The X-Men, mutants with special abilities, born into a world that hates and fears them. They use their powers to defend the world from all manner of threats: from mutants who believe in survival of the fittest, from aliens and from mankind itself.
Having run for forty years, the X-Men are a global thenomenon. The comics are some of the most popular in the world, with various titles available. A cartoon series in the 90's was extremely popular whilst recently a blockbuster film and its sequel have widened the audience.
This book focusses on all aspects to do with the X-Men. Charting its rise in popularity, the book looks at the varying success of the comics throughout the decades, starting with the first issue in 1963 to the most recent incarnations of today.
This companion features profiles on the members of the X-Men and their enemies, giving detailed accounts on their unique powers and the history of each character, even including issue numbers of the important events in each mutants lives.
Considering the changes that the characters have gone through due to different writers, and the sheer history 40 years of comics contain, it is a wonder to see it all nicely packaged in one collection.
Images are also here, showing the characters in various uniforms and displaying their mutant abilities. The images tie in perfectly with the writing, allowing you to read about the changes of each character and to see it infront of you.
Profiles are precise and clever, obviously showing that much research has gone into this guide. However, it is not just the comic books that are studied. The aforementioned cartoon of the 90's, the new Evolution cartoon and the movies are also represented. Information is given on the process of transferring the characters to cartoon and film, aswell as behind the scenes information of the new movie, X2.
Covering so much history and so many events and characters should be hard work, yet this book delivers. The foreward by Stan Lee, creator of the X-Men, is entertaining and informative, as is the backword by Chris Claremont, the man who reinvented the X-Men in the seventies when the series was struggling to maintain an audience.
This guide is perfect for all fans. Fans of the comics will love the detail and artwork and will no doubt find it useful to have a refernece guide. New fans who wish to begin reading the comics will be able to gather 40 years of history in an easy to use book, letting them catch up on events old and new. This guide is perfect in every way, simple to use and containing plenty of detail, yet never seeming like it is too full.
Recommended!