Back Issue #29 by TwoMorrows Publishing

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NEW MUTANTS CAPTAIN BRITAIN

X-MEN in the '70s and '80s X-FACTOR NIGHTCRAWLER LONGSHOT BEAST DC's Mutant, CAPTAIN COMET & More!

Volume 1, Number 29 August 2008

The Retro Comics Experience!

Celebrating the Best Comics of the ’70s, ’80s, and Today! EDITOR Michael Eury

BACK SEAT DRIVER: Editorial by Michael Eury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

DESIGNER Rich J. Fowlks

OFF MY CHEST: Claremont and Byrne: The Team That Made the X-Men Uncanny . . . .3 According to Al Nickerson, these were the X-Men’s MVPs

COVER ARTIST Dave Cockrum

FLASHBACK: The “Lost” Angel Stories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13 Chances are you missed these Angel solo tales—and Jerry Siegel’s rare Marvel work

COVER COLORIST Glenn Whitmore

FLASHBACK: The Beauty of the Beast: Marvel’s First Break-Out Mutant . . . . . . . . . . . . .17 Hank McCoy’s jumping journey from bigfoot to furfoot

COVER DESIGNER Michael Kronenberg CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Bob Brodsky, Cookiesoup Productions PROOFREADERS John Morrow and Eric Nolen-Weathington SPECIAL THANKS Arthur Adams Roger Ash Simon Astor Terry Austin J. Ballman Mike W. Barr Alex Boney Jerry Boyd Bruce Buchanan John Byrne Glen Cadigan Timothy Callahan Dewey Cassell Rich Cirillo Don Cole Gerry Conway Brian Cronin Alan Davis J. M. DeMatteis Robert Diehl Scott Edelman Steve Englehart Tom Fleming Shane Foley Mike Gagnon Grand Comic-Book Database Jackson Guice Lawrence Guidry Bob Harras Allan Harvey Heritage Comics Auctions

R. Gary Land Bob Layton Stan Lee Nigel Lowrey David Mandel Kelvin Mao Dr. Hank McCoy Bob McLeod Marvel Comics William MessnerLoebs Al Nickerson Ann Nocenti Tom Peyer John Romita, Jr. Bob Rozakis Philip Schweier Jim Shooter Paul Smith Roger Stern Roy Thomas Mike Tiefenbacher Herb Trimpe Gerry Turnbull Mark Waid John Wells Alex Wright Eddy Zeno

PRO2PRO: Ann Nocenti and Arthur Adams Bet on a Longshot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26 An interview with the happy-go-luck writer/artist duo, with ultra-rare Adams art! FLASHBACK: Mr. Smith Goes to Westchester . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32 A survey of Paul Smith’s short but significant X-Men run FLASHBACK: The Saga of Captain Britain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35 Marvel’s made-for-the UK hero and his up-and-down career SPECIAL FEATURE: Superman: The Power of Flight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44 Move over, mutants, as we wish the Man of Steel a big seven-oh FLASHBACK: Captain Comet: DC Comics’ Mutant Superhero . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51 Go one step beyond with DC’s Man Out of Time GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD: Nightcrawler’s Two Dads and the Owl That Could Have Been . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58 A behind-the-scenes look at X-storylines that fizzled FLASHBACK: The New Mutants: From Superhero Spin-Off to Sci-Fi/Fantasy . . . . . . . . .62 The mutating mutant team’s many metamorphoses FLASHBACK: Four Men and a Telekinetic Lady: The Birth of X-Factor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .69 The fab five’s reunion as mutant “mutant-hunters” INTERVIEW: The X-Traordinary John Romita, Jr. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .73 A candid chat with the superstar artist about the X-Men and being a “legacy” GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD: The Secret History of All-American Comics, Inc. Woodchucks invade Bob Rozakis’ fantasy history

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BACK TALK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .84 Reader feedback on “Comic Book Royalty” issue #27 BACK ISSUE™ is published bimonthly by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614. Michael Eury, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: BACK ISSUE, c/o Michael Eury, Editor, 118 Edgewood Avenue NE, Concord, NC 28025. E-mail: euryman@gmail.com. Six-issue subscriptions: $40 Standard US, $54 First Class US, $66 Canada, $90 Surface International, $108 Airmail International. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Cover art by Dave Cockrum. X-Men TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2008 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows Publishing. BACK ISSUE is a TM of TwoMorrows Publishing. ISSN 1932-6904. Printed in Canada. FIRST PRINTING. M u t a n t s

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PUBLISHER John Morrow

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Michael Eury

There’s a lot of talk about Chris Claremont in this issue (and no, we’re not sniping behind his back, gossipers!). How could we do a “Mutants” issue and not discuss the writer who has guided so many of the X-Men’s adventures during the past few decades? You’ll notice there’s no talk from Chris Claremont, though. Interview requests to Mr. Claremont from several of this issue’s writers went unanswered. I bring this up so that readers will know we did try to reach the talented X-writer, who last participated in our pages in BACK ISSUE #4’s Chris Claremont/John Byrne Wolverine “Pro2Pro” interview. Mr. Claremont is always welcome in our magazine, and Chris, if you’d like to add any commentary to our articles this issue or participate in future issues, please contact me at euryman@gmail.com. (Readers and contributors, please note ye ed’s new e-mail address.) Another name that comes up frequently in these pages is that of this issue’s cover artist, Dave Cockrum. You’ll notice, however, that there is no article about the first artist of the “New” X-Men in this issue, our focus instead being on the X-series, stories, and creative teams that followed Mr. Cockrum’s trailblazing run. For those of you who might think we’re ignoring Dave Cockrum here at TwoMorrowsland, our sister publication, Roy Thomas’ awesome Alter Ego, has just released in its June 2008 issue (#78) a Dave Cockrum tribute, which includes salutes from Dave’s friends and followers and an interview with his wife, Paty Cockrum. If you haven’t already purchased Alter Ego #78, don’t miss out! Or order the downloadable digital edition by visiting www.twomorrows.com. While we don’t want to step on AE’s toes, we’re devoting most of this page to an eyepopping (and autographed) Cockrum page from the comic that proved to be ground zero for Marvel’s mutant explosion: Giant-Size X-Men #1. And look closely behind the table of contents on page 1 and you’ll see Cockrum’s art to one of the variant covers for X-Men vol. 2 #100 (May 2000). Enjoy. A closing note: This issue’s cover might seem familiar to some of you. It was published as a “bonus pin-up” in 1983’s Special Edition X-Men, but was intended by Dave Cockrum to be an actual X-Men cover during the artist’s second stint on that title. It was editorially bounced for reasons unknown (perhaps for its emphasis on Colossus over fan-favorite Wolverine), but we’re pleased to spotlight it as our cover—and we thank Glen Cadigan of The Legion Companion fame for his assistance and info!

Editor’s note: Many writers and artists have marched through the pages of X-Men, leaving their marks upon Marvel’s mutants’ mythos. But comics inker/commentator Al Nickerson believes that one creative team rules supreme, and he’d like to get his feelings off his chest… There was once a time when Marvel Comics published only one X-Men comic-book title. Hard to believe, huh? But, it’s true. Those were simpler times, when X-Men comics didn’t take up a whole wall of a comic-book store. Back then, the X-Men were outcasts. They were mutants—“feared and hated by the world they have sworn to protect.” In the very late 1970s and early 1980s, reading an X-Men comic was a bit naughty, a bit rebellious. Those were the days of Chris Claremont and John Byrne’s X-Men.

Al Nickerson

Claremont and Byrne made the X-Men who they are today. Their vision of the mutants is the vision that still exists. Their stories are the ones that had the greatest impact on the X-Men mythology. Where would the X-Men franchise be without the likes of “The Dark Phoenix Saga” or “Days of Future Past”? Where would the X-Men comics and other X-Men entertainment media be without the Hellfire Club, Alpha Flight, Proteus, or Kitty Pryde? Claremont and Byrne’s X-Men began with Jean Grey saving the universe from destruction. Soon after, Wolverine was duking it out with Vindicator before Mesmero captured the X-Men to appear in his circus. Things only got worse for the X-Men when they fought Magneto beneath a live volcano. The team made a trip to the Savage Land, stopped Moses Magnum from destroying Japan, and escaped from the conniving M u t a n t s

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Arcade. The X-Men battled and destroyed the mutant Proteus. They saved Jean Grey from Mastermind and the Hellfire Club. Afterward, Jean Grey turned into the evil Dark Phoenix, and out of hunger consumed a star, which resulted in the death of an alien race. Such an act put Jean on trial before an extraterrestrial court, where she was sentenced to death. To save Jean Grey, the X-Men fought the Imperial Guard, lost, and watched Jean (Phoenix) commit suicide. Through their loss, the X-Men joined Alpha Flight to track down the beast Wendigo. They defeated the new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants which, in turn, prevented an apocalyptic future (for mutants, anyway) from happening. Finally, Kitty Pryde wrecked the Danger Room while trying to survive an attack from an ugly monster. Sounds like a lot of fun comics, huh? But, let’s start at the beginning, shall we?

MEET THE MUTANTS The original X-Men were created by (writer) Stan Lee and (penciler) Jack Kirby, and first appeared in The X-Men #1 (Sept. 1963). Along with their teacher, Professor Charles Xavier (a.k.a. Professor X), the team of mutants included Cyclops (Scott Summers), Marvel Girl (Jean Grey), Iceman (Bobby Drake), Angel (Warren Worthington III), and the Beast (Hank McCoy). Never an A-list Marvel series, X-Men became a reprint title in 1970 and limped along for the next half-decade. With Giant-Size X-Men #1 (May 1975), writer Len Wein and penciler Dave Cockrum introduced a new team of X-Men. The new members were Wolverine (Logan, later revealed to be James Howlett), Storm (Ororo Munroe), Nightcrawler (Kurt Wagner), Colossus (Piotr Nikolaievitch Rasputin), Banshee (Sean Cassidy), Thunderbird (John Proudstar), and Sunfire (Shiro Yoshida). One original X-Man, Cyclops, led the new group of X-Men.

The new X-Men’s adventures continued within the ongoing series as of X-Men #94 (Aug. 1975). Issue #94 happened to be Chris Claremont’s first issue as writer. Thus began a decades-long writing stint for Claremont on various X-Men comic-book series, spin-offs, and miniseries including The New Mutants, Wolverine, Excalibur, (the adjective-less) X-Men, X-Treme X-Men, Exiles, and New Excalibur.

