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Nowadays, they are household names in animated cartoons, video games, films, and, of course, comic books. Today one cannot walk into their local comic shop or peruse online vendors without seeing an X or a mutant in a Marvel title. Yet in the past, before becoming All-New, All-Different, and Uncanny during the epic stories of Len Wein, Chris Claremont, Dave Cockrum, and John Byrne, the X-Men relived past adventures in their own series. This article will look at the reprint years of X-Men and the reasons for the title’s change in direction before and after the strangest superheroes of all traveled through time through their old tales for 27 issues. by
MUTANT HISTORY X
James Heath Lantz
X-caping Cancellation Before the “new” X-Men, Bronze Age readers discovered the “old” X-Men when the series went all-reprint beginning with X-Men #67 (Dec. 1970). Cover by Marie Severin and Joe Sinnott. The double-sized mag originally reprinted two issues of X-Men but was cut back to a regular-sized title with issue #71, then reprinting only one X-Men tale. TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.
To understand the reasons for X-Men becoming a reprint book, it helps to get to know some of the title’s history. Stan Lee approached Marvel publisher Martin Goodman with an idea for a series called The Mutants. Fearing people would not know what a mutant was, Goodman suggested a title change. Lee then got to work with artist Jack Kirby and later Werner Roth (who began his run under the pseudonym Jay Gavin, named for both of his sons) on X-Men, a series Lee later said was “an anti-bigotry story to show there’s good in every person.” X-Men followed the adventures of five teenaged students and their teacher, Professor Charles Xavier, a.k.a. Professor X, from Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. The eye-laser-blasting Cyclops, the agile Beast with prehensile toes, the winged Angel, the frozen Iceman, and the telekinetic and telepathic Marvel Girl are mutants—beings born with superhuman abilities and gifts. The paralyzed Professor X uses his powerful mutant mind to train the young group, whom he calls X-Men for the X-gene that gives them their powers, to defend humanity in spite of the fear and hatred toward homo-superior, as mutants are later called. The X-Men face the likes of magnetism master Magneto, the unmovable Blob, the leaping Toad, the unstoppable Juggernaut (Xavier’s stepbrother), and the mutanthunting giant robots called the Sentinels. The team and Magneto’s Brotherhood of Evil Mutants even encounter a mutant (though technically he could be considered a hybrid) from the Golden Age of Comics— Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner—in X-Men #6 (July 1964). The Lee/Kirby team had an impressive track record with such books as Fantastic Four, Thor, and Avengers. Yet while it had a cult following, X-Men failed to capture the imaginations of many readers in spite of the sagas giving audiences the first appearances of such mainstays in the mutant mythos as Professor X, Magneto, and Cyclops. On the beginnings of the comic book, Roy Thomas later surmised the following in a panel on the Silver and Bronze Age X-Men on June 11, 2000, transcribed in Alter Ego #24: “One of the reasons it wasn’t as big in the early ’60s is because its time really hadn’t come yet. It was before the age of the teenaged superhero. Nor was the ‘outcast’ thing quite as big earlier. Remember, ’63 was the Kennedy years. But by the late ’60s, with Vietnam and civil rights and all that, the idea of the outsider as the hero came in big.” The final Stan Lee issue, which was drawn by Werner Roth, was X-Men #19 (Apr. 1966). While Roth stayed on the book for some time, Lee handed over writing duties to Roy Thomas. Thomas, who would have extensive cycles on Avengers and Conan the Barbarian, would have two runs on the book—#20–43 (May 1966–Apr. 1968) and #55–64 (Apr. 1969–Jan. 1970) and #66 (Mar. 1970)—with Gary Friedrich (Ghost Rider), Arnold Drake (Doom Patrol), and Dennis O’Neil (Batman) penning some tales as well. Jim Steranko, who also designed the cover logo for the series, Don Heck, George Tuska, and Ross Andru were among the names of creators who had provided visuals for the mutant mayhem in the pages of X-Men. Most of Roy Thomas’ second outing of X-Men tales had him paired with artist Neal Adams, who had followed Jim Steranko’s advice to come work for Marvel after his stint on DC Comics’ Deadman had ended in 1969. Adams drew #56–63 of Thomas’ tales and plotted Dennis O’Neil’s fill-in dialogue for issue #65 (Feb. 1970). Sal Buscema would provide images for the last Roy Thomas tale. It featured
Marvel Bronze Age Giants and Reprints
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