Giant-Size X-Men #1. Prepare for forty years of riffs on this cover.
The best-dressed mob in Germany.
And THAT’S how you punch a tractor.
“Oh, y’know. Fight crime, see the world, get your memory rewritten every few weeks, maybe go on a really fucked up date with Dracula…”
When Xavier finds him, Thunderbird is literally wrestling a buffalo to death.
Sunfire’s first appearance, in X-Men #64.
Most of the New & Different X-Men get a full page or two to join the team. Banshee? Two panels. He’s just that chill.
“Think you can just walk away, Wolverine? We’ll come after you with our deadliest weapon yet: Alpha Flight crossovers!”
Wow. You… certainly made some choices there, Professor.
Sunfire is absolutely delightful.
At this point, I’m pretty sure he’s just messing with them for fun.
This is the second of three times Sunfire calls Nightcrawler “Misfit” on one page–which is actually a pretty welcome break from the X-Men referring to each other exclusively by ethnic epithets. Len Wein, DON’T DO THAT.
This jerk.
This is pretty much the platonic ideal of an X-Men fight scene: teamwork, cool powers, and narration busting Kool-Aid-Man-style through the fourth wall.
Fun fact: Polaris will later go on to get an advanced degree in geophysics.
“You know… stuff?”
We see what you did, there.
Moira MacTaggert has opinions about retcons.
Introducing: The Worst Summers Brother
“Hey, kids, want to be superheroes?”
It’s worth noting that Moira’s team’s emergency psychic training regimen includes a Hostess Fruit Pie ad callback.
They are so doomed.
It’s almost like you live with a telepath who messes with people’s memories all the time.
Wait, what? But that’s not how it…
…oh. That explains some things.
Damn, X. That’s cold.
Professor X: Master of the retcon, worst surrogate parent ever.
Sorry ’bout that, guys.
Then Gabriel goes and punches an empire to death.
Further Reading:
Rachel made a separate guide to Kid Vulcan, which you can find here.
Cheryl Lynn Eaton on Storm and race
I don’t have a question, I just wanted to let you guys know that i am practically GIDDY with the excitement of finally having the Summers’ lineage xplained to me.
Out of curiosity, was Sunfire’s costume designed by Dave Cockrum or was it pre-existing? I’ve never been sure what the heck is supposed to be going on with his mask.
Don Heck, I think–I know the character was officially co-created by Heck and Roy Thomas.
The eyes make him look like some kind of fish to me. Because… koi are Japanese..? I guess?
Although I guess they got less fishy pretty quickly, which means I have no idea.
Yeah, I looked at the cover to Uncanny Avengers and it’s a little less ridiculous there.
I’m just surprised no one’s given him a full redesign. Especially since his costume dates back to that time where every Japanese hero needed to have a rising sun motif, even though that’s still a touchy subject in Japan.
I have a question, that I hope isn’t too late to get answered. You mentioned that the X-Men comic went into reprints for a long time. During those years, how often did X-Cast characters pop up in other books or stories? I know Beast was in Avengers eventually, but otherwise did we see Slim, Hank, Marvel Girl, or Prof X in any comics?
~thanks
Marvel Masterworks The X-Men volume 7 collects these issues that came out between the end of the original run and Giant Sized X-Men:
Beast stories from Amazing Adventures #11-17, Marvel Team-Up #4,
The Amazing Spider-Man #92, The Incredible Hulk #150, 161,
plus the covers to The X-Men #67-80 and Annual #1-2
Essential Classic X-Men volume 3 also collects these (and some more stuff):
X-Men #54-66, #67-93 (covers only);
Marvel Team-Up #4;
Amazing Adventures #11-17;
Incredible Hulk #150, #161;
The Amazing Spider-Man #92
thanks Matt!
Another great episode! Anytime I can hear you guys talk about Moira or Banshee makes my day 🙂 In case you’ve never seen it, I discovered a fun blog a few years back that reviews, issue-by-issue, Claremont’s entire Uncanny X-Men run, with some great insight. You can find it here: http://geoffklock.blogspot.com/search/label/Claremont?updated-max=2008-01-15T20:17:00-05:00&max-results=20&start=237&by-date=false
Awesome; thanks for the link!