In 1986, Marvel launched “Classic X-Men,” which would reprint the Uncanny X-Men comics that started with Giant-Size #1. In other words, the newer X-Men, not the classic ones.
In any event, the book included new stories that took place around the time as the reprinted one. So I’ll be covering just those new stories.
In #1, we get an Arthur Adams cover and then John Bolton illustrating what happened right after the X-Men returned from Karakoa–their first adventure. It shows newcomers like Colossus and Nightcrawler learning to bond with each other, and older team members, like Banshee, learning to accept them.
It’s just simple character work, but it’s excellent–because Claremont wrote the heck out of the X-Men.
There are two scenes in this premiere issue that really work for me, and the second one immediately follows the first: 1) That high-flyin’ Hefner of the Skies, the Avenging Angel, tries his luck with Storm high above the Xavier Estate grounds- which is PRECISELY what I would be doing!!!! As a matter of fact, my ENTIRE MOTIVATION to be a part of this organization would be to deflower the ravishing Miss Monroe!!! 2) My boy shows his hypocritical side here a little bit when he DIVE-BOMBS WOLVERINE for simply doing the SAME THING: Trying to score with an X-Babe!!! Of course, the Angel’s point of view is not entirely without it’s merits, here, either- as of the time of this story, even adjusted for the “Marvel Time-Compression Factor”, Wolverine is, roughly, 125 years older than Marvel Girl!!! After the sex, what do you suppose these two would have to talk about-???? And, also, there is the moral factor to consider, as well- Marvel Girl has spent the past several years establishing herself as a world-league superheroine, while Wolverine has spent the past CENTURY establishing HIMself as a world-league psychotic, homicidal maniac!!! Now, don’t get me WRONG here, it’s NOT that I don’t believe there’s a place under the Sun for world-league, psychotic, homicidal maniacs- there IS- it’s called the Military- but Warren’s assertion that a 150 year-old world league psychotic, homicidal maniac just MIGHT not be “good enough” for the equally-angelic, equally pulchritudinous Miss Grey!!! The Angel believes that- and so do I!!!! Of course, Marvel Girl falls into type, falling all over Wolverine because he’s such a “bad boy”. ( hot young women ALWAYS do that-don’t ask me why-they just do-maybe I’ll go get a psych degree someday, so I can figure it out ) But these two scenes-both featuring my favorite flyboy-are two of my favorite scenes from ‘X-Men’ history, and they occur almost simultaneously, so you can understand why ‘Classic X-Men’#1 is such an important ‘X-Men’ comic for me!! Mazel Tov!!