Yesterday I took a close look at the entire line of X-Men comics, looking at where they stand as a group of titles. Today, I'd like to take a look at a the book that is near and dear to my heart, as well as serving as the backbone of the X-Men Universe, Uncanny X-Men.
The longest running title, Uncanny X-Men, is the most important book of the X-Men line, to my mind. With a rich history and legacy, Uncanny X-Men is the book that matters. Sure, Uncanny X-Force and Wolverine are better right now, by my grades yesterday, but as an X-Men fan, that should not stop a loyal X-Men reader from reading Uncanny X-Men. Why? Like I said, it matters.
Uncanny X-Men has gone from a third tier book in the 1960s, to a reprint book in the early 1970s, to an era defining title in the late 1970s and 1980s, to a sales juggernaut, yielding some of the best talent in the industry in the 1990s, to a quizzical challenge in the 2000s. Somewhere along the lines, as far as I can tell around the late 1990s, Uncanny X-Men lost it's way. It was no longer the book that mattered. When Grant Morrison came in, his run was in adjective-less X-Men (renamed New X-Men), while Uncanny X-Men plodded along. Since then, Uncanny X-Men has remained the core book, but by no means has it been the shining star of the line. Sure the work of Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction, Kieron Gillen, Terry Dodson and Greg Land from issue #500 to present moved Uncanny X-Men back to a sometimes top 10 book, mostly top 25, but it's not a book that people are talking abut. Not until Gillen began his run a few weeks ago did I hear anyone in my comic store whisper, "Are you reading Uncanny X-Men? It's good!"
So what went wrong? It's easy to point to the 2000s and some specific personalities (*cough* Chuck Austen *cough*), but I'm above that. I don't think that specifically bad work and bad comics are the blame, rather a total change in vision for the book.
A few weeks ago, I surprised myself with a rant during our podcast about what was wrong with Uncanny X-Men. I'll be honest, I hadn't planned the rant and I didn't do any research around it, so it was purely instinctual. The crux of the rant was the problem with Uncanny X-Men is that somewhere in the late 1990s, it lost its way as a cutting edge book and Marvel attempted to make it a blockbuster book. How so?
The way I see Uncanny X-Men over the years was that once they relaunched the book with Giant Size X-Men #1 and Chris Claremont began writing it, the book always featured artists who were on the verge of superstardom. You had John Byrne before he was a superstar (1977-1981), Paul Smith (1982-1983), John Romita Jr. (1983-1986), Marc Silvestri (1987-1990), Jim Lee (1990-1992), Joe Madureira (1994-1997). All of these names that now sell massive amounts of comic books, but at the time, they were one the verge of that stardom. Sure most had cut their teeth on other books (like Romita and Daredevil/Spider-Man and Lee on Punisher: War Journal), but it was their time on Uncanny X-Men, the most popular comic Marvel published, that push them to the level they are on now.
Things changed in the 2000s art-wise. We saw previously established talents like Adam Kubert, Salvador Larroca, Ron Garney, Philip Tan, Alan Davis and Chris Bachalo come on-board, and while I was excited to see a superstar like Alan Davis for 2 years on the book, I can't tell you at any other point in the 2000s where the artist triggered that level excitement like Byrne, Smith, Silvestri, Lee or Madureira did. Since 2008 we've seen stability with the book between Terry Dodson and Greg Land (not even going to bring up the Land situation here), and the books have been good, but sadly, they have not been great.
So when I graded Uncanny X-Men yesterday, I had to give it a B. I think Kieron Gillen is the right writer and is off to a great start, but I would have loved to see his run start with a new creative team. Nothing against Dodson or Land, but it's been a long time with them and we need something fresh in terms of the art on Uncanny X-Men. We need established artists who have shown their talent and are teetering on the edge of super stardom. You're probably wondering who I would want to see draw Uncanny X-Men, right? The answer is simple and right in front of us:
Jamie McKelvie
It's really no surprise I would suggest him for this, as he is one of my favorite artists. Putting that aside, he has an established history of working with Gillen, first on the indie darling Phonogram from Image Comics and most recently on select issues of Generation Hope. He's drawn a few X-Men stories here and there in anthologies, as well as have made appearances in books like Ultimate Spider-Man. After doing indie work, he's done a couple of things for DC Comics, but the past couple of years, it seems as if the majority of his work has come from Marvel Comics, so you know they have something with McKelvie. To say he's on the verge would be an understatement.
In addition to that, if you follow him on Twitter, you may have seen some of his warm up sketches and things he's done in his personal time, specifically stabs at X-Men characters like Psylocke and Pixie. He has a style that is all his own but also works with a reverence for the past that any X-Men artist must have. Now many of his past work have been "talky" books, leading some to wonder about his ability to draw action sequences. But after his work in Ultimate Spider-Man #150 and the upcoming Secret Avengers #16 with Warren Ellis should put any of those concerns to rest. Not to mention, that he draws a pretty cool looking Cyclops (with mod haircut) and I approve of his Beast.
Another one of my personal favorite artists, I believe Chiang is currently exclusive to DC Comics, which lately seems to mean all he draws is covers. I'm not sure when that runs out or if it's even a possibility, but for now, let's pretend it is.
Chiang, through his work at DC, is one of those creators who's been working in the industry for over 10 years (as both an editor and an artist) and is established, but if you ask me, is still on the verge of and has the potential to be a superstar. His early works were in the Vertigo arena with work like Human Target and then he crossed over to the DCU with some work with super heroes, most notably Green Arrow and Black Canary back in 2007. His biggest work to date is probably Greendale, the original graphic novel based on Neil Young's music, in addition to some of the best covers you've ever see on DC's super hero books like Justice League: Generation Lost.
