Think about that for a moment. With dozens of popular superhero comics and several movies from Superman to Batman, the X-Men were by far the favorite. Here, I hope to illustrate the rise and fall of the X-Men from their humble origins to their glut of overexposure.
The Original Five
Like almost every good idea at Marvel Comics, the X-Men sprung up from the mind of Stan Lee. According to him, they were essentially a creation of laziness. Rather than having to come up with a new way to explain someone's powers every single time he created a new character, Stan decided that they were just born with powers that eventually manifested. They were mutants.In fact, "The Mutants" was the original proposed title of the series, but editor Martin Goodman rejected it saying that children wouldn't know what a mutant is. Stan Lee has often quipped that if they didn't know what a mutant is, how would they know what an X-Man is?
As I said before, my introduction to the X-Men was with the 1992 cartoon on Fox, but possibly my first trade paperback ("large compilation comic" for you non-comic types) was Marvel Masterworks X-Men reprinting issues #1-5. Personally, I always found it thrilling to discover that something I enjoy has a long history to it, but nothing could quite prepare me for this.
The first thing that struck me was the tapered ends on the X. The jagged lines suggested something classified to me; a secret history. The first page of the first issue opens with a large empty mansion and a solitary, old, bald man sitting alone in a wheelchair as he casts out his thoughts. Immediately, all four of his students file into the room in seconds flat demonstrating their unique powers to combat tardiness. He then proceeds to instruct his students through the Danger Room, a large training area filled with rotating knives, flame throwers, and human sized hydraulic presses, where we see the X-Men display the mastery of their powers.They were billed as "the strangest super-heroes of all" and it is easy to see why. First, they weren't adults, but teenagers and superheroes in training. This was still an incredibly new idea when teens (with the notable exception of the recently created Spider-Man) were still sidekicks. Second, this was the first time you saw superheroes training... much less in a room designed for that purpose. Seeing Professor Xavier as the task master who pushed his students to perfection really gave you the sense that the X-Men weren't just playing around with powers (although they also spent a lot of time doing that too). They were preparing for greatness.
One by one, we are introduced to the X-Men starting with playboy millionaire Warren Worthington III... known as Angel for obvious reasons. Next is the youngest member of the X-Men, the resident class clown Bobby Drake (AKA Iceman... although at the time, he looked more like Snowman). Then there was Hank McCoy whose ape-like physique gave him the name of Beast. Originally, Hank was your average blue collar tough guy (much like the Fantastic Four's Thing) swaggering his way through the first issue brandishing machismo, but by the third issue, he was reading piles of literary canon with his feet and brandishing Stan Lee's trademark verbosity. But the protagonist/entry character/boy-next-door was the shy, tall, and beanpole named Scott "Slim" Summers whose powers were also a curse forcing him to wear an awkward visor as Cyclops or ruby quartz glasses when in his civilian identity to prevent his powers from destroying everything he sees. It's an interesting twist to the Clark Kent/Superman dichotomy with Scott's glasses literally hiding his power.
One thing that the X-Men did really well is demonstrate the awkwardness of being a mutant, which was analogous to the awkwardness of being a teenager. Warren had to put on a harness to strap his wings to his back under his clothes. Hank was often complaining how difficult it was to find shoes his size... which is part of the reason he was often barefoot. And, of course, Scott was always terrified that his glasses would slip just a little... and every once in a while, they did, destroying property and leaving him blind and helpless. Only Bobby had total control of his powers, which he was constantly using to pull pranks on others.
The X-Men's Danger Room training comes to an end when a taxi pulls up to the mansion, we are introduced to the new student, Jean "Marvel Girl" Grey, and her abilities of telekinesis. In the sixties, very few women in comics had direct powers like strength or energy blasts, but would instead have less invasive powers like telekinesis or invisibility. Subsequently, there were a lot of images of these women fainting dramatically when their powers were taxed while the men were engaged in fisticuffs. Still, in his own old fashioned way, Stan was something of a pioneering feminist. 
