First off, I didn't know anything about how it started, as a group of mutants (the original X-men team) that formed together under the guise of humans who are out to capture mutants. In reality, they would capture them and bring them into the team secretly. It sounds ridiculous but tha's the story they stuck with for the first 2 years of the comic before realizing how lame it sounded and dropped it almost over night.
The next thing that surprised me was that this is where a LOT of big stories happened. The first appearance of Armageddon, Arch Angel, Beast turns back into a man (then 2 years later is reverted back to the Blue Beast version) Jean Grey even reveals her resurrection to the team for the first time since the Phoenix saga! Pretty amazing stuff.
And then we get the odd....
Cyclops is married to a girl who isn't Jean Grey, but looks like her. They have a kid together but when he finds out Jean's still alive he leaves her and flies to Jean. Uh....ok.
Oh don't worry Cyclops feels bad about leaving his family but (after all) it's JEAN! She's back! He has to see her! Oh and hide the fact that he's married from her for an entire year in the comic. After which his family disappears, then his wife is found dead, then she's alive, then she turns out to be a clone created by Mr Sinister who also possesses the power of the Phoenix and merges with Jean Grey at the end. (and is re-incarnated through Jean for one issue)
Did you follow all that?
How about Beast. It's obvious the writers wanted the "old" beast look back so they made a story (In issue #3) of a scientist who experiments on the Beast and WALLAH! He's back to being human again.
3 years later the writers got tired of "man" beast and wanted ole Blue back so here's how the story went; Beast was touched by Pestilence in a battle which made him slowly stronger but dumber over time. SO dumb to the point where he's crying like a child because he doesn't know what to do when there's a bad guy around. (seriously) But THEN another evil mutant kisses him, it mutates his body back to his original form. I'm not joking. That's the story of how it went down in a nut shell.
(2 separate issues of X-Factor, there were at least 5 more I could have taken pictures of )
Before Angel is "turned" all he does in the comic is walk around the mansion in his undies and a bathrobe. In the picture above, Cyclops should be a little worried in this scene about Warran's mental health rather than the problem at hand.
There's also a character called "Boom Boom"....let that sink in. She makes bombs but not in her britches.
This is also the series where Cyclops loses his son, who at first he calls "Chris" but then for some unexplained reason starts calling "Nate" I name his (then evil) Ex-Wife picked out for the child. I can only guess the newest writer liked the name "Nate" better or just forgot the kids name since he isn't in the comic that much.
Either way he's infected with a virus and taken away to the future where they can help him. But according to the time traveler their son can never come back. They don't explain why. They'd already met Cable at this point so I guess at the time the writers had no clue about making him Cyclops son, that came later. But still....kinda hard to fit in the continuity if it weren't a comic!
My favorite part is when Professor X returns AND CAN WALK! No more handicapping it for that guy! But again, after an adventure and "unknown circumstances" that none of the X-men can explain, Xavier if left paralyzed....only because the writers couldn't think of a better reason to stick him back in the chair. (sigh)
And while the art looks great, the story arcs, REALLY suffer. But that's just the first 70 issues, what'll you hear about the rest....
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