UNCANNY X-MEN #6: Sub-Mariner! Joins the Evil Mutants

It wouldn't be the first year of a 1960's Marvel Comic without Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner here to f. up all your s.!

UNCANNY X-MEN #5: Trapped: One X-Man!

Magneto manages to trap ONE (1) X-Man in a wonderfully circuitous plan that could only come to you via the Silver Age of Comic books!

UNCANNY X-MEN #4: The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants!

The X-Men do battle against their greatest foes yet! (and Toad.)

UNCANNY X-MEN #3: Beware the Blob!

The X-Men go up against one PHAT* villain in their third adventure, and Marvel Girl learns the meaning of "telekinesis."

*Pretty Hefty and Terrifying

UNCANNY X-MEN #2: No One Can Stop The Vanisher!

In their second-ever adventure, the X-Men stop the Vanisher! In a story that basically breaks the entire franchise before it's even gotten started!

UNCANNY X-MEN #1: "X-Men"

In the X-Men's very first mission, they do battle with their greatest foe of all, and welcome a new member to their ranks: a (*gasp*) girl!

An Uncanny Introduction

There are mutants among us! They could be anyone, from the hairy Canadian next door to the beefy Russian art student your daughter is dating, to a famous disco queen. Perhaps even that wheelchair-bound headmaster of a private school with the prominent eyebrows and cheekbones. Anybody could be a mutant, a person born with strange powers!

I love the X-Men. I happen to think they have the best premise in all of comics. The idea that anyone could be a mutant, with any random power, and choose to use that power for good, evil or other, has led to one of the strongest franchises in all of entertainment, one that endlessly replenishes and revitalizes itself. It doesn't hurt that it carries with it a cogent metaphor for prejudice and alienation that has only gotten more durable and relevant as time has gone by.

That would seem to be enough for a blockbuster property, but it's only halfway there when you figure in the X-Men's frequent - some would say constant - excursions into intergalactic civil wars, becoming host bodies for cosmic deities, traveling wantonly through time and alternate realities while exploring their own shadowy past and meeting long lost relatives every other week. Seemingly more than any other comic book property, perhaps because of its sprawling cast and wide-open premise, the X-Men have been grafted onto more genres and tropes than probably any other group of characters, even amongst their comic book brethren, all with a shocking degree of success. It all amounts to a fascinatingly weird, lumpy, storytelling mishmash that represents the best and most excessive of what comic books have to offer.

I want to take all of that glorious, unabashed weirdness in and live there. It is therefore my pleasure to announce the commencement of this blog, where I will be reading the entire run of the Uncanny X-Men*, or as far a I can get, and related titles, offering commentary along the way..

If you have a Marvel Unlimited or ComiXology membership, you might find it easy or fun to read along, but even if not, hopefully I can provide enough clarity and entertainment to keep you coming back. But without further ado...

Welcome to Uncanny X-Cerpts.

*A note on nomenclature: Although the series was not renamed as such until well into its existence, we will be using this title almost exclusively when referring to the original X-Men series, to distinguish from later entires.