X-Men Primer - Part 2

I am a huge X-Men fan, if I haven't made that clear already. The pride of my collection is a recent acquisition. It cost me $100 and it isn't even old. It's an 849-page, hardbound X-Men Omnibus Vol. 1. There is no volume two... not yet anyway, but you can bet I'll be waiting for it.

The first time that this edition was released, I missed it and it drove me crazy. The moment I spotted a copy in the comic store, I knew I had to have it... and wouldn't you know it? My debit card was rejected. I tried to withdraw cash, the bank confiscated my card, and I found out the bank had issued me a new card, canceled my old one, not told me about it, and not shipped me my new card. Fortunately, once I got this all resolved, the comic hadn't sold, but I was terrified that it would be.

On the dust jacket of this edition is the original cover to Giant-Size X-Men #1, the issue which ended the X-Men's hiatus in reprints and cameos in other books. During this period, the Beast had a brief run in Amazing Adventures as a semi-horror character. To suit his new series, a story was concocted in Amazing Adventures #11 whereby Hank starts working at the Brand Corporation, a genetics research facility, where Hank develops a serum to turn humans into mutants for short periods of time, but when he takes it himself, Hank turns into much more of a beast than he was before with gray fur, fangs, and claws. After his fur turned a more child-friendly blue, the Beast came to join Marvel's foremost superhero team, the Avengers.

Although the X-Men are my favorite, the Beast being in the Avengers always struck me as being particularly cool. I'm not sure why, but if I had to guess, it's probably because the Avengers were the best of the best taking on the worst of the worst. The idea that Hank was smart and strong enough to deal with both Earth-shattering crisises and the more subtle type of social engineering that the X-Men work on made perfect sense. (Much later, Wolverine joined the Avengers, but that was entirely motivated by sales.)

It should be noted that in early Marvel Comics, time passed much differently than they do now. Nowadays, time passes to a crawl and how much time has passed is always determined retrospectively. Often this estimate is revised as well. For instance, in X-Men #1 (1963) the X-Men range from age 15-17. In X-Men #5, they graduate from the Xavier School, but in 1973, the Hank McCoy is said to be twenty. Now, thirty years later, the original class is in their mid-twenties, although extremely accomplished for being so young.

In October 1974, Wolverine first appeared in the final page of The Incredible Hulk #180 (although his first appearance is generally credited to #181). The Hulk encountered a super-powered cannibal spirit named Wendigo in the wilds of darkest Canada. The nefarious Canadian government sends their secret Weapon X to take down the Hulk, but he goes by The Wolverine. (Check out the whiskers on the mask!) Their fight ends more or less in a stalemate with Wolverine badly bruised and not much of interest happening. (Incidentally, this accounts for about half of the plot to the recent Hulk vs Wolverine animated movie.)

Now that you are caught up, let me explain to you why a this volume begins with Giant-Size X-Men #1 and not X-Men #1.

The All-New, All Different X-Men

The X-Men as we know them didn't begin to take form until 1975 with Giant-Size X-Men #1 by writer Len Wein and Dave Cockrum. For the first time since their creation, the X-Men were getting a very different team roster, however this would only be the beginning. The biggest difference from the old team is that the new one reflected an ethnically and religiously diverse cast from around the globe.

The story begins in Germany where we find a demonic-looking man by the name of Kurt Wagner leaping across rooftops away from a torch-wielding mob. Backed into a corner, exhausted, and unable to convince them to leave him in peace, he leaps into the crowd gradually beaten down until Professor Xavier arrives and commands them all to stop. Next, Professor X goes to Quebec to recruit Wolverine... who resigns by cutting his commanding officer's tie in half. In Kenya, the Professor meets Ororo, worshipped in her tribe as a goddess for her ability to control the weather. On the Ust-Ordynski collective in Siberia, he meets a farmer's son who can turn his body into solid steel. And a little closer to home in Arizona, he meets John Proudstar whose strength and speed is greater than that of a raging bison as he demonstrates. He has a huge chip on his shoulder due to the way his people have been treated, but with a little white man's trickery, Xavier gets him to join up. Really getting jet-lagged by now, he also visits the Japanese fire-mutant Shiro "Sunfire" Yashida and reluctant X-Men enemy Sean Cassiday, the sonic-screaming Banshee. After quickly hiring a team of custom fashion designers to create original costumes for the new guys (and a new mask for Wolverine while they were at it), Professor X christening them Colossus, Storm, Thunderbird, and Nightcrawler. Together, they known as "The All-New, All-Different" X-Men (due to the covers declaring them so).

