Marvel is having another news-breaking conference call this afternoon, and we’ll have all the details soonish, but it has to do with The First X-Men, and involves Neal Adams and Christos Gage. And here are the covers by Adams.
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1 COMMENT

  1. I read somewhere that this was aimed for people to pick up after seeing the X-Men movies. The concept sounds really bad. I’ve decided that Marvel really don’t know how to make the X-Men accessible to newcomers if this is their best attempt. I will give it maybe an issue or two to see what I think as I really would love to read some X-Men, but it all just seems like such a mess.Too many books, too many fragmented teams. I’ve really not been able to read X-Men since Whedon’s run on astonishing. Everything else I’ve tried seemed impenetrable. I expect I’ll get flamed for this, but whatever.

  2. Why are comic companies obsessed with these prequel stories? What’s to be gained by telling some unimportant secret adventure that some dudes had before they had the adventures we already read about?

  3. I wish Marvel would stop insulting our intelligence, you know.

    If they want to make their comics more like the movies, then do a restart properly! Properly stop all your existing books, and then properly reboot the whole thing, with the goal of going after new readers/moviegoers by creating books that spin off from the Marvel movie world.

    Instead, they do this and Battle Scars – drips and drabs of Marvel moviedom dropped into the 616.

    Seriously, do Marvel really think X-Men First Class moviegoers are going to buy this book? Will moviegoers even know where to buy it and that it’s aimed at them? If they like it, what other Marvel books – aimed at them – can they try out? ‘Cos Marvel hasn’t got anything else.

  4. @Kard

    I know what you mean. Its best just to ignore them and once they start losing steam or Alonso leaves which should be about the same time as Joe Q. had. About 10-11 years more I suppose. So 2022-2023. In this time, Marvel can’t keep up its success continously just through movies. Something will give. The sequels simply don’t hold up. Spider-Man 3 is good enough evidence.

  5. Looks like Rich Johnston was right again. And after Batman: Odyssey I bet whatever contract Neal Adams signed specified he would, under no circumstances, write any of it.

  6. Marvel didn’t make Spidey 3. The only sequel they’ve made is Iron Man 2, which was bad. But that’s hardly enough of a sample size to say for sure.

  7. So based on what Neal Adams has said, Professor X has no longer the founder of the X-Men; Wolverine is, and he tried to recruit Professor X. This is basically the final step in the process of Professor X becoming irrelevant that started somewhere around Deadly Genesis. Writers (Brubaker and Whedon, in specific) started making him a dick with all these skeletons in his closet, so he went from being the wise, trusted and respected leader of the mutant community to being a pretty minor, superfluous character in the world of the X-Men. It’s a damn shame.

  8. @aquatragic Making Charlie a dick isn’t new. In the Shiva Scenario that introduced Omega Red it was revealed that he was on the board experimenting with mutants pre-X-men. And that was a story plotted by Claremont for Lee, supposedly.
    And I’ve always had a theory that Charlie was intended to be the mutant traitor way back. There have been plenty of signs stashed away throughout the 80s and 90s runs of the books. I thin the Nicieza/Lobdell era was where it really got sidetracked into oblivion.

    But yea- this is a bad, bad idea. I love Neal’s work, but Marvel’s increasing efforts to diminish their demographic is insane. It costs less money to keep old readers than to develop new readers. Smart editors and marketing persons could do both, but Marvel hasn’t had either in years and years.

  9. I just wonder where does Wolverine hide those extra bone claws when they’re not “snikt”-ed and how he is then able to flex his wrist because the length of the claws would surely act like a splint, don’t they?

    Or am I just thinking too logical for this?

  10. “Instead, they do this and Battle Scars – drips and drabs of Marvel moviedom dropped into the 616.”

    I thought Battlescars was amazing – having an African-american character taken on the name and identity of his dead-beat white father (who represents the military-industrial complex) has no dodgy political undercurrents and introducing Agent Coluson just as… well you know if you’ve seen the film.