ALONG CAME JOHN BYRNE John Byrne came on board as penciler with X-Men #108 (Dec. 1977). Now, this wasn’t the first project that Byrne and Chris Claremont had worked on together. Previously, the two creators teamed up in 1975 on Iron Fist, beginning with Marvel Premiere #25. How did Byrne get the penciling gig on X-Men? “I was a big fan of Chris and Dave [Cockrum]’s work on the title,” Byrne explains. “Basically, I made it known around the [Marvel] office that if Dave ever left and the assignment didn’t come to me, the halls would run red with blood.” Byrne got his wish: Dave Cockrum left X-Men. “Unfortunately, since he was doing such a great job,” says Byrne, “Dave was simply unable to handle the demands of a monthly, and Marvel desperately wanted X-Men to go monthly.” Of course, taking over for an artist as great as Dave Cockrum can be a bit unnerving, as Byrne found out: “I was terrified about replacing Dave. I was and am a huge fan of his work. Plus, the book was really his book, even more than it was Chris’. When I got the assignment, I asked that Sam Grainger continue as inker, so as to ‘soften the blow’ for the devoted fans.” That idea was editorially rejected. Terry Austin became Byrne’s inker on Byrne’s first issue. Byrne and Austin’s collaborative artwork was a huge hit amongst comic-book fans. In fact, so great was the art of Byrne and Austin’s X-Men that it inspired me to become a comic-book inker. Anyway … I digress. There were many characters for Byrne to pencil in X-Men #108. He had to not only draw the X-Men, but also the Star Jammers and the Imperial Guard, as well. Was that much of a challenge for the new X-Men penciler? You better believe it! Byrne felt that drawing all of those characters was a “pain in the posterior! I was never a Legion of Super-Heroes fan, so I had no ‘feel’ for the [character-heavy, galactic] Imperial Guard, and the plot—which was still pretty detailed in those days—was such that I had to draw what seemed like 15 characters in every shot.” And so began Byrne’s steady run on X-Men. Well, except for a fill-in issue by Dave Cockrum, that is. Two issues later, X-Men #110 (Apr. 1978) was illustrated by Dave Cockrum and Tony DeZuniga. Why is it that Byrne and Austin didn’t illustrate that particular issue? According to Byrne, X-Men #110 “was an inventory issue that, for various arcane reasons, had to be used within a specific period. So what should have been my third issue became a fill-in.”

MAGNETO In X-Men #112 and 113 (Aug. and Sept. 1978), things became very interesting for the X-Men when Magneto showed up. The X-Men battled the team’s oldest foe underneath a live volcano. Magneto slapped around the X-Men fairly easily—which wasn’t too surprising, of course. Magneto was superpowerful. Also, one of his mutant abilities was to manipulate metal, so what

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would you expect when two of the X-Men (Wolverine and Colossus) are made out of metal? In round two, in X-Men #113, Magneto took more of a beating after the X-Men began to fight as a team. Some issues later, in X-Men #125 (Sept. 1979), Magneto was healing from wounds that were a result from his battle with the X-Men. Here, we got a quick glimpse into Magneto’s past. We learned that Magneto once had a wife by the name of Magda. Around this time, in Avengers #186 (Aug. 1979), we found out that Magda was the mother of mutant superheroes the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. Magneto isn’t just a one-dimensional villain. Yeah, he’s bad. Yeah, he believes that homo superior—mutants—should run things, and that he should be the one to rule the mutants. Still, Magneto is motivated by his politics … warped as they may be. We now saw Magneto as a character with more depth given to him, thanks to Claremont and Byrne. He once had a wife, who, as far as we could tell, was not a mutant. Magda was a normal human being who was frightened by her husband’s mutant

powers. Kinda odd for a world-conquering mutant who believes that ordinary humans are nothing more than chattel. Like I said, Magneto became more of a complex personality. Whose idea was it to add such history and depth to Magneto’s character? Who came up with the idea to officially say that the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver were Magneto’s children? Former X-Men editor Roger Stern remembers, “It’s been so long ago, but either John Byrne, Mark Gruenwald, or Steve Grant—or some combination of those folk—suggested that Magneto was the father of Wanda [the Scarlet Witch] and Pietro [Quicksilver]. It was my intent that the readers, but never the characters, would know … and we’ve all seen how long that lasted.” Concerning Magneto’s past and how the villain sees the world, Stern believes that Magneto has changed quite a bit over the years: “I couldn’t tell you much more about Magneto’s past, as it’s all been changed so radically from what John and I intended, not to mention from what Stan and Jack had established.”

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KITTY PRYDE’S DEMON John Byrne’s last issue on Uncanny X-Men was #143. Although a charming story, “Demon” wasn’t a huge, event-driven story, nor an earth-shattering send-off adventure for Byrne. “Demon” was a selfcontained, low-key, fun, yet chilling, comic-book story. “Demon” was also a Christmas story. It was a horror story. In “Demon,” Kitty Pryde was all alone at Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters … until a nasty monster showed up, that is. A battle with such a powerful creature should have meant the painful end of Kitty Pryde. However, even though she was young and inexperienced, even though she didn’t have Adamantium claws, optic eye-blasts, or the ability to control the weather, Kitty Pryde defeated the beast of the N’Garai. This story in many ways showed us that despite her

age and inexperience, Kitty Pryde was worthy to be an X-Man. Don’t believe me? Well, then just read the last two panels of Uncanny X-Men #143: “Alone, on Christmas Eve, Kitty Pryde underwent a rite of passage—a supreme test of her abilities, her intellect, her courage, her … self. She passed.”

POPEYE, PHANTOM STRANGER, CAMEOS, OH MY… There were several cameos in Chris Claremont and John Byrne’s X-Men. These included the likes of Popeye the Sailor (X-Men #125), DC Comics’ the Phantom Stranger (#125), the Joker (#130), and even Jimmy Olsen and Lois Lane (#141). John Byrne (X-Men #121) and Chris Claremont (#123) also made guest appearances in the series, as did Roger Stern (#123). Legend has it that Terry Austin enjoyed adding Popeye the Sailor and the Phantom Stranger to the backgrounds of the pages that he inked, but who was responsible for those other cameos? Byrne reveals that “Popeye was always Terry. I used to growl at him, in a good natured way, every time he did it. I used to say I was fearful that we would do a huge dramatic scene—Professor X has just used his power to fell Phoenix, and Cyclops, enraged, lashes out at Xavier as a crowd of horrified onlookers look on—and somewhere in that crowd would be Popeye! Terry also added the Phantom Stranger. Of the others you mention, sometimes I added a face, sometimes Terry changed a face, sometimes Chris wrote somebody as if they were a ‘cameo.’ It was all pretty wild and wooly back then. Comics used to be—omigod!!—fun.”

THE CLAREMONT AND BYRNE LEGACY The importance of Chris Claremont and John Byrne’s XMen can not be understated. Their X-Men remains the definitive version of the X-Men. Their stories and characters continue to influence the X-Men franchise. “The Dark Phoenix Saga” has been reprinted more times than any other comic-book story that I have ever seen (and rightly so). The world of “Days of Future Past” has been revisited many times in comics (maybe even too many). “The Dark Phoenix Saga” even had an impact on other pop-culture entertainment, as well. This included a charming moment in the episode “Two to Go” (Season 6, Episode 21, May 2002) of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In the episode, after the hero, Willow, is corrupted by magic and turns evil, Andrew exclaims, “Are you kidding? She’s like Dark Phoenix up there! And you expect us just to outrun her?” Decades later, stories and characters from Claremont and Byrne’s X-Men have appeared, and still appear, in other media including animation, film, and television. Do you remember the animated series and cartoons X-Men: Pryde of the X-Men (1989), X-Men: The Animated Series (1992), and X-Men: Evolution (2000)? Well, these cartoons had their own take on “the Dark Phoenix Saga” and “Days of Future Past,” as well as featuring Kitty Pryde, the Hellfire Club (or “Inner Circle Club” as they were called in X-Men Animated Series), the new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, and/or other Claremont and Byrne characters. And let’s not forget the blockbuster X-Men feature films. In fact, X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) was a poor rendition of “the Dark Phoenix Saga.” I’m sure that writers and artists of all media will continue to be influenced by, and continue to reference, Chris Claremont and John Byrne’s X-Men for years to come. And why is that? It’s because their X-Men was such great stuff. AL “Ink-Boy” NICKERSON is a comic-book inker for DC Comics and Archie Comic Publications. Al is also the self-publisher of Nihilist-Man and His Amazing Friends #1 (www.nihilistman.com).

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Dewey Cassell

Okay, “lost” is probably too strong a word. “Misplaced for a time” is probably a more accurate description. But amidst the myriad Marvel X-Men lore, there are a couple of solo Angel stories that are often overlooked. Nineteen seventy was a year of change for Marvel Comics. Jack Kirby left the House of Ideas for the Distinguished Competition. Marvel introduced new titles like Conan the Barbarian, but some of the old ones were struggling, among them X-Men. Issue #66 of X-Men would be the last with new, original stories until the book was re-launched with a new team in issue #94. In the interim, X-Men became a reprint book. Why didn’t Marvel just cancel the title? Former Marvel editor Roy Thomas, who was writing X-Men at the time, offers an explanation: “Though I wasn’t told the rationale for the continuation of X-Men as a reprint title, I believe it reflects the fact that the issues I did with Neal Adams (and for that matter, with Don Heck/Tom Palmer and Sal Buscema) sold better than what had come before by Werner Roth and other artists. So [publisher] Martin Goodman must’ve figured that X-Men was worth continuing, just not worth buying new stories for.” That didn’t mean, however, that there would be no new stories featuring the X-Men during the intervening five years. In fact, there were numerous stories that featured appearances by one or more of the X-Men between March 1970 and May 1975, including Amazing Spider-Man #92, Avengers #88, Amazing Adventures #11–17, The Incredible Hulk #150, and others. But the one that frequently gets left off the list was actually the first new, original X-Men story to appear after X-Men #66. It was a three-part solo story featuring the Angel that appeared as a backup in Ka-Zar #2–3 and Marvel Tales #30.

