Reprinting *Giant Size X-Men* #1 and *X-Men* Vol.1 #94-119
Written by Len Wein and Chris Claremont
Pencils by Dave Cockrum, Bob Brown, Tony DeZuniga and John Byrne
Inks by Dave Cockrum, Bob McLeod, Sam Grainger, Bob Layton, Tom Sutton, Frank Chiaramonte, Dan Green, Tony DeZuniga, and Terry Austin
Letters by Tom Orzechowski, Karen Mantlo, David Hunt, Annette Kawecki, Joe Rosen, Irving Watanabe, John Constanza, Bruce Patterson, Gaspar Saladino, Denise Wohl, Jean Simeck, Rick Parker, and Clem Robbins
Well, gosh, that's a lot of credits up there, isn't it? Since we've gone ga-ga over *The X-Men* here, it's been my humble duty to go back to the thrilling days of yesteryear-- not *way* yesteryear, as in the first run of *X-Men* back in the 60's, but to the rebirth that began with *Giant Size X-Men* #1 in 1975 and catapulted Marvel's never-all-that-merry mutants into the superstars they became. *The Essential X-Men Vol. 1* collection starts there and carries us through *X-Men* (now "Uncanny") #119, just three years after the relaunch. What a ride.
The whopping cast of creatives above is there to illustrate an interesting pattern that appears as one reads through these years. You can *see* the creatives figuring out what will make the new team tick here, both in the stories and in the presentation. Len Wein gives way immediately to Chris Claremont, who holds fast to the book far past the issues here presented. In art, we cover one major period and the beginning of another: the full run of Dave Cockrum's fun, space-age style, which gives way to John Byrne and Terry Austin's hyper-real style that somehow makes the cosmic all the more *cosmic.* Heck, here we see the X-Men become cosmic in the first place. The most humorous changing of the guard has got to be the letterers, who face the unenviable task of cramming the sheer volume Chris Claremont's *words* into the art. Poor Tom Orzechowski comes, goes, comes, and stays, in the end, perhaps because only he could take the punishment.
But let's go back. I won't belabor the history of the X-Men too much here because almost every fan at least knows the difference between the "classic" X-Men of the 60's-- Cyclops, Beast, Angel, Marvel Girl and Iceman-- and the "All-New, All-Different" X-Men. The latter, introduced in *Giant Size X-Men* as a new team gathered by Professor X to search for and rescue the old team, featured the not-new but vaguely different Cyclops and introduced Wolverine, Storm, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Sunfire, Thunderbird, and Banshee. By the end of this episode the X-Men were left with an *Avengers*-like count of thirteen X-Men, prompting several of the old guard to pack off for continuity unknown. Jean Grey stayed, and the New X-Men were born.
These comics are a little before my time, so this is one of the first opportunities I've had to read through them back-to-back like this. It's fascinating to watch Claremont's growth as a writer, taking the X-Men from the utterly banal language of the 60's ("Permit me to hip you to the inside story of my sub-zero existence!" promises Iceman in an old feature reprinted here) to Claremont's own, early awkwardness.
At first, Claremont isn't sure what to do with all of these characters. Wolverine's character veers wildly between arrogant lunkhead to gosh-darn-sweet, all with the subtlety of a jackhammer. What an unbearable character Wolverine was at the start: "ain't got no use for Christmas," he grumbles in an early issue, before grumpily buying flowers for Jean and then throwing them away. Nightcrawler laughs at him in the danger room and Wolverine *flies* at him, claws bared and screaming "ain't nobody laughs at me, Bub!" Here, Wolverine is a borderline psycho, but we're never sure exactly why. By 1977, in issue 109, Claremont has settled Wolverine into the recognizable role of *impenetrably mysterious grumpy man*, which is different. Suddenly Wolverine sounds like a human (albeit a Marvel human), as when the following exchange takes place:
Wolverine: "I said huntin', honeybunch-- I said nothin' about killin'. It takes no skill t'kill. What takes skill is sneakin' up close enough to a defenseless doe to touch her."
Storm: "Wolverine, I misjudged you."
Wolverine: "I could care less. You've all been misjudging me since the day I joined this turkey outfit."
Well, no we *haven't*, Chris Claremont. Up until now Wolverine's been a danger to himself and others, and now he's a deer-lover? This is the forgivable sin of retrofitting the past, to suit changes. But look how quickly it happened-- Wolverine came to the X-Men in 1975, and this is barely two years later, and he's close to being the character we know today. By 1978, he speaks Japanese.
Claremont improves greatly in dialogue, abandoning the comicky angst of his early work In Claremont's first issue #94, his idea of an introspective moment is to have Cyclops looking out on a storm and thinking:
"Face it, Summers. No matter which way you cut it, you're the one X-Man who can't HIDE who he is... and who dares not FORGET, because if he does, someone might get KILLED. Killed by my EYES! My cursed, mutant, energy-blasting EYES!"
But by issue #109, he's found his voice, as when Wolverine tells Cyclops:
"If you keep tearing your guts out every time you think the world's shafted you, my friend, you'll destroy not only yourself, but those who love you."
The cover promises, "Contains over twenty issues of continuity!", a funny promise in itself, and to which I respond, "Oh, *really?*" I doubt some of that; for one thing, time still mattered in these early days, or at least Claremont hadn't yet abandoned the concept of earthly years. Storm's origin is placed squarely against the backdrop of the Suez Canal in 1956, and Jean Grey can trick the Sentinels into underestimating their powers "because we haven't faced them since 1969." It's difficult for me to grasp that these issues came out in 1978-- Nightcrawler is excited about going to see *Star Wars*-- although Marvel continuity today is forced to jack the years forward constantly to keep time sufficiently compressed.
These issues are transitional, really. They're a bridge between the local, teenage team of the 60's to the cosmic, multi-national, adult team of today. (And they are adults. Wolverine is *old*, and Cyclops appears about thirty regardless what age we pretend he is. Ororo has to be twenty-five, and Peter should be close to that.)
Things begin to get complex beyond the imagining of the early years, as characters stack up and issues get weightier. The mutant-hatred concept begins to well in the background, and towards the end, Jean Grey is reborn as the Phoenix, which we know will lead to her doom. (Or did it? The nice thing about reading these issues is, all of that hasn't happened yet, so it doesn't matter.) My only warning is, because this is a "phone book" reprint, it's in black and white. All of it.
But if you want to see where all the hysteria *really* started, *The Essential X-Men Vol. 1* is a wonderful trip through memories you may not even have (and some you'll wish you didn't.)