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>>107350153
Jacob Sullivan
Colton Perez
Landon Reyes
Jace Ortiz
Liam Morales
Austin Brooks
Camden Ramirez
Parker Lopez
Liam Reyes
Sebastian Murphy
Asher Sullivan
Jose Hill
Jose Perez
Isaiah Nelson
Jayden Cruz
Robert Reyes
Ayden Gomez
Angel Mitchell
Tyler Harris
Jayden White
Samuel Taylor
Benjamin Brooks
Grayson Rivera
Logan Watson
I'm going to mix things up for the X-Men storytime - I'll be including commentary from the now-defunct X-comic blog The X-Axis, because the guy who wrote it had a pretty good handle on the series and its early days
>As if you really need to be told, it's the first appearance of the original X-Men - Angel, Beast, Cyclops, Iceman and the original Marvel Girl, together with their mentor Professor X. The characters don't really seem fully formed - the powers are there, but aside from Iceman in the "youngster" role, they don't really develop their personality quirks until a couple of issues in. Cyclops is a bit officious at one point, but that's about it.
William Phillips
>We see the Mansion for the first time, and it's identified as being in Westchester County, New York. The town was later named as Scarsdale in issue #99, and subsequently revised to Salem Center on thematic grounds.
>The X-Men are already formed when the story opens, although Marvel Girl only joins at the beginning of the issue. We don't get an explanation of how the team was formed until the "Origins of the X-Men" back-up strip, which ran from issue #38 to #56.
Leo Price
>Xavier is training the X-Men to "receive his thoughts." Soon, he says, he won't need to speak at all! Obviously, that idea goes out the window fairly quickly. Lee and Kirby quickly settle down to the idea that Xavier can speak to you telepathically, whether you've had any training or not.
Evan Hernandez
Jeremiah Thomas
Cameron Moore
>Iceman looks like a snowman in the early days. That lasts until issue #8, when he's given the more familiar ice design.
Dominic King
Levi Campbell
Adrian Sanchez
>Jean Grey officially joins the team and becomes the original Marvel Girl. The story is clearly written on the basis that this is the first time she's come to the Mansion, hence all of the exposition she helpfully soaks up. All of this was swept aside by 1981's Bizarre Adventures #27. That issue has a Phoenix story by Chris Claremont which contains the first account of Jean Grey's origin (she was left out of "Origins of the X-Men", presumably because was already saw her join in this issue). In Claremont's version, Xavier met Jean years before this point and had been helping her with her powers for some time. He also suppressed her telepathy in order to help her cope. Later stories suggest that they spent some time adventuring together, most of which hasn't been depicted (though there are snippets of it in the Classic X-Men back-up strips). Anyway, all of that means that for continuity purposes, this story has to be read as if Jean and Xavier are putting on a show for the benefit of the other X-Men.
>Cyclops' real name is given as "Slim Summers." The nickname didn't last very long. Kirby also gives him a truly hideous pair of checked trousers.
Michael Scott
Lincoln Wilson
>Xavier says that his parents worked on the first A-bomb project. A recurring Silver Age theme was that radiation was, basically, magic and could do all sorts of incredible yet slightly scary things. These days everyone knows that it just gives you nasty diseases, so the modern equivalent is genetic engineering. The idea of Xavier's father (if not his mother) working on dodgy experiments stuck around, although references to the A-bomb faded away fairly quickly.
>Xavier gives a broad outline of the X-Men's mission which pretty much establishes the core concept. Mutants are people born with superpowers. He thinks he might be the first. (Later stories establish that he's wrong, but he never claims it as fact here, so there's no contradiction.) Ordinary humans don't trust mutants, so he's running the school in secret.
>Xavier attributes his paralysis to "a childhood accident." That's quickly forgotten about, and issue #9 substitutes the canonical explanation: he was injured in a battle with a supervillain called Lucifer.
Xavier Fisher
>This is Magneto's public debut (although later stories establish that he's been using the codename for some time, since his Nazi-hunting days, and he's had the costume for a while as well). His plan in this issue is, apparently, simply to make a show of strength. We don't get into his philosophy in any depth for some considerable time to come (and the all-important Holocaust survivor stuff doesn't come along for 20 years or so).
>The term "homo superior" is used for the first time, in a soliloquy by Magneto.
