My first exposure to the X-Men came from the very first major event story line in the Modern Age of comics, Secret Wars. The sub-par storyline involved almost all the major Marvel heroes of 1984 being brought together by an unknown deity to fight a plethora of super villians on a world far from their own. Recently rereading the series brings back the nostalgia of first getting into super hero comic books when I first read the series in 1987. However the plot points, characterization and overall uniqueness of the series doesn't transfer over to my adult reading abilities. Making it even harder to enjoy is knowing that the whole series was proposed by a toy company trying to initiate a line of Marvel Heroes toys. I fondly remember playing with Doctor Doom and Captain America action figures on my grandparents porch circa 1985, so the toy company's plan must have worked.
The comic book excitement began when we moved from one side of my hometown to the other side and my older brother's new friends let him borrow a large pile of Marvel comics from the 1984-1986 years. Before this my gateway to the comic drugs were GI Joe and Transformers, with a now lost adaptation of Return of the Jedi thrown in. Within this borrowed group was only a few X-Men books, the ones that butted up around the Secret Wars event. It wasn't until a few months later, when I saved up a few dollars from babysitting and mowing lawns, that the X-Men struck my eye. In a small bookstore in the village, that wasn't there for long at all, I picked up my first few superhero books. Among them Uncanny X-Men #219. It has to be the strangest of all the issues of Uncanny.
The cover and interiors are by Bret Blevins, who did very few issues, and never followed the Marvel house style of art. Thought written by longtime writer Chris Claremont, the storyline had Havok, who wasn't part of the X-Men during Secret Wars, leaving his girlfriend to search for the missing X-Men. Part of the X-Men at this point was their arch nemesis, Magneto, who also made few appearances in the book during this span of his reforming. It wasn't the X-Men I knew, but I was hooked by the mystery presented before me. Hooked so bad that Uncanny X-Men is the only book I've continuously bought over the last 25 years of comic reading. Since 1987 I have read every issue of Uncanny X-Men the month it has come out. Thanks to a reprint series that started around 1986 called Classic X-Men, I was able to fill in the gaps from the X-Men relaunch of 1975 to my start point in 1987. Giant Sized X-Men #1 relaunched the X-Men in 1975 with a near new cast of mutants, notably including Wolverine, Storm, Colossus, and Nightcrawler. Soon after legendary scribe Chris Claremont would start his epic 16 year run.
But before 1975, X-Men was a cancelled comic. The first series, simply labeled "X-Men", started in September of 1963 by Marvel's best loved architects Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. It was the height of Lee's initial creativity in creating characters like the Fantastic Four, the Avengers and Spider-Man. The X-Men of the 1960s could be considered one of Marvel's worst selling books. Neither Kirby nor Lee lasted long on the book. The first series was cancelled in 1969. Oddly again the series went into repeats for the next six years, not a comic book norm for the time. After it was reborn in 1975 it became one of Marvel's most successful franchises.
Until recently the original series has only been reprinted in the expensive hardcover Marvel Masterworks format. Thankfully the demand for the material has finally led to softcovers and cheaper reprints to be released. After finally completing my collection, I now hold and have unread most of the first 66 issues of the 1960s X-Men. I look forward to posting quick analysis of each issue after I read it, trying to see why the first series didn't last, and what plots and characters survived the 6 year gap to become part of the new X-Men.