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connection. As recently as May 2000, when Comics Buyer’s Guide compiled a list of the interim appearances of the X-Men, the Angel story was omitted. But thanks to John Byrne, it was not forgotten. That same year, Byrne reintroduced the Dazzler villain in a story arc of X-Men: The Hidden Years, starting with issue #13. In the Byrne story, the Dazzler survived the fall and hatched a plot to marry (and then murder) the Angel’s mother so that he might inherit the senior brother’s fortune. Today, likely as a result of X-Men: Hidden Years, you can now find the villain Dazzler in the Marvel character database on www.marvel.com. However, to date, the original Angel story has never been reprinted. Whether or not the original Angel story will be included in volume three of Essential Classic X-Men remains to be seen. Wing your way to 1980. For the last several years, Marvel had been producing “Treasury Editions,” tabloid-sized comics that typically collected reprints of a particular title or character. Issue #27

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of Marvel Treasury Edition featured “All-Time Greatest Team-Ups starring the Sensational Spider-Man,” but it also included a new, original solo story featuring the Angel. The story, called “Journey into Jeopardy,” was written by Scott Edelman, penciled by Brent Anderson, and inked by Bob McLeod. In the story, the Angel is flying around, minding his own business, when he is attacked by a heretofore-unknown bad guy named Carl Shanken in an experimental plane. The Angel’s father had once driven Shanken’s aircraft company out of business and since the senior Worthington was already dead (thanks to the Dazzler), Shanken decided to take out his revenge on the younger Worthington. The Angel prevails and Shanken gets his comeuppance. Scott Edelman shares his insight into how this Angel story came to be: “At the time, Marvel was looking for many backup features, partially to give beginning writers a chance to stretch their wings (excuse me for the Angel metaphor) and partially to get the regular books caught up by mixing a shorter main story with one of the backups. I was pitching many stories as fill-in issues or backups, and those stories often tried to fill in the cracks of Marvel history. So, for example, when I wrote the backup story that turned out to be John Romita, Jr.’s first work for Marvel, I went back to Spidey’s Coffee Bean Bar. My Omega the Unknown story brought back an obscure Captain America villain. I was always hunting for hooks, and this was one of them. So the idea of there being a story set around the Angel was originated by me.” The story was not originally planned for the Marvel Treasury Edition. As evident from the invoice Scott submitted to Marvel at the time, it was actually supposed to be a backup story in The Champions. Edelman adds, “It was also originally invoiced in November 1976, but wasn’t published until four years later. I can’t remember why it was bumped. Many of these backup stories ended up in other comics than the ones for which they were originally intended.” “Joyride into Jeopardy” is a great solo story that pays homage to the prior Angel tale, including an editorial reference to Ka-Zar #2, but it remains largely “off the radar.” The story, and its connectedness to the Angel story from a decade earlier, does not appear in many comic reference sources or www.marvel.com. Including a new story with the reprints in Marvel Treasury Edition #27 was probably intended to improve sales, but it must not have been sufficient because the following issue of the title was the last. Searching for these “lost” Angel stories can be fun, whether you are a completist or just enjoy reading the older books. Although they have not yet been reprinted, the original comics are not terribly hard to find or all that expensive. Enjoy the hunt. Who knows what other X-Men stories might still be lost…? DEWEY CASSELL is a frequent contributor to BACK ISSUE as well as author of the book The Art of George Tuska, available from TwoMorrows Publishing. He is currently writing a book about Marie Severin. He offers his sincere thanks to Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, and Scott Edelman for their recollections of Marvel history, and Bob McLeod for images from his archive.

Alex Boney

It’s hard to imagine that a character with such an inauspicious beginning would go on to become one of the most ubiquitous characters in the Marvel Universe. It’s also hard to believe that the character with the most prolific vocabulary in the Marvel Universe has also become one of the most popular and recognizable. But such is the case with Henry “Hank” McCoy, the Beast of X-Men fame. Beast has been many things during his 45-year history. He began as a very human-looking mutant whose large hands and feet were his primary distinguishing characteristics. But a decade later, his physical appearance had been so drastically altered that he could no longer pass as anything other than a mutant. Hank McCoy has been an intellectual, a hopeless romantic, a tragic hero, and a merry prankster. Beast has been a member of the X-Men (uncanny, astonishing, “x-treme,” new, and eponymous), the Avengers, the Defenders, and X-Factor/ X-Force. But he’s also managed to retain a sense of individuality, focus, and solitude that allowed him to find a cure for the dreaded Legacy Virus. Hank McCoy has been many things, but he has never been stagnant or nondescript. In fact, as the rest of his original team was fading from many readers’ memories, Beast emerged from relative obscurity as the most transformed, multi-layered personality on his original team. And it’s precisely this complexity and unwillingness to sit still that makes Beast the first truly break-out mutant of the X-Men legacy.

BESTIAL BEGINNINGS Beast is most closely associated with the X-Men because that was the team with whom he first appeared. Along with Scott “Cyclops” Summers, Jean “Marvel Girl” Grey, Bobby “Iceman” Drake, and Warren “Angel” Worthington III, Hank was one of the founding members of the original X-Men unit that first

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In 1985, Marvel published Longshot, a miniseries by a young team of creators, writer/editor Ann Nocenti and artist Arthur Adams. Longshot, and villains Mojo and Spiral, would continue to pop up in the X-books for the rest of the decade. Was this some grand scheme or just plain luck? Since Longshot’s powers are based on luck, I wouldn’t discount that second option. Since that time, Ann has moved on to the worlds of journalism and film, while Arthur has become a fan-favorite artist. I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Ann and Arthur about Longshot. It soon became apparent that the best thing for me to do was sit back and listen while these two friends joked and reminisced. And occasionally throw out a question to keep things moving. Oh, and laugh. We laughed through most of the interview. If you read something that makes you think, “How could they say that?,” it was probably a joke. – Roger Ash ANN NOCENTI: You want to know about this guy we created years ago. Long something? Short shot? Was that his name? ARTHUR ADAMS: Oh, be respectful. Shocked! I’m shocked by your behavior. [laughter] Are you done? NOCENTI: I loved Longshot. I still love Longshot. He bought me my first computer. ADAMS: He did not buy me my first computer. NOCENTI: Yeah, he did. ADAMS: Okay, then. Yes, he did. NOCENTI: He bought you a few toys. ADAMS: That’s true. It always takes me a while to get the sensible toys. NOCENTI: So what happened to Longshot? Does he still exist? ADAMS: I think so. I think he shows up every once in a while. People try to bring him back and they just don’t get whatever we had going on. I don’t even know if we knew what we were doing. NOCENTI: It was just this amazing synergy between the two of us because we were so stupid and so idiotic and so clueless that we created something that can only exist again when two equally clueless and idiotic people get together. ADAMS: I think you’ve actually found the answer. I don’t know if we should have given the answer away, though. NOCENTI: We tried to revive him once. I wrote a plot. You did storyboards. ADAMS: I remember I drew some extra stuff. NOCENTI: I wrote a ton of stuff. Piles of boring crap. Then you turned it into something. ADAMS: I don’t remember it being boring crap. I remember it being confusing crap. NOCENTI: Why is anyone interested in Longshot? He’s like, so, 5,000 years ago? ADAMS: Everything old is new again at some point. NOCENTI: Ah! Let’s see if Roger has any questions for us. ADAMS: That’s a good idea. [laughter]

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Roger Ash

cond ucte d Febr uary 13, 2008

ROGER ASH: What can you tell me about the creation of Longshot? ADAMS: It was actually my very first comic-book job. Ann had written the script. I guess it had something to do with how you could become an editor at Marvel. You had to have made up a character for Marvel. Was that it? NOCENTI: No. Not at all. Back then they encouraged the editors to write. They wanted us to know both sides of the fence, which is very smart. I do know that I wrote what they call a bible, which was a really confusing, over-written tome on the deep roots of Longshot. [Editor] Louise Jones [later Simonson] really liked the idea. Carl Potts was there at the time and he hated the idea. He was obsessed with “How do the powers work? Where do the powers come from?” I was like, “I don’t know, he’s just lucky.” I had to write up this whole thing. We had one of his eyes glowing and Carl was like, “Why does it glow?” I was like, “I don’t know. I just want it to glow because I have a cat with one eye. At night I see him in the dark and his eye glows.” ADAMS: You never said that before. That’s terrifying! NOCENTI: I was living in a loft on 26th and Sixth and we had a one-eyed cat. I’d go out at night and I’d see this one eye. I thought, “It would be cool for a superhero to have one glowing eye.” And Carl would say, “But how does it glow and why?” ADAMS: That sounds like Carl. NOCENTI: Didn’t we say it glows when he’s lucky? ADAMS: When he’s using his powers for good... NOCENTI: When he’s being good. When he’s being bad, it goes dark. ADAMS: Exactly. If he was going to do something bad with his luck, then he would have bad luck. NOCENTI: These are the things I don’t really remember because we wrote it all up, and then I don’t know if we ever used any of it. ADAMS: I think when it started out it was intended to be a series, but I was so darn slow that at some point we thought, “This is a miniseries.” NOCENTI: The last issues were so dense because we had to wrap everything up really fast. It’s like the end of The Big Sleep where they just stand around and explain all the plots for three hours. ADAMS: Yeah. I remember it was supposed to be tied in with another book called Spellbinder, and that never worked out. Again, because I was so darn slow. NOCENTI: I don’t even remember that. I do remember that we were looking for an artist. This I will never forget. We got these three pages of blue-pencils [from Arthur] and it was the Beast washing dishes with someone. Who was he washing dishes with? ADAMS: I can’t remember now. Iceman or something. NOCENTI: They were washing dishes and they were amazing. I’m not being some kind of ass kisser here, but they were amazing. As soon as Carl Potts, Louise Jones, and I saw them, we were like, “Oh my God, oh my God.” Then the smarter, wiser heads there were like, “But can he draw on deadline? Can he do more than three pages? How can we give this total unknown a series?” Louise Jones is amazing because she has some kind of power of hypnotism over people. She talks people into doing things like jump off bridges and they think they’re doing it because they wanted to. ADAMS: Not only could she talk someone into jumping off a bridge and tell them that it was good for them, it would turn out to be good for them.

