3.5 stars

As hard as it is to believe to modern X-Men readers, who are used to having multiple X-Men books released every month (more than anybody with a limited comicbook budget could afford to keep up with, to be honest), there was a time when the X-Men book sold so badly it was cancelled. This probably doesn't sound like such a big deal these days, when book cancellations are as common as cynical comicbook readers, but back in the day they hardly ever cancelled a book. Poor sales were seen as a sign th...

Flashback: Now, to be honest, I have grew up with the 90s X-Men cartoon series, so I have not really read any X-Men comics prior to the 90s, so reading “Uncanny X-Men” from Marvel Masterworks was a great look back to the 70s X-Men comics where the second generation X-Men (Wolverine, Colossus, Storm, Cyclops, Banshee, Sunfire, and Nightcrawler) are first introduced in the X-Men franchise. What is the story? In this volume, Professor Xavier goes around the world to recruit new members for

I've never been really on top of reading X-Men comics. I watched the 90s cartoon and I've watched the movie, but I never been too big on them and when I started reading comic books I never paid too much attention from them besides the X-Men books that were being written by Brian Michael Bendis at the time (All-New X-Men, Vol. 6: The Ultimate Adventure was a favorite of mine). As I learned more about the history of the Marvel Universe, I learned about the era of the X-Men under Chris Claremont wh...

I've read the most famous Claremont-era X-Men stories years ago (Dark Phoenix, God Loves/Man Kills, Days of Future Past, Lifedeath, the one where Wolverine fights all those ninjas...), but this is my first time going back to the beginning of the Claremont run. It's fun to watch Claremont figure out what he wants to do with these characters and to see him start planting the seeds for later, more elaborate stories. It's also good to know that Claremont had the deliciously overwrought narration dow...

There is actually quite a lot to enjoy here. You have the re-launch of the series that lays so many foundational X-men plot themes. You have the addition of some amazing signature characters. And of course the team dynamic and character building is fantastic. It has been a good while since I've read a comic book pre 1980's and usually stick to the modern fare. The writing is feels very long winded at times and this took me way longer than I was anticipating to read. So while the story set-up is

[Comics Canon Review]To kick off my attempt to visit (or revisit) some classic comics, I read the first full trade volume of Chris Claremont’s legendary run on the X-Men.I’m always interested in seeing how classic runs got their start. I like trying to identify the seeds of greatness buried within the messiness of beginnings. But it doesn’t take long for Claremont to find his sea legs. Within just a few issues, The X-Men would be rebranded as The Uncanny X-Men, and at the same time, Claremont an...

Although these comics have a hard time standing up by themselves, especially compared to the work they spawned, it nonetheless all started here. The history of the failed X-Men series, the creation of the New X-Men by Len Win and Cockrum and the beginning of the Claremont years all melded in this collection of comics to kick off one of the greatest comic book series ever.The newbies are unfleshed, the old standbys just accept that their days our done and leave immediately (the way you wish that

X-men is v horny jfc

I can remember where and when I bought Giant-Size X-Men #1. I read it that very night and have read it many more times over the years. All these comics included in this collection are riveting. The new lineup of X-Men revitalized the title and has gone on to great success.

In 1963 the original X-Men comic, by the now legendary Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, was released to mild success, not bringing in sales as big as some of Marvel's other titles, but nonetheless profiting and forming a considerable fanbase. That didn't last very long, however, and by 1969, despite numerous attempts at rejuvenation, sales plummeted drastically and X-Men was cancelled and continued only in reprints. It wasn't necessarily that the quality of the comics fell--indeed Roy Thomas wrote some

In the 1970s, Uncanny X-Men experienced their first "All New" rebirth. The famous Chris Claremont has taken over the writing, and much of the art here is by Dave Cockrum. It has a very 70s "psychedelic" feel to it. :) Banshee, Colossus, Nighcrawler, Wolverine, and Storm are added to the team. The original Thunderbird, John Proudstar, joined up for about 3 issues before going down in a blaze of stupidity. The primary enemy here is Steven Lang who resurrects Trask's Sentinels...with a twist. At th...

This collection is five stars for nostalgia's sake, only. The early Claremont/Cockrum books are so simplistic in retrospect, but at the time, they pushed the four color mutants into a whole new realm of relevance and popularity... long before they would become household, pop-culture icons. In this collection, we see the beginning of the New X-men, the team that would take a comic from being ready for cancellation, to the most popular superhero team, ever... a bridge between the old and new, wher...

Three and half starsThere is no denying that it was a good start ;-)

The X-men may have been created in the 1960s, but this series began the X-men as we know them today. This book collects Giant X-Men #1 and X-Men 94-100, the first new X-men comics in years. In Giant X-Men #1, Professor Xavier recruits several mutants to help rescue the X-men and then in Issue 94, we get a line-up where the only original X-men on the team is Cyclops and he's supported by an international team including Storm, Colossus, and Wolverine. The X-men fight Count Nefaria, fight a dragon

What a fantastic "masterwork" indeed! They don't make comics like this anymore. From the introduction of the new X-Men, resurgence of the sentinels, and the prelude to the Phoenix Saga, this one hits ALL the right beats for X-Men fans. I loved the classic style and witty commentary. The was clearly written back when writers thought their readers were intelligent. Always good to revisit my favorite comic series when I was a kid/teen... the X-Men.

My review of this trade will actually be a brain dump about the X-Men in general - mostly.I read the X-Men comics monthly for about ten years (let's say 1982 to 1992). I still fondly recall the first half of those stories (maybe up through Inferno, and along with New Mutants) but the older I got the less patience I had with Claremont's writing. People just didn't talk the way he made his characters talk. Not that other comic-book dialogue was BETTER, but it still grated on me. Then the art chang...

4 stars

This wasn’t my favorite, but I think that has to do with the fact that I’m not as big a fan of older comics as I am of contemporary comics. I did really enjoy the addition of the “new X-Men”, such as Wolverine and Storm. And there were some pretty good fight scenes in this compilation. There are some confusing parts in it that I either missed because of issues not included in this compilation, or a failure on the writers to explain. In the beginning of the compilation, (view spoiler)[ the “old X...

Through out the history of Marvel there's a proud tradition of Stan Lee creating characters that no one gave a crap about until a writer came along that actually brought something interesting to the idea. No one really cared about Daredevil until Frank Miller gave him a tune up (and oddly turned him into a testing ground for other writers), and I know I personally thought Spider-man was mostly junk until writers like Slott and Bendis got involved. There's a sense that Marvel is willing to let it...