (since he seduced Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch away from the Avengers) and it takes the combined forces of Earth's Mightiest Heroes and Marvel's Merry Mutants to oppose the Master of Magnetism. Last but not least, the incomparable Jim Steranko draws two issues (and three covers) around the story of the master manipulator Mesmero and his attempt to convince Lorna Dane that she is Magneto's daughter and thus the future queen of all mutants. Steranko's figures and panel layouts are absolutely striking and I couldn't help but wonder how much of a difference he could have made to the series' sales if he had signed on as the regular artist (although, just between you and me, I have no idea who that bearded guy he drew on the cover of #51 was supposed to be).

As I said before, the X-Men were on shaky ground with the comic buying public in the late `60's, and here are some possible reasons why. First off, Professor X actually extends an invitation to the Mimic to join the team. In my review of the Essential X-Men #7, I said that Longshot was the least worthy person to ever wear the X. I was a nearsighted, foolish child two weeks ago. Not only is the Mimic not a mutant, unconcerned with Xavier's goals, and redundant in bringing the same powers as the rest of the X-Men to the table, he's also a self-absorbed abrasive jerk. Adding insult to injury, his epiphany regarding the value of selflessness and teamwork coincides with the loss of his powers and so he just walks away after three issues. Bite me, Mimic! Then the future X-Man Banshee is introduced initially as a ruthless agent of Factor Three, but it's revealed in the end that he was forced to obey his overlords or the explosive collar fused to his head would have been remotely detonated. If that was actually the case, then why did he scream through Manhattan twice, potentially injuring dozens and blowing his cover, just to steal a painting and some pipe tobacco? And no, the writer didn't change his mind during a second issue, this happened in one book! If you read the earlier material, you may remember that Jean Grey's parents transferred her to Metro College and inadvertently strained her burgeoning superhero career. Also at Metro, psych major Ted Roberts started to spark some romance with Jean and, during a scrap with his brother the Cobalt Man, also seemingly learned Scott and Jean's alter egos. Unfortunately, after an underground imbroglio with Tyrannus and the Mole Man, Jean's enrollment at Metro is never mentioned again and the Roberts brothers vanish without a trace. Huh? Later, an alien robot in the shape of Frankenstein's Monster shows up (making a complete mockery of the character a whole five years before the real deal arrived in its own series). The final issue in the book is the infamous Blastaar story from neophyte artist Barry Smith which, as the esteemed Mr. Lawrence Bernabo already mentioned in his review, was written in one day on a bench in Central Park and man does it look like it!

I think the biggest misstep of this era of X-Men though was the gradual dissolution of the group. This began with the (ahem) "death" of Professor X, "killed" in mortal combat with some hulking subterranean brute named Grotesk of all things. By the way, Grotesk chose that name for himself when the Beast described him as being "so unbelievably grotesque", so I guess his superpower is the ability to alter the spelling of his speech. After the professor's "demise", the FBI pays a visit to the Xavier School and demands that the X-Men break up for their own safety (The utter gall! When the X-Men become old enough to vote, they are not going to re-elect Nixon, that's for sure). So basically, the issues around this time have narrower scopes and focus on just one or two of the characters; there's Angel vs. the Golden Age flyer Red Raven, Beast & Iceman vs. evil Merlin, Cyclops & Marvel Girl vs. Computo the malevolent machine. It doesn't work, the conflicts are extremely dull, and the gang suddenly reunites just in time for the Lorna Dane saga (thank goodness). Maybe a team with six members is a little hard to juggle in the writer's room, but the fact remains that they are a team. The Avengers often had as many as eight members at a time, and you never saw an issue with just the Wasp tackling the Jester or some such trifle. The overall story arc on the book never felt like it was moving forward unless most of the cast was in the spotlight, and that's how I think it should stay.

