GRAPHIC NOVELS: THE UNCANNY X-MEN -A LOOK AT THE PANINI DIGEST REPRINTS

1. The original all-new Uncanny X-Men.

I used to have all the original issues of Uncanny X-Men from around issue 97 to whatever it got up to in 1988 when I got married and had to sell almost my entire comics collection. I did manage to sort of replace them with an illegal multi-disk DVD-ROM I bought a few years back but I now can't get that to play on my pc which encouraged me to pick up (usually for less than cover price) these cheap reprints.

At the time the comics originally came out, there was no question that -starring the new lineup which started in 1975- it was the best super-hero comic around and most definitely my favourite. These early issues, particularly the ones pencilled by John Byrne and emphatically enhanced by the delicate and detailed inking of Terry Austin are classics of the genre and stories  improved too when Byrne started co-plotting with writer Chris Claremont. When I wrote my teenage SF novel (The Lies That Bind, Purnell 1989) back in in the 80's, I tuckerised my protagonist calling him John Claremont, though the novel itself is almost an anti-X-men as the one character who actually takes super-heroes seriously is show to be deranged.

By today's standards the stories can be a bit clunky, top-heavy with expository dialogue, overly melodramatic, sometimes twee and naive. But these are the stories which made the X-Men the dominant force at Marvel and, ignoring the flaws highlighted by changing tastes, are still better than most of the stuff Marvel currently publishes.  

As I said, these are a cheap way to get hold of the original stories at a reasonable price. An alternate method is the big fat Essential omnibus editions from Marvel but they are in black and white. Panini editions, despite the reduced size are in colour and on decent paper. If you're okay with the size, then these are really good value with none of the collections being less than 169 pages and three being well over 200. 

2. The Uncanny X-Men: The Panini Digest Marvel Pocketbook series.

It would help if they were numbered but they aren't and it's difficult, if not impossible to find a list of these books so I'm providing one here.They are listed in chronological order of book publication, the book subtitle, artist (but not author as all of them are written by Chris Claremont except where noted) the issue numbers it contains, page length, book publication date, and a brief guide to content.

Second Genesis, Dave Cockrum, Giant Size X-Men 1, 94-103, 223pps, 2004

And this is where it all begins. The new X-Men lineup was actually created by Len Wein who wrote the Giant Size issue before handing it over to Claremont. Wein also created Wolverine who first appeared in a Hulk story. Includes Sentinels, Phoenix, the Juggernaut, and other less interesting characters, but Claremont was only getting warmed up and things improve considerably with the next volume. NB, this may be out of print.

Magneto Triumphant, Dave Cockrum, John Byrne and Terry Austin, 104-117, 262pps, 2005.

It's all here, interplanetary action, the Starjammers and galactic empires, the first mention of Alpha Flight, Magneto, the Savage Land, and the start of the Byrne-Austin run.

Wanted Wolverine: Dead or Alive, Byrne & Austin, George Perez, 118-124 plus Annual 3, 169pps, 2005.  

First appearance of Alpha Flight, Arcade & Murderworld, a young George Perez illustrating the Annual.

Dark Phoenix, Byrne & Austin, 125-137, 257pps, 2006.

Mutant X, Kitty Pryde, the Hellfire Club, Dark Phoenix and the death of Jean Grey. Essential.

Days Of Future Past, Byrne & Austin, John Romita Jr, 138-146 plus Annual 4, 175pps, 2006.

The classic alternate future story, Kitty alone with a demon, unimpressive art by Romita Jr on the annual.

Rogue Storm, Dave Cockrum (with name misspelled on the cover), 144-150, 185pps, 2006.

Storm vs Doc Doom, Magneto, a bit of a disappointment.

God Loves Man Kills, Dave Cockrum, Brent Anderson, 151-153, Annual 5, Marvel Graphic Novel 5, 177pps, 2007.

Storm vs the White Queen, FF team up, plus the 48 page graphic novel of the title which was originally published as an oversize 48 page book and now reprinted here at half the original size.

Night Screams, Dave Cockrum, Bill Sienkiewicz, Brent Anderson, 154-161, 191pps, 2008.