Lucas Phillips
Jaxon Fisher
Camden Bell
>Cape Citadel had appeared before. It was the launch site for John Jameson's rocket in Amazing Spider-Man vol 1 #1.
>The missiles in Cape Citadel are "democracy's silent sentinels." We're never expressly told that they're nuclear, but Magneto does describe one as "the mightiest rocket of all." (Issue #300 contains a flashback showing a conversation between Moira and Xavier which makes clear that Cape Citadel was a nuclear base.)
William Edwards
>Magnetism is magic and can do anything. Magneto can trap soldiers in "a mighty shield of magnetic energy" by "simply narrowing my magnetic waves all around the lesser humans." Later writers would at least try and justify this sort of thing by talking about iron in the blood and so forth, but in this story, he's effectively just a telekinetic.
Gavin Taylor
Anthony Gray
>We establish that the Angel straps his wings down under his clothes. It has to be said that this calls for considerable suspension of disbelief, given that they're enormous, but the explanation stuck for decades.
>Professor X has a jet that he can guide from the ground! "By thought impulses!"
Brandon Kelly
>Irrational pseudoscience (1): Cyclops' optic beam can penetrate Magneto's force field because it's "a natural counterforce to batter the unnatural magnetic field!" Er, why are Cyclops' powers any more natural than Magneto's...?
Jacob Walker
Eli King
Evan Parker
>Irrational pseudoscience (2): Ice is attracted by speed. "Just as the hunter missiles are attracted by heat, so are the Iceman's ice grenades attracted by the missiles' speed!" Must have missed physics class that day...
Jacob Perry
Cameron Young
Jordan Turner
>At the end of the issue, one of the army officers describes the X-Men as "Uncanny." Presumably that was the inspiration for the later title change to Uncanny X-Men.
>Ah, the Silver Age. Let's be clear about a couple of things from the outset.
>First of all, 1960s superhero comics aren't for everyone. Yes, Lee and Kirby's work in the early sixties is a hugely important phase in the development of the genre, and it's all incredibly influential. Nonetheless, it's also pretty rough and ready by modern standards, and it would be fair to say that a lot of Silver Age comics haven't aged particularly well. Most fans find they can do quite happily without the Silver Age stories, and frankly, an awful lot of longtime X-Men fans act as if history started in 1975 when the book was revived and Chris Claremont took over.
>Secondly, X-Men isn't one of the better Silver Age Marvel books. If you're thinking of exploring the Silver Age, Amazing Spider-Man and Fantastic Four are safer bets.
>That said, these stories have an undeniable charm to them, aside from their historical interest. They're something of an acquired taste, admittedly, but there's certainly no point trying to review early sixties material in the same way as modern stories. If you're going to read this stuff at all, you've got to take a different approach.
Levi Green
>That said, these stories have an undeniable charm to them, aside from their historical interest. They're something of an acquired taste, admittedly, but there's certainly no point trying to review early sixties material in the same way as modern stories. If you're going to read this stuff at all, you've got to take a different approach.
>Things were different back in the Silver Age. Let's be honest, there's no way you'd get away with some of these stories today. Besides, despite the impression you might get from listening to some people, things were much more relaxed back then. Stories were often a bit silly. Continuity was a tad loose. Stan Lee often couldn't even remember the names of his own characters. And, of course, a lot of it's very, very dated indeed. Depending on your point of view, all of this either condemns the Silver Age to a vaguely intriguing historical relic, or it's part of the charm.
>All that being said, the story in this issue is almost entirely throwaway. Magneto attacks a military base for no particularly clear reason, the X-Men fight him off. And that's pretty much it. Of course, it's really an exercise in introducing the characters - but one that reads a little strangely in retrospect, because the personalities were clearly still being developed, and key character traits don't really come along for a couple of issues. Frankly, it's an issue more famous for its historical significance than for any particularly outstanding content. It's not even one of the goofier Silver Age stories.
>But then, it's X-Men #1, and forty plus years of the X-Men start here. Historical significance takes it an awfully long way. Whether it's any good is almost beside the point. Any hardcore X-Men fan is going to read this issue at some point, if only because well... it's X-Men #1.
>In case you're wondering, Marvel didn't start crediting colourists until the early 1970s. The identities of Silver Age colourists have been lost to the mists of time.
John Hughes
Peter Mayhew died on the 30th...