One very good decision made during this period, though, was the inclusion of five-page mini-stories in each issue on "The Origins of the X-Men" starting in #38. The first Spider-Man comic had a high-schooler bitten by a radioactive spider, the first Hulk comic had a frail physicist blasted by a gamma bomb, but the first X-Men comic had six guys with superpowers in a mansion and no backstory about whence these proud members of "Homo Superior" came. Who knows why it took so long to talk about the geneses of our favorite mutants (imagine if it took forty issues of the Fantastic Four before Reed or Ben reminisced about that one time they all went into space). Anyway, now we Essential fans get to read about how Professor Xavier first decided to open his school for "gifted youngsters", how the police and a devious criminal hunted a young Cyclops after his eye beams first flared out of control, and how Iceman first used his power to protect his girlfriend only to later be locked in jail for his own protection. In addition, some installments are dedicated to the explanation of our protagonist's mutant talents, which are filled with good old-fashioned low-impact science (Wow, Iceman creates ice from moisture in the air, and Cyclops' optic blasts are solar powered! Marvy!). Overall, the origin pieces are definitely something that the true Silver Age connoisseur can enjoy, except for the bit about Beast fighting the guy in the archaic Spanish armor with the electric fork. You can take or leave that one.

In the `60's, the X-Men were considered to be second-stringers in Marvel's line-up since they had few epic storylines and suffered the general consensus that having superheroes that are "born that way" is a cheap cop-out. In the `70's, Claremont led the revival by turning mutancy into a living metaphor for alienation and bigotry of all stripes and produced some of the best stories of the medium because of it. While I have great respect for Claremont's trendsetting work, what came before him shouldn't be ignored. The Essential Uncanny X-Men #1 and Classic X-Men #2 are the most cost-effective way for readers to revisit the early days (although the books' spines will obviously clash sitting next to each other on your bookshelf), and even with only 13 issues of the original run remaining, there is still plenty of ancillary material to finish up a future third volume (and possibly even a fourth). So, was this book an exemplary slice of comic history? I wouldn't really agree. Was it worth reading? My answer is a resounding yes!

We sure waited a long time for Volume 2 of the "Essential Classic X-Men," not to be confused with the "Essential X-Men" (which is now up to Volume 7), since Volume 1 came out in 2002 (and was entitled "Essential Uncanny X-Men"). This collection has "X-Men" #25-53, along with "Avengers" #53, covers the period when I first started reading Marvel comics. "X-Men" #43 was the first one I bought (so I was not sure who was the dead Professor X they are all talking about), and then I started working my way backwards and forward at the same time. After Spider-Man the merry mutants were my favorite comic book, probably because I could identify with both Cyclops and Beast, and because we are still talking about teenager superheroes at a point where I was (only) the former.

Things start off slowly in this collection. The X-Men tangel with El Tigre (#25) who then becomes an incarnation of the godKukulcan (#26). Then things pick up with the return of the Mimic (#27), who had all of the X-Men's powers, for a trilogy that involved first the Banshee (#28) and then the Super-Adaptoid (#29), who had all of the Avengers' power. The Warlock (#30), the Cobalt Man (#31), set up another rematch with the Juggernaut (#32-33). Then Tryannus captures Professor X (#34), and then Spider-Man shows up for a visit (#35), followed by Mecano (#36) and the three-part Master of Factor Three story (#37-39). Next up, the Frankenstein monster (#40), and a two-parter with the Sub-Human (#41) that ends with the death of Professor X (#42), at which point Magneto shows up (#43) and then Red Raven (#44).

The crossover with the Avengers starts in "X-Men" #45, where Cyclops takes on Quicksilver before we get to "Avengers" #53 where the two superhero teams take on each other. The Avenger lineup makes for interesting match-ups: the Beast versus the Black Panther, Iceman versus Hawkeye, Cyclops versus Golaith, and Marvel Girl versus the Wasp (Angel is being held captive by the Avengers). Magneto is behind it all, but then he usually is when it comes to the X-Men. With Professor X dead, the government orders the X-Men to split up, so we get the Beast and Iceman versus Warlock (#47), Cyclopes and Marvel Girl take on the Hive (#48), and then come back together to defy the demi-men, which is the first of the four-part Lorna Dane story arc.