Beginnings: Writer of “The Streak” in Marvel’s Bizarre Adventures #32 (Aug. 1982), with art by Greg LaRocque

Milestones: Writer: Longshot / Daredevil / Someplace Strange graphic novel / Kid Eternity Editor: New Mutants / Uncanny X-Men / movie journalism for Scenario magazine

Works in Progress: Screenplay for Patriotville / a documentary filmed in Baluchistan (see http://brooklynrail.org/2006/ 12/express/letter-from-baluchistan for an article Ann wrote about the experience) / writer/editor at Stop Smiling magazine / writer for Print, Heeb, Details, Filmmaker, and many other mags / a short comic coming next year in a literary journal called Kean Review

ANN NOCENTI

Beginnings: Farrah Foxette pinup in Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew (1983)

Milestones: Longshot / Action Comics Annual and covers / Gumby’s Summer and Winter Fun Specials / Uncanny X-Men Annuals / Fantastic Four / Godzilla / Creature from the Black Lagoon / Monkeyman & O’Brien / The Authority / Jonni Future in Tom Strong’s Terrific Tales / Modern Masters vol. 6

Works in Progress: Covers for Incredible Hercules, Avengers Classic, and other series

ARThur ADAMS

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Philip Schweier

Usually, when a comic book undergoes an art change, there is a hiccup in sales, especially on bestselling titles. Artist Paul “Smitty” Smith’s time on the Uncanny X-Men during the early to mid-1980s was a fertile period for the Marvel Comics franchise. With the significant growth in the X-Men lore that was taking place at the time, lesser artists may have noticeably struggled to keep up. Now, over twenty years after Smith’s X-Men, the artist’s brief run is remembered as a significant period in the history of Marvel’s merry mutants. Though invited to be interviewed for this story, Smith declined, saying, “I’ve nothing new, pithy, or perspicacious to add. I’m beginning to think Ditko’s right. If the work doesn’t speak for itself then there’s nothing else to say.” Paul Smith began his career as an artist working for Ralph Bakshi on his 1978 animated adaptation of The Lord of the Rings. But in his younger days, Smith grew up on the like of Steve Ditko’s Spider-Man and Neal Adams’ Batman. Entering the comic-book field seemed inevitable. Following a series of early 1980s fill-ins on various Marvel titles, including the final chapter of a fourpart X-Men story in Marvel Fanfare #4 (Sept. 1982), Smith was named regular artist for Dr. Strange beginning with #56 (Dec. 1982). However, after only two issues of Strange, he left the book to replace penciler Dave Cockrum on Uncanny X-Men, Marvel’s top-selling title, beginning with issue #165 (Jan. 1983). Smith’s tenure begins mid-arc, as the X-Men are in the midst of escaping from the Brood. Written by veteran scribe Chris Claremont, this is the storyline that introduces the bug-like aliens that have implanted the mutant team with eggs which will eventually turn them into Brood creatures. Wolverine’s healing factor kicks in, eliminating the egg from his body, though not without a great deal of torment. He manages to free his teammates from the Brood world, and the X-Men take the battle to their enemy in Uncanny X-Men #166 (Feb. 1983) before returning home to Earth. This issue also introduces Kitty Pryde’s pet dragon, Lockheed. Smith’s rendering of the characters was very smooth and polished, with a minimum of line suggestive of his animation background. Character movement

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was fluid, conveying an almost cat-like posture to many of his figure drawings. Inker Bob Wiacek, who’d been on the title since Uncanny X-Men #154 (Dec. 1981), adapted easily to what was a very polished rendering style. In Uncanny X-Men #167 (Mar. 1983), Smith has the privilege of illustrating the first encounter between the X-Men and their junior colleagues known as the New Mutants. With his team presumed dead, Professor Xavier was inclined to give up on training teenage mutants as a force for good. However, Dr. Moira MacTaggart makes him realize the alternative is for young mutants to turn to the like of Magneto and Emma Frost to learn to control their abilities. In 1982, The New Mutants graphic novel introduced a new team for Xavier to train, though never with the intention of them becoming super-heroes. [Editor’s note: See this issue’s New Mutants article for more details.] As the five new students—Sam Guthrie, Roberto Da Costa, Rahne Sinclair, Danielle Moonstar, and Xi’an Coy Mahn—enjoy a Thursday night episode of Magnum, P.I., Cyclops, Colossus, and Nightcrawler make an abrupt entrance in search of a remaining Brood egg, which they believe to be inside Professor Xavier. Though initially at odds, it doesn’t take long for the two teams to unite against their infected mentor. Thanks to the timely arrival of Binary—introduced in Uncanny X-Men #164 (Dec. 1982)— and the Starjammers, the Brood creature is defeated, and Shi’ar technology restores Xavier to his former self. In fact, he is better than ever. The regenerative technology that has returned him to full health has also restored the use of his legs, though some physical rehabilitation is necessary. Uncanny X-Men #168 (Apr. 1983) is entitled “Professor Xavier is a Jerk,” the famous words spoken by Kitty Pryde over his decision to remove her from the ranks of the X-Men—and out of the danger of combat—to join the New Mutants. The iconic image—one of many Smith will contribute—of Kitty Pryde in a ski jacket turning at the reader has been repeated, copied, and adapted several times over. The issue is a lull in the usual action-packed stories, as the team enjoys a little relaxation following their interstellar ordeal. After Logan sets off for Japan in a story told in his own four-issue miniseries, Kitty is able to convince Xavier of her rightful place as an X-Man (X-Girl?). Meanwhile, Cyclops and his brother Alex journey with their father, Corsair of the Starjammers, to Anchorage, Alaska, to meet their grandparents for the first time. There, Scott meets Madelyne Pryor, a red-haired beauty with an “uncanny” resemblance to the late Jean Grey. The X-Men’s next adventure in Uncanny X-Men #169–170 (May–June 1983) introduced another group of mutants to the franchise, the subterranean race called the Morlocks. With Angel kidnapped by these underdwellers, Storm, Nightcrawler, Colossus, and Ariel (Kitty’s new codename) head down to the bowels beneath Manhattan in search of their winged, part-time teammate. There they find a colony of mutants, but unlike those above ground, many of these Morlocks are shunned for their physical appearance. They are led by Callisto, whom Storm must defeat in combat— the winner will become the new leader of the Morlocks!

Meanwhile, things are cooking upstairs, as Scott develops a relationship with Madelyne, his Jean Grey doppelganger, sharing the secret of his abilities with her. But Rogue of Mystique’s new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants has seemingly left the fold. In the following issue, Rogue appears in the most unlikely of places—the doorstep of Charles Xavier. Unable to control her absorption ability, Rogue seeks guidance from her enemies, only to come face to face with Carol Danvers, whose Ms. Marvel powers she stole in Avengers Annual #10. Grudgingly accepted, Rogue becomes the newest student of Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. Meanwhile, the mystery of Madelyne Prior deepens. She reveals herself to be the sole survivor of plane crash the very day Jean Grey died. Walt Simonson was the guest-penciler with issue Uncanny X-Men #171 (July 1983), but Paul Smith returned the following issue as the X-Men arrived in Tokyo for the wedding of Logan to Lady Mariko Yashida. Their betrothal occurred at the conclusion of Wolverine’s limited series, but is about to be tainted by the intrusion of the Silver Samurai. He seeks to wrest control of the Clan Yashida from Lady Mariko. Storm, meanwhile, has struggled with personality changes first seen during her battle with the Morlocks. A growing aggression inside of her leads her to join Yukio, Logan’s reckless former lover, for a walk on the wild side of Tokyo’s underworld. The X-Men are poisoned, and Logan and Rogue set out to settle things with the Silver Samurai, leading to another iconic image of Smith’s, the cover of Uncanny X-Men #173 (Sept. 1983), depicting a determined Wolverine in full hunter mode. He is able to lure the Silver Samurai to the hospital where the X-Men are being treated, and is able to defeat the assassin.

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A week later, on the eve of her wedding, Lady Mariko is greeted by a mysterious man who has an unsettling effect on her. As the team gathers for the traditional Shinto ceremony, Storm reveals her new look. Gone is the serene peace of a nature goddess; now she wears the garb of a leather-clad punk rocker, complete with mohawk hairstyle. Scott arrives with Madelyne, naturally drawing the attention of Jean Grey’s friends and comrades. Soon, that is overshadowed by the unexpected announcement from Lady Mariko that there will be no wedding. “Because, Gaijin, you are not worthy,” she tells Logan. In silence, the guests depart— under the watchful eye of Jason Wyngarde, also known as Mastermind. Mastermind returns in Uncanny X-Men #174 (Oct. 1983), as he continues to sow seeds of confusion between Scott Summers and his new love. Now formally engaged, the two gather for an intimate celebration, only for Scott’s doubts to lead to confrontation in which Madelyne appears as Dark Phoenix. Uncanny X-Men #175 (Nov. 1983), a double-sized issue, is the last of Smith’s run. He drew pages 1–29, while John Romita, Jr., who would later take on the art chores full-time, drew pages 30–38. Wiacek inked both artists. As the story continues to unfold, Madelyne’s appearance as the Phoenix is in truth an illusion cast

Iconic Covers Paul Smith original-art classics contributed by David Mandel: The cover for Uncanny X-Men #173 (Sept. 1983), featuring Wolverine and Rogue; and #174 (Oct. 1983), with Mastermind eyeballing Cyclops and Madelyne Pryor. Note the approval signatures by then-editor-in-chief Jim Shooter on both. © 2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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by Mastermind. The illusionist has played with the perceptions of the X-Men to pit them against Scott Summers, who to them appears as Dark Phoenix, while expecting that eventually Madelyne Pryor will be mistakenly killed. By forcing the heroes to slay an innocent, he plans it to be “a moral blow from which they will never recover.” Cyclops is able to convince the team of Mastermind’s role, and the villain is defeated. The issue ends with the wedding of Scott and Madelyne. As the vows are read, we witness the reactions of various members of the X-Men cast reacting to the occasion. Perhaps none is more poignant than that of Logan, who so recently was expected to marry. Following his tenure on the X-Men, Smith returned to Dr. Strange, but has since illustrated a handful of X-Men stories, such as an X-Men/Alpha Flight miniseries and the spin-off title X-Factor. The late 1970s and early 1980s were a pivotal time of development for the X-Men. Popular artists such as Dave Cockrum and John Byrne are hard acts to follow, and to do so while forging one’s own path speaks volumes for Smith’s brief time on the X-Men. So, does the art speak for itself? Certainly, and beyond that, ’nuff said. PHILIP SCHWEIER is a graphic designer and freelance writer living in Savannah, GA. He is also a frequent contributor to www.comicbookbin.com.

