First, I'm pretty sure the guy's name is Martin Goodman. Second... this comic rules. I am looking at it through rose-colored glasses, but hey, it's about a guy with a rose-colored visor, so why not?
Also, this comic IS very much in the tradition of the Fantastic Four. I know you were probabaly kidding, but a lot of peoples' beef is that it was too much like the FF. Cyclops had the stoic leader thing, Marvel Girl had about as much personality as Sue Storm, Beast was more like the Thing (before they started writing him as a genius) and Iceman was essentially a color swap of the Human Torch.
Plus, y'know, it had the same writer and artist.
To be positive, though, I like the garage version of the X-Men theme and that voice effect you used for your "telepathy."
You know I hate to admit this, but this comic ticks every box when it comes to why I DON'T read X-Men. It feels lazy, dull, aimless and frankly just doesn't appeal. As you pointed out the Mutant Angle is the laziest super-powered gimmick in history. Somehow rather than going forward in his creativity Stan Lee went backwards. When the hight of that creative streak was "… urm… RADIATION!" worry. The source of their mutation's, perhaps the most important part of the whole damn, concept is never reasonably explained. Or given reason or rhyme the Mutant excuse is more than unbelievable they are absolutely impossible. When it does finally get a reason (any reason) it's about as obscure and pointless as an episode Heroes. X-men is, unfortunately to me, so boring and predictable that it puts me to sleep. I've watched the review twice now and nothing about the comic has stuck with me. Stuff happened, Iceman can throw ice and Professor X is a telepath, in other news water happens to be wet at room temperature. Just to irritate me you could pull any issue of this comic, ever, and put it after this first issue and the characters wouldn't have changed. Oh they might have more backstory but they'ed take exactly the same actions and get the same results. The point of development is that things change, not stay the same thinly veiled metaphor for racism for people that aren't racist! I'd give points for Wolverine, but that means taking them away from the rest of the characters. If you can call the two dimensional (yes I went there, deliberately) caricatures characters. Hint; they never have been. As you, yourself, have demonstrated Power Rangers, a show often mocked for being childish and irrelevant, has more development and depth than this crude attempt. I admit that I'm bias, but I've never been able to get into Stan Lee's work. At first I thought it was that X-Men, often held up along with Spiderman, as his best work has been butchered by other writers, but after seeing this early work I have to wonder if they haven't improved it as best they can. The saying "you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear" comes to mind. Otherwise known as:- "No matter how much you polish a turd it's still a turd." God I need a drink after this As for the fore-shadowing let's see where that goes.
Wow, the male X-Men were dicks in the past. I thought that only happened once Wolverine joined the team.
Also, old-school Iceman is goofy. And I thought he was bad in "Spider-Man And His Amazing Friends".
You know, I know all these weapons are for future eps and stuff, but I can almost see you in story opening up a weapon shop, selling things like Morphers to trusted customers.
Great job on all of this. Looking forward to who you look in on next year (I'm assuming Wonder Woman will be one of them) as well as more Brute Force insanity.
One request though...getting back to goofiness though...any chance of another Sinnamon issue? I know you mentioned on one podcast you were thinking about going back to that series sometime.
While I love the O5 team, the Stan Lee issues are the weakest ones unfortunatly. I actually think the X-Men Origins issue retelling this first issue with modern writing and art is way better than the original version.
I am disappointed though. I am surprised you didn't mention that Stan Lee for the first few issues wrote Beast as pretty low IQ and almost exactly like The Thing. He even has the same dialogue ticks. It wasn't until later issues where they actually made him the genius of the team. Which was a change for the better.
As for the Slim/Scott thing? That's simply due to the fact that Stan Lee couldn't remember his name from issue to issue. Yes, this is how bland Scott was as a character back then. The creator couldn't even remember his name. Though I'll certainly take boring Scott over his current complete A-Hole incarnation anyday of the week.
As for the Xavier thing. In Stan Lee's mind, Xavier wasn't supposed to be that much older than his pupils. But yes, it was creepy and never mentioned again. Well, at least until some geniuses dusted it off during Onslaught to make Xavier look even more creepy. Sometimes forgetting horrible continuity ideas like this is for the best. Sheeesh.
Haha. Thanks for Secret Origins month. I was really anticipating this issue, remembering the awkward stuff at the school. I'd love to see you review the FF's origin. The opening with the team assembling, frightening civilians and destroying property is a comedy goldmine (especially when you consider thats one of the few things the last two film adaptation accurately captured)
Have you considered getting a prop cigar? Maybe just use a roll of pennies, if you don't want to support the tobacco industry. Having you continue to gesture and bite down on an invisible one, looks a little too silly.
Also, apparently Cyclops using "Maximum Power" turns him into God from those Jack Chick Tracts.
To Frankie: The creators began to write The Beast as a genius around issue #3. Amusingly, there was a stretch of issues of X-Factor (#19 to #33) where he was losing his intelligence gradually to the point where he spoke like his day-one self!
Actually Stefan, the X-men in the 60's were not that successful. If I remember my history right, they were one of marvels lowest selling books at the time. It was not until they were given to the hands of Chris Clairmont that we have the team and the success that we know as of today
It's one of the missiles Link, not a bazooka. Jean Grey's birth date is shown on Phoenix's headstone as 1956, you do the math! Maybe Maggie's using the "metal" gunpowder, y'know, like Indy did!
"Ah, good old-fashioned sexism. We get one female character that serves as the token love interest for everyone else and their dog."
Except for Bobby. If you'll note, he's incredibly disinterested in Jean being there. Which is what birthed the speculation for years that Bobby was gay. The whole twirling around the giant phallic ice pole didn't help either. Neither did his close friendship with Beast, the thing with Cloud in Defenders, the fact he used to introduce himself as "Beast's Boyfriend Lance" as a joke at least a couple times, or the relationship with Mystique recently. Mystique... the ultimate beard. Be a chick for your guy friends, and a dude in the bedroom. Any wonder why Family Guy even has suggested this? ;)
I really don't think that the lack of origin for the X-Men is a problem. I mean, no version of the Flash had much of an origin story, and look how important he became.
What bugs me about the mutant thing is that no matter how much progress is made in the real world and in non-X titles at Marvel, civilians are relegated to bigotry which makes even less sense when you consider that they don't have a problem with people acquiring powers, but they do when people are born that way.
"Oh, but that's the point," some will say, but I think that no matter how senseless prejudice might be, if the fear of mutants rests in the fact that they have all these powers, wouldn't it be even more objectionable for, say, Iron Man to create a suit of armor which "gives" him powers equal to that of, say, Colossus and Cyclops combined? Or when people like the Fantastic Four just kinda "get" super powers through some strange accident. How is being a mutant "worse" than that? And I could see it with Reed and Sue, being the perfect couple or whatever; but what about Ben Grimm? Why would he not be prejudiced while, say, Jean Grey--essentially a younger, redheaded Sue with worse taste in men--is?
I know the principles involved here, I'm just saying why I don't think it makes sense.
Yes, the X-Men of the 60's was not that successful. But strangely enough, they still sold better than they do now adays. Thank goodness for Chris Claremont dusting off our Merry Mutants and giving us nearly 20 years of awesome storylines after that though. Shame it all went downhill again when he left in '91.
Because the people that get their powers through strange science or something, were on the whole few and far between. And usually involved some amazing alignment of events that caused the change.
