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| Image copyright MARVEL COMICS |
You're looking at the first issue of The MUTANTS - or at least you would be had STAN LEE got his way. You see, that's the name Stan wanted to use, but publisher MARTIN GOODMAN overruled him on the grounds that kids wouldn't know what a mutant is. As Stan pointed out after coming up with the new name, they wouldn't know what an X-MAN is either, but he had to do what the boss wanted. The result was worth it. X-Men sounds better and is far more enigmatic, don't you think?
You learn something new all the time here!
ReplyDeleteYou're telling me! I didn't know it 'til I made it up. (Only foolin' - it's all true.)
ReplyDeleteI knew that about Martin Goodman changing the name but I suppose these days "X-Men" could be considered sexist because there are women in the group too - X-People ?
ReplyDeleteAh, but the human race is called mankind, CJ, so we can cover X-Man under that umbrella.
ReplyDeleteI was familiar with X-Men (Version 1) via reprints, but it never really did much for me. When it was rebooted, I became a huge fan. I'm not always in favor of series reboots, but this is one of the few that I really got on board with. Now it seems like they do them for no good reason. If it ain't broke, don't break it.
ReplyDeleteI suppose it depends on what age you are when you first read the original stories, G. I was only 8 and I loved them. Whenever I re-read them today, I'm an 8 year old boy again. I never really got into the new X-Men for some reason - not sure why. Agree with your last point about reboots.
ReplyDeleteNowadays, people might think it was a series about Caitlyn Jenner, Tula, and Christine Jorgenson. "The Ex-Men."
ReplyDeleteThe original X-Men comic debuted a few months after the Doom Patrol. Just as Swamp Thing and Man-Thing premiered about two months apart. All sheer coincidence, of course.
Tula is the only name I recognize from that list of three. He/she was in For Your Eyes Only.
ReplyDeleteI preferred the X-Men to the Doom Patrol, although Arnold Drake, who wrote the latter, ended up writing the former. Strange that, eh? Preferred Swamp Thing to Man Thing, to be honest.