Isaiah Reyes
... Bing Crosby, who narrated "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" for Disney, was born 116 years ago today...
Noah Carter
... Chris Mulkey is 71...
Jose Sullivan
... Bill Sienkiewicz is 61...
Nathan Myers
Blake Howard
Nathaniel Gutierrez
Ryan Turner
Jackson Jones
Jackson Torres
Carson Nelson
Jordan Collins
Cooper Barnes
Luis Cooper
Ryan Gomez
Nolan Cook
Levi Anderson
Dylan Anderson
Justin Jenkins
Reposting from a Moon Knight storytime thread from a few years back:
>this was actually supposed to be a seven pager when Moench wrote it, but Sienkiewicz went fucking crazy on the art and expanded it. Denny O'Neil never actually had any intention of printing it, but he had fucked up and had no back up issue to print. So Moench got a phone call at like 5 in the morning to come in and script it. So he was put in a little closet with a typewriter and started writing. It was even being lettered as the pages come off the typewriter. After two hours the issue went to the presses, and Moench was left wondering what the fuck Sienkiewicz did.
>It was later revealed Sienkiewicz was abused as a child, and went to town on this because he felt like he needed to. He had never told anyone before this, and this was his way of finally working it out of his system. Everyone was astonished, and it's part of why it's become such a classic Moon Knight issue, especially since Marvel never really dealt with social issues like these in such detail before.
Eli Wright
... Joe Murray is 58...
Brandon Perez
... Adam Hughes is 52...
Wyatt Watson
Jacob Jenkins
Juan Wilson
Gavin Rogers
Camden Foster
Connor Hall
Benjamin Gonzalez
Jace Barnes
... Bruce Cabot died 47 years ago today...
Ryder Gomez
... Christina Hendricks is 44...
Hunter Fisher
... Anthony Ainley died 15 years ago...
Isaac Murphy
... Peter O'Donnell died 9 years ago...
Jeremiah Gray
Oliver Stewart
Josiah Nelson
Cooper Anderson
Sebastian Lewis
Dylan Carter
Andrew Peterson
Bentley Thomas
Jaxon Hall
Camden Adams
Julian Stewart
Blake Cox
Hunter Garcia
Evan Martin
Leo Wright
William Martin
Adrian Sanders
Gavin Harris
Angel Ramirez
Kevin Cox
Noah Cruz
Owen Phillips
Luke King
Jason Davis
Angel Allen
Austin Perry
Levi Bennett
Josiah Richardson
Brayden Wood
Landon Rodriguez
Lucas Perry
Jayden Perry
Angel Stewart
Man, they all sound like jerks
Jack Morales
Lee/Kirby X-Men is... interesting. They set up a lot of things, but good LORD is it rough.
Joshua Butler
Samuel Fisher
Owen Williams
Gabriel Phillips
Owen Anderson
Mason Parker
Jordan Allen
Josiah Allen
Bentley Perez
Matthew Hughes
Nathaniel Clark
Easton Rivera
Lucas Green
Ryder Parker
Liam Gomez
Samuel Peterson
John King
Ethan Peterson
Hunter Davis
Christian Walker
Robert Carter
Daniel Barnes
Daniel Sanchez
Aiden Myers
Connor Hall
Benjamin Perez
Liam Campbell
Xavier Collins
Dylan Bell
Jaxson Nelson
David Harris
Thomas Evans
Kayden Gomez
Ayden Long
Wyatt Sullivan
Colton Powell
Justin Smith
Jeremiah Mitchell
Jason Adams
Aaron Clark
Ethan Martin
James White
Cheers op
Isaac Hughes
Robert Ward
Christian Gutierrez
Christopher Carter
Lucas Smith
Ryder Wood
Matthew Richardson
Jeremiah Johnson
Noah Torres
Nicholas Adams
Aaron Turner
Thomas Thompson
Elijah Anderson
John Foster
Jacob Bell
Wyatt Lopez
Andrew Bell
Chase Barnes
Alexander Cruz
Hunter Russell
Kevin Rodriguez
Asher Parker
Mason Rivera
... and Jackie Cooper died eight years ago.
Well, I'm done for today. I'll be back tomorrow, knock on wood, to give you some Dan Dare, as well as the usual stuff.
Eli Watson
Logan Hughes
bumping for OP