Where as ANYONE could be a mutant. The person you cut off or flip off, could melt your head with some crazy beam. Plus it didn't help when you had folks like Magneto running around and making things worse. Plus they were seen as the next stage of evolution. The end of current humanity. So it sorta makes sense from those stand points.
And while you have a good point about how things have change, I think the civil rights/oppressed outsider standpoint still works. Everyone knows in some way what it means to be oppressed. Hell, I am sure people tease Linkara for his love of Power Rangers or Yu-Gi-Oh. And I'm sure a lot of us were seen as geeks and such in school.
And while things have improved for some minority groups, I don't think the same can be said for all. Look at how Gays are treated still in the world we live in. Like, well.... mutants. Who have to hide what they are from the normals to even have normal lives in some cases. Such as serving in the military. And arn't allowed to get married. So it's not a utopian paradise as of yet, and the X-Men still and probably will always resinate to some people. Plus it speaks to our collective nostalgia for many of us for when we felt like the outsiders for what we liked, believed, or felt.
*laughs* it was fun to see Salute Your Shorts again. Seeing the X-men as incredibly creepy and pervy was better though in a disturbing way.
Before I saw this review I always thought the Original 5 got along great, or at least Iceman and Beast. I also thought Iceman joined last, and not Jean. Eh, second hand information. What che gonna do? *shrugs*
I heard about that scene with Prof. X (just talked about it today at lunch) but never knew he mentioned his chair. Most guys wouldn't mention that.
No more origins is OK, I want to see more Snow Flame anyways:D
I read this for the first time a few years ago and chuckled at a lot of the things you made fun of. Though I like how soft and innocent it all really ends up being compared to the drama of modern X-men. I enjoy modern X-men from time to time (the vampire stuff is beyond stupid however), but this is somehow refreshing.
Mountain King: You're quite wrong about that. In just the last few years especially almost every single major player on the X-men has changed a lot.
The problem with X-Men was never the character, its been that most writers simply can't do a good job at it. Ed Brubaker is an excellent writer in most cases, but with X-Men he was terrible. So many writers seem to love shoving the X-men into the events of the MarvelU and it doesn't work, ever. The X-men are at their absolute worst when dealing with stuff other MarvelU stuff. The X-men books also should be character pieces instead of pure action fluff all the time and once again most writers simply don't get that.
So while you are right to a point, when someone who knows how to write X-men well is left alone to do stuff it gets better. Matt Fraction, Mike Carey, Craig Kyle, Christopher Yost are the best writing team the X-men universe has had in a long time. They all have their problems (Fraction and Carey especially), but they've taken the mutants further (for better or worse) quicker than ever before.
"Oh, but that's the point," some will say, but I think that no matter how senseless prejudice might be, if the fear of mutants rests in the fact that they have all these powers, wouldn't it be even more objectionable for, say, Iron Man to create a suit of armor which "gives" him powers equal to that of, say, Colossus and Cyclops combined? Or when people like the Fantastic Four just kinda "get" super powers through some strange accident. How is being a mutant "worse" than that? And I could see it with Reed and Sue, being the perfect couple or whatever; but what about Ben Grimm? Why would he not be prejudiced while, say, Jean Grey--essentially a younger, redheaded Sue with worse taste in men--is?"
Maybe since there mutants and born with the abilities humans know one day they will be extinct
Great review, as always. -applause- (Seriously, you excel at not doing the "miss" part of "hit-and-miss". Well done. ^_^) My personal guess as to your origin has something to do with Gallifrey. I've had that theory for a while, actually.
Thank you for consistently making my Mondays awesome, sir. I doff my hat to you. -doffs-
"Like, well.... mutants. Who have to hide what they are from the normals to even have normal lives in some cases. Such as serving in the military. And arn't allowed to get married."
Argh!
I'm tired of people misunderstanding how "gay marriage," works. It's not that gays "can't get married," it's that--in most states--marriage is considered between a man and a woman. That means that a bisexual OR even a gay or lesbian individual has as much right to marry someone of the opposite sex as they want; but the laws vary for a couple of the same sex.
In California, the "ban" was considered "unconstitutional, but even before that, they could still be recognized as a "civil union," or something.
I'm not saying I'm pro-or-anti gay marriage, I'm just sick of the way some people phrase the issue.
Yet another great review. It is always interesting to me to look at where these well known comics begin and how much they(and the artwork) has changed over the years.
Have you ever thought about doing an episode on the histories of some of these characters? not the history of the comic but the history of them within the comics, because some of them have gotten extremely convoluted and I imagine some of the 'plot twists' writers have thrown in have been pretty ridiculous. You've certainly mentioned that with Spiderman occasionally. Your review of the original appearance of Superman actually made me think about that in relation to the having read Sandman: Endless Nights which gives Neil Gaiman's ultimate origin of both Superman and the Green Lantern corps.
Either way, great review, I look forward to your next one.
Of the four books, this is the one that feels the least like you can use the excuse of time to explain its short comings. This is a pretty awkward book overall. A suggestion for next year, though, is Flash #167, one of the greatest secret origin books for you to do. It is something that even the silver age had to cock its head to the side and say "REALLY!?!"
Having been in the Navy and on a mixed gender ship I can say the X Men's response to Jean showing up is RATHER ACCURATE TO REALITY.
I was in during the early-mid 90s. One average looking girl commented that during her first week on board she "felt like slab of meat".
So while the X Men were being creepy, they were being like guys normally do when there are more dudes than women around.
Sad, but true. I could get into how its genetic and socially sort of ingrained for us lads to be encouraged to do this, but that would only depress me.
There have been a couple releases of this material people can get if they want though.
Marvel Masterworks had the early issues in 10 in 1 hardbacks and they had mini versions which used the same silver border with original cover inside for just the original issues.
Essential X men should have it but I don't much care or like the original 5 outside of Iceman and Beast so I can't say for sure. (I care more about the later cast when Claremont was writing but hadn't gone completely creepy/ridiculous.) I only have some of the Uncanny Essential books. Great deal though.
I think I just realized why Iceman didn't cover his boots in snow: it's so he doesn't slip around while running.
Anyway, fun review, interesting to see how the group started, and seeing how the intellectual Beast apparently started as a womanizing, aggressive teen.
...the last time we delved into your "Secret Origins", we found out Pollo has the capacity to become the hideous love child of a Terminator and Hannibal Lecter, and your magic gun is actually the possessed death weapon of an evil pagan cult. I think, in this case, the less we know about your origins, the better.
I remember the old X-Men; my dad gave me an old, beat-up issue of X-Men #37, and I wish I had kept it, now. Yeah, I know, collector's fallacy and all (though it IS from the original volume of comics, so not as much of a fallacy as it could be), but it still made for an awesome (if utterly ridiculous) read.
I'm disappointed you didn't make a "Professor X likes watching teenagers sweat" joke, in light of the utter creepiness going on with him, or a Yu-Gi-Oh "Absolute Powerforce" joke when Cyclops switched to "maximum power", especially given your last Vlog.
Bizarre ending to the month with a bizarre comic. I swear, Xavier gets away with so much in his douchery that he makes Superman look honest. I mean come on: he was after Jean as well? No wonder Lee and Kirby never got this idea as far as they did their other stuff...though Magneto does have good penmanship.
Huh, I didn't know Ron Wasserman wrote that X-Men cartoon theme. That actually makes some sense, considering both that and the original MMPR theme are earwormy as hell and clearly have a lot of staying power.
(You can tell I was focusing on the important details here ;) )
Hehe, Jean Grey was put on the team for her "talents". By which I mean her boobs.
