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Magazines, novels, articles, poetry, interviews or other textual (and sometimes illustrated) media that's currently caught the mind of Adam Creighton ...

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

X-Men #5 (reprint)

I'm reading X-Men #5, the 1964 Stan Lee/Jack Kirby classic that came as a reprint with the Angel action figure I just picked up.

"The Angel is Trapped!" is a great little gem. Professor X has lost his mental powers, and is now just a "poor homo sapien". Hank McCoy (Beast) is erudite (rather than the Ben Grimm clone). Bobby Drake (Ice Man) is still a wise acre.

But what really struck me about this issue is how hopeful Lee is about youth.

He was in his early forties when he wrote this, and alongside Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four, Rick Jones in The Incredible Hulk, etc. -- Lee really believed (believes) in young people.

Typical of Lee's prose and optimism is this line, when Scott Summers (Cyclops) escapes the Danger Room in which he's been trapped, while the team is trying to convince Jean Gray's (Marvel Girl's) visiting parents that Xavier's Institute is just a "normal" school:
"Typical of the caliber of the X-Men is the fact that even in this moment of trial, the youth known as cyclops thinks first of others!"
Excelsior!

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