That's part of the reason I stopped reading Marvel. Back in the late 90's, they just stopped being fun to read and, became all grit and serious'd and pretty much clones of one another. I look at Claremont's leaving as the end of true Marvel comics, and the beginning of its decline.
It hurts to see this. You do an excellent job of showing how far modern Marvel has fallen. It isn't just nostalgia goggles--there's a clear decline in quality both in art and story.
SamGuthrie1977 Claremont comics are written more like novels than comic and that's why he's one of the greats. Even Alan Moore copied his style early on in his career.
Moon Door Undoubtedly but I hope it comes sooner than later we as fans can only hope until that time comes. When it comes back we will all rejoice, every company has it's down period look at the New 52 for example. For Marvel to be successful it has to bring back traditional hero values of truth,justice,honor, and family then it has to stop making it's flag ship characters and it's fan favorite characters pander to SJW; *some* SJW characters aren't bad ,but not just shoved down our throats in mostly every character as apart of them and even when there is SJW characters don't make every other panel about how they are "opressed".A successful SJW character is Black Manta (imo). Also another big problem is utterly forgettable villains and uninspired heroes and side characters. Sorry for the essay but yeah I do believe Marvel will return so long as they recognize their mistakes and fix them DC did it with Rebirth so can Marvel with Legacy. I know strictly DC fans are loving making fun of Marvel in comics especially given how successful Rebirth is.
X-Men 275 is PERFECT pre-SJW stuff. Deathbird takes down a limited (she acknowledges this) Wolverine. Jubilee agonizes over Psylocke's figure and confidence. Rogue asks for a gun when her powers fail and makes an impassioned plea to a wounded member of a persecuted minority to not be a villain. He declines, which WAS seen as a character flaw and not anti-semtism from the writer. These are the kinds of comics that made fans out of people who liked the stories and identified with the characters. Remember those days? Good times.
yeah talk about girl power what he said was so true with storm and lilandra. It was like two warriors or soldier buddies. Though I always thought the storm thing with beating calisto was kinda like stuff now. She's still someone whose been through stuff. I read the captain marvel thing for age of ultron. And they sometimes talked down to captain britain. She was kinda a bitch in her mind that was humoring him. Also before stories and characters had a gravitas to them. THey could be fun when they were off but it was dramatic, opera, and soap opera, and just larger than life figures. Now everyone is just.... annoying people.
Definitely. I don't know really when the switch happened. I remember reading the run he's talking about in the video when I was elementary school during recess with other kids. I remember thinking of them as these epic figures (the gravitas you mentioned), but now it just seems like a bunch of arrogant tools. It's no wonder they're only selling a handful of copies. Every character that people love has either been replaced or killed off. Now all we have are a bunch of character that don't do much and preach at us for 15 pages.
The foldout cover was awesome; the story was great; plenty of action; tons of panels (value for money); great writing; multiple plots; the girls looked gorgeous (but could still be tough and capable); the guys looked and acted heroic; the artwork was unbelievably good; the colours worked beautifully (pale backgrounds to pop the foreground juxtaposed with vibrant backgrounds to make the silhouette's stand out, etc.); characterisation that made you empathise with the heroes - immersing the reader in the experience. I well up with tears of sadness at how far current SJW Marvel has sank. :'-(
Maaaaaaaaaan, this is a CLASSIC! Savage Land Rogue! So many memorable panels; in particular the close-up of the Spetznaz soldier as their patrol is attacked by the Savage Landers on pterodactyls! Or when Magneto recreates his costume from thin air after he kills Zaladane. So many! Beautiful book!
Jim Lee's art on Uncanny X-Men still blows my mind. The first X-book I ever bought was the issue prior to this, the one that focuses on Magneto and Rogue in the Savage Land. EDIT: I think what I loved about Lee's X-Men over other superhero books at the time is the way he drew detailed technology--guns, body armor, vehicles, computers. Lee really is one of the best.
Right from the front cover, an equal spread of both genders, and a wide variety of races all wearing similar costumes so no one can whine about "sexualization of women". All that and they weren't even trying to pander. If SJWs actually read comics this would be their holy grail. It also doesn't hurt that one page #275 this has more story than entire modern issues.
The Claremont / Lee era on Uncanny X-Men is arguably the greatest run in comics ever. This is what Marvel should be striving to get back to at all costs.
Claremont and Lee's where my favorite times during their run on the X-men, they brought in something so unique during the 90s. Oh and Mark Texeira on the Wolverine series. Dude was a painter before going into comics!
Gil Kane's Tomb of Dracula, anything by John Buscema, were great comics in the 70s. The characters were still great into the 70s and 80s. Everything started going off the rails in the 90s, then seemed to get better in the 00s, and now seems to be crashing into oblivion in the 10s.
The significance of an issue #275 would have been (roughly speaking) a 22 year anniversary. Marvel (back in the day) always celebrated and made a big fuss out of divisible by 25 incremental issues (generally every 2 years). Those would usually be extra sized issues used as culminations to big storylines BUT ALSO serve as "wow factor" issues (and fantastic value for money) to attract NEW readers. This also built towards fans seeking out the back issues at their comic stores; I much prefer it to the trend of simply relaunching with a new #1 issue.