More Starjammers, the new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, Storm vs Dracula, the demon Belasco and his pet monster S'ym which is a comics in-joke about creator Dave Sim and his creation Cerebus of whom S'ym is a parody.

Beyond The Farthest Star, Dave Cockrum, Paul Smith, 162-168, 191pps, 2009.

The hideous aliens The Brood, the beginning of stylish artist Paul Smith's all too short run. One of the best runs of the series.

Scarlet In Glory, Paul Smith, 169-175, 194pps, 2009.

The Morlocks, X-Men in Japan, the rehabilitation of Rogue, all good stuff.

Blood Feud, John Romita Jr (plus several others), 176-179, Annual 6, New Mutants 13-14, Marvel Team-Up 100, 194pps, 2010.

Drac's back, S'ym's back, more Evil Mutants and Morlocks; bit of a hodge-podge as the sources would indicate.

Legacy Of The Lost, John Romita Jr, Barry Windsor-Smith, 185-191, 193pps, 2011.

Forge heart Storm, the Wraith (cf. Rom the Spaceknight), Kulan-Gath transforms New York, Rachel Summers (daughter of Scott and Jean Grey from an alternate future which for me marked the long slow decline of the title into incomprehensible and unneccessary but profitable complexity) appears.

Next in the series, The Gift,  is supposedly coming soon but as Disney/Marvel having been having words with Panini, I'm not holding my breath and Amazon aren't currently listing it.

3. Related tites from Panini.

Wolverine First Class: Rookie, Fred van Lente (writer), various artists, issues 1-8, 193 pps, 2009.

Early adventures of Kitty & Wolverine. Don't know when this was written, not long ago I suspect. This may also be a complete mini-series; again, I don't know, but it's lightweight fun.

X-Men The Hidden Years: The Ghost & the Darkness, John Byrne writer/artist, Tom Palmer inks, 1-7, X-Men 94, no page numbers, 2011.

The first collection of a series (published 1999-2001) which was cancelled, to Byrne's annoyance, with issue 22 so, theoretically, there should be another couple of volumes to come, but I'm not hopeful (see above). The series was designed to fit in the period when Uncanny went to reprint and end with the arrival of the new X-men. Nice artwork, just okay stories.

GRAPHIC STORIES: X-MEN feat. THE BEAST, A SHORT HISTORY

In a review of a Conan graphic novel collection recently I mentioned that the original Marvel comic series was what got me back into comics in the first place. My interest was maintained by a number of other interesting titles of which the main one was the X-men. Now this was the revived X-men as co-created by writer Len Wein and artist Dave Cockcrum. Now while Wein was there for the conception and birth, it was writer Chris Claremont and artist John Byrne (and it would be unfair of me not to mention the outstanding inking/embellishing of Terry Austin) who raised the family to adulthood, or more accurately if metaphorically to dominate the world of comic books. They were also responsible for the character of  Kitty Pryde, a barely adolescent mutant with primarily defensive powers and it was Kitty who, I'd argue, gave the team a wider dynamic which was behind their growing popularity from minor to cult to cultural domination.

In the above panel, note 3rd from right the hairy version of Hank McCoy aka The Beast. Now originally Hank looked completely human until writer Steven Englehart, in what would become known as a mini-series in one of Marvel's tryout titles, transformed him into something like a wolf-man type Beast. He became less monstrous quite quickly and later joined the Avengers where he found himself to be attractive to women.

Hank is probably my favourite Marvel character. He's a super-intelligent scientist, wise-cracking in battle, wryly witty when not, self-effacing and emotionally vulnerable with a very big heart. He's one of the few superheroes that you feel you would actually enjoy meeting if he existed. His range means he can be used in a variety of situations without ever being untrue to the character; he can be the powerhouse, the conscience, the light relief, and even the romantic as he's very cultured.

And then there's Kelsey Grammer as Hank McCoy in the third X-Men movie, God help us.

So Hank McCoy muddled along as a likeable all-purpose in a multitude of Marvel comics in varying groups or as a guest star and always returning to the X-men for the next 25 years or so until Grant Morrison came along.

