X-Men First Class

by Jeff Parker

For millions of years, mankind's place on Earth was unchallenged - until five young people paved the way for a new kind of human. While students at the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters, Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Angel, Beast and Iceman taught the world what it meant to be X-Men. These are the hidden stories of the team that laid the foundation of a mutant dynasty Collects X-Men: First Class #1-2, 4-5, and 7. Also material from X-Men: First Class Special.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Marvel, X Men, Graphic Novels Comics, Superheroes, Comic Book

128 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2011

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[Jo Bennie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good collection of stories by Jeff Parker, Roger Cruz and Kevin Nowlan returning to the early days of the X-Men's time at Xavier's School for Gifted Children, when Jean Gray was still Marvel Girl, fighting alongside Iceman, Angel, Cyclops and Beast with appearances from Scarlet Witch, Thor, Quicksilver and Dr Strange. The collection covers both some high energy action with great artwork and the delicacy of relationships developing between the young mutants.

[Dawn Livingston · Rating 4 out of 5]

I used to collect X-Men back in the 80's and early 90's when there was just one X-Men title. I started collecting a little after Kitty Pryde joined the team. I stopped when they started introducing multiple X-Men titles and things got a little too confusing and the stories were lousy. I also collected New Mutants, Excalibur, some West Coast Avengers.

I found out my library had lots of X-Men graphic novels so I decided to see if I could find anything that would make me want to start collecting X-Men again...

I really liked this one. Though the characters are not my favorite X-Men (my faves are Storm, Kitty Pryde, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Colossus), I liked their interaction, I liked the stories and the artwork... so vivid, crisp. It's a delight. Yes, read this one!

[Shannon McShortall · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this a couple years before the First Class movie came out and have come back to it to find it is just as good as it was before. While doing nothing particularly special, it perfectly captures the feeling of the 60s X-Men stories, with the same story structure and dialogue we would expect of that time, all through a modern teen drama lens we have seen in the X-Men: Evolution show and would later see again when these characters entered modern comics in the All New X-Men run. Inoffensive and cute, it doesn’t break much new ground but there really isn’t much bad to say about it, so I can’t really put it lower than a 4.

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is exactly what I want from the X-men. Short fun adventures.

[Lysa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a lot more fun than I expected it to be!

[Taylor Haas · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 but i do love bobby <3

[Adam Haney · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very fun romp, lovely character interactions, all around just a good time. Feels genuine and nostalgic without being saccharine.

[Adam Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is an interesting collection as it contains writer Jeff Parker's top five favorite stories of the eight issues he wrote for the first X-Men: First Class mini-series, so this book contains Issues 1, 2, 4,5, 7 and a selection from the Annual.

The X-Men are a challenging to get into. There are so many characters, so many different versions of the team, it's hard to find how to get in. This book takes readers to the beginning-sort of-where there was only Professor Xavier and his five X-Men: Cyclops, Beast, Iceman, Jean Grey, and Angel. In many ways, this is similar to the Untold Tales of Spider-man concept from t 1990s which provided untold tales from Spider-man earliest except rather than taking readers back to the 1960s and giving that sort of feel, this book has the X-men's first adventures taking place in the then-present day.

Parker has the X-men meeting up with Doc Connor of Spider-man, Doctor Strange, and Thor. These stories are good. I think Parker makes them quite a bit more likable than they were the original stories, but I don't feel I ever really gained a lot of insight on to anyone except for Warren in Issue 7 plus most of the stories didn't have any sense of scale or real interest in the battles faced. Still, no issue was bad. The characters were fun. I liked the idea in Issue 2 of Scott and Jean being forced to take time off as the rest of the team wrestled with the Lizard.

Issue 7 is my favorite as Warren has been absent from class while Professor Xavier's been away and Quicksilver is out looking for his sister, The Scarlet Witch. The two events are tied together. The book explores Quicksilver's behavior which was meant to be protective in the Silver Age, but comes off as a bit controlling to modern readers. The story's got a great sense of fun and humor, just as Parker would later show on Batman '66 and Flash Gordon.

The short from the special deserves some praise. In it, Beast and Iceman go to the Museum of Curiosities to investigate a signal of mutant life. It's a very fun story with some surprising twists.

The rest of the book is fine and if you're a fan of Parker's other work, you'll like this too.

[Vanessa · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's more like 3.5 stars, but because I gave the two All-New X-Men books I've read till now both 4 stars and I stand by that rating and think they're superior, I can't give this one the same. Still feel a bit odd about it, cause I did enjoy this one.

This book includes several short stories that are not really connected with each other apart from taking place in the same time and starring the same people.
I really like the first X-men team a lot, even if I do miss some other characters (a school just doesn't seem complete with just one (maybe two if you count Cerebro) teacher and five students). For once everyone gets along with everyone else and there is no interpersonal drama, which is nice.

The stories in itself are mostly fluffy teamwork stuff with one-off villains (two stories don't even really have one at all) that are quickly defeated.
Iceman and Angel have some really cute and funny lines and Scott and Jean are cute together. Professor X only really shines in his interactions with Angel and Scott. I don't know why, but I'm not feeling Hank.

All in all a fun way to spend an afternoon, nothing more but also nothing less.

[Bryson Kopf · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't dig this as much as I thought I would, but it is a nice seeing everybody's favorite mutants a bit more angst-free. This is a good book to hand a kid if they want an intro to the team, but they might need a tad more background on the origins, since they skimmed over the details. Also, the short tale with the Kevin Nowlan art with the gargoyle was awesome!

[Judah Radd · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s kind of fun.

I mean... it’s ok. Not bad. It’s a pleasant throwback to the OG X Men team, and it’s pretty clear that it was meant for kids.

The art was good, but sort of cartoony. There were a couple funny one liners.

This is the kind of book you may wanna bring on an airplane and read before you doze.

[BCPL Youth Services Librarian]

Click to see book in BCPL's online catalog

[Victoria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cool modern update

[Luca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Buono, niente di speciale comunque.