Daily Archives: September 20, 2005

X-men – The Early Years #5 [1994]

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A reprint of X-MEN #5 (1964) in this issue, the 24-page Kirby/Reinman story “Trapped: One X-Man”, with the second round of the ongoing battle with Magneto’s Evil Mutants. As we begin, they’re recovering from their last encounter, which has left Professor X without his powers. A few odd scenes follow, with a visit from Jean’s parents and Cyclops accidentally left in the Danger Room to provide an action sequence.

Shortly thereafter, Magneto has the Toad pose as a competitor in a track meet showing mutant powers in order to lure in the X-Men, hoping to reveal their headquarters.

X-men - The Early Years #5 [1994]

They unmask him in time, leading to a battle on the subway, and then the Angel is taken prisoner aboard Magneto’s Asteroid M headquarters. The X-Men follow, and are able to prevail and escape thanks to Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch being reluctant to follow Magneto’s commands to the point of murdering the X-Men. I wonder at what point it was decided they would join the Avengers? Anyway, the X-Men return home and find out that, among other things, Professor X is a jerk.

As I’m sure I’ve mentioned before, I’m not a huge fan of Reinman’s inks compared to some of the other inkers of the era, but he does preserve most of the interesting things in Kirby’s art.

Published 1994

Upcoming Kirby – Marvel in 2006

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Marvel apparently announced a general overview of some of their plans for 2006 at a retailers thing this past weekend. All plans are tentative at this point, of course. Most notable surprise is the plan for a hardcover reprint of Kirby’s THE ETERNALS series of the 1970s. Also, an X-MEN OMNIBUS to come out when the next X-Men movie does, so presumably like the FF book about the first 30 issues, with letter columns.

Plans also for 24 volumes in the ESSENTIAL series and 18 in the MASTERWORKS, almost sure to be a few in each with Kirby (if I were betting I’d say the final Kirby FF volume for each of those is certain, and volumes of THOR in each are likely).