Nigel Lowrey

Superheroes! They dominate the American comics industry but are rarely created in other countries, with US editions being licensed for translated versions instead. Perhaps the most successful superhero to debut outside of America was a distant cousin, Captain Britain! American superhero comic strips had been reprinted in the United Kingdom since the 1940s, but never really gained much popularity (with the possible exception of the original Captain Marvel, whose continued popularity led to the creation of Marvelman—later Miracleman— to fill the void when Fawcett ceased publishing new comic material), and Marvel’s superheroes were briefly licensed in the 1960s before dying a quick death. American editions had been available for years in the UK, but distribution was always very poor until the early 1970s, when Marvel and DC comic books began appearing alongside British comics with regularity for the first time. Marvel capitalized on this stabilizing market by expanding its growing British fan base and formed Marvel London (later Marvel UK) in 1973 to publish its own line of comics instead of licensing out their properties. Marvel UK was essentially a production house run by a skeleton crew (including future Pet Shop Boy Neil Tennant), established to reprint American material in black-and-white, magazine-sized weekly anthologies. Editorial pieces, covers, and the occasional pinup were the only newly created content, and artists in the American bullpen even created many of those. While the first two launches, Mighty World of Marvel and Spider-Man Comic, enjoyed years of publication, most of the titles created later struggled to survive and were incorporated into other titles.

THE NEWEST—AND GREATEST— SUPERHERO OF ALL! A major format shift was ushered in when Captain Britain #1 launched in 1976 (cover-dated the week ending Oct. 13th). The first issue included a cardboard Captain Britain (CB) mask as a free gift, novelty freebies being a tradition with British comic launches (a CB boomerang came with #2!). The comic had three unique selling points for the time: newly originated material featuring an original “homegrown” British superhero and mostly color interiors. Full-color Jim Steranko “Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.” strips and Stan Lee/John Buscema Fantastic Four stories (presented in black and white) were the backups for the main CB strip, printed in seven- or eightpage color instalments. These sections were created Stateside under the supervision of editor Larry Lieber before being shipped over to the UK for publication. Noted X-Men writer Chris Claremont was awarded scripting duties, allegedly because he had spent a few months in the UK as a child when his father was stationed there, and the art was initially split between penciler Herb Trimpe and inker Fred Kida, with Marie Severin coloring.

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The Coming of Captain Britain (photo, left) Even Stan “the Man” Lee reads Captain Britain, as hyped in the fanzine FOOM #17 (Mar. 1977). (below left) The team of Claremont, Trimpe, and Kida continued Captain Britain’s origin in issue #2 (Oct. 20, 1976). © 2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Although there had been an earlier attempt a few years before to create a British superhero comic called Captain Britain by publisher IPC (which was ultimately aborted because British comic creators at the time couldn’t produce any material on a par with the American superhero fare), it was developed under a codename to fool rival publisher D. C. Thomson and had no comparison to the eventual Marvel version. The official Captain Britain himself came from the Captain America/Daredevil mold of heroes (while emulating Spider-Man’s cast of supporting characters), a normal person with enhanced agility and a non-fatal weapon, a red, white, and blue extendible quarterstaff capable of projecting force fields— it also provided CB with fast transportation by allowing him to pole vault into action! CB’s origin was spread over the first two issues and introduced blond-haired Brian Braddock, a Thames University physics student working between terms at Darkmoor Research Centre, researching nuclear alternatives to the energy crisis. When an industrialist named Joshua Stragg attacks the center and his armored henchmen begin killing all the staff, Braddock escapes on a motorcycle but comes off the road, tumbling down a hillside and finding himself facing the apparition of the fabled Merlyn and his raven-haired daughter Roma, who loom over a ring of Neolithic stones. This area is the Siege Perilous, a magical nexus under the control of Merlyn, and one central stone has a necklace (the Amulet of Right) hung around it, while another has a blade (the Sword of Might) embedded in it. Merlyn commands Braddock to choose one with the fate of all life on Earth depending on his decision. As he is not a killer, Braddock chooses the amulet over the sword and is transformed into Captain Britain. Garbed in red spandex emblazoned with a yellow lion chest emblem and sporting a mask trimmed with the union flag (which is technically only the union jack when hoisted above a ship, pedantic ones), CB quickly takes down Stragg (who pulls the sword out of the Siege Perilous and is transformed into the armored Reaver) before accepting Merlyn’s offer of becoming his champion against evil. So begins Captain Britain’s superhero career. He fought such enemies as the turbinepowered criminal Hurricane and the illusionist Dr. Synne, who was powered by Mastermind, a machine built by CB’s late father in the bowels of the Malden, Essex, family home, Braddock Manor. With #11 (Dec. 2, 1976), writer Gary Friedrich replaced Claremont, who had managed to introduce CB’s love interest Courtney Ross and superhero-hating J. Jonah Jameson-like Inspector Dai Thomas in #3, as well as CB’s blonde sister Betsy in #8 and older brother Jamie in #9. The strip officially joined mainstream Marvel continuity when Captain America arrived in #16, closely followed by the Red Skull and Nick Fury. Thirty years on, Herb Trimpe has only distant memories of the strip, which was just another assignment for him. “It was extra work and I did it for the money,” recalls the artist, also famous for his 1970s Hulk run. “For me, eight pages of CB was two days work and that was it. I was mostly doing tight layouts, which could be done fairly quickly. I learned at the feet of 3 6

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professionals who completed the assignments and moved on to the next thing, rarely looking back. They were a different breed than a lot of the creators we see in the business today. This is not to judge as to who’s better or who’s worse—it’s just to say that it was very different when I began working for Marvel. You have to understand where that feature stood in the vast scheme of the Marvel Universe, and the other things I was doing at the time, both inside and outside the walls of the Marvel offices. CB was just a small part of all that.” Trimpe did not design Captain Britain, saying, “It looks like the work of John Romita, who was doing that kind of thing while on staff at Marvel.” The artist is also unsure why the strip was assigned to him: “Maybe because we had just returned from England around that time. It was Chris Claremont’s idea and we met him in Cornwall at some point, and I think that’s when he first mentioned the concept. One or both of his parents were Brits and he had nostalgia for the place. At the time, I didn’t think the character would go over very well in Great Britain because superhero comic books are so much a part of the American culture. This was in spite of the fact that Great Britain was publishing strips and other forms of comic art way before the US ever was. I had plenty of reference, plus photos from visits. It ain’t easy drawing London, I can tell you that.” The artist adds, “We all had input as to the stories— especially once the drawing started. We had a plot, but it was up to the penciler to direct the action—a big responsibility and a lot of fun. Of course, Chris and Gary were miles apart in personality and approach to a story. I had no problem working with either of them, and we got along just fine. Both writers were very flexible in their approach, which made it nice. I have often thought of CB in the same way as [the Canadian] Wolverine—two characters created with a foreign market in mind. You can see how fate has an impact as time goes by.” A casualty of sliding sales, the comic could not afford to keep the color interiors and #24 (Mar. 23, 1977) saw a minor revamp. The interior colors were replaced by grey tones and John Buscema became the new penciler under inker Fred Kida, adding a striking new look occasionally inked by Buscema’s Avengers cohort Tom Palmer. Ron Wilson became the new regular artist with #31, and was inked by Pablo Marcos from #37 onward. Leiber had been co-scripting the stories for some time when Jim Lawrence replaced Friedrich as series scripter with #38, following one issue written by Len Wein. Interest in CB began to wane further when the weaker art and tepid storylines of later installments introduced dull villains like the mystical Nykonn, the unintentionally campy hightech biker the Highwayman, and a mastermind called the Manipulator. Captain Britain was canceled in 1977 with #39, but the lead strip itself escaped

Captains Courageous (center inset) Jack “King” Kirby’s rendition of Captains Britain and America, and (left) the splash page to Captain Britain #19 (Feb. 16, 1977), mourning the heroes’ “deaths.” © 2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.

to the Spider-Man comic, which was renamed Super Spider-Man and Captain Britain with #231 (July 1977), until the strip finally ended with #253. The strip’s quality slid even further with uninspired generic adversaries like aliens, werewolves, and giant mutant creatures, with episodes maintaining no artistic consistency as Marcos and Kida were now inking alternating chapters. The only notable element from this era was #243’s introduction of an assassin called Slaymaster, who would became a more significant character years later. The comic’s final six CB installments reprint Marvel Team-Up #65 and 66 (Jan. and Feb. 1978), a Chris Claremont/John Byrne two-parter that introduced Captain Britain to American readers for the first time. Featuring flashback panels redrawn by Byrne from Trimpe’s origin sequences, the story finds Brian Braddock on an exchange-student program and sharing accommodation with Peter Parker, who teams with CB as Spider-Man to combat the mudererous Arcade.

JOURNEY INTO OTHERWORLD WITH THE BLACK KNIGHT’S COMPANION… Despite being awarded a traditional British annual (hardcover color magazine-sized reprints with added text features and activities) in 1977 (for the year 1978), Captain Britain silently disappeared … but soon returned just as quietly as he left. Dez Skinn, later responsible for launching Warrior magazine (and thus such notable series as Miracleman and V for Vendetta), was hired as editor-in-chief in 1978 to revitalize the Marvel UK line, leading to the creation of Hulk Comic to tie in with the live-action Hulk show’s debut on British TV in 1979. [Editor’s note: See BI #28 for a Hulk Comic history.] This black-and-white anthology was the first time since the end of the Captain Britain strip that newly originated material was produced for Marvel UK, but now British creators were responsible

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Eddy Zeno

THE POWER OF FLIGHT As depicted in early drawings and paintings, angels, or mythological figures such as Daedalus and his son Icarus, tended to have wings and were generally seen fluttering and floating. An illustration of a man “flying” by dropping through the air with a parachute appeared in the 1470s, slightly before Leonardo da Vinci made a similar drawing. In the late 1920s, authors E. E. “Doc” Smith and Philip Francis Nolan’s characters, the Skylark of Space and Buck Rogers, were depicted with nuclear belt and jet pack, respectively. Because external devices were levitating these fellows, they could hold down a button or simply relax in order to be propelled. Originally able to leap only an eighth of a mile when Superman first appeared in 1938, it wasn’t long before he gained the ability to ascend through the heavens under his own power. A new language in art was demanded as the hero had to solely use his body to make the notion of flight seem plausible. A flowing cape helped as arms extended overhead and ankles pointed toeward. Though early artists showed the pioneering Man of Steel jumping, running, or swimming through the air, angles gradually began to change and perspectives were heightened. With a desire to make the storytelling more dynamic, experimentation with images continued during the Bronze Age of comics and beyond. Superman’s ability to soar is celebrated by various artists who worked on the hero from the 1970s to the end of the 20th century in this 70th birthday tribute to the Action Ace. Curt Swan was associated with the character longer than any other illustrator, but his contemporaries like Kurt Schaffenberger, Jim Mooney, Ross Andru, Nick Cardy, Gil Kane, and George Tuska also spent notable stints with the Man of Tomorrow (and other members of the Superman Family) during their later careers. José Luis García-López first drew the Caped Kryptonian in 1977 and was a forerunner of those who ushered in a new era, beginning with John Byrne in 1986. Jerry Ordway followed in January 1987, trailed by Kerry Gammill, Dan Jurgens, Jon Bogdanove, and a host of others. With an increasing diversity of styles, a painter named Alex Ross and the manga-influenced Ed McGuinness were two who helped close out the 1990s and moved the hero into the new millennium. Images which span three decades highlight the similarities, the influences, and the magic of these gentlemen’s work. Though a handful of the following illustrations were created after century’s end, each artist’s initial impact on the Man of Steel occurred prior to that. If there are separate inkers, they are listed after the pencilers. Many thanks go to the fine folks who sent scans or sent copies of the originals to make this article possible (with special thanks to original-art dealer Tom Fleming at Fanfare Sports & Entertainment, Inc.). Finally, apologies are extended to the numerous Superman delineators of years past whose works could not be featured. Superman and related characters TM & © 2008 DC Comics. Wizard TM & © 2008 Wizard Entertainment. Beetle Bailey TM & © 2008 King Features Syndicate.

