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X-2
The official site of the X-Men movie franchise!

X-MEN MINI SITES
Located at the official Marvel site, this page explores the X-Men through the pages of today's variety of mutant comics.

UNCANNY X-MEN.NET
For the fans, by the fans, this site doesn't leave anything out in your search for mutant info.

CHRIS CLAREMONT CHECKLIST
Every page the Uncanny Chris Claremont ever wrote is resourced here, including a cover gallery of all his comics.

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The Children of the Atom, drawn from the pages of the X-Men, first bowed in late 1963, yet another creation of Jack Kirby and Stan Lee from the ever-burgeoning House of Ideas. The X-Men would rank as the third costumed hero team book in the Marvel stable, behind the family drama of the Fantastic Four and the super-heroic squabbling of the Avengers, but would never reach the popularity of those titles for many, many years. The series would be handed off from one creator to another after Stan and Jack removed themselves from the title, and it would fluctuate in quality greatly in its first incarnation. In fact, the X-Men title would run for only 66 issues before settling into a long period of dormancy, the title only being kept alive as a bi-monthly string of reprints.

The first ten issues, however, are essential reading (and I don't mean to be read in black and white!) The X-Men mythos as we know it today was hardly in evidence, but Stan and Jack laid the seeds down with an innocence that is remarkable, as we now know how this title would (eventually) change the world of comics forever. The foundation of the X-Men is built from the alienation of a minority through the fear and ignorance of the culture at large. (A thinly veiled reflection of the racial prejudice that seemed to rule popular thought? Absolutely.) And this minority, capable of amazing powers and known as mutantkind, had to band together in a variety of ways to protect themselves from harm. These X-Men were simply naive teenagers, brought together by the powerful mutant telepath Professor Charles Xavier. At his school, which was to the outside world an elite prep school, the kids were put through tests, both mental and physical, to harness their powers and come to terms with their lot in life.

In these pages you will get to know the team as it would stand until 1975, the "old guard" of X-Men being Cyclops, Marvel Girl, the Angel, Beast and Iceman. Jack and Stan developed an interesting array of powers for at least a couple of these characters- the standouts being Cyclops' powerful optic blast, which made for an evocative rendering artistically, and Iceman, who started out looking like a clownsome snowman but had soon developed into a sleek, chic, super-cool super-hero. The Beast's and the Angel's powers were more run-of-the-mill. The Beast has super-agility and the Angel could fly. However, as X-Men they were endowed with freakish abnormalities from which their powers sprang! The Beast was a hulking animalistic looking man, with massive feet that he could use to balance on the head of a pin! And the Angel had great, big, feathery wings- like an angel, natch! But this writer's favorite character is Jean Grey, aka Marvel Girl. This redhead possesses the power of telekenesis- the ability to manipulate objects with the control of her mind. The romance between her and Scott Summers, aka Cyclops, is only burgeoning through these first ten issues, and wouldn't come into full bloom until much later. But it's hard not to read these stories with a sorrowing wistfulness knowing what the future has in store for this innocent young lady, at a time decades hence when she and her powers would explode at the epicenter of one of the great stories in comics history, in the very pages of the X-Men.

You will also get to know this team of teenagers' leader, the indomitable Professor X. Confined to a wheelchair though he may be, he is hardly in a position of powerlessness. His total control over the mind is the very thing that gives his the distinct ability to assemble such a team of youths and train them in the faculties of their powers. That, and his absolute dedication to the idea that mankind and mutantkind can live together in peace, if only fear could be eliminated from both their worlds.

Standing in the middle of that ideal is the central antagonist of the X-Men, Magneto! This arch-villain is present in the majority of stories in this first volume of Masterworks. He assembles his own rabble of mutants- EVIL mutants!- in an attempt to overpower mankind and assert the dominance of mutantkind. The Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver make their very first appearances as innocents in the thrall of Magneto's command. Longtime mutant menaces Mastermind, the Blob and the Toad also make life hard for the X-Men. And won't life be hard? Much like a Shakespearean plot device, the central theme of mutual respect between mutant and mankind will hardly ever be resolved. Instead, it only makes for a never-dull basis for which many great stories will be told down the line. This first volume of Masterworks, reprinting the first ten issues of X-Men, is integral to an understanding of the mutant universe and its place in the Marvel universe. Not to mention, it's good reading!

-- by Gormuu

Issues Reprinted
X-Men #1-10

Click on cover image to learn more about each issue.

All cover images are courtesy of the Silver Age Marvel Comics Cover Gallery.

Website design by Doug Roberts and John Thomas. All images on this site are copyright of Marvel Comics. This site is for reference purposes and promotion of the Masterworks line of books as well as Marvel Comics and their properties.