I've always felt, to some extent, that this incarnation was inspired by Star Trek and it's heavy-handed approach to diversity. Although it is indeed heavy-handed, there is something charming and indeed inspiring about seeing such strange and different people who are picked to live in a house and see what happens when people stop being nice and start--

Hey! This was the original Real World!

In all seriousness, for the first time the X-Men didn't get along and that was part of the fun. Thunderbird was just a jerk who assumed everyone was racist. Wolverine just liked to pick fights with everyone. Sunfire didn't want to be there from the beginning. Cyclops was struggling to keep them all together as the only remaining member of the original team.

Speaking of Cyclops, the story begins when it is revealed that the X-Men (with the exception of Beast and inclusion of Havok and Polaris) have been lost on the isle of Krakoa where they had gone to find a mutant whose power levels were off the charts. Only Scott managed to escape, but could not remember how. Xavier recruited this new team to save the old.

They arrive on Krakoa to find various bizarre monsters and after showcasing their powers (including Nightcrawler's ability to teleport in a puff of sulfer), they come to find their missing X-Men being fed on by vines of some sort. They soon discover that the mutant they detected was Krakoa itself (how this works, I never could figure out). After a big battle, they combine their powers and fling it into space thereby either killing a new and unique species or leaving it in limbo for eternity. On their way home Angel asks the question that readers had to have been asking by this point, "What are we going to do with thirteen X-Men?"

Starting with issue #94, Chris Claremont took over the writing on the X-Men. His first two issues were plotted by the previous writer, Len Wein, and so they don't exactly reflect Claremont's personal writing style. At the beginning of this issue, they start widdling down the team. Sunfire is the first to quit, but that's no surprise considering he nearly chickened out of the first fight. Banshee tries to quit, but Xavier talks him out of it. Finally, Angel announces that he and all of the old X-Men are leaving to lead their own lives as adults... everyone but Cyclops who stays on to lead the new team.

In a nutshell, this story is about Count Nefaria and his Ani-Men taking over NORAD and threatening the world with its nuclear arsenal. It always seemed like more of an Avengers plot to me, but it was little more than an opportunity to showcase the new team consisting of Cyclops, Banshee, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Storm, Thunderbird and Wolverine. The single-notable characteristic of this storyline (other than being Chris Claremont's debut... sort of) is that it features one of the first long-lasting character deaths when Thunderbird is caught in an explosion while chasing Count Nefaria. Although his name and costume has been reused over the years, this character remains dead... a rarity in comics.

Why Thunderbird? Well, because he didn't have any characteristics (other than racial) that the others couldn't duplicate. Colossus was stronger, Nightcrawler was more acrobatic, Wolverine had that animal fury and acted like a jerk. Thunderbird was pretty redundant, but he would be remembered as the first casualty of the X-Men... though not the last.

Chris Claremont's first issue as solitary writer was X-Men #96 which served as a memorial issue for Thunderbird. It is a more or less forgettable issue except for the introduction of Charles Xavier's best friend and former lover Moira MacTaggert, a Scottish biologist. Moira is one of the few humans to become a part of the X-Men family. In her first appearance, she fights off a demon with an AK-47. Banshee fell in love immediately.

This issue also introduced Storm's severe claustrophobia. I always enjoyed this aspect of her character. Although it was explained due to her tragic past, I like how the X-Men's powers often effect their personality. Storm hates confined spaces because she is psychically connected to the atmosphere. Cyclops is incredibly restrained because he is an unstable weapon. Nightcrawler is so kind and gregarious because he wants people to see past his demonic appearance.

