X-Men: First Class

[Speedball]

X-Men go First Class
New miniseries explores the early days of the original X-Men.
by Hilary Goldstein


June 2, 2006 - Today at Wizard World Philly, Marvel announced a new eight-issue miniseries X-Men: First Class. Written by Jeff Parker with art by Roger Cruz and covers by Marko Djurdjevic, First Class explores the early days at Xaviers with five young mutants training to be X-Men.

In case you've lived in a cave, the original roster of X-Men was: Marvel Girl, Cyclops, Angel, Beast and Iceman.

Marvel provided IGN with the beautiful cover to the first issue.

That is one gorgeous image. I love the new costumes.

 

[ShadowBoxing]

Nice: put that on pull list.

 

[Paloogin]

blah blah blah. Ok, so it might be interesting, but why go back and rehash old situations by 're-imagining' them? Lazy storytelling by Marvel if you ask me, which none of you did.

 

[Ben Urich]

So is this in the vein of that 8 part Avengers thing they did like 2 years ago?
Sounds kinda cool. Love the cover, too.

 

[Sun_Down]

Cool redesign of the outfits, but what makes this any different that the thousand other flashbacks we've read? That's not sarcasm, it just seems like there's something different here. Is this supposed to be in 616 continuity?

 

[Artistsean]

To me it sounds like they will tell the stories about the X-Men's beginnings that have never been told before.
Sort of like Children of the Atom I would imaging, but with a different writer and artist there will be new stories, and maybe a fresh or different take.
Maybe even show Xavier recrute them and how he put together the team, or what made him choose to put together a team.

I like seeing the X-Men in their old designs, even though the suits have been modified, especially Beast.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I don't understand why the costumes are different if it's meant to be an exploration of the 616 X-Men's roots. They're nice redesigns, but they belong in a What If or an Ultimate Untold Tales of the X-Men or something. Never heard of Jeff Parker. I'll probably keep an eye on this to see if it's supposed to be canon and whether it sounds good when details start surfacing.

 

[Tropico]

For it to be canon it would have to be quite a bit AFTER their recruitment and training. I can attribute the costumes to some time period we didn't see or special missions, but Iceman's ice form doesn't happen until later in X-Men history. If this was truly early days he would have to have his "snowman" look. Even so, it sounds interesting.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Yeah, I liked the snowman look. It was a nice way of showing that Bobby didn't quite have full control of his powers yet.\

Also, does it seem awkward to anyone else that Angel is flying upside-down, underneath all of the other, non-flying X-Men?

 

[Dread]

The art looks nice, and so does the design of the X-uniforms; it seems to incorporate a lot of modern elements, including some of the stuff seen in ACADAMY X/NEW X-MEN and so on.

On the flip side, this is yet another "rehash" of the "original 5" X-Men "training", not to be confused with CHILDREN OF THE ATOM, X-MEN: THE HIDDEN YEARS, MYTHOS #1, any number of backstories, and of course the first 70 or so issues of the actual comic itself, as resold in ESSENTIALS volumes. It is worth noting that Marvel seems to be fairly willing to want to sell X-Men comics starring the original five members, but can't seem to set it in the modern continuity because not only are all five members either stretched a bit in a slew of other books, but some would agrue, they've been made overly complicated. Beast's a furry cat-thing, Angel's switched from feather wings to metal to being a pedo to pretending to be powerless and everything in-between. Iceman's not done much in a while, And of course, Jean's dead and Cyclops is attached to Emma's hip as Emma essentially acts as "Jean Dark".

And one has to wonder what the point of yet another X-book on the racks is, other than to stretch the line moreso. Look, Marvel, an X on the cover just doesn't guarentee sales for longer than a year anymore.

The art looks lovely though, so I may give it a flip. It is an idea that I believe has run its course. How many times can you do this story? What next, Wolverine and ninjas? Havok whining about Cyclops? If Marvel worked as hard at developing many of their X-characters in the PRESENT, rather than add more crap to their PAST, we'd all be better for it. And so would they.

 

[Tropico]

Yeah, I liked the snowman look. It was a nice way of showing that Bobby didn't quite have full control of his powers yet.\

Also, does it seem awkward to anyone else that Angel is flying upside-down, underneath all of the other, non-flying X-Men?

Look closely and you'll see that Cyke PUSHED Warren and he's tripping on Jean's legs, he's probably extending his wings to regain balance or break the fall.

 

[ang_hulk]

well mabey its about how they were dealing with becoming super heros,just day to day life kind of stuff like in new mutants you know?

 

[BrianWilly]

I have to agree strongly with everyone that this just screams "REHASH!!!!!" from every fiber of its being; we've already had a lot of those in recent years, and not just with the X-Men. Yada yada yada. Can't we ever have a story about the present and about moving these characters forward, and not just another one crammed with retcons and "reimagining" history?

 

[grey_jeanie]

art looks good. They're my fav characters anyway

 

[gildea]

If Marvel worked as hard at developing many of their X-characters in the PRESENT, rather than add more crap to their PAST, we'd all be better for it. And so would they.

That would just be far far far too sensible.



Seriously this is the kind of project that if the x-line was a lean mean comic machine (sorry) could be interesting but as it's more of a fat bloated whale of a line it just comes across as marvel sticking X on something taking up space on the comic shelves with it.

 

[LEX]

I can't wait for this. The art looks great.

 

[roach]

Retcon sense tingling

 

[deemar325]

X-Men go First Class
New miniseries explores the early days of the original X-Men.
by Hilary Goldstein


June 2, 2006 - Today at Wizard World Philly, Marvel announced a new eight-issue miniseries X-Men: First Class. Written by Jeff Parker with art by Roger Cruz and covers by Marko Djurdjevic, First Class explores the early days at Xaviers with five young mutants training to be X-Men.

In case you've lived in a cave, the original roster of X-Men was: Marvel Girl, Cyclops, Angel, Beast and Iceman.

Marvel provided IGN with the beautiful cover to the first issue.

That is one gorgeous image. I love the new costumes.

Jeez! Do we need another untold tale or retcon of X-men history?

Marvel is milking the f-ck out of the X-men. I'll pass on this art looks cool, but I'm done with the X-men (except Astonishing).

They should just seperate the X-men corner of the Marvel U and start an imprint with only mutants.

 

[deemar325]

That would just be far far far too sensible.



Seriously this is the kind of project that if the x-line was a lean mean comic machine (sorry) could be interesting but as it's more of a fat bloated whale of a line it just comes across as marvel sticking X on something taking up space on the comic shelves with it.

I couldn't agree more.

 

[roach]

but this one promises to answer the question of the third Summers brother...

 

[deemar325]

but this one promises to answer the question of the third Summers brother...

lol! Yeah it's Birdbrain.

*groan*

 

[Darthphere]

The costumes are nice. Other than that ill pass.

 

[Darthphere]

Yeah, I liked the snowman look. It was a nice way of showing that Bobby didn't quite have full control of his powers yet.\

Also, does it seem awkward to anyone else that Angel is flying upside-down, underneath all of the other, non-flying X-Men?

Angel is in front of them, not under them.

 

[deemar325]

The costumes are nice. Other than that ill pass.

That's all I see nice costumes and nothing else, just rehashed crap. I'm sure at some point in the story Professor X will do something underhanded and sneaky which seems to be the defacto mode of characterzation of Charles now.

 

[supermarvelman]

I hope they show mimic sometime in this mini.