I will not tell a lie: I fell behind a bit on this. So to make up for it here are THREE free ComiXology comics. Since everyone is talking about Logan and Legion these days, it’s a fastball X-special with THREE classic issues that all changed comics in one way or another.
If you like what you see here, and don’t mind paying for comics, ComiXology is also having a big sale on a large assortment of Wolverine and X-men collections. he 50% off sale ends Monday at 11 pm est, so get to it!
New Mutants #1 from 1983 by Chris Claremont and Bob McLeod. Okay, maybe this particularly comic didn’t change the world, but it was the first X-spinoff title, a practice that has since exploded into about 3,387 spinoffs. Also the title that created Legion, the character who would sorta kinda be spun off into the absorbing FX TV show of the same name.
X-Men #1 from 1991 by Chris Claremont, Jim Lee and Scott Williams, one of the best selling comics of all times, with 8.1 million copies sold into comics shops. The Platinum/Chromium Age of comics kicked off here.
New X-Men #1 from 2001 by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely. The Quesada/Jemas Nu-Marvel started with this revamp, leading to an era of comics that is just now (I think) coming to an end? OR maybe it ended five years ago? A topic for further exploration, I think.
Each of these comics represents peak 80s, 90s and Aughts comics, respectively.
Taking a peek inside, in New Mutants #1 there is almost no action except a little danger room training to show everyone’s powers. It’s literally all soap opera.
By 1991, the pace had picked up a bit with peak Magneto/Cable/Bishop/Rogue/Gambit/Scott/Madeleine/Jubilee drama and melodrama, all finely delineated with taint-first leaping and glamourous posing. (Claremont would leave after only three issues, however, and the Lobdell era would begin.)
In 2001, the writer was king, as the X-men became another outlet for the reliable Morrison/Quitely team’s metafictional SF, tearing things up and giving it a cerebral sheen.
Anyway, did we mention these are FREE? Get ’em for yourself and relive comics history in the making.
