Episode 1379 Talkback: Spotlight on The X-Men in the Bronze Age
Pants
Posts: 567
Welcome to the Bronze Age, X-Men - hope you survive the experience! Join us, and CGS lecturer-in-residence Chris Eberle, as we pay homage to one of the most successful comebacks in comics history, recounting the X-Men's rise ('Like a Phoenix...!') from reprint limbo to the heady heights of the Claremont/Byrne/Austin run! With a special in-studio appearance by a genuine, first-printing copy of Giant-Size X-Men #1! (2:09:18)
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Listen here.
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(I figured I would say it out loud rather than just click the button)
Two thumbs way up!!!
Matthew
Around 1982/83 (age 13/14), I regularly attended a number of Creation conventions, mostly in Boston. That period was arguably the high point for Marvel in the Marvel/DC rivalry. Miller and Byrne were the most highly-regarded artists and DC wasn't doing much of interest to hardcore fans and collectors, except maybe the start of Alan Moore's Swamp Thing (all would change with Miller's Dark Knight). Being young, I considered Marvel vs. DC a holy war (I was a Marvel zombie in your parlance) and I was not aware of the history of artists crossing company lines.
I was fortunate enough to attend a panel with Byrne and got picked to ask a question, one which had been burning in my 14-year-old mind. I asked "Would you ever consider going over to DC?"
I can still vividly picture Byrne's response. My question caused a few murmurs in the crowd. But Byrne smiled, like he'd been anticipating the question. And he said, "Sure. I go over to DC all the time. (Pretends he's looking around) 'This is DC, huh? You guys are really putting out some s**t.'"
Gratuitous laughter and applause followed. Imagine my surprise when he went over to re-invent Superman a few years later.
With the announcement that Bendis was taking over the two major X-books I decided now was a good time to jump in. On top of buying All New and Uncanny X-Men I've also picked up a bunch of X-Men Masterworks covering the Claremont era. I really enjoyed what I read and I can certainly see why so many people love the X-Men.
Well, Byrne was really playing up his 'company man' image in those days -- a declared state that earned him a lot of criticism from a lot of his fellow pros and scrutiny from the fans. I wonder how he feels about that particular stance these days... from his place of exile at IDW?
Great Job Chris, Pants, Murd!
While Cockrum and Byrne were the main artists for most of this period, mention should be made of some terrific covers penciled by Gil Kane early on in the run, especially the iconic cover to Giant-Size X-Men #1 (inked by Cockrum), and a few drawn by George Perez. And while the creative teams were mostly consistent, there were a couple of fill-ins: one by Bill Mantlo, Bob Brown and Tom Sutton (issue #106, with a framing sequence by the regular team of Claremont and Cockrum), and one drawn by Tony DeZuniga (Issue #110). Also, Sal Buscema got his chance at the new team over in Marvel Team-Up Annual #1, where they were teamed up with Spider-Man. But except for those two early fill-ins, the series was very good about getting new material out on time each month.
The cairns of the N'gari, the demons that the X-Men fought in issues 96 and 143, were the focal point of a series of stories by Claremont and Don Heck in Giant-Size Dracula, prior to their appearance in the X-Men.
(Personally, I usually found any story Claremont wrote involving magic to be somehow lacking, though I'd be hard-pressed to explain why. They just never felt right to me, that he was somehow off-center with the subject. The N'gari stories were okay, and his later stories with Kulan Gath succeeded wildly, but otherwise, I usually cringed when he took the stories in that direction.)
Cockrum and Byrne each had their favorite X-Men to 'play up': Cockrum loved the swashbuckling Nightcrawler and built up his character and repertoire of interesting abilities -- such as turning invisible in the shadows -- whereas Byrne preferred to showcase Wolverine and helped to make him the most popular member of the team. (But we all knew that.)
The new X-Men were meant to be published on a quarterly basis in the Giant-Size format, but the plug was pulled on the GIant-Size titles right after the first issue came out -- which was why Len Wein handed the writing reins over to Claremont, because he had no time to write a monthly. The second issue of Giant-Size X-Men instead featured a reprint of the Roy Thomas - Neal Adams tale of the second rising of the Sentinels.
The sad thing about this early run of the New X-Men during this period is that as the stories developed and reached high marks in both writing and art, the creative team was finding themselves, like Fleetwood Mac, more and more at each other's throats, with Byrne becoming more and more dissatisfied with Claremont's writing and characterizations. (But these stories, both that of the X-Men and that of the creators, are nowadays the stuff of legends.)
Now, this last point I'm not certain is factual or not -- but I recall reading somewhere in the past that Byrne's final story ("Demon" from issue #143) was actually done a bit differently from the previous stories, in that he actually did the lion-share of the plotting and did only breakdowns so that inker Terry Austin could do more of the actual art. I don't know how true that is, and it's sure hard to tell the difference between the quality of the art in this story compared to the art of the earlier issues. If anyone else knows and can either confirm or debunk, I'd be interested to know.
That's all I could think of off the top of my head. I don't think you guys really missed much of anything in this spotlight, as it was pretty tight and a real good listen. I look forward to the Copper Age!
Nice! I love learning things like this. These episodes will forever capture the podcasters knowledge for generations to come!
As some who has made it a goal to map and bind everything X-Men since Giant Sized to today I really appreciated this episode.
Currently my map is up to 87 volumes but I've only bound Volumes 1, 68 (circa X-Men #200 onwards and Whedon's run) through 78 then 80-82 (Schism). (I get help and feedback on a few forums CGS, MMW, and post finalized maps on ComicBinding.com). I've included all knids of ties and other series too...
I have never fully read any X-Men issues before the Mutant Massacre so it was a treat to read my first volume (Giant Sized to #116 using X-Men Classic issues of course). I'll post a pic of the volume later, Claremont was kind enough to write something in it for me.
Hearing about the Heroes for Hire and the Daughters of the Dragon being written by Claremont totally put things in prespective. Not only did they constantly appear in X-Men but Misty was also Jean's roommate!
Ok enough of my blabbering back to the episode!
Oh and here are some pics of my binds on the CGS gallery in the Comic Binding sub forums.
Wolvie's still wearing the outfit he nicked from Fang.
Marvel pays Claremont not to write comics. From any company.
Claremont is under a Marvel exclusive contract which prevents him from writing for any other company. However Chris just wants to write his beloved X-Men. Marvel said thanks, but no thanks. So, every month Marvel cuts a check to a legendary writer to not write comics. #theMoreYouKnow