UPDATED: Congrats to our contest winners Christopher Tarbell of Portland, ME and Jeff Sudgen from one of the Jordans, UT. I’ve added their essays at the bottom of the post for your perusal as they gave awesome answers. I’m getting to see X-men First Class tomorrow at a press screening and will have a review for you as soon as I can post one.
Early word on X-men First Class is surprisingly positive. I’ll be seeing it Tuesday and have a full review for you on Thursday.
In the meantime, we were contacted by the great folks at Junk Food Clothing to see if you lucky readers would like some FREE T-SHIRTS!!!!!?!
Knowing the awesome quality of what Junk Food puts out, we jumped at the chance. If you’re not familiar, Junk Food specializes in vintage tee’s and have a huge selection of superhero shirts, both in the Marvel and DC flavors. You could (and totally should) go stock up and get one shirt for each of the rest of the movie premieres for the rest of the summer: an X-men, a Green Lantern, a Captain America, and get a Thor just to round things out.
So their shirt we’re giving away will be two of the following three varieties:
Nice, huh?
So, how to give these away to you, dear readers?
Well, I love the X-men. They were my gateway drug into Marvel comics. I loved the concept: a bunch of misfits, outsiders, scorned by society as freaks, who individual powers and personalities weren’t that compelling, but working as a part of a team, they could really kicks some ass. Plus, giant robot sentinels that scan your DNA is hella-scary and a pretty awesome vision for a dystopian future.
My geek coming-of-age was at the height of Chris Clairmont’s run on X-men, so my original X- team was Wolverine, Storm, and new recruits Rogue, Psylocke, Dazzler, and Longshot. Colossus was frozen in his metal form, Nightcrawler was in a coma, Kitty Pryde was permanently “phased” and her molecules were floating apart. . . Havok and Polaris came in and out of the ongoing story, and, oh right, Professor X was missing and Magneto had become a good guy. Crazy, and awesome.
Meanwhile, X-Factor was ongoing, featuring Cyclops, Angel (I cried when he lost his wings and then committed suicide), Jean Grey, Iceman, and a not-yet-furry Beast.
Marvel was also reprinting old X-comics as “Classic X-men” so I was also introduced to the original X-team and experienced the Phoenix origin as a monthly title thank to the spinner rack at Days Market on Canyon Road in Provo, UT. One of these Classic X-men was a reprint of X-men 100, which inspired this contest:
“Old X-men vs. New X-men.”
Hmmmmm. . . and I thought of the other lineup changes X-men went through over the years: The Fall of the Mutants and their “Death”/exile to Australia. The addition of two characters , Jubilee and Gambit, who I hated and tolerated, respectively. There was the 90’s X-men cartoon. There was Age of Apocalypse. Cable. Bishop.
The Legacy Virus. The hiatus I took from comics. . . and picked them back up with Ultimate X-men and Joss Whedon’s Astonishing X-men (with Emma Frost as a good guy?!?) The X-men movies, of course, blew my mind, and X2 remains at the top of the heap for my favorite superhero films ever.
So that’s the contest: Old X-men vs. New X-men.
Tell me, briefly, which X-men lineup is the best ever. And why. Which is your favorite?
Email me at citizenbot@bigshinyrobot.com with the subject line “X-men lineup” before the end of the Memorial Day weekend and include a name, address, and shirt size (S to XL). I’ll go through all entries in my inbox Tuesday morning and post the two winning answers here.
Good luck, happy nostalgia-ing, and so, until Wolverine’s adamantium claws start to rust, MAKE MINE MARVEL!
Jeff:
My very first X-men comic was Uncanny X-men 226, and it was enough to get me hooked. This was towards the end of the “Fall of the Mutants” story line by Chris Claremont. The line-up consisted of Colossus (still my favorite X-men), Wolverine, Havok, Longshot, Rogue, Dazzler, Storm, non-ninja Psylocke, and Forge. I had no idea who the original team was, nor did I care at the time. As the story progresses the team ultimately sacrifices themselves to defeat their enemy the Adversary. While this team isn’t the most powerful, the most classic, or even the most memorable, it was the team that won me over.