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A 1983 Bob McLeod Superman commission.

LEAP-FLIGHT, LIKE THE OLD DAYS (below) Ross Andru and Mike Esposito, panel from page 7, second story, Action Comics #393 (Oct. 1970).

SIMILARITIES, INFLUENCES

(above left) Alex Ross, pencil preliminary, Superman: Peace on Earth graphic novel (Jan. 1999); and (above right) Kurt Schaffenberger, Superboy commission, circa early 1980s. (far left) Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson, panel from page 1, Action Comics #544 (June 1983); and (left) Paul Ryan and Tom Simmons, page 5, first story, Superman: Secret Files and Origins # 2 (May 1999). (below left) Kurt Schaffenberger, panel from page 9, The New Adventures of Superboy #32 (Aug. 1982); and (below right) Jose Delbo and Sal Trapani, page 5, panel from The World’s Greatest Superheroes daily newspaper strip (Aug. 6, 1983). (bottom left) Curt Swan and Frank Chiaramonte, panel from page 7, Action Comics #505 (Mar. 1980); and (bottom right) Jon Bogdanove and Bob McLeod, page 5, panel from page 19, Superman: The Man of Steel #17 (Nov. 1992).

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John Wells

He was the pinnacle in human evolution, the standard by which humans of the future would be measured. Small wonder, then, that Captain Comet was disappointed by how little mankind had evolved when he set foot on Earth’s soil again in 1976. Mutants—men and women born with strange abilities—have long been a science-fiction staple, typified by 1940s DC characters like Alfred Bester’s reality-warping Albert Zero (Green Lantern #15) and Gardner Fox’s Evart Keenan (All-Flash #11, 23; Flash Comics #52). So Professor Emery Zackro knew what he was talking about when he identified amazing college student Adam Blake as a mutant and confirmed that the comet that burned across the sky on the night of the young man’s birth had been prophetic. Unlike Keenan (with powers of a man a million years hence), young Adam only had the abilities of a man destined to exist 100,000 years in the future but that was more than enough. A bright red costume. A thwarted alien invasion. Captain Comet was up and running in Strange Adventures #9–10 (June–July 1951). Captain Comet’s 38-issue run in Strange Adventures— 25 of them as the cover feature—is one of the great pleasures of DC’s early-1950s output, an oasis in an era all-but-devoid of superheroes. Created by writer John Broome and artists Carmine Infantino and Bernard Sachs, the strip will forever associated with the artist who took over with #12—Murphy Anderson. Under Anderson’s polished pen, Captain Comet appeared through #44 with final episodes appearing in #46 and 49 in 1954. From Guardians of the Universe and evil super-apes to phantom prizefighters and cosmic chessboards, the adventures of the so-called Man of Destiny were a glimpse into the future of the DC Universe, a virtual microcosm of concepts that editor Julius Schwartz and company would bring to fruition in the 1960s.

Feed Me, Seymour! DC Comics’ most famous mutant began his career in the 1950s, fighting aliens and, sometimes, plants gone bad, as on this cover to Strange Adventures #44 (May 1954), drawn by the incomparable Murphy Anderson. TM & © 2008 DC Comics.

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MAN OUT OF TIME In Cap’s absence, the periodic mutant—some plausible, most silly—popped up in later DC comics (such as Batman #165, Challengers of the Unknown #43, Aquaman #23 and 38, Doom Patrol #115 and 116, and Superman #248 and 265), with reprints of old Captain Comet tales interspersed among them (in 1968’s Justice League of America #60 and 1971’s Superman #244 and World’s Finest #204). It took Marvel’s X-Men in 1963 to cement in readers’ minds the notion of someone being born a mutant. A year after the latter were revitalized in Giant-Size X-Men #1, their DC counterpart staged his own return (neatly sandwiched between reprints in DC Super-Stars #4 and 6). Like Captain America and then-recent DC revival Captain Marvel, Adam Blake was a man out of time, having left Earth twenty years earlier. “He was so far beyond mankind intellectually,” it was explained, “he felt lost on our world and so he went starward, seeking his destiny and ultimately, himself.” Whether or not he succeeded, Cap returned to Earth in 1976, discovering his mid-1950s fashions were no longer in style and that there was now a plethora of costumed heroes and villains to contend with. The hook in Secret Society of Super-Villains #2 (July–Aug. 1976, co-written by Gerry Conway and David Anthony Kraft) was that Comet didn’t know which was which and he unwittingly helped two SSOSV members defeat Green Lantern. (If it seems odd that Cap had never heard of the Green Lantern Corps, recall what Douglas Adams once said: “Space is big.”) The Society, augmented by Gorilla Grodd’s telepathic shielding, imagined they had a prize dupe in Captain Comet. The hero’s own mental abilities soundly trumped the super-gorilla’s, though, and he played them before shifting from double-agent to implacable foe in issue #5.

The Golden and Silver Ages of DC Mutants Two of DC’s other little-known mutants: Evart Keenan, from All-Flash #11 (July–Aug. 1943), and Governor Andrew Warner, who mutated into “The Man Who Quit the Human Race!” in Batman #165 (Aug. 1964). TM & © DC Comics.

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“I felt—rightly or wrongly—that the readers needed an heroic rooting interest in a book that otherwise would have focused exclusively on the bad guys,” Gerry Conway explains. “In retrospect it might have been fun, and an interesting departure, to see things entirely from the villains’ point of view, but in 1976 that wasn’t really an option. (I’d like to think I’d do it differently today.) I chose Captain Comet as the resident good guy because he didn’t have any other attachments in the DC Universe, and theoretically that meant I could develop the character however I wanted. I had a pretty extensive collection of Strange Adventures at the time, so I was pretty familiar with the character as he’d appeared before.” For drama’s sake, Cap’s powers were reduced from 1950s heights that included extraordinary strength, stamina, invulnerability, intangibility, and adaptation to any physical threat thrown at him. With just one-tenth of Superman-level strength, Comet’s telepathy and telekinesis, at least, remained at the forefront of his abilities. Still, he now had one power never evidenced in his original series: Cap could fly, leaving a trademark comet trail in his wake! His Cometeer rocketship remained for long-range space travel, but he could now throw a bubble of air around himself to breathe in the vacuum. Visually, Comet’s costume was tweaked as well, including the addition of a comet icon to his chest. “We wanted to update it to the current style of superhero costume design (getting rid of the suspenders in particular, and giving him some kind of chest symbol),” Conway recalls. “I don’t recall who did the actual design. At that time I often drew primitive sketches for new characters myself, so I might have done it. But I’m guessing it was probably Al Milgrom; he and I worked on quite a few projects together during that period.”

RESIDENT HERO As solitary as his station in the Society seemed to be, Captain Comet wasn’t as alone as it first appeared. At the graves of his parents and Professor Zackro, Adam was quietly met by fellow member Manhunter. Amused by the Society leader’s drawn-out preface, Blake finally asked, “Are you trying to tell me you’re a ‘good guy’—unlike the rest of the Secret Society?” That’s exactly what Manhunter was trying to say. With Captain Comet’s support, he mobilized the Society to take on a greater threat—no less than Darkseid himself—and died a human bomb while trying to kill the lord of Apokolips in SSOSV #5. New writer Bob Rozakis literally settled things with a bang! Spilling the innermost secrets of the Society to the assembled Justice League of America, Comet made his apologies to Green Lantern and then lent his strength to Hawkman (#5), Black Canary (#6), and Hawkgirl (#7). “He was the only regular hero appearing in the book,” Rozakis explains. “I wanted to establish a closer relationship between Comet and the members of the Justice League. A hero battling an organization of supervillains would need backup from a team of superheroes.” It was only logical that Cap become fast friends with the Justice Leaguers, many of whom shared a common creative lineage. “I thought that was very important to build the character,” Rozakis says. “But I also thought it was important to the book itself. Readers would want to see the villains teamed up against heroes they recognized, not just Captain Comet.”

Had he remained on the book, Bob recalls, “I would have continued to build the friendships between Comet and the members of the JLA, particularly Hawkman and Hawkgirl. I thought there was a bond among them since they had all traveled around the universe.” Indeed, it was Hawkman (in the Rozakisscripted DC Special #27) who unilaterally declared Captain Comet “an honorary member of the JLA.” Though the Winged Wonder was seeking immediate monitor-duty coverage, it was a well-deserved honor. That despite Cap’s immediate dereliction of duties by heading off to Earth and fighting a dinosaur invasion alongside Chronos and a time-lost Tommy Tomorrow in the 34-page romp. The returning Gerry Conway continued the regular guest-stars, pairing Cap with Kid Flash and (sort of) the Creeper in SSOSV #8 and 9. In a rare (for the period) bit of cross-continuity, story points wove into SuperTeam Family #13 (where Comet shared cover-billing with Aquaman and the Atom) and an SSOSV Special (officially DC Special Series #6) in the summer of 1977. The Special’s cover nicely played up Cap’s status as the go-to guy on all things villainous as he warned the Justice League’s big guns about the Secret Society. Inside, he saved their lives, further strengthening his bond with the heroes. With his bold red costume and old-fashioned values, Captain Comet seemed ideally suited to being SSOSV’s resident hero. Where Rozakis focused on the battles, giving Cap victories over individual members (#5–7),

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Slumming Among Sinners Glimpses of Captain Comet’s appearances in Secret Society of Super-Villains: from issue #9 (July 1977, art by Buckler and McLeod), and #13 (Mar. 1978, art by Vosburg and Smith). Scans courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions and Anthony Snyder. TM & © DC Comics.

