Everything you need to know before the Claremont Era

     When going through X-Men, You will want to skip over the Silver Age era (1963 - 1975). The reason for this is even though Stan Lee created the X-Men, and even though he created the basis for them, as well as many iconic characters and elements that define X-Men, he wasn't the best when it came to writing them well. Hence, it became a failing series and was cancelled. But, when Chris Claremont came on board, he changed the team and turned the X-Men into the bestselling comic book of all time (what I mean is that no comic book has ever been as successful as X-Men was at its peak).

    But, to spare you from having to actually read through it all, I'm writing this post to tell you everything you need to know before starting with Giant-Size X-Men. Technically, you could just start with Giant-Size X-Men and they would give you everything you need from context, but I'm gonna do this anyway.

    Professor Xavier is a wealthy professor who has insanely powerful telepathy and moves in a wheelchair. He is a mutant, which are a new subspecies of humanity who develop powers around puberty. They are often discriminated against in the Marvel Universe. Professor X believes in a dream of peaceful coexistence between mutants and humans.

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    To achieve this dream, he puts together a team of teenage mutants and calls them the X-Men.

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The team consists of:

• Scott Summers/ Cyclops: An orphan who can shoot red optic force beams out of his eyes. He becomes the de facto leader of the team and is pretty angsty. He can't control his powers and so has to constantly wear a red visor or red sunglasses to be able to see things without destroying them. He always had feelings for Marvel Girl, but he always hid his feelings because he didn't want to open the possibility of hurting her with his eyes.

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• Warren Kenneth Worthington Ⅲ/ Angel: The charming, rich playboy who has white angel wings. He can fly (obviously), and has hollow bones and enhanced sight. His father, Warren Worthington Ⅱ runs Worthington Industries, and hence, Warren is very rich. He's a ladies man and is pretty happy-go-lucky.

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• Henry (Hank) McCoy/ Beast: Hank initially just has big hands and feat and super strength. He's insanely intelligent and loves science. He's the expert on all things nerdy and is the brains of the team. He says things like "Oh my stars and garters", and "Fascinating". Later on, due to a failed experiment, he takes on the form of a literal beast with blue fur and claws. He left the X-Men and has joined the Avengers by the time of Giant-Size X-Men, but he will return to X-Men and is a lovable character. His appearance hasn't changed his personality at all.

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• Bobby Drake/ Iceman: Bobby is the youngest of the team and, unsurprisingly, has ice and snow-related abilities. He's essentially Elsa and Jackfrost if they were a superhero. Personality-wise, he's a little immature and funny. He's basically the humanity of the team and the most well adjusted of them all.

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• Jean Grey/ Marvel Girl: A red-headed telekinetic who later developed telepathy. She always had telepathy, but Professor X suppressed her power at a young age until she was old enough to control it. Throughout the 60s, she didn't really have a personality outside of being "the girl". She almost had a fling with Warren, but she actually had feelings for Scott. Once they admitted their feelings to each other, they started dating and are fully in love by Giant-Size X-Men. Claremont makes her cooler, don't worry.😉

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    The X-Men's prime antagonist is Magneto, Xavier's old frenemy. He has the ability to control magnetism and can basically do anything with it. If something can be done using magnetism, Magneto can do it. He's incredibly experienced and incredibly powerful, making it difficult to defeat him. He beleives that humans will never accept mutants and that they will never be able to peacefully coexist. He beleives that since mutants are so powerful, they should rule humanity or kill them all. He's a really cool villian.

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    In response to the X-Men, Magneto created a team of villains named The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.

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They consist of:

• Jason Wyngarde/ Mastermind: He is a creepy dude who has the power to create life-like illusions in peoples' minds. He spends the Silver Age hitting on the Scarlet Witch like a creep. But he'll get worse soon.

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• Mortimer Toinbee/ Toad: A tiny person who requires authority and follows Magneto blindly. He's kind of boring. He can jump really high and has a very long sticky tongue and sticky saliva.

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    Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch were also part of the Brotherhood, but they quited and joined the Avengers and don't really return often in the X-Men Universe.

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Other note worthy villians include:

• Cain Marko/ The Juggernaut: Xavier's stepbrother who is a bully and once touched a demon crystal which gave him powers. He became huge and insanely strong. He can survive on nothing and can barge through anything. He is often called "The Unstoppable Juggernaut", which is a very accurate title for him. He also wears a huge helmet that blocks telepathy so that Xavier can't shut down his mind easily.

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• Unus the Untouchable: An Italian wrestler with the ability to create a forcefield around him that makes him "Untouchable". There isn't much more to him than that. He joins the Brotherhood eventually.

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• Fred Dukes/Blob: A circus performer who is superhumanly fat, which gives him size, strength, and invulnerability. He's disgusting. He also joins the Brotherhood.

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• Sauron: A vampire Pterodactyl who used to be a doctor and now he wants to turn everyone into dinosaurs. (Sauron is delightful)

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    There are also Sentinels. Sentinels are collosal robots who are programmed to find and kill mutants. They were created by the government to hunt mutants. They are basically the most extreme example of mutant discrimination. There have been two versions of them so far. They will return soon and will keep coming back to cause problems for the X-Men again, and again, and again, and again. Forever.

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    The X-Men would soon welcome two new members. They're not as well known as the others, but they do come back very often and they're kind of cool.

• Lorna Dane/Polaris: Lorna is the green-haired daughter of Magneto who also has magnetic powers like Magneto, but not on such a crazy scale. She can also absorb energy to become stronger. She's proud of her abilities and is pretty fearless. She also has bipolar disorder and hence, can have her fair share of mood swings and can often be depressed. She had a fling with Iceman, but later started a relationship with Havok/Alex Summers.

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• Alex Summers/Havok: Scott's younger lost brother who got seperated from him when they fell from a plane crash that killed their parents. They fell in different places and were found by different people. While they're both from Alaska, Alex was adopted and raised in Hawaii. He also has powers. He can shoot blue plasma bolts from it body. Unlike Cyclops, his blasts are plasma. His blasts are hot, like lazers, while Scott's are just force. Personality-wise, he's a lot like Scott, and he is dating Lorna.

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And that's really it. All you need to know before Giant-Size X-Men. I hope I saved you from having to reading 93 issues. Enjoy the Claremont Era! (aka, when X-Men starts to really, REALLY GOOD).

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