Customer Reviews

Uncanny X-Men Masterworks Vol. 1

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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 for several years, 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 "Uncanny X-Men Masterworks" series "Giant Size X-Men" #1 and issues #94-100 of "X-Men." The new X-Men are put together to rescue the old X-Men, and once that mission is accomplished 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 right from the start on that one). The Sentinels pop up, so you do have one of the A-list X-Men villains showing up early and for "The Spectacular 100th Issue" of the comic book we have the old X-Men taking on the new X-Men. At least that is what the cover shows, but if you have been reading between the lines you are suspicious of such a conflict, especially when Professor X gets out of his wheelchari to pop Wolverine right in the kisser. Ultimately, what you have collected in this first volume is the prelude for the Uncanny X-Men, ending when Jean Grey's shielding gives way as she tries pilot a Space Shuttle back to earth with the rest of her teammates on board. You have to wait for Phoenix and the Juggernaut until Volume 2 of this hardcover collection, and even then you will be up to the start of the John Bryne era but not quite up to Magento's first appearance.

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.