cleverfoxwithcoffee's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
al_capwned's review
1.0
X-Men was definitely the worst of all Marvel silver age comics and yes, it's true that there's a specific Stan Lee formula for all Marvel comics but in the case of the X-Men it seems that it was already obsolete.
rayaan54's review
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
booksbyantheia's review
adventurous
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
michelleheegaard's review
3.0
Well.. I found out old comics just aren't my thing. There i way too much text and the dialogue was just.. plain and very childish.
But it's fine. This was the first issues of the x-men and it was kind of nice to get a quick look at the first issues of this amazing story.
But it's fine. This was the first issues of the x-men and it was kind of nice to get a quick look at the first issues of this amazing story.
fablesandwren's review
3.0
I think this was a great read... for when you want to jump back to the fifties (which I am not downing at all). This is where it all began! I was so excited to see where this started.
I'm not going to go into much detail on what happened in each issue, because we all know the drill: bad guy trying to take/take over something and then good guys appear and beat them and save the day. So I am going over some of the characters that made an appearance.
So the X-Men team starts with these characters:
Professor X: The man in the wheel chair with telepathic abilities
The Beast (Hank McCoy): Isn't blue but still very ape-like
Iceman (Bobby Drake): The youngest of the group, and becomes basically a walking snowman
Cyclops (Slim [Scott] Summers): Has to have his eyes covered all the time because laser eyes (sunglasses will do); does become the leader while Professor X is away
Angel (Warren Worthington III): Has big ole' angel wings
Marvel Girl (Jean Grey): Telepathic and told not to strain her powers.
So, few things:
01. Why do all the guys turn to mush about Marvel Girl? Have they never seen a girl before?
02. The language in this comic literally brings me back to the fifties.
03. They always explained what they were doing out loud (for the reader, I am assuming) and it was kind of like me "yah, I know you are doing that because I can see you doing it." MAYBE it was because it was the first X-Men so it was common sense? Or maybe comics weren't big back then so they had to spell it all out? I would have to do some research on it.
Some special features:
Thor Odinson: doesn't have an alter ego because he's a Asgardian and not from Earth. He has a hammer that only he can pick up.
Captain America (Steve Rogers): Oh Captain America, my favorite avenger. The leader of the group and the one with the morals to shoot for.
Giant-Man (Hank Pym): I'm pretty sure this is the same guy that does Ant-Man, but I don't think that has been made at this point? I would love for someone to tell me if I am right or not.
Wasp (Janet van Dyne): I have never even heard of this marvel character before. She is tiny and can lift really big things. I'm pretty sure she shrinks to that size though; I don't think she stays that size forever.
Ka-Zar: I'm not sure if they consider him an X-Men, but this caveman has a saber-toothed tiger. Shows up later in the volume, not in all of them like the rest of them.
And, of course, the villains:
Magneto (Max Eisenhardt): The ability to control metal! It was so perfect for the first villain to be Magneto, since he is the one that is at the core of a lot of the bag things that happen in the movie (sorry, I've watched all the movies before reading the comics. Let it go). His costume is purple and red and I think it looks kind of silly.
The Vanisher (Telford Porter): The ability to transport himself (hence, he vanishes). He robs banks and gets a bunch of thugs to be his lackeys. He looks like a clown in red. I was not a fan.
The Blob (Frederick J. "Fred" Dukes): He stands in one place and literally nothing can move him. He also can shoot things back at you that you shoot at him. They just bounce right off of him. He was invited to be an x-men, but then turned on them and now has it out to destroy them all.
Magneto then forms his own little group of mutants:
Toad (Mortimer Toynbee): He can hop real big like... lol. He is actually really disgusting looking and I was not a fan. He reminded me of Renfield from Dracula, except Toad is to Magneto. He will just do anything he says.
Mastermind (Jason Wyngarde): He can manipulate your mind. So he makes you see something that is not really there, or he can erase a memory or put a memory in your head. He was a complete jerk.
Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff): I can honestly say I do not know the extent of her power. All I know is that she has trouble controlling it. Wikipedia says, "The Scarlet Witch can tap into mystic energy for reality-altering effects; this power was formerly limited to the creation of "hex-spheres" of reality-disrupting quasi-psionic force to cause molecular disturbances in a target's probability field, resulting in spontaneous combustion, deflection of objects in flight, and so on. She later became able to alter reality on a far greater scale, creating entire armies of enemies from nowhere. Although the Scarlet Witch has been trained in basic sorcery techniques, she lacks the specialized mystic training required to fully control her power."
QuickSilver (Pietro Maximoff): He runs like, really fast. He also can speak and think at supersonic speed. Wanda is his sister, if you didn't catch on to that.
So with this core group here, only two are really wanting to destroy people (Toad and Mastermind), from what I understand. Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver owe Magneto something,so they do his bidding.
A few other villains that make an appearance:
Sub-Mariner (Namor McKenzie): He lives in the water, so I assume he can breath under water too. He also has tiny wings on his ankles, so he can fly too. They said something about him being from Fantastic Four Issue #27 and he's also associated with The Hulk from Avengers Issue #03. He has trust issues since The Hulk apparently... He teams up with magneto and wants to dominate all those who aren't mutants.
Lucifer: I didn't really gather a lot from him besides he is smart enough to link a bomb to his heart so if he dies, the bomb goes off. Seems pretty sinister to me.
Maa-Gor: He showed up with Ka-Zar. He was like half-ape-half-man. He's the leader of some caveman tribe.
In conclusion, it was kind of hard to get through since there were a lot of everything on one page. And when I say everything, I mean a lot of unneeded words and such. I do realize this was written forever ago and they had to describe things back then because Marvel Superheros weren't common sense yet like they are for us now. I liked it, but I am not sure I will ever read them again.
I'm not going to go into much detail on what happened in each issue, because we all know the drill: bad guy trying to take/take over something and then good guys appear and beat them and save the day. So I am going over some of the characters that made an appearance.
So the X-Men team starts with these characters:
Professor X: The man in the wheel chair with telepathic abilities
The Beast (Hank McCoy): Isn't blue but still very ape-like
Iceman (Bobby Drake): The youngest of the group, and becomes basically a walking snowman
Cyclops (Slim [Scott] Summers): Has to have his eyes covered all the time because laser eyes (sunglasses will do); does become the leader while Professor X is away
Angel (Warren Worthington III): Has big ole' angel wings
Marvel Girl (Jean Grey): Telepathic and told not to strain her powers.
So, few things:
01. Why do all the guys turn to mush about Marvel Girl? Have they never seen a girl before?
02. The language in this comic literally brings me back to the fifties.
03. They always explained what they were doing out loud (for the reader, I am assuming) and it was kind of like me "yah, I know you are doing that because I can see you doing it." MAYBE it was because it was the first X-Men so it was common sense? Or maybe comics weren't big back then so they had to spell it all out? I would have to do some research on it.
Some special features:
Thor Odinson: doesn't have an alter ego because he's a Asgardian and not from Earth. He has a hammer that only he can pick up.
Captain America (Steve Rogers): Oh Captain America, my favorite avenger. The leader of the group and the one with the morals to shoot for.
Giant-Man (Hank Pym): I'm pretty sure this is the same guy that does Ant-Man, but I don't think that has been made at this point? I would love for someone to tell me if I am right or not.
Wasp (Janet van Dyne): I have never even heard of this marvel character before. She is tiny and can lift really big things. I'm pretty sure she shrinks to that size though; I don't think she stays that size forever.
Ka-Zar: I'm not sure if they consider him an X-Men, but this caveman has a saber-toothed tiger. Shows up later in the volume, not in all of them like the rest of them.
And, of course, the villains:
Magneto (Max Eisenhardt): The ability to control metal! It was so perfect for the first villain to be Magneto, since he is the one that is at the core of a lot of the bag things that happen in the movie (sorry, I've watched all the movies before reading the comics. Let it go). His costume is purple and red and I think it looks kind of silly.
The Vanisher (Telford Porter): The ability to transport himself (hence, he vanishes). He robs banks and gets a bunch of thugs to be his lackeys. He looks like a clown in red. I was not a fan.
