X-Men in 1964
The characters are becoming more well-formed this year. Beast, for instance, has become the genius ruffian, which is a neat play in contrasts. Kirby’s art has also taken leaps forward.
Specifically by issue eight, the characters are rendered uniquely, to the extent that even their choices of business attire reflect their individual character — from the prep of Scott Summers to the casual wealth of Warren Worthington’s grey pinstripes.
Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch make their first appearances under Magneto’s grasp. They are just as insufferably clingy as ever, going back to their origin.
I was always a big fan of individual uniforms for the X-Men but, reading the earliest issues with fresh eyes again, the school uniforms work.
As for the issues themselves, the Namor one was solid, but the bulk of episodic stories were marginal.There are distinct upsides and downsides to both episodic and serialized storytelling. While episodic storytelling is extremely formulaic, it allows the reader to basically jump in at any time. On the flip side, serialized works are much richer and more involving, but they serve to gate-keep those who look to jump in mid-story.
If you’re a modern comic publisher, you want to insert copious jump-on points or story purges periodically, in order to attract new readers. Or, if you’re like a silver age publisher, you just tend to rinse and reuse the same story template over and over again with little innovation.
Thankfully, Marvel was shaking up the formula for some of their titles. As we’ll see after this year, that shake-up didn’t seem to make the cut for X-Men, which resembled a paint-by-numbers affair for several years.😒