And here we see how inept Fox is. If they had build up the X-Men universe right, they could have made a Starjammers movie. A group of space pirates/rebels fighting an evil empire. A bit like combining the Guardians of the Galaxy with Star Wars and Superpowers. Mix in a pinch of swashbuckling and that could have been great. Rogue: The Shadow King seperated Rogue and Carol Danvers, but only one could survive. Magneto choose Rogue, but she lost her powers for a short time. Xavier: Was replaced by the War Skrulls and with the help of a biodoohikey also got Xavier's powers.
Finally, someone talks about a comic I've actually read! Thank you! Everything else is either super old, or from after I quit reading in disgust. Oh, for the Chris Claremont/Jim Lee days on X-Men. This particular story line was really good. SPOILERS! After ages of the X-Men all being separated from each other and Xavier being gone, Lila Cheney shows up out of nowhere and teleports the newly (mostly) reunited team (now with Gambit, Jubilee, and Psylocke) into Shi'ar space, where there's trouble with Deathbird and the Shi'ar Imperium, ruled by her sister, Lilandra. Not only do we finally get the bulk of the X-Men reunited, we get Xavier, the Starjammers, a brief Jubilee/Gambit team-up... it was all awesome. Long story short, Lila teleported the X-Men there on behalf of Deathbird because warskrulls had control of Lilandra and were using their tech to impersonate and copy the powers of her and several other heroes, including Xavier and the Starjammers. Deathbird doesn't get a chance to tell anyone this before she's subdued because, well, usually she's a villain. Wolverine can smell Xavier is a fake and kills him, but this gets him incapacitated and dragged off for assassinating Lilandra's consort. The bulk of the X-Men eventually get bodysnatched by the skrulls, just like Xavier and the Starjammers, but Gambit and Jubilee are free to throw a wrench in the works. In the meantime, most of Rogue's classic powers (flight, strength, invulnerability) are actually ones she had permanently drained from the original Miss Marvel, Carol Danvers. When she sacrificed herself to defeat Master Mold and went through the Siege Perilous, she was purged of the remaining bits of Carol's personality that were stuck in her, along with Carol's powers. This left them in a state where neither could live while the other survived (sound familiar) because they were sharing the same life force. Carol, under the control of the Shadow King, attacked Rogue. They fought, and whoever was losing would literally start to rot away. Unwilling to kill Carol, Rogue was nearly dead when Magneto stepped in and killed Carol. Rogue's powers, including the ones she'd gotten from Carol, returned over the course of the next few issues.
The content, scope and quality of these issues is indisputable. The only crime was perhaps overreaching.I would also argue Claremont had no problem with political SUBTEXT.He did handle it with subtlety and place it in outside the actual geopolitical landscape. It was more, "here's something to think about" than, "this is what you should think. If you want o see this quality pulled off again look for Annihilation Wave related books with Giffen, Abnett and most crucially Andrea Devito who I think is brilliant. You do have to be careful because there are some stinkers in the mix but the issues with Galactus, Surfer and the kiln are amazing and further out in Clash of Kings, Vulcan VS Buck Bolt is awe inspiring. As a reader who wonders if old school still works this was my definitive answer. Put the right writers and artists on a story and the true exceptionalism in the nineties works currently.
It's really cool to see these old Marvel storylines. I'm from a younger generation, so I never really saw any of the comics, but I did see a lot of animated TV shows and pretty much grew up with the X-Men movies, but I've always liked the size of Marvel Comics Earth-616 lore. It had so many allied and competing factions, character evolution, and all around amazing things that stemmed from stories like the Incredible Hulk volume where Wolverine made his first appearance. Plus, unlike the movies, not every hero in X-Men was a mutant, you had wizards, and aliens, and interdenominationals, the freaking Ghost Rider (although I don't know if he was ever an X-Men). I just love imagining what it would be like to live in a universe where anything was possible, be it something as cool as superheros and seemingly unthinkable technological advancements, or as terrifying as symbiotes that partially take over your mind, and alien invasions, and demons from the depths of hell itself. Really, this is what Marvel should be using to try and revive itself, not feeble attempts to pander to insatiable interest groups like SJWs and their plainly offensive attempts at appealing to racial minorities. It kinda makes you wonder if the head honchos at Marvel Comics share in the belief that superheros are a relic of a bygone era, and just want to see what they kinda ridiculous stuff they can push through before they head off and either do something else or just retire.
1991, before SJWs and before we had the internet.... I kind of think those two things were related... Back when we didn't know how to think we had to make decisions for ourselves and be as moral as we could. Now to see what we should think people go to social media... :( It's kind of a shame that people are influenced by crowds so easily and fall into group think, because I really doubt we are getting our pre-internet 1991 back.
Thanks for reviewing this one. Brought back lots of good memories. In my opinion this was Lee at his best. I bought two copies so I could use one of the covers as a poster for my wall. Great stuff.
After issue 275, Jim Lee was given control of the Uncanny X-Men series and it was all downhill from there. How Jim Lee got rich from his Wildstorm publishing company I'll never understand because the only comics worth reading from it were written by Warren Ellis & Alan Moore and that's it.
This book has SOUL. The art, the story, the characters... They all speak to the reader and not just scream "SEE HOW UNSEXIST, UNRACIST AND DIVERSE WE ARE!?!?!?"