The Blob (Frederick J. "Fred" Dukes): He stands in one place and literally nothing can move him. He also can shoot things back at you that you shoot at him. They just bounce right off of him. He was invited to be an x-men, but then turned on them and now has it out to destroy them all.
Magneto then forms his own little group of mutants:
Toad (Mortimer Toynbee): He can hop real big like... lol. He is actually really disgusting looking and I was not a fan. He reminded me of Renfield from Dracula, except Toad is to Magneto. He will just do anything he says.
Mastermind (Jason Wyngarde): He can manipulate your mind. So he makes you see something that is not really there, or he can erase a memory or put a memory in your head. He was a complete jerk.
Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff): I can honestly say I do not know the extent of her power. All I know is that she has trouble controlling it. Wikipedia says, "The Scarlet Witch can tap into mystic energy for reality-altering effects; this power was formerly limited to the creation of "hex-spheres" of reality-disrupting quasi-psionic force to cause molecular disturbances in a target's probability field, resulting in spontaneous combustion, deflection of objects in flight, and so on. She later became able to alter reality on a far greater scale, creating entire armies of enemies from nowhere. Although the Scarlet Witch has been trained in basic sorcery techniques, she lacks the specialized mystic training required to fully control her power."
QuickSilver (Pietro Maximoff): He runs like, really fast. He also can speak and think at supersonic speed. Wanda is his sister, if you didn't catch on to that.
So with this core group here, only two are really wanting to destroy people (Toad and Mastermind), from what I understand. Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver owe Magneto something,so they do his bidding.
A few other villains that make an appearance:
Sub-Mariner (Namor McKenzie): He lives in the water, so I assume he can breath under water too. He also has tiny wings on his ankles, so he can fly too. They said something about him being from Fantastic Four Issue #27 and he's also associated with The Hulk from Avengers Issue #03. He has trust issues since The Hulk apparently... He teams up with magneto and wants to dominate all those who aren't mutants.
Lucifer: I didn't really gather a lot from him besides he is smart enough to link a bomb to his heart so if he dies, the bomb goes off. Seems pretty sinister to me.
Maa-Gor: He showed up with Ka-Zar. He was like half-ape-half-man. He's the leader of some caveman tribe.
In conclusion, it was kind of hard to get through since there were a lot of everything on one page. And when I say everything, I mean a lot of unneeded words and such. I do realize this was written forever ago and they had to describe things back then because Marvel Superheros weren't common sense yet like they are for us now. I liked it, but I am not sure I will ever read them again.
fionali's review
3.0
How long do you think it'll take me to read through like 50 years of back issues hahaha
the_graylien's review
5.0
Here it is... The very first adventures of the X-Men...
This beautiful hardcover contains the first ten issues of the series from 1963-1965.
With this being the very first volume of stories of my very favorite comic book characters, I had to give it five stars. It's very interesting to see where they've come from. One can even see the beginnings of the constant anti-prejudice theme that's always run through the series...
Also, this volume features the very first appearances of (get ready) Professor X, The Original X-Men: Cyclops, Beast, Angel, Iceman, and Marvel Girl (Jean Grey), Magneto, The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants: Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, Toad, Mastermind (and this group was also led by Magneto), The Vanisher, The Blob, Unus the Untouchable, and Ka-Zar. It even featured the first appearances of things like Asteroid M, The Danger Room, and Cerebro...
This one's the very genesis of our favorite heroes.
and there's nothing like it...
This beautiful hardcover contains the first ten issues of the series from 1963-1965.
With this being the very first volume of stories of my very favorite comic book characters, I had to give it five stars. It's very interesting to see where they've come from. One can even see the beginnings of the constant anti-prejudice theme that's always run through the series...
Also, this volume features the very first appearances of (get ready) Professor X, The Original X-Men: Cyclops, Beast, Angel, Iceman, and Marvel Girl (Jean Grey), Magneto, The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants: Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, Toad, Mastermind (and this group was also led by Magneto), The Vanisher, The Blob, Unus the Untouchable, and Ka-Zar. It even featured the first appearances of things like Asteroid M, The Danger Room, and Cerebro...