Also, you missed like three "OF COURSE!" gags. I understand that it's a bit played out at this point, but running gags into the ground can be funny too.
I've heard similar rumors on TV Tropes. Given how often he shows up in other people's reviews, though, I'd say he's more likely the lovechild of Wolverine and Squirrel Girl. Yes, I'm serious. Hey, don't laugh, Squirrel Girl once defeated Dr. Doom and Thanos, among others, by herself and her squirrels. Ma-Ti, eat your freaking Heart out.
You know you're too much of a nerd when you can not only notice two different sonic screwdrivers were used, but you recognize that they're the ones that the 10th and 11th doctors use.
Especially when your area of nerdiness isn't even Doctor Who.
I don't think it's creepy for teenagers to give their mentor - who they know well, are fond of and live with - a blanket. That was kind of a sour comment.
The video froze up for me after that, which is why this is a negative-only comment! Sorry.
Oh lordy. I actually have the issue with "ZOMG PROFESSOR LOVES JEAN GREY" lying around somewhere -- well, sort of. It was a mini-comic I found on the end of a grocery store aisle. No kidding! I got a Spiderman comic there, too, though I'm not sure whether it was the first one or a later issue like my X-Men issue. Come to think of it, I think those were the first two comics I ever read... Though I'm still going to credit you and Deadpool for getting me into reading comics properly. (:
Great review! Thanks for pointing out once again how creepy Professor X can be, and I loved the return of his school budget discussions. (You know, when it's put that way, it sounds much less hilarious than it is...)
Why do you at the credits say "first appearance of Magneto and Jean Grey" ? I thought it was the first appearance of all the X-men featured in this issue !
"Why do you at the credits say "first appearance of Magneto and Jean Grey" ? I thought it was the first appearance of all the X-men featured in this issue!"
Yeah, but we have no idea how the school was established or how the four met, whereas this shows Jean Grey and Magneto as new people they are meeting for the first time.
"... "Yaybo"? What the hell kind of exclamation is "yaybo"!?"
I wondered the same thing. I looked it up and it is, surprisingly enough, legitimate slang for the time.
I have never really been a fan of crossovers. They always seem to break the universe.
The X-men are the prime example. Given any X-men story you cannot spit without it landing on either a mutant or an anti-mutant bigot. However, in Spiderman stories that sort of thing happens very infrequently even though they are based in the same city.
In fact, why doesn't Spiderman get treated as a mutant? He is, after all, a human with a slight change in his genetic structure that gives him superpowers. (I am sure someone will point out a story where he is treated as a mutant, but that is the exception rather than the rule.) I know his powers are not caused by the "mutant X gene", but nobody could know that without running a genetic test on our heroic webslinger. Somehow, I can't see him letting this happen.
This is one of the reasons I like webcomics so much. They are produced independently, so the creators do not shoe-horn their stories into already established universes where they do not fit.
Now that I think about it, the ice shell to protect them from the explosion could actually work, providing the explosion wasn't close enough to shatter the ice(I can't really tell from the panels you should whether or not that is the case).
The reason it would work is for the same reason that you can put out a candle with your fingers without burning yourself if your fingers are wet, the heat would melt/evaporate the ice before it would effect the people on the other side. Therefore the ice should protect them from the intense heat of such an explosion for a short amount of time.
That makes sense in my head at the very least, but I'm not a physicist so if I might well be wrong.
I don't really have anything to add about the review. I just wanted to see if you knew about Marvel fighting in court to have mutants declared non-human.
So Xavier is hot for Jean Gray but the main reason he doesn't tell her is because of the wheelchair? Not that he's, you know, a teacher? Not that he's probably old enough to be her dad? Ugh, the fact that being in a wheelchair is considered the major turn-off certainly has some unfortunate ableist connotations.
Hi linkara I loved secret origins month and I hope you will do it again next november.
until then i seen a ad in a old comic for psa comic you should defantly review: power pack and the amazing spider-man with tips to prvent sexual abuse. thise psa will probly be hard to find becuase acording to the ad to get the comic you had to mail in $1.00 so good luck in finding it
@ TimeTravelerJessica: At the time it would have been written it wasn't really uncommon for men to marry women much younger than them. As for the wheelchair thing...again, I'm fairly sure that was a more common sentiment at the time.
On the comic: Something jumps out at me. Based on this comic a lot of the things Sen. Kelly in the movie says are at least somewhat justified. The mutants in this comic don't show much restraint here and regular humans would be justified in fearing them.
Hey Linkara, just in case you don't know "the Gutters", it is a very funny webcomic and recently, they posted somethung I was sure could get a good laugh out of you:
I won't deny that the original X-Men was not exactly the high point of the Lee/Kirby partnership, but I'd argue that in general, except for certain instances where Lee really had something definite to say in his writing (i.e: Spider-Man), he didn't really hit his stride until the mid-to-late sixties.
The first few issues of Fantastic Four were very much like this X-Men book, with equally fun superhero action, but also equally odd bits of convoluted dialogue and some female objectification (The Thing spends these first few issues mood-swinging wildly between being horrified at his appearance and trying to fight Reed for Sue Storm's affections). The Hulk was not a whole lot different either: Solid action, with most of the non-Hulk characters (including Bruce Banner) being pretty bland at frist, and Hulk himself being a rather chatty douchebag (including hilariously bitch-slapping Rick Jones three times in the first two issues).
It wasn't until later that Lee's facility at human drama really developed, and began to mesh with Kirby's penchant for larger-than-larger-than life ideas (I think the original single concept for the first Galactus story was "the Fantastic Four fight GOD") and we really got some of the best comics Marvel ever produced.
Does that excuse the glaring flaws in this early stuff? Nah. And is it true that X-Men only really flourished after Lee and Kirby were long gone from it and it was on the brink of cancellation? Yep. But credit where credit is due, the original germ of an idea was there for others to expand upon, and while X-Men as a team, a comic, and a brand may not have fully found it's voice with Lee and Kirby (a rare thing indeed in the Marvel age of comics), it still florished despite them.
I read this exact copy (The Marvel Masterworks, which I got out of the public library of all places) and had about the same thoughts. The first issue was definitely rough, but it seemed to have hit a lot of it's stride by the end of the ten-issue volume, establishing the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants very well and putting in the roots of the characterization that was missing here.
You know given the nature of the school, the near certain promise of meeting one's death at the hands of Magneto or some other pissy mutant would-be conqueror, and Prof X's own behavior..one wonders how or why anyone would want to join the X-Men.
Seems like it'd be safer just to live with the Morlocks.
Oh, if you do "Secret Origins Month" again anytime soon, please consider featuring the Origin of Golden Age Flash, its yet another example of how everything is solved with smoking, such as when Jay Garrick's cigarette break resulting in giving him superpowers.
Lewis: The tale on how the school was formed and how the four guys joined up was the back-up series 'Origins of the X-Men' which appeared in The X-Men #38 to #57!
Erik: Jay garrick is a great choice for SOM Year Two!
This comic raises a weird issue with Magneto's powers for me. Namely, yes it is possible for ridiculous levels of magnetic energy to affect people, because water has a (very) weak magnetic reaction. But if Magneto can use magnetism to lift himself and make fields that block people from moving (instead of just blocking metal objects), couldn't he just lift the people around and smack them into stuff or tear them apart instead of throwing metal at them and letting them dodge?
Also, you're right, Professor X really does come off as insane. So insane that I wouldn't put it past him to make a plane he could telepathically control by hooking the steering up to a brain. I mean, look at him training teenagers to be human weapons, spying on people with his telepathy, building deathtraps for training, living in a big, creepily empty mansion, he's basically a supervillain.
