Last week Marvel teased their upcoming FIRST X-MEN series, and earlier today the publisher gave us some more information and insight on the upcoming new series from writer Christos Gage and artist Neal Adams. Starting in August, Marvel will launch the limited series that will follow the days before the X-Men became the X-Men; at least that's what we gathered from Neal Adams' pitch for the series.
At the beginning, Stan and Jack were experimenting. You had Professor X, bald and in a wheelchair. These strange kids already in costume. It seems to me like this was not the beginning of the story, but the middle…Of all the mutants on Earth, Professor X could easily pass as a human. Why would he want to get involved in this? Maybe all this was going on before Professor X was Professor X...when Professor X was a teenager. Maybe mutant kids were getting abused by the military, by the government. Somebody would have been looking out for them, but maybe that person came to Charles Xavier, realizing he couldn't protect these kids. That was my pitch.
The days before the X-Men were X-Men? Before Xavier was in the wheelchair? When he was just coming to grips with his mutant powers and what they really meant? It sounds interesting enough. The good news is that fans will likely be seeing many familiar faces, too, like Wolverine and Erik Lensherr, for example. Gage and Adams will also be exploring the relationships between these characters and the X-Men team. The book will answer questions like "why was Wolverine's first team a failure?" for example, and much more. Gage also added some background on the series, giving fans the time period (before the "first X-Men" team was created. Gage also evaluated the era and the society the X-Men were living in at the time.
== TEASER ==It takes place before the original X-Men and at a time when the government was snatching mutants up and doing scary things to them. Logan notices this and thinks somebody needs to look out for them. He recruits Sabretooth, who asks 'Why?' and so he pays him. Professor Xavier is a young man studying at Oxford, who's engaged and wants nothing to do with this…They recruit this guy Erik Lensherr who is out there killing Nazis...
Sounds to us like the script for this series will be borrowing a bit from the most recent X-Men movie, 'X-Men First Class' -- at least where the idea of the "years before the first X-Men team" are concerned. Other things to expect from this new series is: hobo-Submariner, fighting amongst teammates, new characters ("Bombastic Aghast") and much more. In case you're wondering, this series is cannon and will (according to Editor Nick Lowe), "be key to Wolverine's relationships with other characters."
This is firmly set in continuity. This is not a What If. This is canon. This is key to Wolverine's history and his relationships with other characters. This will answer questions that have been out there for decades.
What do you think of the plans for this new series? Are you looking forward to the release of the book this August?
Source: Marvel