Allow me to take a brief moment to talk about Chris Claremont because he was the sole X-Men writer for sixteen years writing almost two hundred issues of Uncanny X-Men and more X-Men spin-offs than I can count. More than any artist before or since, Claremont defined the X-Men and was responsible for their incredible success. With Len Wein's plots and Thunderbird's funeral out of the way, Chris Claremont began to lay the groundwork for the X-Men's most famous and popular storyline of all time.

The Phoenix Saga

X-Men #97 begins with Charles Xavier having fevered nightmares of an intergalactic civil war and a lone traveler reaching out for him. The experience leaves him shaken and wondering if he is losing his mind. Meanwhile, Alex "Havok" Summers and Lorna "Polaris" Dane are settling into civilian life when they are attacked by a mysterious stranger calling himself Eric the Red. Taking control of their minds, Eric the Red uses Havok and Polaris to attack the X-Men as they visit Jean Grey at the airport. Hurt and angry, but not defeated, the X-Men manage to repel the attack, but not save their friends from mind control.

In the next issue, it's Christmas in New York City and the X-Men are having a night on the town when the Sentinels attack without warning (which is generally the smarter way of attacking). After a brief fight, Jean, Banshee, Wolverine, and Professor X are taken prisoner on an orbital space station. The remaining X-Men fortunately have a very influential friend in the space program and soon the remaining X-Men, along with pilot Peter Corbeau, are in a space shuttle bound for the space station and racing against a major solar flare soon to hit Earth. With a few twists and turns along the way, the X-Men manage to rescue their comrades and escape in the shuttle they arrived in, yet the shuttle's autopilot had been damaged in the fight and the solar flare was about to hit any moment requiring the crew to ride in the shuttle's better shielded "life-cell," but without autopilot, there would be no one who could both survive the radiation and land the shuttle. No one except Jean. Telepathically borrowing Corbeau's piloting skills and knocking Scott unconscious when he tries to argue with her, Jean sends the others to the life-cell while she pilots the ship, protecting herself with a telekinetic shield, knowing full well that while her powers may protect her long enough to land the shuttle, they won't save her life. As she flies the shuttle down, she can feel the radiation coming through her shield and she cries out both physically and mentally.

In the following issue, #101, the shuttle crashes along the runway at JFK Airport, sliding across the tarmac into Jamaica Bay. The shuttle quickly sinks into the water, but the X-Men manage to reach the surface... all but Jean, but before they can do anything, Jean shoots up from the bay wearing a new costume, new attitude, and calling herself Phoenix.

Immediately, Jean collapses into the water and is rushed to a hospital. The doctor determines that she will be okay, although she has not yet regained consciousness, and Xavier can't help her because everytime he uses his powers his "nightmares" reappear. Meanwhile, Wolverine has discovered not only that he has feelings for Jean, but they are stronger than any he has known. On his way to visiting Jean in the hospital, he picks up a bunch of flowers, but when he arrives, he realizes he isn't the only one who loves Jean. The rest of the X-Men are already there and he tosses the flowers in the trash can.

While Scott, Xavier, and Moira stay with Jean, Xavier suggests that the others take a well-earned break and so they decide to vacation in Banshee's ancestral home of Cassidy Keep in Ireland. (Apparently Eddie Izzard is right. We do think they all live in castles.) They aren't there long before they discover that the castle has been claimed by Banshee's cousin, Black Tom (not to be confused with Uncle Tom, who is black) and the X-Men's old rival Juggernaut... although these X-Men had never faced him before.

During the fight, Ororo suffers a claustrophobic attack giving us a nice little flashback into her past. We learn that her father was David Monroe, an American photo journalist from Harlem, and her mother was N'Dare, an African princess. Both were killed in Cairo by a downed French plane in the Suez War. Ororo was trapped with the dead body of her mother for hours. She managed to escape and learned to become a beggar and a thief only to leave for the Serengati where she became a mutant and was worshipped as a goddess.

