Hello Loves!

So, I read the first two issues of The X-Men last night. Not what I was expecting! Seriously, I’m so glad C talked me into starting with the ’60’s stuff, because I didn’t realize how different it was from my ’80’s & ’90’s wheelhouse!

Issue #1 is the X-Men’s first battle with Magneto! It’s over fairly quickly, (as battles with Mags go), but he does manage to escape. Issue #2 introduces us to The Vanisher. He proves to be a much more formidable foe then Magneto surprisingly. It takes the combined efforts of the 5 youngsters and Professor X’s telepathic powers to stop him! (The Prof actually causes The Vanisher to forget who he is, which is terrifying in the casual way it’s treated by the other characters! But more about that later!) But these entries aren’t going to be full recaps of the issues. There’s just WAY too many for me to do that. So, instead, lets talk about my impressions and observations.

First off, let’s talk about the team! I knew the original five, but Stan Lee doesn’t write them at all like Chris Claremont! (Or maybe I should say that Claremont didn’t write them like Stan Lee!) These guys seem like caricatures of the characters I grew up with. It’s funny how different the 60’s & 70’s style of writing is. Everyone talks so much, and is fairly one-dimensional. It’s not necessarily bad, just different then what I’m used to. It’s going to take some adjustment. For example, Beast and Iceman constantly fighting and bickering is something I haven’t experienced before. Remember, these characters are just teenagers in these early years. They will surely mature as they grow up, but right now they are written as bratty, high-energy teens. It’s fun for the most part, but can be slightly annoying, if only because it rings so true to real teenagers behavior!

The other major thing I’ve noticed already is how much of a dick Professor X was in these early comics! I mean, I know he’s always been fairly aloof and demanding, but Lee’s version of the Prof is downright scary! It’s kind of awesome! Definitely not the cuddly Patrick Stewart version of the movies!!! And, going back to his treatment of The Vanisher in issue #2, how scary is that? Dude just makes him forget who he is completely and then the 5 X-Men, who routinely let the Prof dig around in their heads, act like its NBD! It’s terrifying! Sometimes these older comics do things like this; instead of killing the villain, they either trap them for eternity or wipe their memories completely, or something like that, and then everyone acts like this isn’t almost worse then killing them. I mean, I know that with few exceptions, good guys didn’t kill people in the early days, so there needed to be another solution. But there’s something unsettling about wiping someone’s memory to the extent they don’t even know who they are and then acting like this is totally fine and the moral thing to do. It’ll be interesting to see how situations like this play out as we get into more modern stories!

Another thing I’m looking forward to seeing as I keep going is the evolution of everyone’s powers and how they’re defined. Right now, there seems to be no mentioned limits to anyone’s powers, but also no real definition of how the powers work or what they actually are. Like, Cyclops refers to his powers as his “power beam” and Iceman seems to have an ever-changing list of ice powers such as ice-breath, the ability to shoot ice missiles, and the ability to turn things into ice cubes (not just freeze them, but actually transform them into ice). I had also forgotten that early art of Bobby Drake had him as a fairly shapeless snow blob wearing only the X-Men boots! It’s pretty funny! So, stay tuned for discussion of how power sets are defined and limited as the series progresses and we meet more mutants.

So, until next time, loves…keep searching! ❤

Original Tumblr Post: here