Når man går i gang med de tidligste Marvelserier fra begyndelsen af 1960’erne, er det nemt at blive overvældet af de mange ideer og karakterer, der blev introduceret på få år. Helt centralt står Stan Lee og Jack Kirby, og det var også dem, der skabte X-Men i 1963. Serien blev først et flagskib for Marvel i 1970’erne, men mange af de centrale temaer var allerede indarbejdet fra starten.

X-Men # 1 fra september 1963 starter på Charles Xaviers skole for særlige talenter. Scott Summers (Cyclops), Warren Worthington III (Angel), Hank McCoy (Beast) og den lidt yngre Bobby Drake (Iceman) er i fuld gang med deres træning under professor Xaviers bryske ledelse, da gruppens kvindelige medlem Jean Grey (Marvel Girl) ankommer.

Det gøres fra starten klart, at de fem unge er mutanter, dvs. at de er født med deres særlige evner og altså tilhører homo superior, der beskrives som næste stadie i homo sapiens evolutionære udvikling. Xavier ønsker en fredelig sameksistens mellem mennesker og mutanter, men han ved, at der er andre mutanter, der ser sig som menneskenes fjender og naturlige herskere. X-Men skal bekæmpe de onde mutanter – og det betyder i første omgang deres ærkefjende Magneto, der allerede i første nummer tager kontrol med en amerikansk militærbase, truer menneskeheden med udslettelse og stiler mod verdensherredømmet.

Det lykkes selvfølgelig ikke, men seriens særlige tematik er slået an: X-Men forsvarer menneskeheden mod de onde mutanter, selvom de selv ofte mødes med mistro og foragt. Samtidig er de to grupper i et evigt kapløb om at finde nye mutanter og enten tilbyde dem uddannelse og et fristed (Xavier) eller en plads i kampen for mutanternes naturlige overherredømme (Magneto). I løbet af de ti numre, der er samlet i første bind, introduceres en lang række vigtige figurer i X-Men universet: The Vanisher fra #2 har vi ikke set meget til siden, men i #3 møder vi Blob, i #4 introduceres Brotherhood of Evil Mutants og i #10 kommer X.Men for første gang til Kazars rige i det glemte land under Antarktis.

En række grundlæggende elementer i X-Men universet er på plads fra starten, men det er også tydeligt, at andre udvikles undervejs. Professor Xavier starter f.eks. som en autoritær kommandant, der lyder mere som en sergent end som en pædagog, og det antydes faktisk også, at han er forelsket i sin elev Jean Grey. Det er de fire mandlige medlemmer af gruppen også, og det er sjovt at se, hvordan de udvikles fra en ensartet gruppe larmende (men lydige) teenagere til at få tildelt hver deres personlighed. Scott Summers bliver f.eks. den introverte lederskikkelse, mens Hank McCoy udstyres med udvidet ordforråd, rappe replikker og en status som elitestudent, der ikke er til at spore i første nummer.

Noget tilsvarende gælder for deres modstandere. Magneto har endnu ikke fået sin karakteristiske baggrundshistorie, men til gengæld har han i starten telepatiske evner som Xavier. Til gengæld er de indre modsætninger i broderskabet tydeligt fra starten. The Illusionist vil gerne være kalif i stedet for kaliffen, og det er også åbenlyst, at søskendeparret Quicksilver og Scarlet Witch mere hjælper Magneto af nød end af lyst.

Historierne og karaktererne er vigtige, men mindst lige så interessante er tegningerne og figurdesignet. X-Men en et hold udstyret med karakteristiske uniformer, Charles Xavier er både skaldet og i rullestol, og deres modstandere har også fået meget karakteristiske udtryk. Historierne fortælles i Kirbys dynamiske stil og med hans særlige flair for at give abstrakte ideer og mærkelige kræfter visuelt udtryk. Selvom meget skal formidles, især i de første numre, så føles siderne ikke overlæssede.

Det er altid interessant at læse de første historier med figurer, man kender virkeligt godt. Nogle gange bliver man skuffet, men de første numre af X-Men levede op til forventningerne. Lee og Kirby finder hurtigt melodien med figurerne, og selvom X-Men fans nok vil have en særlig nørdet begejstring for at se f.eks. Magnetos første optræden, så fungerer historierne også i deres egen ret. ( )

Not going to rate because this really is a product of its time.
This collects the first 10 issues of The Uncanny X-MEN, where we first meet Cyclops, Beast, Iceman, Angel and Jean Gray (aka Marvel Girl).