  11. I love the creative team but I wish they were working on something different. Marvel should just end their universe as we know it and reboot it as the movie universe.

  12. In the Shiva Scenario that introduced Omega Red it was revealed that he was on the board experimenting with mutants pre-X-men. And that was a story plotted by Claremont for Lee, supposedly.

    Literally none of this is true. “Shiva Scenario” was a story in Wolverine’s own series by Larry Hama and Marc Silvestri and did not introduce Omega Red, whose first full appearance was in X-men right after Claremont left. Neither story, or any other I can think of, from the era established Xavier as performing malicious experiments on mutants in his past.

    You can find it via google search, but Claremont’s plans for Xavier had he not left the books was not to make him evil, but to kill him off in Uncanny X-men #300.

  13. @Johnny:
    The last page of X-men Volume Two, # 13 confirms the Shiva statement. Bob Harras confirmed to me awhile back that this series used some plot outlines left by Claremont up to the Executioners Song storyline. For the rest, here’s most of an article I wrote a few years back:

    I would like to talk about conspiracy theories. To be precise- a theory of mine I have wondered at involving one of the biggest stories ever, though ironically which was never allowed to be seen through to its intended end. May I preach to the congregation of a little tale called- Days of Future Past.

    It began in the early 80’s, in the pages of the Uncanny X-men by then scribe Chris Claremont; and continued through scattered works by numerous creators over the ten years or so that followed. A possible future wherein mutants (and other heroes!) were hunted and slaughtered by a government gone mad with the times; a totalitarian nightmare which helped to pave the way for a particular flavour of dramatic realism in comics.

    The diverging point between this particular shadowy and brutal future and the mainstream present stemmed from a singular event in which an X-man would show his true colours by allowing for a raid on Xavier’s mansion, leading to the murder of Charles Xavier, the destruction of the property, and the scattering of the survivors. This was to be followed by the mutant registration act intensified to degrees far beyond the Initiative/Civil War storyline currently in play restructuring the Marvel Universe. Eventually, the fall would have given rise to the Twelve, a collective of mutants who would serve as generals in the 20+ year war against the Sentinels and their keepers, ending with the death of just about everyone down the line.

    That is a brief synopsis of Days, as there were numerous plot threads following which accomplished everything from complimenting to contradicting Claremont’s original cannon of a near future that in many ways was a backboard for virtually every major story arc in the X-family of titles for some years and going.

    One easter egg that was never officially revealed was the exact identity of the X-traitor. Though there were a number of innuendos pointing the way, the bulk of the tale was sadly dropped in the early to mid 90’s by Marvel proper. In part, this non-resolution may have been a by-product of the exodus of prized artists from which lead to the formation of the still alive and kicking Image Comics. Another possibility could have been Claremont’s attempted retirement from the X-stables some fifteen years past. Despite the fact that somewhat specific dates were given in earlier Days- related stories which would have set the 90’s as the time when all goes to Hell, Days of Future Past was never fully realized. Was the pressure on at the time to see it through, thereby forcing drastic changes upon the Marvel Universe which the then editors of the time were just not ready to deal with? Whatever the unofficial cause for dropping the timeline from seeing fruition, a handful of the threads were tied up very loosely with far lesser stories, from Extinction Agenda to Onslaught to Age of Crapocalypse. Remember- in the 1990’s Marvel very clearly favored quantity over quality, and style over substance.

    And now of course, all of this is completely redundant, as the several recent years worth of open schizophrenia in the X-books have at last ended with a gathering of capable writers who seem intent on a total revamping and redirection for our beloved mutie scum, bringing about bigger changes in constitution than the X-family of titles have likely ever known before.

    Still, I believe I know just exactly who it was that was supposed to have set the downward spiral into motion.

    Professor Charles Xavier.

    The founder of the School for Gifted Children and the X-men, as well as the first to die in the initial attack?