I loved buying this issue when I was a boy. Issue 277 was outrageous (Bang, Your Dead!) and 281 blew my mind(first Bishop). I loved the X-Men during this time.
genaration 2 of x men( saving the original 5) ,had lots of diversity , african, asian, german, russian,irish,canadian, american indian and they worked well not pushing anyone to accept anything .Good times for 75 cents
Jim Lee's artwork is legendary. Loved Chris Claremont's writing. They made a great team. You've got me wanting to read one of my back issues of their run: Uncanny X-Men #258. An Acts of Vengeance crossover from 1990. Jubilee, Psylocke, and Wolverine battling The Hand, and The Mandarin.
This is my favorite series you do. It has inspired me to go through some of my old boxes, and enjoy some of these great stories. Hope you continue to do this even after you move.
In spite of being drawn by one of the "Image guys", UXM actually had some solid storytelling. I think Jim Lee wanted to tell stories, and would eventually have learned how to write if he had stayed at Marvel under an editor's tutelage.
I had that book. I started reading X-Men either in the late 80's or early 90's. Pretty sure I had the entire set of the 1992 X-Men trading cards. The 80's and early 90's seemed like a good time for the X-Men comics.
This is my favorite single issue comic book ever. I love this issue for me it has everything that makes comics SO great. Late to the party I know but you know the old adage better late than never.
I had a mint condition in my collection, which I just handed over to my youngest son. I had an extensive collection and had some awesome #1s. This cover was in there and he totally geeked out on this cover and my Kingdom Come series. I raised him right.
Man you make me want to go to the garage and dig up my old comics. I didn't really get into them until around '93-'01, but I can still get lost in the stories and the art (Joe-Mad's X-men run was my favorite, but there were other great artists too).
Quick, we must repair the time machine and go back. Go back and do what? Stop the SJW movement! Damn, when I think of that I can only think of causality and causing the SJW movement. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
I don't know if anyone mentioned it, but I think this Xavier was a Skrull imposter, which was why he turned heel. Currently going through the Claremont Era properly myself for the first time & man, he really defined what I think a lot of people think of when it came to the X-Men.
I miss this era SOOOOO much. Writers like Claremont and Michelinie told such great stories. Hell, they basically built the framework for all the modern marvel based films today (i know they didn't create the heroes but they created the actual story lines that Hollywood wont let go of)
One thing thats cool from back then is all of the panels are exciting and dynamic. THere's action. its not just people standing around talking like in so many of the comics today.
this was one of my first comix, great art, good stories, cant beat it. excellent choice. keep up the good work man, love where you go with this channel.
275, 276, 277 of. Uncanny X-men are, in my opinion, the best example of what makes the X-Men great. I truly believe these three issues are highly underappreciated. Claremonts last masterpiece on his original run. His last X-Men masterpiece came during his third and most recent run the Uncanny book, the issue was titled '24 seconds'.)
I'll be honest, one of the things I enjoyed the most of this video is how adorable rouge was. I just wish they'd go back to making cute girls cute and sexy girls sexy.
wasn't the Shadow King. they were those GREEN ALIEN guys who could shape shift. forgot their name. but yeah, NO ONE writes like Claremont...no one. LOVED his X-men run. the last story of his that I read was X-men #3 and then he left and I never read another one of his writings...lost track of what he did after that...those 90's books he wrote was the peak of the X-men stories as far as I'm concern....
it's a good point. Before comics were more like adventure stories that built on what came before. Now it's trying to appeal to people not through adventure but either humor or like I don't know how to classify it. Stupid reflection of what they think the audience is, and trying to appeal to people through politics. Politic comics. even deus ex machina wasn't about politics or whatever. Not even politics. It's not about policies. I don't know how to describe it.
Claremont and Lee teaming up were the best thing to ever happen to the X-Men. The best of art combined with the best of writing came together to create the perfect storm of awesome. Also, Rogue and Magneto have been my X-Men OTP since the time they spent in the Savage Land, which is one of the reasons I loved the Age of Apocalypse storyline. Sorry Gambit, but you don't even compare to the Magster. Oh wait, I'm not sorry at all. Gambit is an overrated bit of 90's hype who should be sidelined, given that he was pretty much cheating on his wife, trying to make time with Rogue.
Jim Lee made the X-men into the ultimate fantasy characters that we know and love today. Every hero and heroine was a sleek supermodel (even Nightcrawler!) with an edgy unexplored mutant power who could potentially fall in love with Rogue on any page!
That's why I still get some of the Marvel Omnibuses. I'm hoping for a complete run of Claremont X-Men in omnibus one day. Unfortunately X-Men has been far more miss than hit since 2000.
I wasn't alive to appreciate it, but my family made sure to let me know about my history. Seeing how great comics were back then makes me feel ever the more sadder at the fact that I was born into the generation of comics that I was.
Sounds like this week is gonna be a great week! Love your Marvel Before SJW series! Actually, all your content is great, keep it up dawg! Can't wait for Namor.
I got this issue the day it came out. It was when Chris Claremont was winding down his multi-year storyline(of his over decade long run) and he would leave by 281.