After a hard fought battle, Banshee manages to toss Black Tom over the castle wall and into the ocean where Juggernaut dives in to rescue him claiming that Tom was his only friend. Soon after, Moira MacTaggert calls the X-Men to alert them that an alarm has sounded at her genetic research facility on Muir Island off the coast of Scotland. The X-Men arrive to find Magneto has taken over. In his last appearance in a different comic, Magneto had been reverted to infancy, but Eric the Red restored him to a more vital age with his powers at their peak. The new X-Men, with the steel-skinned Colossus and adamantium-clawed Wolverine, don't fair well against Magneto and barely escape with their lives leaving Muir Island to their enemy.

A cryptic little message accompanies this storyline which the creators would not follow up on for nearly two years. Namely, what is Mutant X? (Of all the X-Men villains, X-Men director Bryan Singer named this one, who only appeared in one story, as his favorite.)

Jean awakens from her coma, able to become the Phoenix again with but a thought, just as Xavier's mysterious alien visitor finally meets him in person. Although she doesn't speak English, Xavier instinctively knows that her name is Lilandra. Soon they learn that she is the princess of a powerful intergalactic empire known as the Shi'ar. She is, for lack of a better word, Xavier's soulmate sharing a connection that she has followed across the universe knowing that his X-Men could help her stop her mad tyrant of a brother, D'Ken, from possessing the all-powerful M'Kraan Crystal. Eric the Red was sent to prevent this from happening and, true to his work, he shows up just in time to kidnap Lilandra and escape through an intergalactic stargate. Using the awesome and vaguely defined powers of the Phoenix, Jean manages to recharge the device and the X-Men jump through, not knowing what will be on the other side.

In a story titled "Where No X-Man Has Gone Before," the X-Men face the Shi'ar Imperial Guard, a large team of diverse superpowered aliens under the command of Emperor D'Ken. Jean is down from the effort of powering the stargate and the X-Men are hopelessly outnumbered by the well-trained Imperial Guard. Nightcrawler teleports to Lilandra's aid while Wolverine loses his costume and steals a new one. The X-Men do their best, but they are quickly defeated... only to be saved at the last instant by the mysterious space pirates known by their vessel as the Starjammers. Led by the human Corsair, the crew consists of his cyborg officer Raza, the feline-humanoid Hepzibah, and the giant reptilian Ch'od.

The tide of battle turns, but too late as the stars align, granting D'Ken the power of the crystal. Reality bends not only around them, but the entire universe begins to blink out of existence. The crystal is protected only by the midget Jahf who, with one punch, knocks Wolverine into orbit forcing the Starjammers to go retrieve him. Phoenix marshalls her strength and drops an asteroid on him, but it isn't before Banshee screams himself hoarse that he goes down.

Upon touching the crystal, they find themselves in a city inside the crystal where laws of space and time no longer apply. Jean reaches for a light in the center of the courtyard sensing a connection between the Phoenix and the crystal saying "Reality as we know it has no meaning here. And within this sphere is the heart of it all. I can feel life, Scott, and pain. Something is calling to me. Scott, I sense such... beauty." Suddenly, she triggers something and they all experience their worst fear. Jean suddenly realized that her own fear of death had gone when she had died, making her immune to the effect.

As the sphere cracks, Phoenix wraps her bird form around it to try to keep it from breaking and preventing a second big bang. Still, she lacks the power and it is only with the help of Ororo and Corsair that she manages to find it. As she leaves, she says, "Look after Cyclops for me, Corsair. He's the man I love, but he's also your first-born son." She becomes the Phoenix again and becomes the crystal even as she becomes the universe and life itself seeing her X-Men in mythic patterns. As suddenly as they left, the X-Men return to Earth, leaving D'Ken comatose and the Shi'ar empire in turmoil. Lilandra returns to Earth as her fate, both as heir and traitor to the crown, is debated. All in all, it's a happy ending.

Aside from being the last issue of the Phoenix Saga, X-Men #108 marked the first issue of penciller John Byrne who brought the best of both Neal Adams and Dave Cockrum to his work. The team of Claremont and Byrne is still widely considered to be the greatest X-Men collaboration of all time.

Next
The X-Men meet Canada's official superhero team Alpha Flight, the child-like assassin Arcade, the reality bending Proteus, and the hedonistic, meglomaniacal Hellfire Club.

LINKS

Part 1

Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8 (coming soon)