The best part of this collection are the two episodes (#50-51) drawn by Jim Steranko (who also does the cover for #49 along with these two), where we learn that Bobby Drake's girl friend, Lorna Dane, not only has green hair, but she is the daughter of Magneto, hence the title of #51, "The Devil Had a Daughter." Unfortunately we are back to the Heck and Roth team for the final part of the story. Then comes what I still think of as being the worst drawn comic book I have ever owned, "X-Men" #53, which is the first thing Barry Smith (now Barry Windsor-Smith) ever drew for Marvel. Look at the splash page of Marvel Girl on page 3 or Ice Man as the Silver Surfer on page 7. Oh, we hated this comic book back then. Of course, today I have two autographed prints by Windsor-Smith, a giant blow up of the splash page for the "Conan the Barbarian" tale "Red Nails" that I have colored in, and plans to frame more of his art work when we build or buy our new home. Now I know that this comic book was drawn on benches in Central Park, but there has to be universal agreement this is the worst thing he ever drew.

Roy Thomas writes thee issues through #44, where Gary Friedrich takes over through issue #47, at which point it is Arnold Drake's turn. The situation with the artists on the book becomes strange, because Werner Roth draws ten issues by himself, draws eight jointly with Don Heck, teams up once with George Tuska to do the pencils and three times with him to do Heck's layouts. Even that is not a complete list of all of their crazy combinations with this unique tag team approach to drawing the "X-Men." Dan Adkins does an issue, Ross Andru two, and John Buscema does the "Avengers" issue. Starting in issue #38 is the five-page feature "The Origins of the X-Men," which covers Professor X (#38), Cyclops (#39-43), Ice Man (#44-47), and the Beast (#48-53), written by Thomas and Drake, and drawn by Roth. In these you get their origins and then a look at their specific powers and abilities.

Anything with Magneto is pretty good and the same is true with the Juggernaut with the X-Men, but of the rest only the Mimic stories and the Avengers crossover are above average. Now, of course, we have to wait for Volume 3, which has the classic "X-Men" stories illustrated by Neil Adams that spell the end to the early glory days of the merry mutants, before the book was effectively canceled (it was turned into a reprint magazine for a couple of years). So one more volume should complete the original run of the X-Men and complete the existing gap in the "Essentials" series between these X-Men and the international version.

It may hard to believe to modern comics readers, but the X-Men weren't always a hot commodity. In fact, the first incarnation of the team lasted just a few dozen issues before going into a semi-hiatus status with only reprints. It would take the appearance of the "new" X-Men in Giant Size X-Men #1 and X-Men #94 to raise the comic to the "A"-list. But even if it was a second-tier book in the beginning, there was a lot of good stuff there.

Essential Classic X-Men #2 covers issues 25-53, a period which saw the original team of Iceman, Angel, Beast, Marvel Girl and Cyclops really come into its own, especially when its leader, Professor X, apparently perishes. Many classic villains are featured in this book, including Juggernaut, the Blob, Unus, Mastermind, the Mole Man, the Super-Adaptoid and most particularly Magneto. There are also some instantly forgettable villains such as the Cobalt Man and Mekano, and sadly (considering how many issues he occupies), the Mutant Master, leader of Factor Three. This run is also notable for the first appearances of the Banshee (looking rather freakish) and Polaris.

Unlike the first volume, the X-Men (with the possible exception of Marvel Girl) are beginning to become really distinct characters. Nonetheless, the most interesting member winds up being the temporary X-Man, the Mimic, whose prickly personality is a nice contrast to his utterly benevolent teammates.

With an assortment of writers and artists, this collection is generally hit-or-miss, but overall, there is enough good stuff to merit a solid four stars. By today's standards, these stories may be somewhat crude, but they are representative of the stuff produced in the 1960s. Most importantly, they are fun to read, and provide a lot of the basis for the modern Marvel mythology. For those only familiar with newer versions of the X-Men, this collection has both historical value and is an entertaining read.

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