Probably one of my favorite issues of all time. Jim Lee at the top of his game. Claremont just killing it. the pacing and the layouts allow for storytelling without cramming the art. That is Jim Lee's brilliance there. I have to go back to Byrne to find an issue I like better.
my brother had this issue, I remember seeing that cover when I was six and it mesmerized me. I just had to flip through it with my grubby illiterate kid paws. great storyline and I loved the magneto, zaladane, rogue, fury, savageland subplot. by the way, it was some skrull impersonating Xavier.
Interesting true fact: This was one of my first x-men comics I bought. It might have actually been one of the first ones I bought. This came out in 1991 right around when I started collecting week by week. Funny thing about that namor is the series later the artwork got really bad. I forget who was the artist but I found bunch of my issues of that series.
Damnit I was thinking about making a review of this book... 275 was the culmination of so much prologues and epilogue and side stories. All leading up to that fantastic artwork. *_You're goddamn right you better hold that comic book like it's a baby._*
I miss this era. However, Mim did a video on Uncanny Avengers #28 for Legacy and it was actually a good book with good chemistry between Rogue & The Wasp as well as Beast & Wonder Man. I may pick it up. I miss comics like this X-Book that had great chemistry with the team.
Your channel keeps growing and growing! I think it's because of the balance of criticism and your art background. Keep up the great work and videos and pretty soon 20,000 subscribers
I miss skin-tight costumes. At first when the Big 2 started experimenting with outfit design, I was excited but after a decade I confess I was wrong. Most new costumes are trying too hard at best and look awful at worst. Newer outfits and generic character designs only make comics look boring and not larger than life like they should be. What a sad time to love comics.
I want to thank you for talking about these before SJW books. I was a heavy comic book collector since the early 70's , especially Marvel.I mean I had around 10 thousand of them , but in the late 90's I had to stop. Being a collector in Australia the price over here for a comic just became to difficult to manage , besides I had a growing family to look after. Sometimes I buy a digital comic mostly out of curiosity , I have to tell you though that I'm very happy that I don't collect anymore , because these books have become so political , especially Marvel. The people who are running Marvel are slowly sucking the fun out of these books , they've become boring and very preachy. Anyway keep up the good work...cheers..
This is special for me. It was one of my first comics I bought (brazilian edition). The evil Xavier was a Skrull. This storyline was Secret Invasion before Bendis could ever imagine Secret Invasion. The Skrulls were capturing X-Men and copying them and their powers. I think Gambit (and Jubilee?) saves them, don't remember the details.
the 12 part x-cutioner's song series was my introduction to xmen, what an epic series but after that it felt like nothing else was as good, they werent bad, just not as good
I don't understand why they stopped supporting the price with ads. They removed the video game and bubble gum ads, and jacked up the prices to $3 a comic in the 90s, and i said...no thanks.
If you can find Conan the Barbarian from the early 70's that would be awesome. It was my favorite comic (it was before they called them books). All my comics were lost to the trash at the hands of my mother and I had hundreds from the late 60's until I left home in 79. Don't ever do that to your kids.
Ah...back when the Marvel actually gave a shit about the X-Men...
Good times
Guts likes comics? That's awesome!
Flame of Udun good times man
Look at the art in this book! It's so beautiful! Marvel what the hell happened to you?
Those artist left and did Image comic.
Social Justice is a way worse drug!
Manticore best girl
DeusEx I see you are a man of culture as well.
SaiyanQuad92 I know right! lol Nice seeing you again! When will Marvel start drawing women sexy again and stop making them look like drag queens?
Back when a female character could have short hair and still look recognizably feminine.
wow yeah. Like I remember when black window went through that phase. Didn't even think anything of it. Such a difference
I know what you mean! Hubba-hubba!
Andreus Dodson when she could be sexo AF and still be a formidable leader....
I picked this up off the stands, too, and it makes me sad seeing such a great book covered by such a sniveling, goddamn milk baby
Yeah Storm looks great !!
Reading through Claremont's X-books. Love the chemistry between Wolverine and Cyclops, and each member of the team is fun to read about.
That's part of the reason I stopped reading Marvel. Back in the late 90's, they just stopped being fun to read and, became all grit and serious'd and pretty much clones of one another. I look at Claremont's leaving as the end of true Marvel comics, and the beginning of its decline.
Ahh the 90's, when everyone needed a multibuckle garter.
Daegon And Liefeld ruled suprime!
It hurts to see this. You do an excellent job of showing how far modern Marvel has fallen. It isn't just nostalgia goggles--there's a clear decline in quality both in art and story.
Claremont always wrote very noble and dignified, yet complex heroes. His writing always completely immersed me.
SamGuthrie1977 Claremont comics are written more like novels than comic and that's why he's one of the greats. Even Alan Moore copied his style early on in his career.
The era of X-books that I loved.
favorite era of X-Men.
Back when Marvel was actually good, the 2010's ruined Marvel comics and now all of Marvel is shit.
It is really sad to realize that X-Men was so good back then. :'/
Moon Door Yea it is but hey we still got Joss Whedon's Astonishing run from 2004
+That One Guy at 7/11
Yeah you're right, but do you still have hope that Marvel will come back to what it was?