This one's the very genesis of our favorite heroes.
and there's nothing like it...
bmaackreadscomics's review
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
The Problematic:
Exclusively white cast. Misogynistic / patriarchal vibes toward Marvel Girl and The Scarlet Witch are pretty common place in every issue. These women are love objects first, people and heroes second. That said, Jean Grey does get some cool moments in here that might have been considered controversial for a female character at the time (i.e. she learns how to disassemble and reassemble a rifle with her telekinesis)
The Bad:
The art is hardly ever engaging. Occasionally there’s a larger panel with some cool stuff going on, but not a lot can be gleaned from the art itself. This unfortunately means that everything must be explained to the reader by way of ceaseless, corny narration. These issues read incredibly slow compared to modern standards because of how wordy they are. Finally, the crossover issues, especially the one with The Avengers, were really unnecessary. These crossover issues felt the most formulaic and superficial; the crossover characters (e.g. Sub-Mariner, Ka-Zar, etc) never made a lasting impact in the X-Men world.
The Good:
The adventures are fun, simple, and have a classic feel to them. This is not a complex soap opera of mutant against mutant. The villains are very clearly evil (minus Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch which is a nice little nuance) and the heroes always do the right thing. I was genuinely surprised at the continuity (albeit minuscule) in these first 10 issues of X-Men. The X-Men actually graduate Professor Xavier’s tests, Cyclops becomes the interim leader, and Beast briefly leaves the X-Men for half an issue. Coolest villain was actually The Blob in my opinion. In the end, The Blob chose not to be an X-Men nor a part of Magneto’s evil mutants and instead went back to his life in the carnival. Neat to have a character break the binary.
Overall:
A slow-going but enjoyable read. I don’t feel like my time was wasted, but I wouldn’t say too much of this holds up to today’s standards. If anything, it’s more fun to read these with a “history-of-comics” lens. Most importantly, it feels really cool to get to know the origins of these characters and it will be interesting to see how many of their personality traits continue into future series and runs.
Exclusively white cast. Misogynistic / patriarchal vibes toward Marvel Girl and The Scarlet Witch are pretty common place in every issue. These women are love objects first, people and heroes second. That said, Jean Grey does get some cool moments in here that might have been considered controversial for a female character at the time (i.e. she learns how to disassemble and reassemble a rifle with her telekinesis)
The Bad:
The art is hardly ever engaging. Occasionally there’s a larger panel with some cool stuff going on, but not a lot can be gleaned from the art itself. This unfortunately means that everything must be explained to the reader by way of ceaseless, corny narration. These issues read incredibly slow compared to modern standards because of how wordy they are. Finally, the crossover issues, especially the one with The Avengers, were really unnecessary. These crossover issues felt the most formulaic and superficial; the crossover characters (e.g. Sub-Mariner, Ka-Zar, etc) never made a lasting impact in the X-Men world.
The Good:
The adventures are fun, simple, and have a classic feel to them. This is not a complex soap opera of mutant against mutant. The villains are very clearly evil (minus Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch which is a nice little nuance) and the heroes always do the right thing. I was genuinely surprised at the continuity (albeit minuscule) in these first 10 issues of X-Men. The X-Men actually graduate Professor Xavier’s tests, Cyclops becomes the interim leader, and Beast briefly leaves the X-Men for half an issue. Coolest villain was actually The Blob in my opinion. In the end, The Blob chose not to be an X-Men nor a part of Magneto’s evil mutants and instead went back to his life in the carnival. Neat to have a character break the binary.
Overall:
A slow-going but enjoyable read. I don’t feel like my time was wasted, but I wouldn’t say too much of this holds up to today’s standards. If anything, it’s more fun to read these with a “history-of-comics” lens. Most importantly, it feels really cool to get to know the origins of these characters and it will be interesting to see how many of their personality traits continue into future series and runs.
etienne02's review
4.0
Good comic books. This volume contain the very first x-men comics, number 1 to 10. The characters. good and bad, are interesting and its really fun to see the beginning of such a great series. I find them a little bit repetitive and easy story, but when you remember that those comic books where written for an young public, you understand and forgive that. So not the best comic books of all time, but definitely a must for every X-Men fan, just so you know where it all begin!!