X-Men volume 1 - 1991

Issues 1 - 5

Marvel

Chris Claremont/John Byrne - 'Plot and Scripts'

Jim Lee - Pencils and Plot

Welcome to the highest selling comic book of all time. If you look at the above image then you will see part of this 'success' is the fact that the first issue was five different covers which made up one huge beast of an image. It sold 8.1 million in pre-orders and eventually racked up just over 3 million books sold. Of course with these numbers and everybody keeping them in perfect, pristine condition you can pick up copies for very small sums today. Even I haven't bothered tracking down all the different covers.

After the success of Jim Lee teaming with Chris Claremont in Uncanny X-Men issues 270 - 275 Marvel jumped at the chance to create a new X-Men book called simply X-Men.

The story opens with the X-Men's most enduring foe, Magneto. He is on the loose and decides to call his Asteroid M base home again. The US Government detects his powers and decides to enact the Magneto Protocols. Something I never quite picked up on - What are the Protocols? The X-Men team consists of Cyclops, Storm, Colossus, Iceman, Rogue, Forge, Beast, Marvel Girl, Professor X, Gambit, Psylocke, Wolverine and Angel, with Moira McTaggart and banshee hanging around in the background. Here I have my first problem with the book. How are we going to fit all of these characters into a storyline? The X-Men are in training, which Wolverine wins by 'assasinating' Professor X.
Back on Asteroid M some mutants have come to seek shelter with their Lord Magneto. The Lord himself decides to take a trip to Earth and pinch a heap of missiles from a downed submarine, which leads to confrontation with the X-Men. Despite some good licks, Mags makes off with the bombs. He declares Asteroid M to be a home for Mutants and threatens to launch the bombs at Earth if they interfere with his plans. Obviously this means their is an Earth to Space shuttle service just for mutants, or something like that.

The cover of issue 2 has an image of Magneto strangling Xavier. If doing X-Men covers you can always go to the well on this one. The issue opens with a massive stoush, Magneto deals with the X-Men and Fabian Cortez, his new right hand man, deals with Psylocke with a kiss.
S.H.I.E.L.D is discussing how they will deal with Genoshia and Nick Fury is literally dripping with guns and pouches.
Brushing off the kiss, Psylocke almost delivers the knock-out blow to Magneto, I think she wisely wears no metal when battling their arch-nemesis, but Mags wins the day and returns to Astroid M. He quickly returns to Earth to steal Professor X's house. he is mad because someone has been messing with his DNA. The perpitrator turns out to be Moira McTaggart _ This is off an old storyline where Magneto was regressed into a baby.

Issue 3 has a cover which hints at X-men vs X-Men and is labled as 'Chris Claremont's last'. - Of course he had only done three issues of the new book.
The story itself is basic, where some X-Men get knocked out on asteroid M and others fly up to their rescue. Those handy space craft again.

By Issue 4 Claremont had left his writing duties due to creative differences. The Marvel juggernaut moved on with this issue having the credit to Lee/Byrne/Orzechnowski/Rosen/Harras/De Falco.
The X-Men unwind with a game of basketball which degenerates as more and more powers get used. Moira has a bad dream and we end with Rogue and Gambit going on a date. Of course their alone time is interupted by Omega Red, who was uncovered in the first few panels.

Issue five is Pencilled and plotted by Jim Lee and Plotted and Scripted by John Byrne. The first section is highlighted by a classic fan service shot, as Psylocke is summoned to headquarters while she was swimming laps. It must be summer as she didn't require a towel or robe. Beast, Rogue, Jubilee and Gambit are trapped in the back of an ambulance after being defeated by Omega Red. Gambit frees them with a stealthily hidden playing card. You would think villains would check for that.
Wolverine is having fight of the century with Omega Red. A byword from observers says the fight lasted 17 hours. Thank goodness they sumerised it. Red is victorious and is placed on display where the Strucker Twins look on, not looking very Aryan or twin like.
The X-men split into two teams, one to find Red and Wolvie and one to help a distress call from the Hellfire Club and Emma Frost. Even the X-men guess that might be a trap. Logan escapes on his own with help from a mysterious benefactor.
The last few panels see Dazzler meet up with Longshot in Malibu and ends with Spiral gatecrashing in on them.

If you've followed this summary you will notice it's a bit scattered and all over the place. I can't help feel that the writing of the comic follows a similar pattern. Ideas are thrown up and not followed through on and the constant need for conflict means that it is delivered swiftly, not developed and resolved or forgotten at the same pace. The teams have swollen and characters and sub-plots come across the page at a frenetic pace. While the art does match the story it's also focused on the style and not the substance of the story telling.

It's a Qualified recommendation, mainly because the issues are cheap and easy to find. If you are keen on great X-Men stories there are much better ones you could spend your coins on. If your a collector then I say go for it. Prime examples of the 90's comic experience with flashy covers and lots of variants.