{"id":7355,"date":"2011-10-02T08:00:23","date_gmt":"2011-10-02T08:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=7355"},"modified":"2011-09-30T18:33:38","modified_gmt":"2011-09-30T18:33:38","slug":"marvel-masterworks-volume-11-giant-size-x-men-1-and-x-men-94-100","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2011\/10\/02\/marvel-masterworks-volume-11-giant-size-x-men-1-and-x-men-94-100\/","title":{"rendered":"Marvel Masterworks volume 11: Giant-Size X-Men #1 and X-Men 94-100"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\" \"\"
\nBy Len Wein<\/strong>, Chris Claremont, Dave Cockrum <\/strong>& various (Marvel)
\nISBN: 0-87135-597-3<\/p>\n

The<\/strong> X-Men<\/strong> #1 introduced Cyclops<\/em>, Iceman<\/em>, Angel<\/em>, Marvel Girl<\/em> and the Beast<\/em>: very special students of Professor Charles Xavier, a wheelchair-bound telepath dedicated to brokering peace and integration between the masses of humanity and the emergent off-shoot race of mutants dubbed Homo Superior<\/em>. After years of eccentric and spectacular adventures the mutant misfits disappeared at the beginning of 1970 (issue #66 cover-dated March) during a sustained downturn in costumed hero comics as mystery and all things supernatural once more gripped the world’s entertainment fields.<\/p>\n

Although their title was revived at the end of the year as a cheap reprint vehicle, the missing mutants were reduced to guest-stars and bit-players throughout the Marvel universe and the Beast was transformed into a monster to cash in on the horror boom, until Marvel editor-in-chief Roy Thomas green-lighted a bold one-shot in 1975 as part of the company’s line of Giant-Sized specials.<\/p>\n

This magnificent deluxe hardcover compendium recaptures the sun-bright excitement of those exuberant and pivotal early stories from Giant Size X-Men<\/strong> #1 and issues #94-100 of the definitely \u00e2\u20ac\u0153All-New, All-Different\u00e2\u20ac\u009d X-Men<\/strong> from May 1975, through to August 1976 when the merry mutants were still, young, fresh and delightfully under-exposed and opens with a classic mystery monster mash in ‘Second Genesis!’<\/em> as Len Wein & Dave Cockrum (the latter hot from a stint reviving DC’s equally eclectic super-team The Legion of Super-Heroes<\/em>) detailed how the classic team had been lost in action, leaving Charles Xavier to scour the Earth and the Marvel Universe for a replacement team.<\/p>\n

To old foes-turned-friends Banshee<\/em> and Sunfire<\/em> was added a one-shot Hulk villain dubbed the Wolverine<\/em>, but most time and attention was paid to new creations Kurt Wagner, a demonic German teleporter who would be codenamed Nightcrawler<\/em>, African weather \u00e2\u20ac\u0153goddess\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Ororo Monroe AKA Storm<\/em>, Russian farmboy Peter Rasputin, who could transform into a living steel Colossus<\/em> and bitter, disillusioned Apache superman John Proudstar who was cajoled into joining the makeshift squad as Thunderbird<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The second chapter of the epic introductory adventure ‘\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6And When There Was One!’<\/em> reintroduced the wounded team leader Cyclops who swiftly trained the team before leading them into primordial danger against the monolithic threat of ‘Krakoa\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 the Island That Walks Like a Man!’<\/em><\/p>\n

Overcoming the phenomenal terror of the living mutant eco-system and rescuing the original team should have led to the next quarterly issue, but so great was the groundswell of support that the follow-up adventure was reworked into a two part for in the rapidly reconfigured reprint monthly which became a bimonthly home to the team and began the mutant madness we’re still experiencing today.<\/p>\n

X-Men<\/strong> #94 (August 1975) presented ‘The Doomsmith Scenario!’<\/em>, plotted by Editor Wein, scripted by Chris Claremont and with Bob McLeod inking the man-on-fire Dave Cockrum, in a canny Armageddon-countdown shocker as the newly pared-down strike-squad (minus Sunfire<\/em> and recovering mutants Marvel Girl<\/em>, Angel<\/em>, Iceman<\/em>, Havok<\/em> and Lorna Dane<\/em>) were dispatched by The Beast – then serving as a full-time Avenger – to stop criminal terrorist Count Nefaria from starting an atomic war.<\/p>\n

