Marvel Announce The First X-Men
As mentioned HERE, Marvel has a new title coming called ‘The First X-Men’ and the details of which was announced over in Marvel’s live blog last night.
The story is a five issue limited series which comes out in August and will reveal that it was actually Wolverine who assembled the first team of mutants in the Marvel Universe.
The First X-Men takes place before X-Men #1 so I am assuming must be based in the 50’s as sees Logan attempt to recruit both Xavier (who turns him down) AND Magneto to his team so age wise for Xavier it must be the 50’s right?
It’s not like Xavier who put the X-men together in a school but more a mini army with soldiers which include on the team Sabretooth, Magneto, Bomb and a new female character.
This series IS canon and will be written by Christos Gage with art from Neal Adams.
There will be a cameo from a hobo Sub-Mariner (sweet) before he regained his memory in the pages of Fantastic Four which is a reason enough to get it in my eyes.
Here are some of the quotes from writer, artist and senior editor of the X-Men titles Nick Lowe.
“It takes place before the original X-Men and at a time when the government was snatching mutants up and doing scary things to them. Logan notices this and thinks somebody needs to look out for them. He recruits Sabretooth, who asks ‘Why?’ and so he pays him. Professor Xavier is a young man studying at Oxford, who’s engaged and wants nothing to do with this.” -Christos Gage
“There’s a character who calls himself Bombastic Aghast, but they call him Bomb. Wolverine saves him from a cave-in then gives him a leather jacket that fits like a tent. He looks ridiculous, but he thinks it’s his costume. Later, Wolverine buys him a jacket that fits, but he throws it back in his face. That jacket means so much to him and represents his relationship with Wolverine. That’s the origin of his costume.” -Neal Adams
“This is firmly set in continuity. This is not a What If. This is canon. This is key to Wolverine’s history and his relationships with other characters. This will answer questions that have been out there for decades.” -Nick Lowe
“They do encounter ‘hobo’ Sub-Mariner at one point.” -Christos Gage “He throws a car at Wolverine!” -Neal Adams
“We wanted this to be something you could hand to somebody who just saw the X-Men movies and they’d enjoy it as a good X-Men story. At the same time, for giant nerds like me, FBI agent Fred Duncan from the early stories is in there, and when Professor X talks about his brother you know it’s Juggernaut.” -Christos Gage
“There will be early versions of the Sentinels. I did the giant ones, now I’m getting to do different one.” -Neal Adams
“I had to have Neal draw a double page hobo Sub-Mariner vs Wolverine & Sabretooth spread.” -Christos Gage
“This is Wolverine as a soldier looking at a problem. When you try something, it doesn’t always work. This is one of Wolverine’s first steps toward working with mutants. To me, Wolverine & The X-Men is a far later step, but there will be contrasts and comparisons, definitely.” -Nick Lowe
“Wolverine was a mercenary, and mercenaries make a lot of money. Wouldn’t it be interesting to find that Wolverine’s mercenary work funded…” -Neal Adams
“The concept that Charles Xavier could pass for a human I don’t think has ever really been explored. At some point in his life, he made the difficult decision to step forward as leader of the X-Men and as a mutant. He could have wiped all of this out of the world’s collective mind. Why didn’t he? Stuff to think about.” -Neal Adams
My thoughts on this yet another X title announcement straight on the heels of X-Treme and Gambit are not possibly what Marvel would want to here but there is just too much X-Men titles. Through my podcast ‘House of M(uldwych)’ where ive been reading the trades and all available titles I have fallen in love with the X-Men but this to me seems a bit like a retcon to make Wolverine the first X-Man.
There are a couple of issues I have with this because I will tell you now I will be getting the title and if it wasn’t for the title I would be really excited for it but why name it ‘The First X-Men’ because the aren’t X-Men.
I think the team with Wolverine, Magneto and Sabertooth as soldiers before joining the school and Charles to become the X-Men is a great idea but don’t call them X-Men as the are not, they are just a group of mutants that came together and this alone does not mean they are X-Men.
Look don’t get me wrong I think it could be quite good as a really like Christian Gage but the art looks horrible and it just seems like a late attempt to ride on the success of X-men First class and to make Wolverine a bit more important to the X universe.
Regards
About the Author
Alex Giles Family man but quite possibly more childish than his two kids, loves Sci-Fi and is a renowned Whovian of over twenty years, collects comics (OCD about having first prints), poet and writer or randomness.
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This doesn’t really fit in with all the other shit Wolverine had going on during this time, especially if you consider Daniel Way’s Wolverine: Origins to be canon, which I believe it is. This means then that Marvel are just trying to retcon Wolverine to the forefront of the X-Men, when in actuality he was nothing more than a mind-controlled murderous assassin at this point in his life. All this retconning, is a little disrespectful to the original concept of The X-Men if you ask me.
I agree 100% I mean I know I am still really new to all the X-Men stuff but I had Wolverine down as a loner before joining the team so to see this where he has ANOTHER team before joining the X men is not seemingly in his character for me.
Ill try it but what next?
Rename all of them ‘The L-Men’ for Logan its getting beyond a joke.