Desperately Seeking the X-Men – Part 1

Earlier this week Jimski talked about his own personal X-Men. Now it's my turn to dig through a giant stack of comics and find my own uncanny team of mutants. Like I did with Thor last month, this month I'm searching for my perfect X-Men. (For the record, Cyclops is totally "My Boyfriend X-Man").

I'm not going to lie, the X-Men have always kind of scared me. Their continuity is vast and their line-ups varied. And while I know my X-Force from X-Factor, things still get a bit dicey for me when you throw in the New Mutants. So to keep things simple, I'm sticking with regular X-men-X-men for this. 

 

X-Men: First Class by Jeff Parker and Roger Cruz
Team: Cyclops, Beast, Angel, Iceman, Marvel Girl, Professor X

As we've mentioned before, X-Men: First Class the comic and X-Men: First Class the movie really only share a title. The book focuses on the original line up of the X-Men. Scott Summers, Hank McCoy, Warren Worthington, Bobby Drake, and Jean Grey are the first group of students at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. Right out of the gate, this is my kind of comic book. Full of fun, one-and-done stories, Jeff Parker really nails it with the X-Men as early college students.

What's fantastic about this book is it manages to get out from under the sprawling X-Men melodrama that's built up over the years and bring things back to a simplier, more innocent time without being even the slightest bit hokey. These are five kids, thrown together by circumstances outside of their control, working together to help make the world a better place. Another thing that stands out about this book is Xavier really feels like he's part of the X-Men. Normally he kind of lords over them  ("To me, my X-Men!" Seriously? Professor Xavier is a jerk!) but in First Class he's really part of the team dynamic.

This is definitely a book I'd like to read more of. I'd put First Class, and this team, on the same level as something like Ultimate Spider-Man. It's really enjoyable, but I'm not sure it's my definitive version of the X-Men. 

 

X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga by Chris Claremont and John Byrne
Team: Cyclops, Phoenix, Storm, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Colossus 

I freaking love The Dark Phoenix Saga. 

This run is full of first appearances: Kitty Pryde, Dazzler, evil Emma Frost. And while they’re not on the core team of this book per se, Angel and Beast play important roles in the story. (Come to think of it, where the hell is Bobby in all this? Hank and Warren come out to help their Jean in her hour of need, and Bobby’s… what? Off doing taxes? Some friend!). While normally I don’t really like larger teams, the way Claremont weaves the extra characters in at out of the larger story really works. He keeps the main focus on Jean and her immediate team members, so it has a close-knit feel to it.

At its core, Dark Phoenix is a story about friendship and loyalty. During her downward spiral into cosmic madness, the X-Men have ample opportunity to turn their backs on Jean, and you wouldn’t blame them if they did. But they all stand by their friend and try every way possible to save her from what they have to know is her inevitable fate. You really get to see the X-Men as a family in this book, not just a superhero team. It’s the main reason I love the book so much and why this X-Men line-up will be the team to beat in this little project.

Also, I love Scott (and his hair) in this. 

 

X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills by Chris Claremont and Brent Anderson
Team: Magneto, Wolverine, Colossus, Kitty Pryde, Nightcrawler, Cyclops, Storm 

This has been on my To-Read list for quite a while now. And I did debate including it because it seemed a bit redundant – it’s by Claremont, the team is very similar to The Dark Phoenix Saga – but I thought the addition of Magneto as a team member was something worth exploring. Plus Cyclops and Storm are sidelined for a majority of the book so it does change he dynamic quite a bit.

God Loves, Man Kills is a very powerful story. It’s a fantastic allegory for civil rights, and in a more modern context gay rights, without being preachy. It doesn’t beat you over the head with it’s moral messages, it’s just a damn fine story. But I’m here to talk about the characters, not the story.

With Professor X being used as a weapon against the mutants, and with Cyclops and Storm incapacitated, Magneto joins forces with the remaining X-Men to take down Stryker. But no one is really leading the team. They all work together when they can, but there’s no clear plan of attack and things go wrong pretty often. Kitty has a lot of fantastic character moments, but the X-Men just don’t feel like a team in this book. At least not until the very end when Scott kind of rallies the troops and prevents Xavier from following Magneto back to the Brotherhood. Scott truly is the backbone of the team, and this book solidified it for me. It doesn’t feel like the X-Men without him.

However, he has pretty bad hair in this book.

 

X-Men (The Animated Series)
Team: Cyclops, Wolverine, Rogue, Storm, Beast, Gambit, Jubilee, Jean Grey, Professor X

If you grew up in the late 80s like I did, dollars to donuts you’re first introduction to the X-Men was the Saturday morning cartoon on FOX. Personally, I remember playing the arcade game before getting into the cartoon, but it’s pretty much the same thing. There was a bowling alley that had it in the arcade and I loved it! I played as Storm every single time – couldn’t tell you why, I just thought she was the coolest and I liked smashing buttons. Anyway. This is the team that first came to mind when Jimski was talking about his personal X-men. I may not have watched the show religiously, but it’s the reason I knew who the X-Men were.

Since Marvel has all of the episodes streaming on their site, I decided to take a walk down memory lane and watch a few episodes (you should totally go check them out). The good news is, they really hold up and I had a lot of fun watching them again. Rogue is actually a lot more awesome than I remember her being. While I wouldn’t put it quite on the same level as Bruce Timm’s Justice League, X-Men is a great cartoon with some solid storytelling.

That said, I’m not sure I love this team. I like a lot of the characters and I like how most of them click together. But there are too many of them – especially when they start rotating in other X-characters like Colossus and Nightcrawler. They do a good job at highlighting certain members in certain episodes, but in the same way I prefer the Justice League to Justice League Unlimited, I like when the focus is set on a smaller group of five or six.

Also, Cyclops’ hair is pretty fantastic in the cartoon but Gambit’s is way cooler.

I feel like I've just seen the tip of the iceberg with the X-Men. In the next round I’ll be tackling the more modern classics: Grant Morisson and Frank Quitely’s New X-Men and Joss Whedon and John Cassaday’s Astonishing X-Men, as well as the current Uncanny X-Men title by Keiron Gillen.

Got a suggestion on what I’m missing? Let me know and I’ll see if I can squeeze in another book.

 

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Ali Colluccio can summon the elevators in her building using only her mind. It’s probably a coincidence, but she likes to pretend it’s the onset of telekinesis.