The insidious mastermind had invaded America’s Norad citadel with a gang of artificial superhumans and accidentally turned a nuclear blackmail scheme into an inescapable holocaust before the new mutants stormed in to save the world in the epic conclusion ‘Warhunt!<\/em> (inked by Sam Grainger).<\/p>\n

However one of the valiant neophytes didn’t make it back\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

X-Men<\/strong> #96 saw Claremont take full control of the team’s writing (albeit with some plotting input from Bill Mantlo) in ‘Night of the Demon!’<\/em> as a guilt-wracked Cyclops, blaming himself for the loss of a team-mate, accidentally unleashed a demonic antediluvian horror from earth’s dimmest prehistory for the heroes-in-training to thrash. The infernal Nagarai<\/em> would return over and again to bedevil mankind, but the biggest innovation in this issue was the introduction of gun-toting biologist\/housekeeper Moira MacTaggert<\/em> and the first inklings of the return of implacable old adversaries\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Issue #97 began a long-running, intergalactically-widescreen plotline with ‘My Brother, My Enemy!’<\/em> as Xavier, plagued by visions of interstellar wars, tried to take a vacation, just as Havok<\/em> and Lorna Dane (finally settling on the superhero nom de guerre Polaris<\/em>) attacked the team, seemingly willing servants of a mysterious madman using Cyclops’ old alter ego Eric the Red<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The devastating conflict segued into a spectacular, three-part saga as the pitiless robotic Sentinels returned under the hate-filled auspices of mutantophobic Steven Lang and his mysterious backers of Project Armageddon. The action began with #98’s ‘Merry Christmas, X-Men\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6the Sentinels Have Returned!’<\/em> with coordinated attacks successfully capturing the semi-retired Marvel Girl, Wolverine, Banshee and Xavier, compelling Cyclops and the remaining heroes to co-opt a space shuttle and storm Lang’s orbital HQ to rescue them in ‘Deathstar Rising!<\/em>‘ (inks by Frank Chiaremonte) – another phenomenal all-action episode.<\/p>\n

After a magical pinup of the extended team by Arthur Adams (the cover of Classic X-Men<\/strong> #1 from 1986 if you were wondering) this first stellar, deluxe hardcover compilation concludes on an agonising cliffhanger with the 100th<\/sup> issue anniversary classic ‘Greater Love Hath no X-Man\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6’<\/em> (with Cockrum inking his own pencils) wherein the new X-Men apparently battled the original team before overturning Lang’s monstrous schemes forever.<\/p>\n

However, their catastrophic clash had destroyed their only means of escape and, as a colossal solar flare threatened to eradicate the entire satellite, the only chance to survive meant certain death for another X-Man\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

With even greater excitement and innovation to follow in succeeding issues, these superb comics thrillers revolutionised a moribund genre and led directly to today’s ubiquitous popular cultural landscape where superheroes are as common as cops, cowboys, monsters or rom-com romeos.<\/p>\n

The immortal epics compiled here are available in numerous formats (including softcover editions of the luxurious and enticing hardback under review here), but for a selection that will survive the continual re-readings of the serious, incurable fan there’s nothing to beat the sturdy and substantial full-colour feel of these Marvellous Masterwork editions.
\n\u00c2\u00a9 1975, 1976, 1989 Marvel Entertainment Group, Inc\/Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Len Wein, Chris Claremont, Dave Cockrum & various (Marvel) ISBN: 0-87135-597-3 The X-Men #1 introduced Cyclops, Iceman, Angel, Marvel Girl and the Beast: very special students of Professor Charles Xavier, a wheelchair-bound telepath dedicated to brokering peace and integration between the masses of humanity and the emergent off-shoot race of mutants dubbed Homo Superior. … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Marvel Masterworks volume 11: Giant-Size X-Men #1 and X-Men 94-100”<\/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":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[72,79,106,70],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marvel-masters-masterworks","category-marvel-superheroes","category-wolverine","category-x-men"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-1UD","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7355","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=7355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7355\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}