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Marvel BP Books Prose Novels
Five Decades of the X-Men
Presents five short stories featuring the adventures of the X-Men in five different decades, from the 1960s to the 21st century.
272 pages, Paperback
First published March 5, 2002
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About the author
Stan Lee
7,571 books2,353 followersStan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber) was an American writer, editor, creator of comic book superheroes, and the former president and chairman of Marvel Comics.
With several artist co-creators, most notably Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, he co-created Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, Thor as a superhero, the X-Men, Iron Man, the Hulk, Daredevil, the Silver Surfer, Dr. Strange, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Scarlet Witch, The Inhumans, and many other characters, introducing complex, naturalistic characters and a thoroughly shared universe into superhero comic books. He subsequently led the expansion of Marvel Comics from a small division of a publishing house to a large multimedia corporation.
With several artist co-creators, most notably Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, he co-created Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, Thor as a superhero, the X-Men, Iron Man, the Hulk, Daredevil, the Silver Surfer, Dr. Strange, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Scarlet Witch, The Inhumans, and many other characters, introducing complex, naturalistic characters and a thoroughly shared universe into superhero comic books. He subsequently led the expansion of Marvel Comics from a small division of a publishing house to a large multimedia corporation.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
May 24, 2020
This is a group of five prose X-stories, each one set in one of the first five decades of X-continuity. It was one of the last of the Preiss-produced Marvel prose books, and is plagued with quite a few typography problems. The Sholly Fisch story for the 1970's is pretty good, and the Madeleine Robins one for the 2000's was my favorite. The other three didn't seem to me to be up to snuff, either not too well written or not very well plotted. They made an attempt to fill in some holes in continuity and answer some questions, but it could have been much better. 'nuff said.
June 9, 2021
This is the first anthology of X-Men stories I’ve ever read and it exceeded my expectations. From the 1960s to the 2000s, Charles Xavier’s fictional school of special humans have loomed large on the public consciousness. As the stories manifest, it’s not the powers that are important to the formation of character, it’s the people possessing them and their types run the gamut from tender to cruel, caring to indifferent, world dominating to just wanting to live their lives in peace.
The first story is mostly humorous as Iceman, the youngest of the newly formed X-Men, chafes at being relegated to the sidelines while his teammates are trained. In latter years, Bobby (his real name) is revealed as being gay and we get a hint of that when the first female X-Man, Jean Grey, appears. While Scott Summers (Cyclops), Henry “Hank” McCoy (Beast) and Warren Kenneth Worthington III (Angel) are all agog over this redheaded beauty, Bobby is bored and utterly indifferent to her appearance. Girls? Who needs ‘em? Hmmmm…
No overt hint of homosexuality is given in this story (although he does spend a lot of time thinking about Angel’s poses during battle and how he keeps his toes perfectly point). So you’ll have to draw your own conclusions.
The story is straight action and ends on a cute one-liner. Subsequent stories from successive decades dig a little deeper into the emotions, psyche and team dynamics that make up the changing roster of X-Men. Whether dealing with old mutants or new ones, the writing is brisk, incisive, emotive and dramatic. The action scenes are exciting and later dialogue (where characters aren’t telegraphing what they’re going to do with their powers in the midst of a battle scene) rivets with intellect and passion.
Your favorite X-Man maynot be in this anthology but there’s plenty to delight the fervent fan.
The first story is mostly humorous as Iceman, the youngest of the newly formed X-Men, chafes at being relegated to the sidelines while his teammates are trained. In latter years, Bobby (his real name) is revealed as being gay and we get a hint of that when the first female X-Man, Jean Grey, appears. While Scott Summers (Cyclops), Henry “Hank” McCoy (Beast) and Warren Kenneth Worthington III (Angel) are all agog over this redheaded beauty, Bobby is bored and utterly indifferent to her appearance. Girls? Who needs ‘em? Hmmmm…
No overt hint of homosexuality is given in this story (although he does spend a lot of time thinking about Angel’s poses during battle and how he keeps his toes perfectly point). So you’ll have to draw your own conclusions.
The story is straight action and ends on a cute one-liner. Subsequent stories from successive decades dig a little deeper into the emotions, psyche and team dynamics that make up the changing roster of X-Men. Whether dealing with old mutants or new ones, the writing is brisk, incisive, emotive and dramatic. The action scenes are exciting and later dialogue (where characters aren’t telegraphing what they’re going to do with their powers in the midst of a battle scene) rivets with intellect and passion.