When any man started getting too friendly with Jean, she was quick to spin him around the room with her mind.From the first issue, all of the X-Men are enamored with Jean, but I always figured that's because she was the only girl on the team. Bobby was always too immature and Hank might have had a chance, if he hadn't gotten off on bad first impression, but Warren was the most persistent and often managed to team up with Jean. But for those of us who could read their thought bubbles, Scott and Jean shared an unrequited love. Scott thought that compared to Warren's dashing charm, Hank's intellect, and Bobby's sense of humor, he was the one X-Man with nothing to offer.
If I had to guess what made this attraction so irresistible, I would say it was a combination of Scott's dedication to his work and friends along with Jean's strength and self-resiliency. To me, Scott and Jean always embodied Xavier's dream because when you get down to it, all dreams are just a means to an end and that end is to find love and live happily ever after.
Also in this issue, we are introduced to Magneto thereby setting up the status quo for the series. Magneto believes that mutants, as the next stage in evolution, should naturally inherit the world, but just as naturally, the humans do not want to give it up. Professor Xavier explains to us that the role of the X-Men is to stand between the mutants and the humans to advocate peace. I love this idea because they are on neither side of the conflict. They fight other mutants and are called race traitors. They fight humans and they are lumped in with the "evil mutants."You got to love the underdog... and nobody was ever kind to the X-Men.
This also helped me understand why Professor Xavier trained them harder than any superhero team had trained before (and since, probably). He made sure that the X-Men not only were tougher than their opponents, but that they had a degree of precision so great that they would not accidentally hurt anyone even in the most stressful situation. To maintain the peace, they had to fight, but to stay respectable, they had to have self-control.
What impresses me so much about X-Men #1 is that all of the elements that make the X-Men great (with the arguable exception of Wolverine) are there from the start. I would even argue that the complete X-Men story, boiled down to the essentials, is about four people: Professor Xavier (the dreamer), Scott (the prodigal son), Jean Grey (the heart), and Magneto (the dream distorted).
What I love about Magneto (despite the stupid name and silly helmet) is that you can't say he is one hundred percent wrong. He is a radical and a terrorist to be sure, but if I was born a freak with powers and everyone was trying to kill me, I sure as hell would try to take over the world. Hell, I'm a freak without powers who thinks everyone is out to get him, and I still want to take over the world.Magneto had his own analog to the X-Men with the Brotherhood of Evil Mutant (renamed The Brotherhood of Mutants when later writers decided that someone who believes that he is doing good would not call his cause "evil"). The original members included the sycophantic Toad, the scheming illusionist Mastermind, the super-speedster Quicksilver,
and the Scarlet Witch, possessing hex powers (these were said to "alter probability" but these powers were so difficult to represent in a visually interesting and understandable way that creators have futzed with them ever since; currently she is an all-powerful sorceress). These latter two were reluctant villains who served Magneto as gratitude for his protection. Later, they quit the Brotherhood, 
joined the Avengers, were revealed to be Magneto's twin children, and despite their strong connection to X-Men history, they rarely showed up in X-Men again, appearing mostly in Avengers comics.In X-Men #7, we got to find out how the X-Men manage to find other mutants: Professor Xavier's own real-life thinking cap -- Cerebro.
Another element I loved in early X-Men comics was introduced in X-Men #10, the Savage Land. This was a hidden world in the Antarctic populated by dinosaurs, prehistoric man, and at least one saber-toothed tiger. I've always thought it was appropriate that the X-Men, figures of human evolution, were so closely established with the Savage Land, a world where evolution had stopped. Strangely, however, I never felt that this symbolism was ever expressed. It was always just a place to see X-Men fight dinosaurs... which is a good enough purpose, I suppose.
This X-Men comic revamped a character from the golden age of comics: Ka-Zar. Originally, he was just a stock "jungle man" character in the vein of Tarzan living in the wilds of Africa raised by a lion. This new Ka-Zar, however, was more or less the same, raised in the hidden Savage Land by his companion, the saber-toothed tiger, Zabu.Upon returning from their prehistoric adventure, the X-Men were gathered by Xavier to defend against the unstoppable Juggernaut. They spend half the issue setting up automated defenses designed to hold off an army (Xavier is very serious about security... and with good reason) and the other half in flashback.