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Mutants were a hot commodity in comics by the early 1980s. The Uncanny X-Men had become one of Marvel’s flagship titles, routinely ranking at the top of comics sales charts and drawing critical acclaim for its intricate plots, complex characters, and political undertones. However—as hard as it may be to believe in the era where literally dozens of Marvel titles feature mutants—Uncanny was the company’s one and only mutant book at the time. But given its success, a spin-off book seemed inevitable. Enter The New Mutants. Like the flagship Uncanny X-Men, New Mutants featured a diverse team of mutants at Professor Charles Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. The new title was scripted by Chris Claremont, the longtime writer on Uncanny X-Men. But the new book had plenty to distinguish itself from the original title as well. As the name suggests, the New Mutants were teenagers who were just learning to use their mutant powers. The X-Men, on the other hand, were adults in full control of their abilities. The new team also had a different role to play in fulfilling Professor Xavier’s dream of a world where mutants and humans could coexist peacefully. The X-Men were superheroes who traveled the globe battling evil—they were full-fledged adventurers. The New Mutants were students. Not only were they being trained to use their powers, but the comic also showed them tackling more mundane subjects like computer science and ballet. Of course, they ran into more than their share of trouble, but usually, that trouble found them, not the other way around. The concept for the New Mutants had much more in common with the original X-Men of the 1960s than the Uncanny X-Men of the 1980s. Comprising the original Stan Lee/Jack Kirby team were mutants who were being trained by Professor X to use their powers for good. They also wore identical uniforms, which later were adopted by the New Mutants. In fact, Stan Lee’s intended original title for the X-Men comic was “The Mutants,” so the title New Mutants is in many ways tribute to those Lee/Kirby roots. The five original members of the New Mutants were: Psyche/Mirage—Danielle “Dani” Moonstar was the classic Chris Claremont heroine—tough, resourceful, and rebellious. She was frequently at odds with Professor X, but was intensely loyal to her teammates. Danielle, a Cheyenne Indian, had the ability to tap into another person’s mind and pull out three-dimensional images of their greatest dreams and worst fears. 6 2

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X-Men in the Rough The penciled version of the cover to Marvel Graphic Novel #4, premiering the New Mutants. Drawn by Bob McLeod, currently the editor of the BACK ISSUE spin-off magazine Rough Stuff. © 2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Cannonball—Despite being one of the oldest members of the team, Sam Guthrie was easily the least confident and most self-conscious of the New Mutants. Sam grew up in a poor mining family in Kentucky and had been forced to become an adult long before he was ready. Cannonball’s mutant powers allowed him to fly, although when the series started, he could barely control his abilities. So it was a good thing that he was impervious to injury when flying! Sunspot—In many ways, Roberto Da Costa was the diametric opposite of Cannonball. This 13-year-old Brazilian came from a wealthy family and was supremely self-confident. Not surprisingly, his confidence often got him in trouble. Sunspot drew his powers from the sun, converting its rays into super-strength. Take him out of direct sunlight, though, and he quickly exhausted his power supply. Wolfsbane—This redhead from Scotland was raised in a strict fundamentalist Christian environment. So she considered her mutant ability to transform into a wolf (or a transitional half-wolf/half-human form) to be a curse, not a gift. As a member of the New Mutants, Rahne Sinclair had to learn to become comfortable in her own skin. Karma—The oldest and perhaps most mature member of the team, this Vietnamese teenager, whose real name was Xi’an Coy Manh, lived through that nation’s war-torn past as a child. She generally served as the level-headed member of the team. Karma had the mutant power to possess other people’s minds, giving her control of their actions. She was also the only member of the original New Mutants to predate the team, as she first appeared in Marvel Team-Up #100 (Dec. 1980), written by Chris Claremont and drawn by Frank Miller. In an interview with Mile High Comics, New Mutants co-creator and original artist Bob McLeod discussed his approach to drawing the characters: “I always liked Cannonball the best. I tried to give all

The Buscema/ McLeod Team From New Mutants #4, page 15, as laid out by our pal Sal Buscema (above left) and finished by our buddy Bob McLeod (above right). Courtesy of Mr. McLeod. © 2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.

the mutants distinct body types and characteristics, and with his big ears and lanky frame, he was just the most fun to draw. I tried to make all the characters individuals and fun to draw, though. I made Rahne short and full-figured, and Dani taller and more flat-chested. Roberto was short but muscular. As for villains, I did love drawing the Sentinels. They let me design a somewhat new armor, and it was fun to draw them because they’re so huge.” Robert Diehl has reviewed every issue of The New Mutants for the Mutanthigh.com website, a popular site devoted to the X-books, and has written extensively about the team. Diehl says the character interaction was a major part of the comic’s appeal because, mutant powers aside, the New Mutants of the Claremont/McLeod era acted like real teenagers. “As kids, they were insecure (especially Rahne), and impulsive (especially Roberto), and awkward (especially Sam),” Diehl says. “They went to movies and parties, they fell in love and puppy love, they argued with parents and teachers and each other and had a rival school (the Hellions), and they learned and grew (especially Sam and Dani).” M u t a n t s

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ROB LIEFELD, CABLE GUY The New Mutants of the late 1980s saw several interesting harbingers of what the comic-book industry would become in the 1990s. The biggest change took place in New Mutants #86 (Feb. 1990), when artist Rob Liefeld joined the book. Liefeld would remain with the title until its cancellation with issue #100 (Apr. 1991), plotting the final three issues. Liefeld’s work on New Mutants proved to be his launching pad to superstardom. His style, emphasizing overly muscled heroes brandishing large, menacing weapons, has been widely criticized by many longtime comic-book fans. Yet his success in the early 1990s is hard to argue, as Liefeld became one of the industry’s top-selling artists and helped fuel a major upswing in comic-book sales. In his second issue of New Mutants, Liefeld introduced his most enduring character—Cable. Introduced in New Mutants #87 (Mar. 1990), Cable became the team’s new leader. Unlike Charles Xavier, a man of peace in the tradition of Martin Luther King and Mohandas Gandhi, Cable was a gun-packing, tough-talking mutant who seemed tailor-made for the anti-hero era of the 1990s. In fact, the popularity of Cable, along with the Punisher, Venom, and other roughand-tumble characters, helped usher in an era where the line between good and evil was much less defined than in previous generations. During Cable’s development, Liefeld, Simonson, and former Marvel editor-in-chief Bob Harras disagreed over the character’s name. Liefield gave his version of events in a 2007 interview with the Comics Bulletin Webzine: “I was given a directive to create a new leader for the New Mutants. There was no name, no description besides a ‘man of action,’ the opposite of Xavier. I created the look, the name, much of the history of the character. After I named him Cable, Bob suggested Quinn and Louise had Commander X. I stood my ground and 17 years later, he remains a prominent part of X-lore,” Liefeld said. The final issues The New Mutants also saw several other new characters introduced to the series: Shatterstar, Warpath (the brother of the X-Men’s Thunderbird), Domino, Copycat, and Feral. Following the end of New Mutants, Liefeld and writer Fabian Nicieza started a new team called X-Force, featuring many of the characters introduced during the final year of New Mutants. X-Force proved to be a smashing success, instantly becoming one of Marvel’s top-selling comics and even landing Liefeld a role in a television commercial. To date, New Mutants has not been collected in any definitive reprint edition. However, with Marvel now reprinting more 1980s titles as part of its Essential collection, mutant-lovers hope it is only a matter of time before the Essential New Mutants or a similar compilation will make its way to bookshelves. Until then, New Mutants continues to be enjoyed in back-issue form by legions of 1980s comics fans who remember a day when Marvel’s mutant comics were a lot simpler to follow and perhaps a bit more innocent as well. BRUCE BUCHANAN has been a journalist and freelance writer since 1996 and is currently working on several comic-book projects. Contact him at brucebuc@bellsouth.net or www.comicspace.com/brucebuchanan/.

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Cyclops! Angel! Iceman! Marvel Girl! Beast!

Allan Harvey

These five legends were the original students of Professor Charles Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. In reality, of course, the school was merely a front for Professor X’s real mission: the tracing and training of mutants. Still a major force in the Marvel Universe today, mutants represent the next step in evolution, each possessing at least one superpower that places him or her above the merely human. Scientifically labelled Homo Superior, they continue to be feared and ostracized by a society that doesn’t understand them. In order to address this wrong, Professor X sought out mutants from all over the world (although these initial five were American) and put them through a rigorous training regime in order that they might better control their powers. Thus trained, the newly christened “X-Men” led the fight against those of their mutant peers who would rather use their powers to subjugate mankind and seize control of the planet. Professor X’s ultimate dream was the integration of human and mutant, working together for a better future. It doesn’t take a genius to recognize that the realworld background to the X-Men story was a growing awareness of—and panic about—the civil rights movement in ’60s America. Over the years, the plight of mutantkind in Marvel comics was used as a metaphor for all sorts of causes, from racial and religious tensions to homosexuality and the AIDS epidemic. Co-created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee, X-Men #1 first appeared in September 1963. It’s fair to say it was one of Lee and Kirby’s lesser ideas, and treated as such for the most part. By X-Men #20 (May 1966), both creators had left the book. Roy Thomas, Werner Roth, and, later, Arnold Drake took up the reins and steered the original mutant heroes through ever-decreasing sales and reader apathy. In 1969, in a final attempt to inject some life into its fatally ailing book, Marvel assigned promising new artist Neal Adams as regular penciler. Although Adams’ work was brilliant and reinvigorated writer Thomas, sales didn’t significantly improve and, after less than a year, X-Men was canceled with issue #66 (Mar. 1970). Like a phoenix from the flames, however—and that’s an image future X-Men writers would come to adore— Marvel’s merry mutants would rise again. Following five years as very minor players in a smattering of guest spots throughout the Marvel Universe, the X-Men were revived, with a mostly all-new team, in 1975’s Giant-Size X-Men #1. Writer Chris Claremont soon arrived to see the new team graduate to their own book, and the rest is history. While Cyclops and Marvel Girl found a place in the new X-Men, Angel, Beast, and Iceman remained something of a loose end. Angel and Iceman spent some time in the short-lived group the Champions, while Beast, after having transformed into a literal beast-like state, went on to become an Avenger. Later still, all three wound up as members of the Defenders, Marvel’s famous “non-team.”

