So I have a set of early 80’s reprints of the first twenty issues of X-Men. The Kirby covers and pages are all there, but instead of ads for model kits and x-ray specs, these feature Atari and CBS Saturday morning (which is how I learned there was an animated Happy Days show*). Mr. Lady Geek and I grew up during the Jim Lee years, and this early batch of X-stories were unknown to us until we got these X-reprints.
The first several issues offer little of note, except for a few phoned-in panels and the weirdness of “regular” Angel who can’t cut anyone up with his wings that don’t shoot missiles, and “regular” Beast, who in these stories seems to be little more than a short, obnoxious gymnast.
However, I found one panel that reveals a disturbing abandoned subplot. After telling the kids to search out a new mutant he has sensed, Professor X calmly lights a pipe, and meditates on the fact that he can never reveal his love for Jean Grey, a minor recently entrusted to his care. When Jean arrives at the mansion for the first time, Beast, Angel and Cyclops immediately turn into drooling idiots, and most of the stories revolve around their attempts to get more face time with her. She mentions how she left the protection of her parents’ home to come to this mysterious school. Now she begins a new life of repeatedly fighting the Blob, while at “home” she is beset on all sides by weird, aggressive suitors, including her would-be mentor!
Also, Professor X’s logic sucks. He thinks; “Oh, if only I wasn’t her legal guardian and teacher, and she a confused teenager far from home…and surely no girl of her caliber would date a man in a wheelchair!!” Well, I got sour news for ya, Jack. If she’s so shallow that she wouldn’t date a handicapped guy, she’s definitely not going to overlook your baldness. And Beast, seriously. If Jean won’t date the differently abled rich fellow, she’s probably not going to hit the malt shop with you. Also, I think Scott looks so “grim” because he is wearing a blue plaid suit.
Actually I think this subplot might have been pretty juicy. As far as I know, Professor X’s secret love for Jean Grey is mentioned only fleetingly a few times in the history of the X-Men, but it gets a pretty high rating on the dirty scale. If they had seen it through til the seventies when Wolverine came around, we could have enjoyed a love X-rectangle. By the time Psylocke rolls up, it could have been an X-pentagon.
*Apparently, they had a time machine.