Moon Door Undoubtedly but I hope it comes sooner than later we as fans can only hope until that time comes. When it comes back we will all rejoice, every company has it's down period look at the New 52 for example. For Marvel to be successful it has to bring back traditional hero values of truth,justice,honor, and family then it has to stop making it's flag ship characters and it's fan favorite characters pander to SJW; *some* SJW characters aren't bad ,but not just shoved down our throats in mostly every character as apart of them and even when there is SJW characters don't make every other panel about how they are "opressed".A successful SJW character is Black Manta (imo). Also another big problem is utterly forgettable villains and uninspired heroes and side characters. Sorry for the essay but yeah I do believe Marvel will return so long as they recognize their mistakes and fix them DC did it with Rebirth so can Marvel with Legacy. I know strictly DC fans are loving making fun of Marvel in comics especially given how successful Rebirth is.
X-Men 275 is PERFECT pre-SJW stuff. Deathbird takes down a limited (she acknowledges this) Wolverine. Jubilee agonizes over Psylocke's figure and confidence. Rogue asks for a gun when her powers fail and makes an impassioned plea to a wounded member of a persecuted minority to not be a villain. He declines, which WAS seen as a character flaw and not anti-semtism from the writer.
These are the kinds of comics that made fans out of people who liked the stories and identified with the characters. Remember those days? Good times.
I always will love Claremont & Lee x men good times
This is Marvel, not this Riri Williams, girl-power bullshit. When they go back to anything like this, I'll start reading them again.
yeah talk about girl power what he said was so true with storm and lilandra. It was like two warriors or soldier buddies. Though I always thought the storm thing with beating calisto was kinda like stuff now. She's still someone whose been through stuff. I read the captain marvel thing for age of ultron. And they sometimes talked down to captain britain. She was kinda a bitch in her mind that was humoring him. Also before stories and characters had a gravitas to them. THey could be fun when they were off but it was dramatic, opera, and soap opera, and just larger than life figures. Now everyone is just.... annoying people.
Definitely. I don't know really when the switch happened. I remember reading the run he's talking about in the video when I was elementary school during recess with other kids. I remember thinking of them as these epic figures (the gravitas you mentioned), but now it just seems like a bunch of arrogant tools. It's no wonder they're only selling a handful of copies. Every character that people love has either been replaced or killed off. Now all we have are a bunch of character that don't do much and preach at us for 15 pages.
I wish Jim would still draw in his old Marvel style. Great walk down memory lane. Thanks!
The foldout cover was awesome; the story was great; plenty of action; tons of panels (value for money); great writing; multiple plots; the girls looked gorgeous (but could still be tough and capable); the guys looked and acted heroic; the artwork was unbelievably good; the colours worked beautifully (pale backgrounds to pop the foreground juxtaposed with vibrant backgrounds to make the silhouette's stand out, etc.); characterisation that made you empathise with the heroes - immersing the reader in the experience.
I well up with tears of sadness at how far current SJW Marvel has sank. :'-(
Maaaaaaaaaan, this is a CLASSIC! Savage Land Rogue! So many memorable panels; in particular the close-up of the Spetznaz soldier as their patrol is attacked by the Savage Landers on pterodactyls! Or when Magneto recreates his costume from thin air after he kills Zaladane. So many! Beautiful book!
Jim Lee's art on Uncanny X-Men still blows my mind. The first X-book I ever bought was the issue prior to this, the one that focuses on Magneto and Rogue in the Savage Land.
EDIT: I think what I loved about Lee's X-Men over other superhero books at the time is the way he drew detailed technology--guns, body armor, vehicles, computers. Lee really is one of the best.
Right from the front cover, an equal spread of both genders, and a wide variety of races all wearing similar costumes so no one can whine about "sexualization of women". All that and they weren't even trying to pander. If SJWs actually read comics this would be their holy grail. It also doesn't hurt that one page #275 this has more story than entire modern issues.
The Claremont / Lee era on Uncanny X-Men is arguably the greatest run in comics ever. This is what Marvel should be striving to get back to at all costs.
Claremont and Lee's where my favorite times during their run on the X-men, they brought in something so unique during the 90s. Oh and Mark Texeira on the Wolverine series. Dude was a painter before going into comics!
Gil Kane's Tomb of Dracula, anything by John Buscema, were great comics in the 70s. The characters were still great into the 70s and 80s. Everything started going off the rails in the 90s, then seemed to get better in the 00s, and now seems to be crashing into oblivion in the 10s.
I laughed at "Heel Turn" and "Face Turn", loved the video bud. I think you're doing great on this channel so far, looking forward to more.
+ArtillicusRex
Thank
The significance of an issue #275 would have been (roughly speaking) a 22 year anniversary. Marvel (back in the day) always celebrated and made a big fuss out of divisible by 25 incremental issues (generally every 2 years). Those would usually be extra sized issues used as culminations to big storylines BUT ALSO serve as "wow factor" issues (and fantastic value for money) to attract NEW readers.
This also built towards fans seeking out the back issues at their comic stores; I much prefer it to the trend of simply relaunching with a new #1 issue.
And here we see how inept Fox is. If they had build up the X-Men universe right, they could have made a Starjammers movie. A group of space pirates/rebels fighting an evil empire. A bit like combining the Guardians of the Galaxy with Star Wars and Superpowers. Mix in a pinch of swashbuckling and that could have been great.