I got to disagree with you Linkara and Mountain King. I'm not going to lie and say that the whole mutant angle isn't odd and its why the X Men are usually put in there own universe but this is comic books we are talking about. Asking for certain kinds of logic in comics is incredibly stupid. Not to mention that it is way too easy to bash on Stan Lee. I'm sorry wasn't this guy responsible for creating some of the greatest comic book characters of all time?
Lets not also forget that Secret Origins or whatever the hell the name of this new idea is, while all being in good fun is picking on a origin story that is decades of years old. Its the equivalent of playing Bobby Fisher at Chess after hearing that he might of had brain damage after a car accident.
Also Mountain King, nothing personal but I hate your guts dude.
Okay after skimming the comments I didn't see anyone address this point...
But let's assume for a moment that the bodyheat hunting missile idea actually worked (and the PSA Hell comic Batman/Catwoman: The Trail of the Gun actually manages to show why such a weapon would be incredibly stupid)...
Let's assume for a moment, it would track the x-men's body heat, and not Magnetos or that he wasn't worried about that because if it did lock onto him he could just redirect it anyway... How the hell would it lock onto Iceman, he's made of living Ice, the surronding air has more heat then he does.
This comic fails!
Also I thought the way the addition of Ms. Martian at the end of the recent Young Justice cartoon premiere was handled was sexist but wow this does take the cake...
And I thought when that "Woman I love" stuff came up in the Onslaught Saga it was something new they'd made up.
I'm going to say Marvel Girl had at least a little bit more spine than the Invisible Girl did.
Also Cyclops was a dick even back then, somewhere around the first few issues one of the guys is reaching for their food and cyclops blasts him to stop him from doing so.
Not so bad except thats practically the equivalent of punching someone's hand into the table over lacking class.
As for why Iron Man is loved and they aren't; in a world where beings with superpowers roam, I suspect if a man developed a weapon that allowed you to fight all but the most powerful of them that would probably get him mad respect.
Of course, all the male X-Men would behave like tomcats around Jean, considering there were no girls at school up to this point.
"Except for Bobby. If you'll note, he's incredibly disinterested in Jean being there. Which is what birthed the speculation for years that Bobby was gay."
It shows that many people didn't actually read the original run beside the first issue. While Bobby doesn't show any apparent interest in Jean here, two issues later he already tries to woo her just like everyone else.
"In Stan Lee's mind, Xavier wasn't supposed to be that much older than his pupils. But yes, it was creepy and never mentioned again. Well, at least until some geniuses dusted it off during Onslaught to make Xavier look even more creepy."
Still not as creepy as in Ultimate Universe where he flat out says that he has always wanted to screw Jean. To Cyclops, no less.
"So Xavier is hot for Jean Gray but the main reason he doesn't tell her is because of the wheelchair?"
There was actually controversy about a comic that came before the X-men, the doom patrol because of name and origin ideas for characters on the show. If anyone doesn't know what doom patrol is, then check out the original series.
Iceman is poledancing. That's plenty creepy already. Combine that with Professor X getting comfortable and you've got the Creepy Singularity.
To be honest, if this were a high school, I don't think that bit with them drooling would be terribly out of character. However, they're not saying how old everyone is, and highschoolers doing death-defying stuff is generally not considered good, so...
You think baptism of fire is bad? Try on "seen the elephant" for size, or any of the other time-honored militaryisms of the English language. I'm honestly quite surprised you've never heard "baptism of fire" as it's reasonably common, of fairly modern extraction, and understood in most English-speaking nations. (Or at the least the US, UK, and Aussieland.)
I don't know, I think it's not entirely fair to Professor X to skip the first part of his "I have no right" statement. "Not while leader of the X-Men" is a perfectly valid and quite commendable attitude, and much better than most team leaders manage, in superhero comics or otherwise.
Hey there Linkara. Just thoought I'd let you know that I think the book you read frm is still in print. Resently I visited a comic book shop in downtown Chicago and I saw it and a few other collective type books like it. (I didn't get it, although I did get a copy of "Showcase Presents BOO$TER GOLD" and a figure of Black Canary) Just thought I'd let you know. ;)
I dunno if you're reading this for suggestions, but this year's Secret Origins Month would be great if you included (I'm assuming 2 from DC, 2 from Marvel):
The Fantastic Four (since you traded them in for the X-Men last year, I assume you're already planning on them for this year) The Flash Captain America Pre-Crisis Wonder Woman (good way to check out the history of women superheroes)
I finally got to this one on your "Storyline of Atop the Fourth Wall" page, and HOLY CRAP! The X-Men theme was written by Wasserman too? No wonder I love it so much. I've been singing/humming that song and Go Go Power Rangers for almost my whole life.
Anyway, I'm really enjoying these. Once I finish the storyline I'll go back and watch the rest of AT4W
First, I'm pretty sure the guy's name is Martin Goodman. Second... this comic rules. I am looking at it through rose-colored glasses, but hey, it's about a guy with a rose-colored visor, so why not?
ReplyDeleteAlso, this comic IS very much in the tradition of the Fantastic Four. I know you were probabaly kidding, but a lot of peoples' beef is that it was too much like the FF. Cyclops had the stoic leader thing, Marvel Girl had about as much personality as Sue Storm, Beast was more like the Thing (before they started writing him as a genius) and Iceman was essentially a color swap of the Human Torch.
Plus, y'know, it had the same writer and artist.
To be positive, though, I like the garage version of the X-Men theme and that voice effect you used for your "telepathy."
You know I hate to admit this, but this comic ticks every box when it comes to why I DON'T read X-Men.
ReplyDeleteIt feels lazy, dull, aimless and frankly just doesn't appeal. As you pointed out the Mutant Angle is the laziest super-powered gimmick in history. Somehow rather than going forward in his creativity Stan Lee went backwards. When the hight of that creative streak was "… urm… RADIATION!" worry.
The source of their mutation's, perhaps the most important part of the whole damn, concept is never reasonably explained. Or given reason or rhyme the Mutant excuse is more than unbelievable they are absolutely impossible. When it does finally get a reason (any reason) it's about as obscure and pointless as an episode Heroes.
X-men is, unfortunately to me, so boring and predictable that it puts me to sleep. I've watched the review twice now and nothing about the comic has stuck with me. Stuff happened, Iceman can throw ice and Professor X is a telepath, in other news water happens to be wet at room temperature.
Just to irritate me you could pull any issue of this comic, ever, and put it after this first issue and the characters wouldn't have changed. Oh they might have more backstory but they'ed take exactly the same actions and get the same results. The point of development is that things change, not stay the same thinly veiled metaphor for racism for people that aren't racist!
I'd give points for Wolverine, but that means taking them away from the rest of the characters. If you can call the two dimensional (yes I went there, deliberately) caricatures characters. Hint; they never have been. As you, yourself, have demonstrated Power Rangers, a show often mocked for being childish and irrelevant, has more development and depth than this crude attempt.
I admit that I'm bias, but I've never been able to get into Stan Lee's work. At first I thought it was that X-Men, often held up along with Spiderman, as his best work has been butchered by other writers, but after seeing this early work I have to wonder if they haven't improved it as best they can. The saying "you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear" comes to mind. Otherwise known as:- "No matter how much you polish a turd it's still a turd."
God I need a drink after this
As for the fore-shadowing let's see where that goes.
