Retro Review: Giant-Size X-Men #1

STORY

Well, well what a pleasure to have this end up in my review folder. A true blast from the past classic. Now I probably haven’t read this comic in 35 years, so lets dig into it and see if it remains as iconic as it appeared when I first laid eyes on it.

The answer to that question is…both yes and no. This book has to squeeze in a lot into its main story and it does succeed in a larger sense but it is very much a product of its time. With the set up of the original X-Men missing Prof X and Cyclops need to recruit a new batch of mutants to save them and continue the fight. The reason for this is really that the first X-Men series just didnt sell well, it didn’t quite catch on but there was a solid foundation there that would bear tremendous fruit with a little bit of retooling. With the X-Men serving as an allegory for the struggle against racism and segregation the team went from being a homogeneous lot to a surprisingly progressive, multicultural unit not unlike the cast of Star Trek. It was a bold move and quite a good one. Readers where introduced to people and cultures from around the world and the X-Men would become the superhero equivalent of the great American melting pot. But just like the early years of our country such a thing was not to be without strife or conflict and this is set up early in the book.

Introducing the new characters starts with Nightcrawler, reaffirming ideas of mutants being feared and hated to the nth degree. The old team could pass for human, but not Kurt Wagner, a man who looked like a demon and possessing strange powers. Oddly this scene establishes most of his powers but not his teleportation. That seems to come right out of left field later on. The rest of the team are gathered and the new characters get to show off their powers to the reader. We also start to get a taste of their personalities. This will lead to the next thing that made the new incarnation of X-Men different from other hero teams. The FF are a family, the Avengers gelled as a team for a purpose, formerly the X-Men banded together for safety and survival. Sure there was conflict but there was also camaraderie in all of them being an outsider. It doesn’t play out like this for the new team, what a hot mess they are!

Wein even has them pairing off in the missing in the worst possible combination for the drama of it. The antipathy boders on racist at times and initially half the team comes across has hamfistedly antisocial as Wolverine with some pretty offensive insults being passed around. It’s overblown for sure and very obvious but at the time it worked and still does to an overzealous extent. You are left with an intriguing soap opera of a team that still manage to pull together just enough to save the day but encertain enough to make you tune in next time to see if they can keep things together.

The back up stories introduce some of the old team in an endearing way that Marvel was known for back in the 60s with the personal touch of Stan and the crew making offhand remarks here and there.

ART

The art by Cockrum in the main story js a real portfolio piece of everything that made him great. From his outlandish costume design to incredibly impactful images, rock solid storytelling its easy to see why Dave was a master of his craft. His work really shines here in the same way that that Kirby did with the action and drama just exploding off the page. Interestingly I noticed that Dave wasn’t afriand to cover portions of the speakers face with an obscuring body part. It comes across as a very effective bit of storytelling to emphasive little character moments.

FINAL THOUGHTS

While parts of story have become quite dated there is a lot of it that still holds up, worth reading again or for the first time even. 4 out of 5!

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

GIANT-SIZE X-MEN #1
Writer: Len Wein
Art: Dave Cockrum
Colors: Glynis Wein