Rogue: The Shadow King seperated Rogue and Carol Danvers, but only one could survive. Magneto choose Rogue, but she lost her powers for a short time.
Xavier: Was replaced by the War Skrulls and with the help of a biodoohikey also got Xavier's powers.
Finally, someone talks about a comic I've actually read! Thank you! Everything else is either super old, or from after I quit reading in disgust.
Oh, for the Chris Claremont/Jim Lee days on X-Men. This particular story line was really good. SPOILERS!
After ages of the X-Men all being separated from each other and Xavier being gone, Lila Cheney shows up out of nowhere and teleports the newly (mostly) reunited team (now with Gambit, Jubilee, and Psylocke) into Shi'ar space, where there's trouble with Deathbird and the Shi'ar Imperium, ruled by her sister, Lilandra. Not only do we finally get the bulk of the X-Men reunited, we get Xavier, the Starjammers, a brief Jubilee/Gambit team-up... it was all awesome.
Long story short, Lila teleported the X-Men there on behalf of Deathbird because warskrulls had control of Lilandra and were using their tech to impersonate and copy the powers of her and several other heroes, including Xavier and the Starjammers. Deathbird doesn't get a chance to tell anyone this before she's subdued because, well, usually she's a villain. Wolverine can smell Xavier is a fake and kills him, but this gets him incapacitated and dragged off for assassinating Lilandra's consort. The bulk of the X-Men eventually get bodysnatched by the skrulls, just like Xavier and the Starjammers, but Gambit and Jubilee are free to throw a wrench in the works.
In the meantime, most of Rogue's classic powers (flight, strength, invulnerability) are actually ones she had permanently drained from the original Miss Marvel, Carol Danvers. When she sacrificed herself to defeat Master Mold and went through the Siege Perilous, she was purged of the remaining bits of Carol's personality that were stuck in her, along with Carol's powers. This left them in a state where neither could live while the other survived (sound familiar) because they were sharing the same life force. Carol, under the control of the Shadow King, attacked Rogue. They fought, and whoever was losing would literally start to rot away. Unwilling to kill Carol, Rogue was nearly dead when Magneto stepped in and killed Carol. Rogue's powers, including the ones she'd gotten from Carol, returned over the course of the next few issues.
The content, scope and quality of these issues is indisputable. The only crime was perhaps overreaching.I would also argue Claremont had no problem with political SUBTEXT.He did handle it with subtlety and place it in outside the actual geopolitical landscape. It was more, "here's something to think about" than, "this is what you should think. If you want o see this quality pulled off again look for Annihilation Wave related books with Giffen, Abnett and most crucially Andrea Devito who I think is brilliant. You do have to be careful because there are some stinkers in the mix but the issues with Galactus, Surfer and the kiln are amazing and further out in Clash of Kings, Vulcan VS Buck Bolt is awe inspiring. As a reader who wonders if old school still works this was my definitive answer. Put the right writers and artists on a story and the true exceptionalism in the nineties works currently.
It's really cool to see these old Marvel storylines. I'm from a younger generation, so I never really saw any of the comics, but I did see a lot of animated TV shows and pretty much grew up with the X-Men movies, but I've always liked the size of Marvel Comics Earth-616 lore. It had so many allied and competing factions, character evolution, and all around amazing things that stemmed from stories like the Incredible Hulk volume where Wolverine made his first appearance. Plus, unlike the movies, not every hero in X-Men was a mutant, you had wizards, and aliens, and interdenominationals, the freaking Ghost Rider (although I don't know if he was ever an X-Men). I just love imagining what it would be like to live in a universe where anything was possible, be it something as cool as superheros and seemingly unthinkable technological advancements, or as terrifying as symbiotes that partially take over your mind, and alien invasions, and demons from the depths of hell itself. Really, this is what Marvel should be using to try and revive itself, not feeble attempts to pander to insatiable interest groups like SJWs and their plainly offensive attempts at appealing to racial minorities. It kinda makes you wonder if the head honchos at Marvel Comics share in the belief that superheros are a relic of a bygone era, and just want to see what they kinda ridiculous stuff they can push through before they head off and either do something else or just retire.
1991, before SJWs and before we had the internet.... I kind of think those two things were related... Back when we didn't know how to think we had to make decisions for ourselves and be as moral as we could. Now to see what we should think people go to social media... :( It's kind of a shame that people are influenced by crowds so easily and fall into group think, because I really doubt we are getting our pre-internet 1991 back.
Thanks for reviewing this one. Brought back lots of good memories. In my opinion this was Lee at his best. I bought two copies so I could use one of the covers as a poster for my wall. Great stuff.
After issue 275, Jim Lee was given control of the Uncanny X-Men series and it was all downhill from there. How Jim Lee got rich from his Wildstorm publishing company I'll never understand because the only comics worth reading from it were written by Warren Ellis & Alan Moore and that's it.
This book has SOUL. The art, the story, the characters... They all speak to the reader and not just scream "SEE HOW UNSEXIST, UNRACIST AND DIVERSE WE ARE!?!?!?"
I loved buying this issue when I was a boy. Issue 277 was outrageous (Bang, Your Dead!) and 281 blew my mind(first Bishop). I loved the X-Men during this time.