Thomas
AKA Mountain King
Ooh, I know your secret origin, Linkara! You were created from the pure magic of MINNESOTA to combat evil comics where they may hide! :D
ReplyDeleteEither that or it was a radioactive comic book accident.
Loved the review!
Hey at least you can say the writing and plot got better over the years instead of saying it all just sucked forever?
ReplyDeleteWow, the male X-Men were dicks in the past. I thought that only happened once Wolverine joined the team.
ReplyDeleteAlso, old-school Iceman is goofy. And I thought he was bad in "Spider-Man And His Amazing Friends".
You know, I know all these weapons are for future eps and stuff, but I can almost see you in story opening up a weapon shop, selling things like Morphers to trusted customers.
Great job on all of this. Looking forward to who you look in on next year (I'm assuming Wonder Woman will be one of them) as well as more Brute Force insanity.
One request though...getting back to goofiness though...any chance of another Sinnamon issue? I know you mentioned on one podcast you were thinking about going back to that series sometime.
Good review, Linkara.
ReplyDeleteWhile I love the O5 team, the Stan Lee issues are the weakest ones unfortunatly. I actually think the X-Men Origins issue retelling this first issue with modern writing and art is way better than the original version.
I am disappointed though. I am surprised you didn't mention that Stan Lee for the first few issues wrote Beast as pretty low IQ and almost exactly like The Thing. He even has the same dialogue ticks. It wasn't until later issues where they actually made him the genius of the team. Which was a change for the better.
As for the Slim/Scott thing? That's simply due to the fact that Stan Lee couldn't remember his name from issue to issue. Yes, this is how bland Scott was as a character back then. The creator couldn't even remember his name. Though I'll certainly take boring Scott over his current complete A-Hole incarnation anyday of the week.
As for the Xavier thing. In Stan Lee's mind, Xavier wasn't supposed to be that much older than his pupils. But yes, it was creepy and never mentioned again. Well, at least until some geniuses dusted it off during Onslaught to make Xavier look even more creepy. Sometimes forgetting horrible continuity ideas like this is for the best. Sheeesh.
Haha. Thanks for Secret Origins month. I was really anticipating this issue, remembering the awkward stuff at the school. I'd love to see you review the FF's origin. The opening with the team assembling, frightening civilians and destroying property is a comedy goldmine (especially when you consider thats one of the few things the last two film adaptation accurately captured)
ReplyDeleteHave you considered getting a prop cigar? Maybe just use a roll of pennies, if you don't want to support the tobacco industry. Having you continue to gesture and bite down on an invisible one, looks a little too silly.
Also, apparently Cyclops using "Maximum Power" turns him into God from those Jack Chick Tracts.
To Frankie: The creators began to write The Beast as a genius around issue #3. Amusingly, there was a stretch of issues of X-Factor (#19 to #33) where he was losing his intelligence gradually to the point where he spoke like his day-one self!
ReplyDeleteJ.A.P.
Ah, good old-fashioned sexism. We get one female character that serves as the token love interest for everyone else and their dog.
ReplyDeleteNow, if only it would stay old-fashioned, *cough*MEGAMIND*cough*.
Did Cyclops blow off his entire face when he went to maximum power?
ReplyDeleteAnd I wasn't thinking about Linkara's secret origin until you said something... DAMNIT! NOW I WANT TO KNOW!!!!
Actually Stefan, the X-men in the 60's were not that successful. If I remember my history right, they were one of marvels lowest selling books at the time. It was not until they were given to the hands of Chris Clairmont that we have the team and the success that we know as of today
ReplyDeleteIt's one of the missiles Link, not a bazooka. Jean Grey's birth date is shown on Phoenix's headstone as 1956, you do the math! Maybe Maggie's using the "metal" gunpowder, y'know, like Indy did!
ReplyDelete"I still do not understand, what made the X-Men that successful, but who knows how the 60s were working..."
ReplyDeleteActually, I hear the comic was a major flop for the longest time and somehow ended up saving itself and becoming a Marvel classic.
Awesome review, as always. :D But... *tilts head* Didn't you review X-Men #1 before? I'm sure I'm just terribly confused, but it's bugging me something awful.
ReplyDelete"Ah, good old-fashioned sexism. We get one female character that serves as the token love interest for everyone else and their dog."
ReplyDeleteExcept for Bobby. If you'll note, he's incredibly disinterested in Jean being there. Which is what birthed the speculation for years that Bobby was gay. The whole twirling around the giant phallic ice pole didn't help either. Neither did his close friendship with Beast, the thing with Cloud in Defenders, the fact he used to introduce himself as "Beast's Boyfriend Lance" as a joke at least a couple times, or the relationship with Mystique recently. Mystique... the ultimate beard. Be a chick for your guy friends, and a dude in the bedroom. Any wonder why Family Guy even has suggested this? ;)
I really don't think that the lack of origin for the X-Men is a problem. I mean, no version of the Flash had much of an origin story, and look how important he became.
ReplyDeleteWhat bugs me about the mutant thing is that no matter how much progress is made in the real world and in non-X titles at Marvel, civilians are relegated to bigotry which makes even less sense when you consider that they don't have a problem with people acquiring powers, but they do when people are born that way.
"Oh, but that's the point," some will say, but I think that no matter how senseless prejudice might be, if the fear of mutants rests in the fact that they have all these powers, wouldn't it be even more objectionable for, say, Iron Man to create a suit of armor which "gives" him powers equal to that of, say, Colossus and Cyclops combined? Or when people like the Fantastic Four just kinda "get" super powers through some strange accident. How is being a mutant "worse" than that? And I could see it with Reed and Sue, being the perfect couple or whatever; but what about Ben Grimm? Why would he not be prejudiced while, say, Jean Grey--essentially a younger, redheaded Sue with worse taste in men--is?
I know the principles involved here, I'm just saying why I don't think it makes sense.
Yes, the X-Men of the 60's was not that successful. But strangely enough, they still sold better than they do now adays. Thank goodness for Chris Claremont dusting off our Merry Mutants and giving us nearly 20 years of awesome storylines after that though. Shame it all went downhill again when he left in '91.
ReplyDeleteSaving -your- origin story for "another time?"
ReplyDeleteYou tease.
Because the people that get their powers through strange science or something, were on the whole few and far between. And usually involved some amazing alignment of events that caused the change.
ReplyDeleteWhere as ANYONE could be a mutant. The person you cut off or flip off, could melt your head with some crazy beam. Plus it didn't help when you had folks like Magneto running around and making things worse. Plus they were seen as the next stage of evolution. The end of current humanity. So it sorta makes sense from those stand points.
And while you have a good point about how things have change, I think the civil rights/oppressed outsider standpoint still works. Everyone knows in some way what it means to be oppressed. Hell, I am sure people tease Linkara for his love of Power Rangers or Yu-Gi-Oh. And I'm sure a lot of us were seen as geeks and such in school.
And while things have improved for some minority groups, I don't think the same can be said for all. Look at how Gays are treated still in the world we live in. Like, well.... mutants. Who have to hide what they are from the normals to even have normal lives in some cases. Such as serving in the military. And arn't allowed to get married. So it's not a utopian paradise as of yet, and the X-Men still and probably will always resinate to some people. Plus it speaks to our collective nostalgia for many of us for when we felt like the outsiders for what we liked, believed, or felt.
*laughs* it was fun to see Salute Your Shorts again. Seeing the X-men as incredibly creepy and pervy was better though in a disturbing way.
