X-Men in 1963

Speaking as a huge X-Men fan growing up, I remember not terribly many fond things about the first cluster of X-Men issues. 

Actually reading these first few again, critically, has caused me to change my opinion. First, the prime friction of homo superior (mutants) and Homo sapiens was there right off the bat. The bad guys were also often adherents of mutant-superiority rather than your basic “I want to be wealthy and powerful” archetype.

And, while the original team doesn’t quite click the same as the Claremont team, I quite like the originals. Cyclops, Jean Grey and Xavier are solid AAA characters, Angel and Beast are an A, while Iceman is a respectable B. Apologies to the Bobby Drake fans (if you actually exist), but he’s not quite up there with the rest of the team.

Magneto is right there from the beginning also, and hovers somewhere between evil mastermind and mutant supremicist. Frankly, he’s best when he’s not simply a Doctor Doom wannabe.

Now the downsides: while the main conceptual theme is there, it does feel like a window dressing. That is, it feels like it exists as little more than a driver for the action. Xavier is a school headmaster and is trying to recruit mutants to train them to use their powers for good. If a mutant isn’t caught early enough, they turn bad (see: Blob). Thoretically, just got insert and repeat that forever in one-shot; it’s not something that could sustain itself.

Then again, I just tend to dislike episodic storytelling for this medium. Oh, and there’s not yet the “feared and distrusted by mankind” thing in place yet, but that is due to come eventually.