Tease & Reveal: MMXI = Year of the X-Men? Original X-Men are Back?

We've been talking about comics here on iFanboy for a while.  In fact, we've been doing it so for so long that we've become very familiar with the various promotional strategies of the comic book publishers.  One tactic we like to call the, "Tease and Reveal" has been perfected by Marvel Comics over the years.  It's a tried and true way to get our attention and keep us hanging for the just right amount of time.  But this week, Marvel's taken it to a new level with a double shot of both ends of that strategy, with both a reveal AND a tease, all in the same day.

Let's start with the reveal, shall we?  A few weeks ago we got treated to the striking image to the right which appeared to pit the original 5 X-Men with the core 5 X-Men of today (and is in fact the variant cover to X-Men Giant Size #1 by Paco Medina).  "But..but…how could this be happening" we asked.  Well, Marvel finally deemed us worthy to reveal how such an amazing thing could occur.

The event, X-Men: First to Last was revealed along with the creative team and some preview pages (available below to view).  Written by fan favorite, and no stranger to the X-Men, Christopher Yost (this time without his long time collaborate, Craig Kyle) will be writing, with art by the fabulous Paco Medina along with Dalibor Talijic.  The story it seems shows the return of the original, founding 5 members of the X-Men beginning in X-Men Giant Size #1 in May, and continuing in X-Men #12 in June.  Apparently the original team and the current team will be forced to team up to fight a new set of enemies call the Evolutionaries. X-Men Giant Size #1, a clever play on words to call memories of the original Giant Size X-Men #1 from the 1970s,  even though there's no mention of the page count to make it Giant Size, but the cover price sure is Giant Sized at $4.99

I have to admit, I'm a sucker for the original X-Men team, but throw in the newly revealed cover art by Ed McGuiness (who I would LOVE to see tackle an X-Men book), which once again triggers memories of the original and legendary Giant Size X-Men #1, along with these 4 preview pages and I'm all about this upcoming story arc in X-Men.  Sure, I was going to read it anyhow, but come on, take a look at this art! I bet you'll want to too!

And with every good reveal comes a completely (possibly) unreleased tease.  This time, it's the New Mutants turn, as Marvel presented us with the below image to announce another mystery, unrevealed creative team on New Mutants #25 this May.  This issue is set to kick off MMXI, which apparently is the year of the X-Men (starting in May? *shrug*).  

Regardless, any intelligent thought and speculation were completely wiped away when I saw the below art and could just stammer, "B-b-b-link? N-n-n-ate Grey? Homina Homina…"  Yep, I'm on board for this one too.

..it doesn't take much to get me excited…