Christopher:
When thinking over the greatest X-Men line ups over the ages, people usually mention one of Claremont’s reinventions, whether it be the late 70s team with Cyclops, Storm, Nightcrawler, Wolverine, and Thunderbird, or the 90s team which was split into two separate teams, and led to a much larger X Team and a very successful toy line and cartoon. Claremont’s 70s line up was better than his 90s one, but neither were the best. Claremont’s 70s run was small enough to work. Afterall, the biggest downfall of the 90s X-Men was too many X-men, and the overwhelming popularity of Wolverine. The 70s run was small enough to work, but the characters, except for a few here and there, were not fully established in the canon yet and the team didnt gel as well as it would later. Claremont was responsible for fleshing out so many of these characters. But is it really believable that Claremont’s Wolverine would take orders from Claremont’s Cyclops? Or that any of these X-Men would continue to follow Claremont’s Xavier so blindly? So this brings me to my point. When initially thinking over this question, my immediate response was Grant Morrison’s New X-Men team. The team consisted of a totally different, Apocalypse tainted Cyclops, an insecure Jean Grey, an untrustworthy Emma Frost, sarcastic Beast, and Wolverine being his regular self. This series team gets my attention mainly because the series itself is so good. But what makes this series so good, is that it is a transitional period for the X-Men. We start to see that Xavier is a jerk, Cyclops cheating on his wife, and Wolverine who seems too focused on the goals of the team to really come across as the lone wolf anymore. The team is small enough, which always helps, but it becomes apparent that there is no room for two strong female leads in any X team, and that either Cyclops or Xavier will have to take over the X helm as neither will be able to work with each other for much longer. Joss Whedon takes Morrison’s take on the X-Men and creates the greatest line up of the X-Men so far. Cyclops becomes defacto leader. It is now his job to run the school, and he is officially done being Xavier’s lapdog. This makes his take no crap from anyone role as leader all the more believable. With Jean dead, Emma becomes the central lead female of the team. Although not the main female character of the story (this honor is bestowed on the excellently written Kitty Pride), she is the central leading role of the team. She does it well. While I have always loved Jean, there is not enough of a woman to be with the new and improved Scott Summers. Emma is a perfect leadership and romantic counterpart to Cyclops. Beast is still the same sarcastic, comic relief character that he is in most X stories. Although, in Whedon’s run, the comedian shows his real demons (every comedian has them) when confronted with his rapidly mutating self. He is terrified that he will one day become an animal and lose that intellect and wit, the one thing that has always defined him. This gives a real gravity to a character that, in my opinion, was always kind of kitschy and throw away. Colossus and Kitty are the perfect antithesis to the romance of Scott and Emma. They are the young couple, stumbling over the beginnings of love. Their youthful love helps to further define the parent/leader role of Scott and Emma, and really Astonishing X-Men is the story of Kitty and Colossus. It begins with Kitty and it ends with Colossus. Someone reading it begins to really understand how far Kitty Pryde will not only go for her race, but also how far she will go for one particular mutant. Wolverine, and eventually Armor, are the final two members of the team. In my opinion, Wolverine was never meant to be a lead character. That being said, he is an excellent character, and Whedon uses him perfectly. Wolverine is the lone wolf, and naturally all writers and readers are attracted to this kind of character, but in order for Wolverine to be successful he needs to remain morally ambiguous and his reason for being part of the team should remain a mystery. This is why Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine is unbelievable, and James Marsden is forced to play a whiny boyscout Cyclops in the movie. Wolverine is not a leader. He is the seasoning on the steak. Too much of the seasoning ruins the steak, just the right amount makes it perfect. Armor is also a nice addition. She becomes the young up and comer, like Kitty Pryde, Jubilee and Rogue (movies) were before her. She makes a great counterpart to Wolverine and is a joy to read. So, in summation, while there have been so many great X-Teams, Joss Whedon’s got to the heart of it all and made the team that much more believable.