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kellylynnthomas's review
3.0
Kind of fun to go through old comics, but also kind of torturous, because the prose is so over-wrought, they all start out in the danger room with bizarre training contraptions and end with a super villain/mutant attack, and Scott and Jean just pine endlessly over each other (except for that one weird issue where Professor X grossly professes his desire for Jean to the reader, and then never mentions it again). I appreciate this book much more as an historical document than as literature, but it is still fun to read an issue at lunch time every now and then.
The Masterworks volume is fairly nice, though whoever decided using Times New Roman for the font for the page numbers at the bottom of the page should be shot. That's not really a font that should be used in professional book production, people. Stan Lee's introduction on this first one volume pretty good. Typical Stan Lee stuff, but fun to read. A nice retrospective on the beginning of the X-Men. (The later intros aren't so great.)
The Masterworks volume is fairly nice, though whoever decided using Times New Roman for the font for the page numbers at the bottom of the page should be shot. That's not really a font that should be used in professional book production, people. Stan Lee's introduction on this first one volume pretty good. Typical Stan Lee stuff, but fun to read. A nice retrospective on the beginning of the X-Men. (The later intros aren't so great.)
suspiciouspinecone's review
2.0
Ok, first of all, I love the X-Men, they're my favourite Marvel team. But this is not my X-Men and these aren't my favourite characters, I'm much more interested in the All-New X-Men, with Nightcrawler, Storm and Colossus. This was not that.
This is an early superhero comic. As such, it was sort of stupid and funny on accident, and either Jean Grey is the single most beautiful, most fascinating person to ever walk the Earth, or the entirety 0f the X-Men, including Professor X, are completely love-starved.
CW: Violence, weird romantic nonsense, ableism
This is an early superhero comic. As such, it was sort of stupid and funny on accident, and either Jean Grey is the single most beautiful, most fascinating person to ever walk the Earth, or the entirety 0f the X-Men, including Professor X, are completely love-starved.
CW: Violence, weird romantic nonsense, ableism
cleverfoxwithcoffee's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
mrclintdavis's review
3.0
All due respect to Stan Lee as an innovator and master marketer in comics but his writing was cheesy as hell. Comics have come a long way since these first issues of the X-Men in the 1960s. The tone is terribly sexist most of the time, with Jean Grey being ogled by every man on every page.
This is an interesting read if only to see where the X-Men started but the series would rise to much greater heights under later writers and artists. This stuff is mostly worth reading for it's historical value.
This is an interesting read if only to see where the X-Men started but the series would rise to much greater heights under later writers and artists. This stuff is mostly worth reading for it's historical value.
linklex7's review
3.0
While I can appreciate where the X-Men started from and that Stan Lee is a legend, his X-Men run really wasn’t that great. Hence why it was canceled eventually before the relaunched that saved it. Worth reading to see how many elements of the X-Men began, but don’t expect any instant classics here like you would with Stan’s Amazing Spider-Man run.
art_cart_ron's review
4.0
This being listed as "by Stan Lee" is the first point of order - - it is equally by Jack Kirby, and by Paul Reinman and Chic Stone.
These issues are a little painful in spots. Very slow going, and not just by contemporary standards - but in comparison to the work they initially set out to emulate, the popularity of the Fantastic Four.
Jack Kirby's pencils are laid to waste by the slipshod inking of Paul Reinman (first 4 or 5 issues), but start shining through once Chic Stone is treating them with more care.
The stories are very much like a couple of overburdened creators being told to add another book to their workload, one they don't seem to have a lot of interest in. The interest in the characters grows over the first two years - and by the time you get to issue 5 or so, there are fewer and fewer cringe-worthy moments (Professor X thinking about how much he wants to be teenage Jean's lover - ew).
That Magneto manages to remain a staple in the series is a testament to his strength in these initial issues - though there were some weird uses of his power (magnetic astral projection). Prof X has no qualms about brainwashing villains - which was also put to good use later in the character's story.
Ka-Zar is a painful Tarzan rip-off in every way. The Blob is in 30% of the first 10 issues - and spearheads a pretty awesome circus raid of the X-Mansion at one point.
A worthwhile read, and one that is historically important for the medium (though X-Men was cancelled at the end of the 60's, it was revived and reinvigorated in 1975 with a new cast and creative team). That, and the much improved issues once they got rolling (again, around issue 5), earns it a 4 from me. If it were in a vacuum, I'd rate it a 2 or 3 - but the property would eventually rise to become the most popular comic in the US through the 80's and 90's.
Then Marvel went bankrupt in the late 90's and sold the X-Men to Sony... who promptly squandered them terribly in mediocre movies, and with Disney's Marvel acquisition - Marvel was instructed to give more attention to the properties they could sell in the movie and TV industries... and the X-Men became all-but defunct in the comic store. A messed up industry. A weird beginning. Uncanny, even.
These issues are a little painful in spots. Very slow going, and not just by contemporary standards - but in comparison to the work they initially set out to emulate, the popularity of the Fantastic Four.
Jack Kirby's pencils are laid to waste by the slipshod inking of Paul Reinman (first 4 or 5 issues), but start shining through once Chic Stone is treating them with more care.
The stories are very much like a couple of overburdened creators being told to add another book to their workload, one they don't seem to have a lot of interest in. The interest in the characters grows over the first two years - and by the time you get to issue 5 or so, there are fewer and fewer cringe-worthy moments (Professor X thinking about how much he wants to be teenage Jean's lover - ew).
That Magneto manages to remain a staple in the series is a testament to his strength in these initial issues - though there were some weird uses of his power (magnetic astral projection). Prof X has no qualms about brainwashing villains - which was also put to good use later in the character's story.
Ka-Zar is a painful Tarzan rip-off in every way. The Blob is in 30% of the first 10 issues - and spearheads a pretty awesome circus raid of the X-Mansion at one point.
A worthwhile read, and one that is historically important for the medium (though X-Men was cancelled at the end of the 60's, it was revived and reinvigorated in 1975 with a new cast and creative team). That, and the much improved issues once they got rolling (again, around issue 5), earns it a 4 from me. If it were in a vacuum, I'd rate it a 2 or 3 - but the property would eventually rise to become the most popular comic in the US through the 80's and 90's.
Then Marvel went bankrupt in the late 90's and sold the X-Men to Sony... who promptly squandered them terribly in mediocre movies, and with Disney's Marvel acquisition - Marvel was instructed to give more attention to the properties they could sell in the movie and TV industries... and the X-Men became all-but defunct in the comic store. A messed up industry. A weird beginning. Uncanny, even.
lupinelibrary's review against another edition
3.0
This was so cheesy and wonderful, but I'm glad it changed the way it did.
rayaan54's review against another edition
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
bookkoob17's review
2.0
I've never been that interested in the X-Men but I read this for the issues that introduce the Scarlet Witch. These comics are goofy and corny. The dialogue is overly explanatory. Overall, they were pretty much what I would expect for the time they were created.
elysareadsitall's review against another edition
2.0
I've never been a huge fan of the X-Men, so that made it a bit hard to get through this volume for me. When you're going back to the older stuff, you need that love for the characters to really get into the origins and all the camp and repetitive stories that came with them. I hate how Marvel Girl and Scarlet Witch are treated in this volume, but it's also so cool to think about the fact that they grew into some of the strongest Marvel characters ever.
Something weird in this one is that the characters frequently explained what was happening to them in the pictures. I don't remember this happening in other comics of the time, or maybe they just did a little too often here.
Something weird in this one is that the characters frequently explained what was happening to them in the pictures. I don't remember this happening in other comics of the time, or maybe they just did a little too often here.