ReplyDeleteBefore I saw this review I always thought the Original 5 got along great, or at least Iceman and Beast. I also thought Iceman joined last, and not Jean. Eh, second hand information. What che gonna do? *shrugs*
I heard about that scene with Prof. X (just talked about it today at lunch) but never knew he mentioned his chair. Most guys wouldn't mention that.
No more origins is OK, I want to see more Snow Flame anyways:D
I read this for the first time a few years ago and chuckled at a lot of the things you made fun of. Though I like how soft and innocent it all really ends up being compared to the drama of modern X-men. I enjoy modern X-men from time to time (the vampire stuff is beyond stupid however), but this is somehow refreshing.
ReplyDeleteMountain King: You're quite wrong about that. In just the last few years especially almost every single major player on the X-men has changed a lot.
The problem with X-Men was never the character, its been that most writers simply can't do a good job at it. Ed Brubaker is an excellent writer in most cases, but with X-Men he was terrible. So many writers seem to love shoving the X-men into the events of the MarvelU and it doesn't work, ever. The X-men are at their absolute worst when dealing with stuff other MarvelU stuff. The X-men books also should be character pieces instead of pure action fluff all the time and once again most writers simply don't get that.
So while you are right to a point, when someone who knows how to write X-men well is left alone to do stuff it gets better. Matt Fraction, Mike Carey, Craig Kyle, Christopher Yost are the best writing team the X-men universe has had in a long time. They all have their problems (Fraction and Carey especially), but they've taken the mutants further (for better or worse) quicker than ever before.
Frankie Addiego said...
ReplyDelete"Oh, but that's the point," some will say, but I think that no matter how senseless prejudice might be, if the fear of mutants rests in the fact that they have all these powers, wouldn't it be even more objectionable for, say, Iron Man to create a suit of armor which "gives" him powers equal to that of, say, Colossus and Cyclops combined? Or when people like the Fantastic Four just kinda "get" super powers through some strange accident. How is being a mutant "worse" than that? And I could see it with Reed and Sue, being the perfect couple or whatever; but what about Ben Grimm? Why would he not be prejudiced while, say, Jean Grey--essentially a younger, redheaded Sue with worse taste in men--is?"
Maybe since there mutants and born with the abilities humans know one day they will be extinct
First, that's gotta be my favourite title card so far. It's gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteUgh, the X-Men are CREEEEEPS. I never would have expected that. Silly me.
Way to taunt us with your secrety secret origins. Not cool, man. :P I must know!
Yes, Secret Origins Month should definitely become a thing. I love finding out about the history. And these old comics are hilarious.
Great review, as always. -applause- (Seriously, you excel at not doing the "miss" part of "hit-and-miss". Well done. ^_^)
ReplyDeleteMy personal guess as to your origin has something to do with Gallifrey. I've had that theory for a while, actually.
Thank you for consistently making my Mondays awesome, sir. I doff my hat to you. -doffs-
"Like, well.... mutants. Who have to hide what they are from the normals to even have normal lives in some cases. Such as serving in the military. And arn't allowed to get married."
ReplyDeleteArgh!
I'm tired of people misunderstanding how "gay marriage," works. It's not that gays "can't get married," it's that--in most states--marriage is considered between a man and a woman. That means that a bisexual OR even a gay or lesbian individual has as much right to marry someone of the opposite sex as they want; but the laws vary for a couple of the same sex.
In California, the "ban" was considered "unconstitutional, but even before that, they could still be recognized as a "civil union," or something.
I'm not saying I'm pro-or-anti gay marriage, I'm just sick of the way some people phrase the issue.
Yet another great review. It is always interesting to me to look at where these well known comics begin and how much they(and the artwork) has changed over the years.
ReplyDeleteHave you ever thought about doing an episode on the histories of some of these characters? not the history of the comic but the history of them within the comics, because some of them have gotten extremely convoluted and I imagine some of the 'plot twists' writers have thrown in have been pretty ridiculous. You've certainly mentioned that with Spiderman occasionally. Your review of the original appearance of Superman actually made me think about that in relation to the having read Sandman: Endless Nights which gives Neil Gaiman's ultimate origin of both Superman and the Green Lantern corps.
Either way, great review, I look forward to your next one.
Of the four books, this is the one that feels the least like you can use the excuse of time to explain its short comings. This is a pretty awkward book overall. A suggestion for next year, though, is Flash #167, one of the greatest secret origin books for you to do. It is something that even the silver age had to cock its head to the side and say "REALLY!?!"
ReplyDeleteHaving been in the Navy and on a mixed gender ship I can say the X Men's response to Jean showing up is RATHER ACCURATE TO REALITY.
ReplyDeleteI was in during the early-mid 90s. One average looking girl commented that during her first week on board she "felt like slab of meat".
So while the X Men were being creepy, they were being like guys normally do when there are more dudes than women around.
Sad, but true. I could get into how its genetic and socially sort of ingrained for us lads to be encouraged to do this, but that would only depress me.
There have been a couple releases of this material people can get if they want though.
Marvel Masterworks had the early issues in 10 in 1 hardbacks and they had mini versions which used the same silver border with original cover inside for just the original issues.
Essential X men should have it but I don't much care or like the original 5 outside of Iceman and Beast so I can't say for sure. (I care more about the later cast when Claremont was writing but hadn't gone completely creepy/ridiculous.) I only have some of the Uncanny Essential books. Great deal though.
I think I just realized why Iceman didn't cover his boots in snow: it's so he doesn't slip around while running.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, fun review, interesting to see how the group started, and seeing how the intellectual Beast apparently started as a womanizing, aggressive teen.
...the last time we delved into your "Secret Origins", we found out Pollo has the capacity to become the hideous love child of a Terminator and Hannibal Lecter, and your magic gun is actually the possessed death weapon of an evil pagan cult. I think, in this case, the less we know about your origins, the better.
ReplyDeleteI remember the old X-Men; my dad gave me an old, beat-up issue of X-Men #37, and I wish I had kept it, now. Yeah, I know, collector's fallacy and all (though it IS from the original volume of comics, so not as much of a fallacy as it could be), but it still made for an awesome (if utterly ridiculous) read.
I'm disappointed you didn't make a "Professor X likes watching teenagers sweat" joke, in light of the utter creepiness going on with him, or a Yu-Gi-Oh "Absolute Powerforce" joke when Cyclops switched to "maximum power", especially given your last Vlog.
Bizarre ending to the month with a bizarre comic. I swear, Xavier gets away with so much in his douchery that he makes Superman look honest. I mean come on: he was after Jean as well? No wonder Lee and Kirby never got this idea as far as they did their other stuff...though Magneto does have good penmanship.
ReplyDeleteHuh, I didn't know Ron Wasserman wrote that X-Men cartoon theme. That actually makes some sense, considering both that and the original MMPR theme are earwormy as hell and clearly have a lot of staying power.
ReplyDelete(You can tell I was focusing on the important details here ;) )
Hehe, Jean Grey was put on the team for her "talents". By which I mean her boobs.
ReplyDeleteAlso, you missed like three "OF COURSE!" gags. I understand that it's a bit played out at this point, but running gags into the ground can be funny too.
@ Flamesquad:
ReplyDeleteI've heard similar rumors on TV Tropes. Given how often he shows up in other people's reviews, though, I'd say he's more likely the lovechild of Wolverine and Squirrel Girl. Yes, I'm serious. Hey, don't laugh, Squirrel Girl once defeated Dr. Doom and Thanos, among others, by herself and her squirrels. Ma-Ti, eat your freaking Heart out.