Your favorite X-Man maynot be in this anthology but there’s plenty to delight the fervent fan.
November 12, 2016
Five short stories written about the X-Men comic books, covering the decades from 1960s to 2000s, including many of the familiar X-Men characters as well as "cameos" of the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, SHIELD, the Morlocks, WHO and many familiar arch-nemeses.
Most of the stories were well-written and were very good about filling in the history for those not familiar with the comic book story lines. (Don't be discouraged by the first story which, in my opinion, was poorly written and very tacky).
The editing was poorly done and many words were missing, and a lot of pronouns were mixed.
Most of the stories were well-written and were very good about filling in the history for those not familiar with the comic book story lines. (Don't be discouraged by the first story which, in my opinion, was poorly written and very tacky).
The editing was poorly done and many words were missing, and a lot of pronouns were mixed.
July 16, 2018
2.5/5 but rounded up because I really enjoyed the last story
June 17, 2016
Overall, this X-Men anthology was really disappointing. Nearly all of the stories feature amateurish writing, limp dialogue, and plots that favor mindless action over character or story or anything remotely interesting or meaningful. Even the two good stories ("Firm Commitments" and "Gifts") aren't good enough to elevate this collection beyond anything but "meh". Not only that, but the book's central premise of having each story be set in a different decade had almost no effect on the stories themselves, and ultimately felt like a cheap gimmick. I had to wonder what Stan Lee was thinking putting this together.
I don't usually do this, but seeing as how it's a collection of five novellas, here's individual reviews of each story:
"Baptism of Fire, Baptism of Ice": 1/5. Really bad. A story about the 60s X-Men and their first adventure. Not a bad premise, but as well as being set in the 60s it reads like a comic book from the 60s. Stilted, overly expository dialogue, stupid characters, generic villains, and a flippant, possessive, and misogynistic attitude toward its portrayal of women (seriously, everybody, even Beast, creeps on Jean Grey and calls her things like "gorgeous" and "baby doll"). I'm not sure if this was a deliberate attempt to novelize the original Lee/Kirby X-Men comics by aping their style, or if it was just written by somebody who hadn't picked up a comic book (or seen any piece of comic book media) since 1964. But regardless of the intent, it simply wasn't fun to read. Terrible.
"Firm Commitments": 3/5. A fun story written by Sholly Fisch which, similar to his work on Action Comics, focuses on the mundane civilians and side characters of the Marvel universe, as a young up and coming scientist attempts to solve a conspiracy, with a little help from the X-Men. Fisch does a good job detailing the scientist's mental anguish, and the unique civilian perspective he brings reminds me of "Astro City," certainly not a bad thing. Ultimately, nothing really incredible happens in the story, it's not really a big mover, but it's competently written and entertaining.
"Up the Hill Backwards": 2/5. While this story is decently written and has an interesting premise, it spends most of its time on long pages of action, and very little time to character development. That's not necessarily a bad thing, as the story is written with a decent sense of style, but since there isn't much for the reader to grab onto emotionally, monotony sets in. Thomas Deja also spends a lot of time on infodumping, supplying the reader with tired exposition on things like the N'garai and STRIKE which bog the whole thing down in chit chat, leaving very little room for any meaningful character interaction.
"The Cause": 2/5. Once again, a potentially interesting premise (Stryker's release from prison) is bogged down in relentless expository dialogue, lunkheaded, obvious prose, and a story that focuses more on action than anything real or meaningful. An opening scene featuring the murder of a young, inexperienced mutant starts things off well, but ultimately the story has nothing new to say that hasn't been said better elsewhere, including the story that this is meant to be a sequel to: "God Loves, Man Kills".
"Gifts": 3.5/5. Probably the best story in the collection, this one features a traumatized latent mutant discovering her powers, and how the X-Men have to step in to help. This differs from most of the other stories in the collection in that it is character-based, with emotions that feel sincere and are well-rendered. It paints an accurate picture of the pain of "coming out" and feeling different, and through the character of a teacher who is involved with the mutant, explores how bigotry can manifest itself even in the most liberal of people. A nice end to the collection.