Morrison's intent, aided by superstar artist and pseudonym Frank Quitely, was to revive and transform the X-Men to give them a firm foundation in the new millenium. Which he, to a large extent, did. Which Marvel then pretty much ignored as they felt like it and Morrison signed with DC. There's no doubt it was an interesting series full of twists and turns and surprises and it was certainly the best X-Men or New X-Men as Morrison insisted on it being titled, for many a year.

One thing he did was to emphasise the Beast's mutating physique by giving him feline features and reducing the number of fingers on his what has almost become paws. Hank's character remained pretty much unchanged; he just got better dialogue courtesy of GM.

When Morrison's reign was over I simply stopped reading the X-Men again. I'm not really a Marvel fan and these days I tend to buy a title on the basis of the writer or writer/artist team and even then I'm selective. I started up again with a title which was, as they say, a no-brainer: Joss Whedon and John Cassady.

Joss Whedon, the brains behind Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, co-screenplay writer of Toy Story and sole writer of Alien: Resurrection (and a much underrated movie that one is too). Simply: a deity among men. And was to write a 24-issue maxi-series, later published in four trade paperbacks (which I own), and then in one single massive de luxe hardback volume (which is winging its way to me from Amazon even as I write so obviously I'm not going to say it's crap).

And John Cassady. Well just look at this comic book art.

And then: The Astonishing X-Men

Whedon simply wrote a great story with terrific dialogue which encompassed everything which makes a story good: high adventure, romance, tragedy, humour, philosophy, and probably anything else you can think of.

He brought back Kitty Pryde as mature young woman in her early twenties and Peter Rasputin (aka Colossus who'd apparently been dead for years -which I didn't even know- but, like I said, I only get these titles when they're likely to be too good not to) who was Kitty's teenage crush with the result that they finally get it on and Wolverine laconically observes, "About time."

Whedon also brings to centre stage an antagonistic character called Abigail Brand boss of the acronym SWORD which is an organisation operating as a defence from/interface with aliens and operates from a space station and appears to be working with the alien villain of the series. He also adds an innovative twist by revealing that Kitty's alien pet mini-dragon Lockheed is highly intelligent and has recently been spying on the X-Men for SWORD.

Brand turns out to be alien on her father's side and gets a few scenes with Hank McCoy resulting in her declaring to him, and much to his surprise, that "(I am) so frikking hot for you."

Their relationship is still ongoing, albeit off-screen, in the next, less successful and still ongoing,  series of Astonishing X-Men written by Warren Ellis and confusingly illustrated by the Italian Simone Bianchi.

More fun is the spin-off series. What follows is my Amazon review of-

  X-Men: S.W.O.R.D. - No Time To Breathe TPB (Paperback): rating 3 stars

This has been published under the X-men banner but the link is somewhat tenuous as it only features one bona fide X-man in the furry and loveable form of Hank McCoy aka Beast. Stretching a point and you could include Lockheed who was once thought of as Kitty Pryde's pet mini-dragon but who was recently revealed as an intelligent alien with his own (still unrevealed) agenda.

More of a grumble is the physical portrayal of Hank McCoy who I ought to state is my favourite Marvel character. His appearance has changed often over the years from pure (extremely well muscled and agile) human to human with blue fur and more recently into human with feline features and paws. And then again in this story where he has been given a horse-like muzzle which is considerably at variance with his features on the cover, and also much less appealing. That it makes him resemble (as we find out when we meet Abigail Brand's half-brother) his girlfriend's father's species still doesn't justify it.

Okay, as for the story itself, it's set on the space station responsible for defending earth against aliens and is co-lead by the mutually antagonistic Brand and Henry Gyrich (who, as Hank points out about this long-running X-men supporting character, has been wrong about everything for years. There are lots of wheels within wheels but basically Gyrich has SWORD round up every alien on Earth (including superheroes) while Brand and Beast are off fighting Deathshead.

If it hadn't been for the physical portrayal of Hank McCoy, I'd probably have given this 4 stars as it's a fun romp. But that horse-faced appearance is just SO annoying.

And there we have it. The story so far.