Long Lost X-Men

The First X-Men #2 courtesy Marvel

Legendary Neal Adams and Christos Gage are telling a tale of The First X-Men. Logan and his ally (yes, ally!) Victor Creed are hunting for fellow mutants thinking there is strength in numbers. Logan and Creed attempted to recruit Charles Xavier in the premiere issue.

In this week’s The First X-Men #2 Logan, Creed and their new recruits track down a Master of Magnetism. The older mutant is on his own mission of vengeance in Argentina hunting Nazi war criminals. This Magneto is not exactly Michael Fassbender but he will remind you of how the character was portrayed in X-Men: First Class. Logan’s invitation does not go as planned.

Adams was an artist in the early days of X-Men. He dives into the conspiracies and key government figures of that era to shape the big threat of this mini-series and is still affecting mutantkind today.

In this lost X-Men tale Adams and Gage have introduces us to new/old mutants Holly Bright aka Holo, Bombast Aghast and a Yeti. The team shows early on how Logan can be a tough drill instructor and encouraging teacher.

This tale of lost mutants reminded me of some other great stories of “new” mutants created in stories of the X-Men’s past. There have been some great characters created for these stories…but they’re doomed.

X-Men: Deadly Genesis Ed Brubaker created four fascinating lost mutants in this tale of Professor Xavier’s darkest secret. The Professor sent his All-New, All-Different X-Men (Storm, Nightcrawler, Thunderbird, Wolverine, Banshee, Colossus) to save his original students from the living island Krakoa. But there was another team. The Professor’s biggest secret comes back to haunt him, leaves an X-Man dead and severs the teacher’s relationship with Cyclops. Kid Vulcan, Sway, Petra and Darwin were four fascinating mutants with great backstories and cool powers. Xavier sent these young kids into action unprepared and they paid the ultimate price. Vulcan and Darwin were revived and all hell broke loose.

X-Men: The Hidden Years #1 courtesy Marvel

X-Men: The Hidden Years The Children of the Atom almost vanished from comic book history! In the 1970’s the series went into reprints only. John Byrne created some amazing new tales set in those lost years. The original X-Men even encountered Storm when she was just Ororo.

The First X-Men will join the pantheon of “lost” tales of the past and leave us with “new” characters from the past that might survive and thrive in the here and now.

By Editor