I don't usually do this, but seeing as how it's a collection of five novellas, here's individual reviews of each story:
"Baptism of Fire, Baptism of Ice": 1/5. Really bad. A story about the 60s X-Men and their first adventure. Not a bad premise, but as well as being set in the 60s it reads like a comic book from the 60s. Stilted, overly expository dialogue, stupid characters, generic villains, and a flippant, possessive, and misogynistic attitude toward its portrayal of women (seriously, everybody, even Beast, creeps on Jean Grey and calls her things like "gorgeous" and "baby doll"). I'm not sure if this was a deliberate attempt to novelize the original Lee/Kirby X-Men comics by aping their style, or if it was just written by somebody who hadn't picked up a comic book (or seen any piece of comic book media) since 1964. But regardless of the intent, it simply wasn't fun to read. Terrible.
"Firm Commitments": 3/5. A fun story written by Sholly Fisch which, similar to his work on Action Comics, focuses on the mundane civilians and side characters of the Marvel universe, as a young up and coming scientist attempts to solve a conspiracy, with a little help from the X-Men. Fisch does a good job detailing the scientist's mental anguish, and the unique civilian perspective he brings reminds me of "Astro City," certainly not a bad thing. Ultimately, nothing really incredible happens in the story, it's not really a big mover, but it's competently written and entertaining.
"Up the Hill Backwards": 2/5. While this story is decently written and has an interesting premise, it spends most of its time on long pages of action, and very little time to character development. That's not necessarily a bad thing, as the story is written with a decent sense of style, but since there isn't much for the reader to grab onto emotionally, monotony sets in. Thomas Deja also spends a lot of time on infodumping, supplying the reader with tired exposition on things like the N'garai and STRIKE which bog the whole thing down in chit chat, leaving very little room for any meaningful character interaction.
"The Cause": 2/5. Once again, a potentially interesting premise (Stryker's release from prison) is bogged down in relentless expository dialogue, lunkheaded, obvious prose, and a story that focuses more on action than anything real or meaningful. An opening scene featuring the murder of a young, inexperienced mutant starts things off well, but ultimately the story has nothing new to say that hasn't been said better elsewhere, including the story that this is meant to be a sequel to: "God Loves, Man Kills".
"Gifts": 3.5/5. Probably the best story in the collection, this one features a traumatized latent mutant discovering her powers, and how the X-Men have to step in to help. This differs from most of the other stories in the collection in that it is character-based, with emotions that feel sincere and are well-rendered. It paints an accurate picture of the pain of "coming out" and feeling different, and through the character of a teacher who is involved with the mutant, explores how bigotry can manifest itself even in the most liberal of people. A nice end to the collection.
August 2, 2011
I am done with this book so I shall tell you what I have read . It is very mixed so I will tell you what I can remember #1 Started on the first one with a guy who's codename was ice man and he never got a chance to test his powers in the danger room until one day and it ended up having a fight with a naked dude who steals heat from people and is crazy. #2 Started out with a guy named jay and he made it in to a since place called grenetech and found out that it was controlled by a secret evil organization named the secret empire. he was taken in to an office and was told he had to join if he wanted to live so he did then he was taken to a secret location under grenetech and saw what they where doing to mutants and saw that they where being used to charge a giant battery and then had a day off and went to Exaviers school for mutants to tell the x-men about the secret empire and went in to hiding from the secret empire until the x-men got them all. In this one millions of people are rebelling against the mutant good or evil and many mutants where being slotered by people withe guns and the x men can't defeat the groups. In the end when the leader of the groups is released from jail he nearly gets assanated but wolvererene steps in and hurts the assanator. But then a police cop kills the assin in self defense but it dosent change any thing. What turned out to be a bad guy was actually good guy (I mean girl). In this one people from a school are coming back from boston and they are at an air port that suddenly exploded and the people and the person that caused it (didn't know about her powers yet) was also rescued then a hotel was destroyed and then the x men found out who it was and stopped her rampage and was taken to exaviers school for gifted children to master her powers.
June 21, 2008
Entertaining, but there were a LOT of typo's, which you'd think they'd fix before sending the final copy to the printer... hmmm.
Anyway, five stories from five different decades worth of the X-men. I can't say that one decade is necessarily distinguishable from another (expect for occasion language choices - "Take that, you dirty rat!" - 1950s, anyone?) but the stories are generally pretty good, and it's a quick read.
Anyway, five stories from five different decades worth of the X-men. I can't say that one decade is necessarily distinguishable from another (expect for occasion language choices - "Take that, you dirty rat!" - 1950s, anyone?) but the stories are generally pretty good, and it's a quick read.
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