    Yes- the most unlikely candidate; and yet, there were suggestions planted almost everywhere sighting just this, back when. From an Excalibur Special showing a possible future with Charlie himself serving as physical brains for a mutant-hunting sentinel, to an issue of Spider-man 2099 with a panel’s background showing a tattered poster of a bald man and condemning said traitor to burn in Hell. In a themed story titled Days of Future Present, which ran through the X-Annuals one year, an adult Franklin Richards (who would have been the most powerful psychic after Xavier’s fall) returns to the present to play harbinger. Due to the sloppiness of the continuity in the chapters- the disjointed direction- I suspect that this specific story was the very first to show signs that the Days timeline was then in progress of being disavowed from ever really coming to pass.

    Why Chuckles, though- what would be his motivation for such a dastardly 180? Was it a mental timebomb left behind by the original Phoenix force as all-encompassing revenge? Was it a gradual psychic erosion due to way too many years of manipulating Cerebro? Was it maybe a leftover from the techno-organic virus which had almost claimed Xavier’s life prematurely in the Executioner’s Song crossover? His own son- Legion, later gave in to irrevocable insanity; and modern psychology is quick to point out that many forms of mental illness are GENETIC. As in, they can be inherited just as easily as any other familial trait. And to take this even further- there have been allusions, that prior to Xavier’s recruiting of the founding X-members, he had ties to both the Weapon X programme, as well as the Shiva Scenario (responsible for the creation of standout villain Omega Red); both governmental agencies of highly suspect motives. It is my belief that the long term writers in the X-corner of Marvel U had always intended for the man to have his secrets; and who better to conceal secrets than one who is not only a respectable father-figure to all, but of power to dissuade any possible questioners with the ease of a whim?

    The current Illuminati stories only help to validate this; but if anyone can add or detract from my little conspiracy theory- I am all ears, bub. Though honestly, what about now? Marvel seems hellbent on jumping from one epic cliffhanger blockbuster to another, never stopping between the storms to even let anyone catch their breaths. If they suddenly have balls big enough to constantly shake up all the foundations like this, then why the heck can they not return to something so epic and still strong in the memories of many a fan? Set a new standard and tie up loose ends.

  14. So if they reboot the comic universe to match the movies, then what happens when they reboot the movie universe? Or when the movie universe isn’t consistent?

  15. To start, X-men #13 was from 1992, a year after Claremont was gone, and the Wolverine story I mentioned from 1991. The Shiva reference in the X-men story ties back to the Wolverine story, again by Hama and Silvestri. Also the Xavier referenced in that panel is “Brian Xavier,” Charles Xavier’s father. I think this is what’s confusing you about Professor X doing evil experiments on mutants.

    Secondly, Chris Claremont has said in interviews and on convention panels that he planned for the issues leading up to Uncanny X-men #300 to involve Wolverine being brainwashed by the Hand and for Xavier to die while fighting the Shadow King.

    The Bishop and X-traitor storylines popular in the 90’s were created by Jim Lee and Whilce Portacio since they really liked Days of the Future Past and wanted to do their own version of a bad future for mutants storyline.

    So I don’t know what Claremont plots Bob Harras told you they were following back then, but they certainly weren’t any “Xavier is a bad guy” plots since that directly contradicts reality as posted above.

    I also find the claim that they followed any Claremont plots at all to be suspect since Claremont was fired for not wanting to take the X-men story in the same direction as Jim Lee and the other Image guys.

  16. Also, didn’t they resolve the whole traitor thing with Onslaught, meaning Professor Xavier sort of was the traitor in the end? I’m only going on memory as I haven’t read the X-men in years, but I recall the video Bishop saw a part of with Jean Grey making some kind of plea to the other teams before appearing to be killed. In the later comics it shows her recording that message then getting blasted by Onslaught. I thought that was the wrap up of the whole X-Men traitor jazz.

  17. Just looked at this, then Adam’s X Men stuff from the late 60s (early 70s?), then back at this.
    Then I got sad.

  18. That second drawing is sad: Magneto -especially his head, that token black guy, sabertooth’s profile, and that man/woman in the background -is that a transvestite? The quality reminds me of the mid/late 80’s… Here we go again, shiiiit.