Here we learn Xavier's origin, how his father was an atomic scientist who died in a blast, leaving Charles to be adopted by his father's friend and colleague Dr. Marko (way to move in on your best friend's woman, dick). As his mental powers developed, Charles was picked on by his older half-brother Cain (by all accounts, not a good name for a brother). When they grew up, both men ended up serving together in Korea. One day, Cain ran for cover in a cave only to find a magic gem just sitting their with magic words transcribed to English (how convenient!). 
As Cain reads the words, the power is unleashed and the cave collapses on top of him leaving him a human Juggernaut... as well as burried for years under tons of rock. I guess it took a couple years to get a full charge because Juggernaut lives up to his unstoppable title. Even Cyclops' eyes which can blast through a mountain only slow Juggy down. Juggernaut's only weakness, if you can remove his helmut, Xavier can control his mind.If you can't tell by my demeanor, I was never a big fan of Juggernaut's mystical powers or irrational desire for fratricide, but I have to admit that there is something cool about a guy who is a walking tank... but maybe that's just too many years of He-Man talking.
The conflict between humans and mutants became even more pronounce with the introduction of the Sentinels in X-Men #14.
Up until this point, the X-Men were operating in secret. Although the public knew about them, they didn't really know about mutants... 
and they didn't take well to the idea that they were an endangered species; particularly Bolivar Trask inventor of the Sentinels and writer of speculative fiction, apparently (sort of Asimov meets Hitler). These man-made machines were designed to hunt down and destroy all mutants, but like every other machine in science fiction, it gradually turned against its master when it realized that they only way to effectively eliminate mutants is to eliminate humanity. Symbolically, they represent the mindless, mob mentality brought about by fear of something different. Inevitably that kind of hatred becomes self-destructive.Over the course of the series, Jean Grey had developed minor powers of telepathy after the momentary death of Professor Xavier (it's not worth doing into detail). It was latter explained that her telepathy first manifested as a child when she had witnessed the death of her best friend, Annie, who was hit by a car. Jean's mind instinctively reached out and experienced her death in a way a living person never should. The experience scarred her deeply. Charles Xavier was brought in to help her. Realizing her potential, he shut down her telepathic powers to allow her to cope and develop normally. Later, her telekinetic powers manifested, she joined the X-Men, and, later still, Xavier restored her telepathic abilities.
Eventually, the X-Men lost their yellow and gold uniforms (although these would continue to return in various incarnations including the recent films) and adopted new costumes that expressed their individually... sort of. Aside from this truly garish red tights and suspenders number on Angel (millions of dollars and he can't find a tailor who isn't color blind?), these costumes are some of my favorite and set the standard for these characters for years to come. Even when Marvel Girl became Phoenix, she kept the same color scheme. (Fortunately, Angel was the first one to get a new costume and it was a huge improvement.)
Speaking objectively, most of these comics weren't that good. The characters were hardly complex and (like most comics at the time) they spent as much time fighting monsters, aliens, and an empire of underground humanoids as they did fighting mutants or anti-mutant crusaders. In the later years, we were introduced to Scott's previously unmentioned little brother Alex, who would soon become the energy-wielding mutant known as Havok. Not long after, they were joined by the green-haired "mistress of magnetism" known as Polaris (AKA Lorna Dane). Both Alex and Bobby had a crush on Lorna, but ultimately the Summers genes won and these two have been starcrossed lovers ever since. 
Sales dwindled, but just as the X-Men were headed for the chopping block, they saw a massive increase in sales due in no small part to the incredible artwork of Neal Adams. Although brief, this run had a few highlights including the return of the Sentinels; Sauron, the hypnotic, energy vampire, pteradactyl/mutant who took his name from Lord of the Rings; and Magneto's artificially-created mutants (called "mutates") in the Savage Land. Unfortunately, the sales figures took so long to get that the editors didn't realize the book had become successful until after it had been canceled so issues #67-93 were all reprints of earlier comics. Although Neal Adams only drew nine issues, if it weren't for him, the X-Men would definitely have been canceled and likely never recovered... and certainly not to the extent that it did.Next
The X-Men reach their creative peak with an "All-New, All-Different" line-up and Chris Claremont begins his fifteen year stint as the quintessential X-Men writer.
LINKS
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8 (coming soon)
No comments:
Post a Comment