Disclaimer: As this post is categorized as a review, it may contain spoilers.
The other day I was at Barnes & Noble looking for nothing in particular and I stumbled across what is quite possibly the greatest X-Men book ever.
The Uncanny X-Men: An Origin Story is a 48 page children’s book written by Rich Thomas and illustrated by Storybook Art Group. It manages to do what every single movie and even animated show has failed to do; it tells the story of how Xavier formed the X-Men.
Not just content to cover the basics like Xavier’s fallout with Eric Magnus Lehnsherr or his decision to form a school for gifted youngsters, it also touches on his childhood. We learn that he lost his father very early on and that when his mother re-married he gained an abusive step father and jealous step brother. We also see him losing his hair in high school while excelling academically.
Uncanny X-Men: An Origin Story by Rich Thomas
The story continues with Charles traveling the world and running across the Shadow King in Egypt. Later he befriends Eric Lehnsherr and joins him in fighting Baron Wolfgang von Strucker. Eric, believing that normal humans will never accept Homo Superior, steals the Baron’s Nazi gold to fund his coming battle against humanity. We’re also treated to one of the very scarce instances outside of the main comics of having the alien Lucifer cripple Xavier in a fight.
With several enemies made, a friend lost and his body crippled, Charles is even more determined to find a way for every being to live in peace and creates Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, setting out to find fellow mutants who he can teach to control their dangerous gifts and use them for the better of society. He finds Scott Summers, Bobby Drake, Henry McCoy, Warren Worthington III and finally Jean Grey.
Their first task as the X-Men is to stop their professor’s old friend Eric Magnus Lehnsherr who now calls himself Magneto, The Master of Magnetism, who is planning on unleashing missiles from a military base he has taken over. While Magneto proved to be too powerful for them to fully vanquish, the X-Men found themselves as a team of true heroes and over time graduated from the school part of Xavier’s institute.
When the original X-Men team were captured by Krakoa the living Island Xavier set out to form a new group of mutants form across the world to mount a daring rescue mission for his fallen team. He assembled Storm from Africa, Banshee from Ireland, Colossus from Russia, Night Crawler from Germany and Wolverine from Canada. (Thunderbird and Sunfire got the shaft in this). With the new teammates, in addition to the 5 originals, Xavier’s X-family has grown vastly over the years – but for every good deed his X-Men do, there’s another thread that rears its head and threatens Charles’ dream of peace. Yet Xavier still believes that his goals are both obtainable and the right thing to strive for, just as he did when he first dreamed them when he was a child.
Uncanny X-Men: An Origin Story Artwork
The book uses Charles Xavier’s growth from a little boy who is just as curious as he is cautious about his ever growing powers into an optimistic man who is steadfast in achieving his vision of unity as the main drive of the story. This works great for a kid’s story, especially with the opening page of a little boy dreaming of greater things that he could swear are real and ending with the same boy, now an adult having the same dream. The fact that this simple children’s book was able to squeeze in so much X-history in 48 pages while having around two dozen characters in it is a great feat of abridgment. The art is also pretty good and while it’s not the most gorgeous paintings I’ve seen in children’s literature it’s nowhere near terrible. It took me totally by surprise and would be a perfect way to introduce any boy or girl to the X-Men and it’s at a very reasonable price of under $10.
Highly recommended.