The dialogue is really dated (as you'd expect) but thankfully they stop calling Scott 'Slim' after the first issue.

What's with all of the X-Men (including the Prof *shudder*) fawning all over Jean?

The stories were very samey, especially since the evil mutants were generally the same characters (i.e. Magneto and his gang --Toad, Mastermind, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver). We got some additional characters in certain issues: Submariner, The Avengers. These 2 were the more interesting issues and issue 10 with 'the land that time forgot'.

I suspect the readability factor was not helped by the fact that I read them one after another just as I would a collection that was issued today. But unlike today's collections there is no overarching storyline to keep you interested. At the time of release these were being issued at one every two months, so the reader wouldn't have that sensation of formula about the stories.
I liked the portrayal of Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch as reluctant bad guys.

I'm glad I read it but I won't reread.

Of all the comics Stan Lee started in the early 60s that revitalized his struggling comic company and ended up making an empire, The X-Men was the most original after Spider-Man. What Lee had first explored with Peter Parker—a young boy with special powers who discovers himself hounded and mistrusted—Lee expanded on in the X-Men, and in doing so found his unique niche of connecting to the comic-reading youth of the 60s who felt special but misunderstood. That’s not to say these comics are great. Lee continued to rely on his standard trope of having only one female character in the comic whom the main character (or leader, in Cyclops in this case) pines for yet can’t admit to her that he does so (Thor/Jane Foster, Daredevil/Karen Page, Spider-Man/Betty Brant, Ant-Man/Wasp, Reed Richard/Sue Storm). After a year or more of this tired plot device in the other comics, Lee was starting to break free from it (Reed proposing to Sue, Thor’s alter-ego finally revealing his love for Jane), but by the end of the first 10 issues of The X-Men, he hadn’t found a new place to go with Cyclops and Marvel Girl.

These issues also lay the groundwork for the X-Men to come—the evil mutants led by Magneto using either their greed, fear, sheer toadiness (in Toad’s case), or debt (for Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch) to keep them with him. And, in issue 10, Lee introduces the hollow world inside the Earth of Ka-Zar, something the X-Men would return to again and again in the next decades.

While better than some of the other Masterworks volumes, this is still rough going and only for the scholar, true fan, or masochistic reader. ( )

This being listed as "by Stan Lee" is the first point of order - - it is equally by Jack Kirby, and by Paul Reinman and Chic Stone.

These issues are a little painful in spots. Very slow going, and not just by contemporary standards - but in comparison to the work they initially set out to emulate, the popularity of the Fantastic Four.
Jack Kirby's pencils are laid to waste by the slipshod inking of Paul Reinman (first 4 or 5 issues), but start shining through once Chic Stone is treating them with more care.

The stories are very much like a couple of overburdened creators being told to add another book to their workload, one they don't seem to have a lot of interest in. The interest in the characters grows over the first two years - and by the time you get to issue 5 or so, there are fewer and fewer cringe-worthy moments (Professor X thinking about how much he wants to be teenage Jean's lover - ew).

That Magneto manages to remain a staple in the series is a testament to his strength in these initial issues - though there were some weird uses of his power (magnetic astral projection). Prof X has no qualms about brainwashing villains - which was also put to good use later in the character's story.

Ka-Zar is a painful Tarzan rip-off in every way. The Blob is in 30% of the first 10 issues - and spearheads a pretty awesome circus raid of the X-Mansion at one point.

A worthwhile read, and one that is historically important for the medium (though X-Men was cancelled at the end of the 60's, it was revived and reinvigorated in 1975 with a new cast and creative team). That, and the much improved issues once they got rolling (again, around issue 5), earns it a 4 from me. If it were in a vacuum, I'd rate it a 2 or 3 - but the property would eventually rise to become the most popular comic in the US through the 80's and 90's.

Then Marvel went bankrupt in the late 90's and sold the X-Men to Sony... who promptly squandered them terribly in mediocre movies, and with Disney's Marvel acquisition - Marvel was instructed to give more attention to the properties they could sell in the movie and TV industries... and the X-Men became all-but defunct in the comic store. A messed up industry. A weird beginning. Uncanny, even. ( )

The good thing about the stories inside this recolection of the early days of the X-Men is that it started something much more deep years later. The first stories are silly, no foe worth remembering. It was a long way to the heroes as we know today. ( )