That issue was the culmination of great lead-up work
genaration 2 of x men( saving the original 5) ,had lots of diversity , african, asian, german, russian,irish,canadian, american indian and they worked well not pushing anyone to accept anything .Good times for 75 cents
😱 AAARGGHH THE NOSTALGIA!!! 😱 Now I must go through all those boxes to re-read this comic and remember the good ole days.
Jim Lee's artwork is legendary. Loved Chris Claremont's writing. They made a great team. You've got me wanting to read one of my back issues of their run: Uncanny X-Men #258. An Acts of Vengeance crossover from 1990. Jubilee, Psylocke, and Wolverine battling The Hand, and The Mandarin.
This is what I was reading in high school. Man I miss those days.
ahh the nostalgia. Jim Lee at his prime. Working his ass off every month on xmen books
This is my favorite series you do. It has inspired me to go through some of my old boxes, and enjoy some of these great stories. Hope you continue to do this even after you move.
In spite of being drawn by one of the "Image guys", UXM actually had some solid storytelling. I think Jim Lee wanted to tell stories, and would eventually have learned how to write if he had stayed at Marvel under an editor's tutelage.
I had that book. I started reading X-Men either in the late 80's or early 90's. Pretty sure I had the entire set of the 1992 X-Men trading cards. The 80's and early 90's seemed like a good time for the X-Men comics.
This is my favorite single issue comic book ever. I love this issue for me it has everything that makes comics SO great. Late to the party I know but you know the old adage better late than never.
I miss early 90's X-Men.
I had a mint condition in my collection, which I just handed over to my youngest son. I had an extensive collection and had some awesome #1s. This cover was in there and he totally geeked out on this cover and my Kingdom Come series. I raised him right.
Man you make me want to go to the garage and dig up my old comics. I didn't really get into them until around '93-'01, but I can still get lost in the stories and the art (Joe-Mad's X-men run was my favorite, but there were other great artists too).
That cover..... Man... These are the X-Men I want to see again. Both in comics and in the movies.
I always crack up seeing that Silver Surfer High Score Contest ad when I read old Marvel Comics from around that time.
Because of how goofy the picture is, and remembering how insanely difficult the NES Silver Surfer game is.
Quick, we must repair the time machine and go back. Go back and do what? Stop the SJW movement!
Damn, when I think of that I can only think of causality and causing the SJW movement. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
'OMG is that like, a dinosaur!?"
I don't know if anyone mentioned it, but I think this Xavier was a Skrull imposter, which was why he turned heel.
Currently going through the Claremont Era properly myself for the first time & man, he really defined what I think a lot of people think of when it came to the X-Men.
I miss this era SOOOOO much. Writers like Claremont and Michelinie told such great stories. Hell, they basically built the framework for all the modern marvel based films today (i know they didn't create the heroes but they created the actual story lines that Hollywood wont let go of)
One thing thats cool from back then is all of the panels are exciting and dynamic. THere's action. its not just people standing around talking like in so many of the comics today.
this was one of my first comix, great art, good stories, cant beat it. excellent choice. keep up the good work man, love where you go with this channel.
I know these aren't your most popular video in terms of views, but these are amazing.
275, 276, 277 of. Uncanny X-men are, in my opinion, the best example of what makes the X-Men great. I truly believe these three issues are highly underappreciated. Claremonts last masterpiece on his original run. His last X-Men masterpiece came during his third and most recent run the Uncanny book, the issue was titled '24 seconds'.)
The comic that made a Jim Lee fan out of me
I'll be honest, one of the things I enjoyed the most of this video is how adorable rouge was.
I just wish they'd go back to making cute girls cute and sexy girls sexy.
Lee/Claremont X-Men was the shit. I do miss the 90's in some respects. Thanks for this.
wasn't the Shadow King. they were those GREEN ALIEN guys who could shape shift. forgot their name. but yeah, NO ONE writes like Claremont...no one. LOVED his X-men run. the last story of his that I read was X-men #3 and then he left and I never read another one of his writings...lost track of what he did after that...those 90's books he wrote was the peak of the X-men stories as far as I'm concern....
I really like how everyone is wearing generic X men suits. It looks so cool.
it's a good point. Before comics were more like adventure stories that built on what came before. Now it's trying to appeal to people not through adventure but either humor or like I don't know how to classify it. Stupid reflection of what they think the audience is, and trying to appeal to people through politics. Politic comics. even deus ex machina wasn't about politics or whatever. Not even politics. It's not about policies. I don't know how to describe it.
Claremont and Lee teaming up were the best thing to ever happen to the X-Men. The best of art combined with the best of writing came together to create the perfect storm of awesome.
Also, Rogue and Magneto have been my X-Men OTP since the time they spent in the Savage Land, which is one of the reasons I loved the Age of Apocalypse storyline. Sorry Gambit, but you don't even compare to the Magster. Oh wait, I'm not sorry at all. Gambit is an overrated bit of 90's hype who should be sidelined, given that he was pretty much cheating on his wife, trying to make time with Rogue.
Classic issue. Bought it off the stands. Claremont and Lee were an outstanding team. My favorite X-Men combo after Claremont/Byrne.
my god... its beautiful!!!
Just before Muir island saga. those were the days.