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Back at X-Factor base, Rusty is amazed at the truth. He thanks the team and looks forward to being cared for and trained by them. Warren and Jean congratulate themselves. It seems the idea of mutants setting themselves up as mutant hunters is actually going to work…

X-Factor … Smash! X-Factor’s Cyclops, Jean Grey, and Iceman guest-starred with the “Gray” Goliath in Incredible Hulk #337 (Nov. 1987). The cover pencils by artist Steve Geiger were contributed by the artist who would ink them, Bob McLeod.

X-FACTOR #1 REVISTED Reading X-Factor #1 again, some 23 years after its first publication, it’s interesting to note how wordy it is. Layton has a lot of story to tell, much of it complicated backstory, and reams of expository dialogue is the order of the day. It’s a striking comparison with modern comics storytelling where the drawings are often left to carry the story, with sparse dialogue used mainly to elaborate character. The concept behind X-Factor is a strong one, though perhaps a tad too complicated. The members of the X-Factor team present themselves in public as humans dedicated to the cause of protecting mankind from the mutant threat, all the while actually being mutants themselves. In order to further disguise the truth, when

in costume, they come to publicly refer to themselves as the “X-Terminators,” a group of evil mutants dedicated to countering the efforts of X-Factor. Therefore, as the series goes on, the reader often encounters scenes where half of our heroes play the civilian-garbed X-Factor fighting the other half playing the costumed X-Terminators, all to cover their real intent of offering sanctuary to the mutant, or mutants, they were originally called in to deal with. Confused? You may be… It’s all highly readable stuff though, and Layton keeps it interesting. Although this was still fairly early in his career, penciler Jackson Guice likewise acquits himself well. It’s a book longer on soap opera and drama rather than super-heroics, and Guice’s storytelling ensures that the dialogue scenes rarely flag. Once the action starts, however, he’s more than equal to the challenge of depicting a knock-down, drag-out brawl between mutants. For a few months X-Factor continued in this vein. Layton followed up the initial story with a multi-part tale wherein Beast is kidnapped by Dr. Carl Maddicks and subjected to his genetic experiments. Maddicks has a mutant son and is determined to find a “cure” for the boy. His techniques regress Beast to a more human form, but Maddicks is killed before he can experiment further. Later, as X-Factor continues to swell the ranks of the young mutants in their charge, they have to fight a band of wicked mutants calling themselves the Alliance of Evil. These are essentially a bargain-basement version of Magneto’s old Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. It ultimately transpires that the Alliance have been brought together by brand-new major bad guy, Apocalypse. Apocalypse made his debut, in shadow, at the end of X-Factor #5. Unfortunately, just as the villain was making his entrance, writer Bob Layton was making his exit. Mid-story, Layton was removed from the book due to what has been described as “politics.” Jackson Guice remained onboard as artist for a couple more issues, and then he, too, was gone, shifted over to X-Factor stablemate New Mutants. Ex-X-Men editor Louise Simonson was brought in as X-Factor’s new writer. In an interesting wrinkle, her husband Walt Simonson soon joined (with X-Factor #10) as regular penciler, making the married pair a unique creative partnership on a Marvel book. Simonson-L quickly set about shaking up the status quo, better integrating the soap opera with the superheroics, and starting to move the book closer to the other X-titles, while Simonson-W ramped up the super-charged action like few have done since Kirby. From being a bunch of outsiders forced to hide their true identities, X-Factor, under the Simonsons, soon found themselves involved in team-ups with Thor and Power Pack, and were at the heart of the “Mutant Massacre,” the first of the big annual crossover events that ran through the X-books each year. It was the start of a whole new era for the original X-Men. Before they could fly, however, they’d have to deal with the trauma of the Angel losing his wings. But that’s a tale for another time…. World-renowned wit, raconteur, bon vivant, and international playboy, ALLAN HARVEY is none of these things. He does, however, recognize a fine comic when he sees it: w w w. t h e f i f t h b r a n c h . c o m / gorilladaze

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Mike Gagnon

In the early ’80s, Marvel’s Uncanny X-Men had become a huge industry phenomenon. From 1983–1986, John Romita, Jr. was a part of that phenomenon, contributing artwork on almost every issue of Uncanny X-Men, beginning with issue #175 (Nov. 1983) and concluding with #211 (Nov. 1986). Those are still remembered today as some of the most prolific and groundbreaking works in the X-Men mythos. Romita was involved with the infamous Kulan Gath storyline that saw Spider-Man brutally murdered, he gave us our first glimpse of the bloodthirsty Marauders, introduced us to the comic-book version of Firestar, and more. Romita’s work was complemented by talents such as writer Chris Claremont and inker Dan Green. Their X-Men stories played a pivotal role in creating a cohesive comics experience that fans still fondly remember today. Despite Romita’s modesty about his contributions to the history of the X-Men Universe, many fans would find it hard to picture a world in which fan-favorite characters such as Forge and Nimrod had never been drawn into the world. – Mike Gagnon MIKE GAGNON: Your run on Uncanny X-Men lasted from 1983 through 1986, correct? JOHN ROMITA, JR.: Yes… GAGNON: Tell me how you got the gig—was it something you actively pursued? ROMITA: As I remember, it was something was interested in, but no, I wasn’t actively pursuing X-Men. I was working on Spider-Man, and doing well at that. Paul Smith was on Uncanny X-Men at the time, but he was leaving for another project, I don’t recall which. [Writer’s note: It was Doctor Strange.] The editors wanted someone to fill the gap temporarily until they brought in another regular artist. They thought I could handle it from my previous

That’s Right, We Bad! You’d be ticked off, too, if you were involved in the “Mutant Massacre” storyline. The cover to the penultimate issue of John Romita, Jr.’s first Uncanny X-Men run, #210 (Oct. 1986), inked by Bob Wiacek. Courtesy of Marvel Comics and Mike Gagnon. © 2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Beginnings: “Chaos at the Coffee Bean!” in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #11 (1977)

Milestones: Iron Man / Contest of Champions / Amazing Spider-Man / Dazzler / Uncanny X-Men / Star Brand / Daredevil / Punisher War Zone / Punisher/Batman / Thor / Hulk / Gray Area / Ultimate Vision / Eternals / World War Hulk

Works in Progress: Kick-Ass (with writer Mark Millar) / Amazing Spider-Man

Cyberspace: JRjr site: www.geocities.com/romitapage/home.htm Original art: www.theartistschoice.com

Wake Up Call Logan drops in on Mariko on page 4 of Uncanny X-Men #176 (Dec. 1983), Romita’s second issue on the title and first full issue (#175 was penciled by both Paul Smith and John Romita, Jr.). Inks by Wiacek. Courtesy of Marvel Comics and Mike Gagnon. © 2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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work at Marvel and asked me to be the fill-in. I filled the gap and ended up staying on for a pretty lengthy run. Not that there wasn’t some tension or angst. I remember that I wasn’t the writer’s favorite choice. GAGNON: You’re saying that you weren’t necessarily Chris Claremont’s favorite choice when you first got assigned to X-Men? ROMITA: No, no, that wasn’t the term, “not necessarily,” it was true! GAGNON: Why weren’t you Claremont’s favorite choice? ROMITA: That’s something you’d have to ask him … and he might deny it, but it was just a plain fact that there were so many guys better than me, that’s simple. Paul Smith was just getting into his stride, and of course Chris had worked with John Byrne and now Paul Smith, and Dave Cockrum, and I was relatively inexperienced compared to these guys. I’m sure Chris, without any malice in his heart, just preferred other people. It’s funny, but now that Chris and I are friends I don’t think of it in any bad way. I’m sure at the time I probably gritted my teeth a little bit, maybe took an extra shot of whiskey at night. [laughs] GAGNON: Okay, so what was your working relationship with him like at that time when you were first on the book? ROMITA: Simple. He sent me this gigantic “tome” of a plot, and I worked from it. GAGNON: You stated you felt that Chris Claremont would have preferred someone like Paul Smith or John Byrne. Do you think Smith would have been his favorite choice if it had been up to him? ROMITA: I don’t know. That’s who was working on the book before me. He probably would have preferred Byrne because Byrne was just at the top of his game in those years. So he might have preferred Byrne, but Paul Smith was the most recent. I can’t really tell you who he preferred, but those are two great artists before me. GAGNON: So when you say that he may have disliked your work, that’s just speculative? ROMITA: I don’t know about “dislike,” that’s too harsh of a word. He just may have preferred someone else. GAGNON: Did you realize how big X-Men would get? How important it would be for your career? ROMITA: No, I had no idea that it was going to be on par with my experience working on Spider-Man. Daredevil has been by far my best experience work- and career-wise, but Spider-Man and my work on The X-Men have also been up there. While I was still on the title [Uncanny X-Men], I was told not to get excited and informed that my work was not the reason for the book’s success. GAGNON: Who informed you of that? The editors? ROMITA: No, fellow colleagues, other people in comics. There’s always been some resistance to my presence in the industry. I was often reminded, “You’re an interchangeable part.” John Byrne once said to me, “Be careful, you’re going to burn yourself out working with Claremont.” GAGNON: How long had you been in comics at that time? ROMITA: Five or six years. Five years if you count from when I went full time in ’77, six if you count a fill-in I did in ’76. GAGNON: What characters were you involved in creating with Chris Claremont? ROMITA: I don’t remember, not many. There were too many pre-existing characters at the time. I’m just not sure. I may have been involved in creating Nimrod. [Writer’s note: Romita, Jr. illustrated the first appearances of Forge in Uncanny X-Men #184, Freedom Force in #199,

Four dynamic covers from John Jr.’s first Uncanny X-Men stint: the logoblasting #176 (Dec. 1983), featuring Cyclops; roguish Rogue and mohawk Storm on #185 (Sept. 1984); Magneto in chains (!) on the anniversary ish #200 (Dec. 1985); and a slice-and-dice Wolverine cover from #207 (July 1986). Romita, Jr. inked #176 himself, and Dan Green inked the others. © 2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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