In this day and age it may seem hard to believe that Marvel Comics’ X-Men was at one time a
middle-tier seller.
The X-Men had never been one of Marvel’s top selling titles
during the Silver Age even after Roy Thomas and powerhouse penciler Neal Adams
took over the title.
Circulation numbers were still low and the title (while not
canceled) began publishing reprints starting in the low 60s issues though the
early 90s issues.
When Giant Size X-Men #1 was introduced with the new X-Men
team the title slowly began to pick up readers and eventually began publishing
bi-monthly.
The title’s young writer (Chris Claremont) and penciler
Dave Cockrum infused the X-Men titles with plenty of pathos, angst and a soap
opera setting along with plenty of action to pique readers’ interest.
Some little known interesting facts behind the title may
surprise some readers.
Chris Claremont’s favorite characters were Colossus and
Nightcrawler. He considered Wolverine a
second-string character with very little potential-nothing more than a
thug. In fact, at one time it was
bantered about that Wolverine would be a teenager and that his claws were
actually in his gloves. There was even
talk that he was a mutated Wolverine!
Penciller Dave Cockrum had left DC Comics where he penciled
The Legion Of Superheroes. Many of the
character designs he created for the X-Men were originally intended for use in
the LSH: Storm, Colossus and Nightcrawler for example.
As the X-men slowly garnered more readers Cockrum had a
difficult time completing each issue’s pencils-he was a slow and meticulous
penciler best known for his costume, character and setting designs. Cockrum penciled the X-Men through issue
#107, which introduced the Starjammers and the Shi-ar Imperial Guard (Marvel’s
version of LSH), pitting them against the X-Men.
Take note that in issues # 107 and 108 many of the events
that would later go on to define the X-Men were first introduced such as
Phoenix’s power and Wolverine’s ferocity.
Unable to keep a consistent penciling schedule Cockrum
reluctantly quit the X-Men and a new artist, fresh off Marvel’s Spider-Man
Team-up, Ironfist and other fill-in issues took center stage.
John Byrne began his impressive penciling run with issue
#108 and the X-Men changed forever.
Unlike Claremont Byrne loved his fellow Canadian Wolverine
and in years to come would successfully define the berserker X-Man.
His boundless imagination gave new life to the X-Men with
his vast alien landscapes, innovative character desigsn and his unfailing eye
for page composition and story pacing.
He, and Claremont, would go on to co-plot the X-Men through
its most impressive run until the mid-140 issues when Claremont’s and Byrne’s
creative visions clashed, resulting in Byrne leaving he X-Men.
Ironically Dave Cockrum would begin a second run on the
title, which eventually fell to the penciling talents of John Romita Jr., Paul
Smith, Marc Silvestri and Jim Lee.
X-Men #108 is not the easiest issue to find and is
considered by many collectors as the spark that ignited John Byrne’s
career. He, along with inker Terry
Austin, brought a new realism to comic books with their collaborative attention
to detail. Their team-up would forever
change the face of comic books and would go on to influence a whole new
generation of comic book artists.