You know you're too much of a nerd when you can not only notice two different sonic screwdrivers were used, but you recognize that they're the ones that the 10th and 11th doctors use.
ReplyDeleteEspecially when your area of nerdiness isn't even Doctor Who.
What was the deal with that one panel where Slushman("Iceman")was puting on boots. Couldn't he just ice-up with them already on?
ReplyDeleteI don't think it's creepy for teenagers to give their mentor - who they know well, are fond of and live with - a blanket. That was kind of a sour comment.
ReplyDeleteThe video froze up for me after that, which is why this is a negative-only comment! Sorry.
Oh lordy. I actually have the issue with "ZOMG PROFESSOR LOVES JEAN GREY" lying around somewhere -- well, sort of. It was a mini-comic I found on the end of a grocery store aisle. No kidding! I got a Spiderman comic there, too, though I'm not sure whether it was the first one or a later issue like my X-Men issue.
ReplyDeleteCome to think of it, I think those were the first two comics I ever read... Though I'm still going to credit you and Deadpool for getting me into reading comics properly. (:
Great review! Thanks for pointing out once again how creepy Professor X can be, and I loved the return of his school budget discussions. (You know, when it's put that way, it sounds much less hilarious than it is...)
... "Yaybo"? What the hell kind of exclamation is "yaybo"!?
ReplyDeleteWhy do you at the credits say "first appearance of Magneto and Jean Grey" ? I thought it was the first appearance of all the X-men featured in this issue !
ReplyDelete"Why do you at the credits say "first appearance of Magneto and Jean Grey" ? I thought it was the first appearance of all the X-men featured in this issue!"
ReplyDeleteYeah, but we have no idea how the school was established or how the four met, whereas this shows Jean Grey and Magneto as new people they are meeting for the first time.
"... "Yaybo"? What the hell kind of exclamation is "yaybo"!?"
I wondered the same thing. I looked it up and it is, surprisingly enough, legitimate slang for the time.
I have never really been a fan of crossovers. They always seem to break the universe.
ReplyDeleteThe X-men are the prime example. Given any X-men story you cannot spit without it landing on either a mutant or an anti-mutant bigot. However, in Spiderman stories that sort of thing happens very infrequently even though they are based in the same city.
In fact, why doesn't Spiderman get treated as a mutant? He is, after all, a human with a slight change in his genetic structure that gives him superpowers. (I am sure someone will point out a story where he is treated as a mutant, but that is the exception rather than the rule.) I know his powers are not caused by the "mutant X gene", but nobody could know that without running a genetic test on our heroic webslinger. Somehow, I can't see him letting this happen.
This is one of the reasons I like webcomics so much. They are produced independently, so the creators do not shoe-horn their stories into already established universes where they do not fit.
Now that I think about it, the ice shell to protect them from the explosion could actually work, providing the explosion wasn't close enough to shatter the ice(I can't really tell from the panels you should whether or not that is the case).
ReplyDeleteThe reason it would work is for the same reason that you can put out a candle with your fingers without burning yourself if your fingers are wet, the heat would melt/evaporate the ice before it would effect the people on the other side. Therefore the ice should protect them from the intense heat of such an explosion for a short amount of time.
That makes sense in my head at the very least, but I'm not a physicist so if I might well be wrong.
Amnesia said...
ReplyDelete"Ah, good old-fashioned sexism. We get one female character that serves as the token love interest for everyone else and their dog.
Now, if only it would stay old-fashioned, *cough*MEGAMIND*cough"
You do realize that Magamind works with superhero cliche's, most of which were established during the 40s and 60s
Right?
Also, the Professor's affection for Jean Grey actually became a plot-point in the Ultimate X-Men!
I don't really have anything to add about the review. I just wanted to see if you knew about Marvel fighting in court to have mutants declared non-human.
ReplyDeletehttp://forums.thesmartmarks.com/lofiversion/index.php?t24740.html
That's right. Mutants fighting to be treated like any other person are now legally considered to not be human. What a horrible precedent.
So Xavier is hot for Jean Gray but the main reason he doesn't tell her is because of the wheelchair? Not that he's, you know, a teacher? Not that he's probably old enough to be her dad? Ugh, the fact that being in a wheelchair is considered the major turn-off certainly has some unfortunate ableist connotations.
ReplyDeleteHi linkara I loved secret origins month and I hope you will do it again next november.
ReplyDeleteuntil then i seen a ad in a old comic for psa comic you should defantly review: power pack and the amazing spider-man with tips to prvent sexual abuse. thise psa will probly be hard to find becuase acording to the ad to get the comic you had to mail in $1.00 so good luck in finding it
@ TimeTravelerJessica: At the time it would have been written it wasn't really uncommon for men to marry women much younger than them.
ReplyDeleteAs for the wheelchair thing...again, I'm fairly sure that was a more common sentiment at the time.
On the comic:
Something jumps out at me. Based on this comic a lot of the things Sen. Kelly in the movie says are at least somewhat justified. The mutants in this comic don't show much restraint here and regular humans would be justified in fearing them.
Hey Linkara, just in case you don't know "the Gutters", it is a very funny webcomic and recently, they posted somethung I was sure could get a good laugh out of you:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.the-gutters.com/comic/62-mark-robinson
I won't deny that the original X-Men was not exactly the high point of the Lee/Kirby partnership, but I'd argue that in general, except for certain instances where Lee really had something definite to say in his writing (i.e: Spider-Man), he didn't really hit his stride until the mid-to-late sixties.
ReplyDeleteThe first few issues of Fantastic Four were very much like this X-Men book, with equally fun superhero action, but also equally odd bits of convoluted dialogue and some female objectification (The Thing spends these first few issues mood-swinging wildly between being horrified at his appearance and trying to fight Reed for Sue Storm's affections). The Hulk was not a whole lot different either: Solid action, with most of the non-Hulk characters (including Bruce Banner) being pretty bland at frist, and Hulk himself being a rather chatty douchebag (including hilariously bitch-slapping Rick Jones three times in the first two issues).
It wasn't until later that Lee's facility at human drama really developed, and began to mesh with Kirby's penchant for larger-than-larger-than life ideas (I think the original single concept for the first Galactus story was "the Fantastic Four fight GOD") and we really got some of the best comics Marvel ever produced.
Does that excuse the glaring flaws in this early stuff? Nah. And is it true that X-Men only really flourished after Lee and Kirby were long gone from it and it was on the brink of cancellation? Yep. But credit where credit is due, the original germ of an idea was there for others to expand upon, and while X-Men as a team, a comic, and a brand may not have fully found it's voice with Lee and Kirby (a rare thing indeed in the Marvel age of comics), it still florished despite them.
I read this exact copy (The Marvel Masterworks, which I got out of the public library of all places) and had about the same thoughts. The first issue was definitely rough, but it seemed to have hit a lot of it's stride by the end of the ten-issue volume, establishing the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants very well and putting in the roots of the characterization that was missing here.
ReplyDeletewhat is the theme song called when you show the superheros getting suit up?
ReplyDeleteYou know given the nature of the school, the near certain promise of meeting one's death at the hands of Magneto or some other pissy mutant would-be conqueror, and Prof X's own behavior..one wonders how or why anyone would want to join the X-Men.
ReplyDeleteSeems like it'd be safer just to live with the Morlocks.
Geeze, the way men are portrayed in this comic feels like it's going out of their way to insult them...
ReplyDeleteGeeze, the way men are portrayed in this comic feels like it's going out of their way to insult them...
