X-Men: The first Dave Cockrum years
You may have noticed that despite my vocal fanishness, I have written little on the X-Men. I was thinking of writing little essays on the various periods of Chris Claremont's run, generally divided by penciler. Here's a tester!
When the new X-Men came out, it was the work of Len Wein and Dave Cockrum. It had little attachment to the original X-Men: all of them except Cyclops (and Professor X, if he counts) were written out almost right away, though of course Jean came back into the periphary again before long. The idea of a team of mutants from across the globe was interesting, though. Chris Claremont took over from Len Wein after Giant-Size X-Men #1, starting his lengthy run with X-Men #94. Fortunately, Chris and Dave Cockrum got along very well and had a very crazy creative synergy.
Unfortunately a lot of the earliest stuff was just pretty bad. The storyline where Thunderbird dies was Len's plot. It created an interesting tension that wasn't present at the time, when killing off superheroes wasn't a daily routine as it is now. Chris's first plot was typical of his worst work, where the X-Men fight a freed demon. Soon the X-Men were attacked by Sentinels and taken into space, the result of which was Jean becoming Phoenix. At this point the book starts picking up steam. The X-Men are attacked by two old villains: Juggernaut and a reborn Magneto, who pretty much crush the undertrained team. It turns out to be the work of an agent of the alien Shi'ar race, who proceeds to attack using a brainwashed Havok and Polaris, then tricks Firelord into attack them. All the while Professor X has been seeing visions, which turn out to be of the Shi'ar princess, Lilandra. The Shi'ar agent takes Lilandra through a portal, and the X-Men follow him. On the other side they find the mad Shi'ar emperor, D'Ken and his Imperial Guard and do battle...
Chris loves huge end-of-the-universe plots and Dave Cockrum loved space opera type stuff, and it shows here. Chris's dialogue is painfully cheesy and over-the-top melodramatic a lot of the time. Dave's pencils are still evolving, but they are already pretty excellent.
Cyclops gets a power boost and has the distinction of being the only founding member left. Otherwise it's typical stuff with him taking his job as leader very seriously and being withdrawn. Nightcrawler shines pretty much from the start. Dave Cockrum considered him to be his representative, and thus he gets to do a lot of heroics. His powers quickly grow numerous: teleportation, wall climbing, and vanishing in deep shadow. Wolverine is not very appealing, as the loudmouthed psycho who will attack his teammates for no good reason. Interestingly there is no mention of his adamantium bones or healing factor throughout this era: he is simply depicted as nigh invulnerable. Likewise his claws are revealed to be part of his body rather than part of his gloves as the series progresses, and later to be adamantium. Colossus really doesn't do anything except punch and have an apparent crush on Storm, which doesn't last. Storm is more interesting and has an origin story. Her innocence of civilization is amusing, and her power is shown to be vast from very early on. Banshee is underrated, as he is very amusing, having experience and a sense of humor about it all. Jean and Xavier didn't come across much to me. Moira MacTaggart is introduced, and she immediately becomes Banshee's love interest.
Next: John Byrne's legendary run.
When the new X-Men came out, it was the work of Len Wein and Dave Cockrum. It had little attachment to the original X-Men: all of them except Cyclops (and Professor X, if he counts) were written out almost right away, though of course Jean came back into the periphary again before long. The idea of a team of mutants from across the globe was interesting, though. Chris Claremont took over from Len Wein after Giant-Size X-Men #1, starting his lengthy run with X-Men #94. Fortunately, Chris and Dave Cockrum got along very well and had a very crazy creative synergy.
Unfortunately a lot of the earliest stuff was just pretty bad. The storyline where Thunderbird dies was Len's plot. It created an interesting tension that wasn't present at the time, when killing off superheroes wasn't a daily routine as it is now. Chris's first plot was typical of his worst work, where the X-Men fight a freed demon. Soon the X-Men were attacked by Sentinels and taken into space, the result of which was Jean becoming Phoenix. At this point the book starts picking up steam. The X-Men are attacked by two old villains: Juggernaut and a reborn Magneto, who pretty much crush the undertrained team. It turns out to be the work of an agent of the alien Shi'ar race, who proceeds to attack using a brainwashed Havok and Polaris, then tricks Firelord into attack them. All the while Professor X has been seeing visions, which turn out to be of the Shi'ar princess, Lilandra. The Shi'ar agent takes Lilandra through a portal, and the X-Men follow him. On the other side they find the mad Shi'ar emperor, D'Ken and his Imperial Guard and do battle...
Chris loves huge end-of-the-universe plots and Dave Cockrum loved space opera type stuff, and it shows here. Chris's dialogue is painfully cheesy and over-the-top melodramatic a lot of the time. Dave's pencils are still evolving, but they are already pretty excellent.
Cyclops gets a power boost and has the distinction of being the only founding member left. Otherwise it's typical stuff with him taking his job as leader very seriously and being withdrawn. Nightcrawler shines pretty much from the start. Dave Cockrum considered him to be his representative, and thus he gets to do a lot of heroics. His powers quickly grow numerous: teleportation, wall climbing, and vanishing in deep shadow. Wolverine is not very appealing, as the loudmouthed psycho who will attack his teammates for no good reason. Interestingly there is no mention of his adamantium bones or healing factor throughout this era: he is simply depicted as nigh invulnerable. Likewise his claws are revealed to be part of his body rather than part of his gloves as the series progresses, and later to be adamantium. Colossus really doesn't do anything except punch and have an apparent crush on Storm, which doesn't last. Storm is more interesting and has an origin story. Her innocence of civilization is amusing, and her power is shown to be vast from very early on. Banshee is underrated, as he is very amusing, having experience and a sense of humor about it all. Jean and Xavier didn't come across much to me. Moira MacTaggart is introduced, and she immediately becomes Banshee's love interest.
Next: John Byrne's legendary run.