Much like McKelvie, if you look at his work on the side, con sketches, prints and other fun things, he seems to have an affinity for the X-Men, most notably with his Pretty In Pink inspired Dark Phoenix piece. He clearly has a respect for the classic X-Men of the 1980s that we all know and love, and yet has modern and fresh take on the characters. You can even see it with the tongue in cheek Cyclops sketch he did for me at this year's Emerald City Con below, one of the best Cyclops sketches I've gotten.
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McKelvie rocks my world.
That is all.
A great draughtsmen but I getting increasingly getting bored by McKelvie’s rather static figures and layouts – though they are solid clean lines they have a weight that drags the momentum of the story down. his tweets are a lot better
Cliff Chiang is leaving DC? 🙁
I wish they would have used him more.
@AmirCat This is Ron playing fantasy baseball.
@AmirCat You didn’t actually read the article, did you?
I think you’re right that an art shake-up on Uncanny would be nice.
And while I like your Cliff Chang idea, I’m not too sure about Jamie McKelvie. He drew an amazing Wolverine in his Generation Hope issue, but he seemed to have a bit of diffculty with Magneto and Xavier. His figures have a bit of stiffness and posing that I’m not quite a fan of.
I don’t want this to be too heay on the negative, so I’m going to compliment him a bit before I finish this. McKelvie’s art has a beautiful line to it and while posey, the figures have an elegant grace, (especially in the Psylocke and Pixie you posted) which would be good for a more colorful fun title like Uncanny. But I’d still prefer someone with a little more movement to their style. Kaare Andrews is my current pick and think he’d put forth some pretty amazing blockbuster action.
That would be amazing! As much as I’d love to see McKelvie do another phonogram book, X-Men would be the perfect book for him. I defintley wouldn’t complain about Chiang either.
Surely the wrong Chang – Jim not Cliff!
Ron! Damn you. The title of this article, along with your foreshadowing of this piece yesterday, had me thinking this was some sort of announcement that you were hip to. Y got my hopes up! Oh well. Who knows? Maybe you writing this (and emailing it to everyone at Marvel multiple times) will somehow will it into existence.
I like McKelvie but I don’t think he’s right at all for Uncanny, don’t you think his style is a bit too antiseptic for the world of the X-Men? Maybe with the right colorist it could work but at the moment I don’t really see it.
I totally agree with Ron’s theory about how they used up and coming artists. They need to get back to that, whether they use McKelvie and Chiang or others, put some artists on it that aren’t superstars… yet. Hopefully something will happen post-Fear Itself/Schism.
And here I was hoping it’d be Stuart Immonen.
Although I realize that Stuart Immonen as the artist doesn’t go with Ron’s “up and coming artist” pitch.
@ResurrectionFlan Good use of “Antiseptic.” I think it’s a fair argument, though there’s no reason to believe he couldn’t change up his style and experiment with more grit and grime.
@PaulMontgomery @ResurrectionFlan If McKelvie changed his style to be more gritty I don’t think I’d be as interested. He’s great BECAUSE he’s not gritty. That goes for a different colorist as well. Marvel tried to color him in the overly rendered Marvel house style of the time and it was a DISASTER.
@conor I think there’s room, especially in his backgrounds, to make things a little less clean without losing what’s special about his signature style.
Truth be told…look at that panel with Cable in it. That’s a pretty reasonable compromise.
McKelvie would be perfect. Phonogram is the book I lend people who don’t like comics and they always ask me for the other volume afterwards.
Agree that Cliff Chiang would be great on Uncanny, but agree with one of the previous comments that McKelvie’s work is waaay to stiff for any kind of action book.
I like both the artists but neither of them are vastly different from the Dodson art currently on the book.
I would love this times a thousand if it ever really happened.
@conor @PaulMontgomery
What about the story of X-Men suggest something with clean composed lines though? Isn’t the story of the X-Men the messiest, most teenage manic puberty driven of all superheroes?
I think McKelvie is great on Phonogram but he’s portraying put-together people in a semi-empty place that only becomes chanrged with magic via the music playing. And then it’s mostly standing and gazing starry-eyed.
For my money I would love to see someone like Jason Latour or Declan Shalvey who have a seriously kinetic style. I just can’t picture a McKelvie manicured Wolverine accurately portraying the spirit of the character at the moment.
For me X-Men should almost be like a punk zine.
I am happy to be proved wrong and would like to see him break out of the constrainsts he’s set for himself and take his stuff to the next level.
It would be an interesting experiment though.
My pick would be Rafa Sandoval. I love his work.
http://rafasandoval.blogspot.com/
I’d argue that UNCANNY X-FORCE is using this formula moreso than UNCANNY X-MEN currently with the star turns for Opena, Ribic and Albuquerque. If they can see it working there, they should transport that idea back to X-MEN. And then somehow find a Art Adams type person to draw special issues and annuals.
And I think McElvie woudl work great on X-Men the same way Dave Cockrum excelled on the book. There’s some simpatico between the two.
@ResurrectionFlan I second your opinion. Punk teenage angst at its finest. That’s one thing Morrison really understood about the team. Powers unlocked by puberty, sexual undertones. Bachalo, Romita jr., Adam Kubert. Kaare Andrews is still my #1 pick, though those two were very intriguing.