{"id":16576,"date":"2017-03-09T08:00:15","date_gmt":"2017-03-09T08:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=16576"},"modified":"2017-03-08T16:21:32","modified_gmt":"2017-03-08T16:21:32","slug":"marvel-masterworks-x-men-volume-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2017\/03\/09\/marvel-masterworks-x-men-volume-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Marvel Masterworks X-Men volume 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy Roy Thomas<\/strong>, Werner Roth<\/strong>, Jack Sparling<\/strong>, Dick Ayer<\/strong>, John Tartaglione<\/strong> & various (Marvel)
\nISBN: 978-0-7851-1269-3(HC)\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 :978-0-7851-5070-1(PB)<\/p>\n

X-Men<\/strong> was never one of young Marvel’s top titles but it did secure a devout and dedicated following, with the frantic, freakish energy of Jack Kirby’s heroic dynamism comfortably transiting into the slick, sleek attractiveness of Werner Roth as the blunt tension of hunted outsider kids settled into a pastiche of college and school scenarios so familiar to the students who were the series’ main audience.<\/p>\n

The core team still consisted of tragic Scott Summers\/Cyclops<\/em>, ebullient Bobby Drake\/Iceman<\/em>, wealthy golden boy Warren Worthington\/Angel<\/em> and erudite, brutish genius Henry McCoy\/Beast<\/em> in perpetual training with Professor Charles Xavier<\/em>, a wheelchair-bound (and temporarily deceased) telepath dedicated to brokering peace and integration between the masses of humanity and the emergent race of mutant Homo Superior.<\/p>\n

Stan Lee had relinquished the writing reins to Roy Thomas in #20, and by the time of this nostalgic compilation (re-presenting The X-Men<\/strong> #22-31, spanning July 1966 to April 1967) he was getting better with every issue. During those heady days Marvel Comics had a vast and growing following among older teens and college kids, and the youthful Thomas spoke and wrote as they did. Coupled with his easy delight in expansive character casts this made X-Men a very welcoming read for we adolescent baby-boomers\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Illustrated primarily by Roth with Dick Ayers inking, the action opens with a crafty 2-parter resurrecting veteran Avengers villain Count Nefaria<\/em> who employed illusion casting technology and a band of other heroes’ second-string foes (Unicorn<\/em>, Porcupine<\/em>, Plantman<\/em>, Scarecrow<\/em> and the Eel<\/em>, if you’re wondering) to hold Washington DC hostage and frame the X-Men for the entire scheme.<\/p>\n

‘Divided\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 We Fall!’<\/em> and ‘To Save a City!’<\/em> comprise a fast-paced, old-fashioned goodies vs. baddies epic with a decided sting in the tail.<\/p>\n

The tale concludes with Marvel Girl<\/em> being yanked off the team as her parents insist she furthers her education by leaving the Xavier School to attend New York’s Metro University\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Her departure segues neatly into a beloved plot standard – Evil Scientist Grows Giant Bugs – when she enrols and meets an embittered recently-fired professor, leading her erstwhile comrades to confront ‘The Plague of\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 the Locust!’<\/em><\/p>\n

Perhaps X-Men<\/strong> #24 isn’t the most memorable tale in the canon but it still reads well and has the added drama of Marvel Girl’s departure for college crystallizing the romantic rivalry for her affections between Cyclops and Angel and provided another deft sop to the audience as it enabled many future epics to include Campus life in the action-packed, fun-filled mix\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Jean Grey still managed to turn up in every issue and ‘The Power and the Pendant’ <\/em>(X-Men<\/strong> #25, October 1966) found the boys tracking new menace, El Tigre<\/em>. This South American hunter was visiting New York to steal the second half of a Mayan amulet which would grant him god-like powers.<\/p>\n

Having soundly thrashed the mutant heroes, newly-ascended Kukulc\u00c3\u00a1n<\/em> returns to Amazonian San Rico<\/em> to recreate the fallen pre-Columbian empire with the heroes in hot pursuit. The result is a cataclysmic showdown in ‘Holocaust!’ which leaves Angel fighting for his life and deputy leader Cyclops crushed by guilt\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Issue #27 saw the return of some old foes in ‘Re-enter: The Mimic!’<\/em> even as the mesmerising Puppet Master<\/em> pitted power-duplicating Calvin Rankin<\/em> against a team riven by dissention and ill-feeling, whilst in ‘The Wail of the Banshee!’<\/em> Rankin joined the X-Men in a tale which introduced the sonic-powered mutant (eventually to become a valued team-mate and team-leader) as a deadly threat in the opening instalment of an ambitious extended epic which featured the global menace of the sinister mutant-abducting organisation Factor Three<\/em>.<\/p>\n

John Tartaglione signed on as regular inker with the bright and breezy thriller ‘When Titans Clash!’<\/em> as the power-duplicating Super-Adaptoid<\/em> almost turned the team into robotic slaves before ending the Mimic’s crimebusting career, after which Jack Sparling & Tartaglione illustrated ‘The Warlock Wakes’<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Here old Thor<\/em> foe Merlin<\/em> received a stylish upgrade to malevolent mutant menace as he attempted to turn the planet into his mind-controlled playground before, in the concluding tale of this collection (illustrated by Roth & Tartaglione), Marvel Girl and the boys tackle a deranged Iron Man<\/em> wannabe who was also an accidental atomic time bomb in ‘We Must Destroy\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 the Cobalt Man!’<\/em><\/p>\n

These quirky tales are a million miles removed from the angst-ridden, breast-beating, cripplingly convoluted X-brand of today’s Marvel, and in many ways are all the better for it. Well drawn, highly accessible and superbly entertaining stories are never unwelcome or out of favour though, and it should be remembered that everything here informs so very much of the mutant monolith. These are stories for the dedicated fan and newest convert.
\n\u00c2\u00a9 1966, 1967, 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Roy Thomas, Werner Roth, Jack Sparling, Dick Ayer, John Tartaglione & various (Marvel) ISBN: 978-0-7851-1269-3(HC)\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 :978-0-7851-5070-1(PB) X-Men was never one of young Marvel’s top titles but it did secure a devout and dedicated following, with the frantic, freakish energy of Jack Kirby’s heroic dynamism comfortably transiting into the slick, sleek attractiveness of Werner Roth … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Marvel Masterworks X-Men volume 3”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[72,79,70],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marvel-masters-masterworks","category-marvel-superheroes","category-x-men"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-4jm","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16576\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}