Jim Lee made the X-men into the ultimate fantasy characters that we know and love today. Every hero and heroine was a sleek supermodel (even Nightcrawler!) with an edgy unexplored mutant power who could potentially fall in love with Rogue on any page!
That's why I still get some of the Marvel Omnibuses. I'm hoping for a complete run of Claremont X-Men in omnibus one day. Unfortunately X-Men has been far more miss than hit since 2000.
One of my all time favorite covers and stories
Chris Claremont is my favorite X-Men Writer of all time, with Stan “The Man” Lee my second choice. Jim Lee is one of my favorite X-Men artist
I wasn't alive to appreciate it, but my family made sure to let me know about my history. Seeing how great comics were back then makes me feel ever the more sadder at the fact that I was born into the generation of comics that I was.
Lee was the artist I wanted to emulate when I was practicing to be a comics artist.
What a refreshing blast from the past~
Sounds like this week is gonna be a great week! Love your Marvel Before SJW series! Actually, all your content is great, keep it up dawg! Can't wait for Namor.
I got this issue the day it came out. It was when Chris Claremont was winding down his multi-year storyline(of his over decade long run) and he would leave by 281.
Probably one of my favorite issues of all time. Jim Lee at the top of his game. Claremont just killing it. the pacing and the layouts allow for storytelling without cramming the art. That is Jim Lee's brilliance there. I have to go back to Byrne to find an issue I like better.
hahaha, I used to have this comic. The previous comic (#274) who also awesome with a great magneto story, miss the comics of those times
my brother had this issue, I remember seeing that cover when I was six and it mesmerized me. I just had to flip through it with my grubby illiterate kid paws. great storyline and I loved the magneto, zaladane, rogue, fury, savageland subplot. by the way, it was some skrull impersonating Xavier.
Thanks for this!
Claremont is my favorite writer.
Interesting true fact: This was one of my first x-men comics I bought. It might have actually been one of the first ones I bought. This came out in 1991 right around when I started collecting week by week.
Funny thing about that namor is the series later the artwork got really bad. I forget who was the artist but I found bunch of my issues of that series.
Marvel before SJW!!! FTW!
Ahhh... I loved the rogue/magneto pair up.
Damnit I was thinking about making a review of this book... 275 was the culmination of so much prologues and epilogue and side stories. All leading up to that fantastic artwork. *_You're goddamn right you better hold that comic book like it's a baby._*
+Marc Macaluso
Lol
I miss this era. However, Mim did a video on Uncanny Avengers #28 for Legacy and it was actually a good book with good chemistry between Rogue & The Wasp as well as Beast & Wonder Man. I may pick it up. I miss comics like this X-Book that had great chemistry with the team.
Love me some late 80s/early 90s X-Men
Your channel keeps growing and growing! I think it's because of the balance of criticism and your art background. Keep up the great work and videos and pretty soon 20,000 subscribers
+Sean Bell
Thanks!
I miss the X-Men. RIP
Just ordered a copy from eBay for £2.99. Can't wait to to read it. Looks great!
Go Back! 25 issues and cover that!! the Siege Perilous, Betsy saved the team by destroying it.😮 So good! even Jubilee is well written.
I have this book. It's pretty amazing. Loved the X-Men of that era.
I miss skin-tight costumes. At first when the Big 2 started experimenting with outfit design, I was excited but after a decade I confess I was wrong. Most new costumes are trying too hard at best and look awful at worst. Newer outfits and generic character designs only make comics look boring and not larger than life like they should be. What a sad time to love comics.
I want to thank you for talking about these before SJW books. I was a heavy comic book collector since the early 70's , especially Marvel.I mean I had around 10 thousand of them , but in the late 90's I had to stop. Being a collector in Australia the price over here for a comic just became to difficult to manage , besides I had a growing family to look after. Sometimes I buy a digital comic mostly out of curiosity , I have to tell you though that I'm very happy that I don't collect anymore , because these books have become so political , especially Marvel. The people who are running Marvel are slowly sucking the fun out of these books , they've become boring and very preachy. Anyway keep up the good work...cheers..
I like the matching uniforms.
Noooooo, old school Storm...!!
:'( sniff sniff...
This is special for me. It was one of my first comics I bought (brazilian edition).
The evil Xavier was a Skrull. This storyline was Secret Invasion before Bendis could ever imagine Secret Invasion. The Skrulls were capturing X-Men and copying them and their powers. I think Gambit (and Jubilee?) saves them, don't remember the details.
+Tiago Moreira
Thanks!
I wonder if anyone ever won that silver surfer jet ski
the 12 part x-cutioner's song series was my introduction to xmen, what an epic series but after that it felt like nothing else was as good, they werent bad, just not as good
Even back then, I knew better than to mess around with Silver Surfer.
Man, I remember these issues. Back when Marvel was truly the House of Ideas...
I don't understand why they stopped supporting the price with ads. They removed the video game and bubble gum ads, and jacked up the prices to $3 a comic in the 90s, and i said...no thanks.
If you can find Conan the Barbarian from the early 70's that would be awesome. It was my favorite comic (it was before they called them books). All my comics were lost to the trash at the hands of my mother and I had hundreds from the late 60's until I left home in 79. Don't ever do that to your kids.