Essential Classic X-Men

by Roy Thomas, Arnold Drake, Gary Friedrich

Enemies both infamous and obscure abound in another archive of the X-Men's early adventures! Mainstay malefactors like Magneto and the Juggernaut are joined by the thunderous threat of Factor Three! Plus: the first appearances of Banshee and Polaris! Mimic vs. the Super-Adaptoid! Subterranean civil war! The X-Men's first individualistic uniforms! The return of a Golden Age great... and the death of Professor X!? Guest-starring Spider-Man, Doctor Strange...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0785121161
• ISBN13: 9780785121169
• Release Date: January 2006
• Publisher: Marvel Comics Group
• Length: 640 Pages
• Weight: 1.64 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.6" x 10.0"
• Age Range: 9 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 4 to Postsecondary

Customer Reviews

definitive classic

What the X men should be. This book shows the real Cyclopes, a tourcherd leader. Not a sociopathic jerk

Classy

Black and white colored. Who cares? Stories are amazing! And we can see old days funs and vocabs!(Chickadees!)\ X-Men amazing. Marvel is the best!

It's About Bloody Time, Marvel!

Marvel released volume one in this series YEARS ago, and they have finally given us volume two. The stories in this volume are very rarely reprinted, and are very entertaining. Worth a look, especially if you're a mutant continuity nut like me.

You Comic Book Newbies Need To Read Your History!

Finally, my prayers have been answered! Marvel decided to publish another volume of the original X-Men team. I have been longing for this for quite some time folks, the reason being is that one of the storyarcs contained within this volume was one of the first issues that I ever bought of the original X-Men. Reading these stories brought me back to those summers on Long Island reading comic books on the beach in complete serenity. I actually prefer the original team over the 2nd team started by Claremont and Cockrum, and that's because the original team had more comraderie and was very close-knit to each other (more or less like a family) compared to the 2nd team who constantly argued all the time. It's hard to believe that this series was postponed for some time, but it's obvious that Marvel knew its merry Mutants had a loyal cult-following even back then (for several issues Marvel re-printed earlier tales of the X-Men, keeping the title in circulation before the new team formed). So my advice to all the self-proclaimed "X-Men know it alls" who jumped on the bandwagon when Wolverine joined, and the lazy "ultimate universe" readers who don't have the guts and motivation to seek out back issues and reprints is to do your comic book research and STUDY YOUR MARVEL COMICS HISTORY! Nuff said.

An overdue second look at the Silver Age X-Men!

Yes! If I could allow myself to post a review with only one word, that word would be "Yes". I've been a collector of the Essentials and especially the Essential X-Men for more than four years now, and while I've greatly enjoyed cruising through seven volumes of the celebrated Claremont run, I've always pined for a second volume from the sixties. I've heard about how the series was a poor seller during the end of the Silver Age and how it wasn't as great a priority for new volumes (and yet Killraven was?). I was sorely tempted to drop an extra hundred dollars to buy the material in the hardcover Masterworks format when I heard that the Essential "Classic" X-Men #2 was finally on its way. Now that I've read it, and after waiting for it for half a decade, I'll do my absolute best to provide a review as impartial as is possible. The X-Men series under writers Roy Thomas and Arnold Drake never quite reached the heights that Stan Lee and Chris Claremont achieved, but they were still plenty of great tales to be found. Early on, the Mimic engages in a hard-hitting brawl with the Super-Adaptoid, an android that has assumed the powers of most of the Avengers (too bad the Super Skrull couldn't have swung by to make it a three-way battle of the superteam-amalgamations). Then the X-Men begin a multi-issue hunt for Factor Three, a seditious band of mutants out to trigger nuclear war and reign over Earth in the aftermath. I guess the plot was nothing new, but I still felt that it was a good "Grandiose" style of story in that it held my interest over a long string of installments. Plus it contained one of my favorite light-hearted Silver Age moments when the cash-strapped kids put on some fund raising projects in order to charter a plane to pursue Factor Three into Europe (Hey mister! Could you buy a candy bar to help send mutants like us to save the world?). Also during this saga, the Juggernaut returns and our heroes' only hope of containing him comes from a timely assist from Dr. Strange (By the Hoary Hosts of Hoggoth, what a nice guest appearance!). Magneto then resurfaces with a reconstituted Brotherhood of Mutants (since he seduced Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch away from the Avengers) and it takes the combined forces of Earth's Mightiest Heroes and Marvel's Merry Mutants to oppose the Master of Magnetism. Last but not least, the incomparable Jim Steranko draws two issues (and three covers) around the story of the master manipulator Mesmero and his attempt to convince Lorna Dane that she is Magneto's daughter and thus the future queen of all mutants. Steranko's figures and panel layouts are absolutely striking and I couldn't help but wonder how much of a difference he could have made to the series' sales if he had signed on as the regular artist (although, just between you and me, I have no idea who that bearded guy he drew on the cover of #51 was supposed to be). As I said before, the X-Men were on shaky ground with the comic buying public