ReplyDeleteOh, if you do "Secret Origins Month" again anytime soon, please consider featuring the Origin of Golden Age Flash, its yet another example of how everything is solved with smoking, such as when Jay Garrick's cigarette break resulting in giving him superpowers.
ReplyDeleteLewis: The tale on how the school was formed and how the four guys joined up was the back-up series 'Origins of the X-Men' which appeared in The X-Men #38 to #57!
ReplyDeleteErik: Jay garrick is a great choice for SOM Year Two!
J.A.P.
This comic raises a weird issue with Magneto's powers for me. Namely, yes it is possible for ridiculous levels of magnetic energy to affect people, because water has a (very) weak magnetic reaction.
ReplyDeleteBut if Magneto can use magnetism to lift himself and make fields that block people from moving (instead of just blocking metal objects), couldn't he just lift the people around and smack them into stuff or tear them apart instead of throwing metal at them and letting them dodge?
Also, you're right, Professor X really does come off as insane. So insane that I wouldn't put it past him to make a plane he could telepathically control by hooking the steering up to a brain.
I mean, look at him training teenagers to be human weapons, spying on people with his telepathy, building deathtraps for training, living in a big, creepily empty mansion, he's basically a supervillain.
I got to disagree with you Linkara and Mountain King. I'm not going to lie and say that the whole mutant angle isn't odd and its why the X Men are usually put in there own universe but this is comic books we are talking about. Asking for certain kinds of logic in comics is incredibly stupid. Not to mention that it is way too easy to bash on Stan Lee. I'm sorry wasn't this guy responsible for creating some of the greatest comic book characters of all time?
ReplyDeleteLets not also forget that Secret Origins or whatever the hell the name of this new idea is, while all being in good fun is picking on a origin story that is decades of years old. Its the equivalent of playing Bobby Fisher at Chess after hearing that he might of had brain damage after a car accident.
Also Mountain King, nothing personal but I hate your guts dude.
Okay after skimming the comments I didn't see anyone address this point...
ReplyDeleteBut let's assume for a moment that the bodyheat hunting missile idea actually worked (and the PSA Hell comic Batman/Catwoman: The Trail of the Gun actually manages to show why such a weapon would be incredibly stupid)...
Let's assume for a moment, it would track the x-men's body heat, and not Magnetos or that he wasn't worried about that because if it did lock onto him he could just redirect it anyway... How the hell would it lock onto Iceman, he's made of living Ice, the surronding air has more heat then he does.
This comic fails!
Also I thought the way the addition of Ms. Martian at the end of the recent Young Justice cartoon premiere was handled was sexist but wow this does take the cake...
And I thought when that "Woman I love" stuff came up in the Onslaught Saga it was something new they'd made up.
Just... wow.
This issue isn't as bad as later ones:
ReplyDelete#24 - X-Men vs. Locust (mad scientist trying to conquer the world with giant grasshoppers...)
#25 & #25 - X-Men vs. gem-hunter who gains powers of Mayan god Kukulcan. X-Men are easily defeated by his two non-super-powered mexican lackeys...)
#36 - X-Men brainwashing burglars via Cerebro and looking for a job to earn money for plane tickets...
#40 - X-Men vs. FRANKENSTEIN!!!
REVIEW THOSE ISSUES! I BEG YOU!
I'm going to say Marvel Girl had at least a little bit more spine than the Invisible Girl did.
ReplyDeleteAlso Cyclops was a dick even back then, somewhere around the first few issues one of the guys is reaching for their food and cyclops blasts him to stop him from doing so.
Not so bad except thats practically the equivalent of punching someone's hand into the table over lacking class.
As for why Iron Man is loved and they aren't; in a world where beings with superpowers roam, I suspect if a man developed a weapon that allowed you to fight all but the most powerful of them that would probably get him mad respect.
I like this Secret Origins month)
ReplyDeleteOf course, all the male X-Men would behave like tomcats around Jean, considering there were no girls at school up to this point.
"Except for Bobby. If you'll note, he's incredibly disinterested in Jean being there. Which is what birthed the speculation for years that Bobby was gay."
It shows that many people didn't actually read the original run beside the first issue. While Bobby doesn't show any apparent interest in Jean here, two issues later he already tries to woo her just like everyone else.
"In Stan Lee's mind, Xavier wasn't supposed to be that much older than his pupils. But yes, it was creepy and never mentioned again. Well, at least until some geniuses dusted it off during Onslaught to make Xavier look even more creepy."
Still not as creepy as in Ultimate Universe where he flat out says that he has always wanted to screw Jean. To Cyclops, no less.
"So Xavier is hot for Jean Gray but the main reason he doesn't tell her is because of the wheelchair?"
That and him being the leader of the X-Men.
Magneto Better watch it or MI6 will send James Bond after him for toplling there missiles like Dr. NO did right before him
ReplyDelete"Based on this comic a lot of the things Sen. Kelly in the movie says are at least somewhat justified."
ReplyDeleteIt isn't just this comic.
There have always been problems with the way the X-Men act.
- Mik
"Awesome review, as always. :D But... *tilts head* Didn't you review X-Men #1 before? I'm sure I'm just terribly confused, but it's bugging me something awful."
ReplyDeleteThe X-Men #1 he reviewed before was a different X-Men #1.
There, that should clear up your confusion... (eyeroll).
(Apologies if this appears a dozen times; I'm trying to get Open ID to work.)
- Mik
There was actually controversy about a comic that came before the X-men, the doom patrol because of name and origin ideas for characters on the show. If anyone doesn't know what doom patrol is, then check out the original series.
ReplyDeleteIceman is poledancing. That's plenty creepy already. Combine that with Professor X getting comfortable and you've got the Creepy Singularity.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, if this were a high school, I don't think that bit with them drooling would be terribly out of character. However, they're not saying how old everyone is, and highschoolers doing death-defying stuff is generally not considered good, so...
You think baptism of fire is bad? Try on "seen the elephant" for size, or any of the other time-honored militaryisms of the English language. I'm honestly quite surprised you've never heard "baptism of fire" as it's reasonably common, of fairly modern extraction, and understood in most English-speaking nations. (Or at the least the US, UK, and Aussieland.)
I don't know, I think it's not entirely fair to Professor X to skip the first part of his "I have no right" statement. "Not while leader of the X-Men" is a perfectly valid and quite commendable attitude, and much better than most team leaders manage, in superhero comics or otherwise.
Hey there Linkara. Just thoought I'd let you know that I think the book you read frm is still in print. Resently I visited a comic book shop in downtown Chicago and I saw it and a few other collective type books like it. (I didn't get it, although I did get a copy of "Showcase Presents BOO$TER GOLD" and a figure of Black Canary) Just thought I'd let you know. ;)
ReplyDeleteI dunno if you're reading this for suggestions, but this year's Secret Origins Month would be great if you included (I'm assuming 2 from DC, 2 from Marvel):
ReplyDeleteThe Fantastic Four (since you traded them in for the X-Men last year, I assume you're already planning on them for this year)
The Flash
Captain America
Pre-Crisis Wonder Woman (good way to check out the history of women superheroes)
I finally got to this one on your "Storyline of Atop the Fourth Wall" page, and HOLY CRAP! The X-Men theme was written by Wasserman too? No wonder I love it so much. I've been singing/humming that song and Go Go Power Rangers for almost my whole life.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I'm really enjoying these. Once I finish the storyline I'll go back and watch the rest of AT4W