X-MEN:
THE HIDDEN YEARS VOL. 2 (Marvel,
2012;
Softcover)
Collects
X-Men:
The Hidden Years
Nos. 13-22, Fantastic
Four Nos.
102-104, and selections from Amazing
Adult Fantasy
No. 14 and Yellow
Claw
No. 2 (cover dates December, 1956- September, 2001)
Writer
and Artist: John Byrne
Inker:
Tom Palmer
Colorists:
Gregory Wright and VLM
Fantastic
Four #102-104 by Stan Lee (Writer), Jack Kirby and Joe Sinnott
(#102), and John Romita, Sr., and John Verpoorten (#103, 104)
Story
from Amazing Adult Fantasy #14 by Stan Lee (Writer) and Steve
Ditko (Artist)
Story
from Yellow Claw #2 by Jack Kirby
John
Byrne's proposed 27 issue maxi-series that would fill in the gaps of
the all-reprint issues 67-93 of The X-Men was cut five issues
short by then-new Marvel Editor-In-Chief Joe Quesada. Quesada's
action resulted in bad blood being spilled on both sides, with Byrne
never to return to Marvel.
While
I am a fan of the * footnote boxes, they are used here in such
frequency that they are distracting and pointless. Cyclops took a
dump* *refer to XMTHY #__. It's almost that bad, I kid you not.
Byrne
seems to really flesh things out beyond The X-Men, featuring
never-rans like the original Dazzler and The Promise (a bizarre Atlas
era reference), all the while inserting as much of the rest of the
Marvel Universe as possible. While the Phoenix set up makes sense,
the Fantastic Four retro-crossover feels labored and unnecessary.
This is accentuated by the inclusion of the original issues in the
back of the book, which I had previously read in Marvel
Masterworks The Fantastic Four Vol. 10.
 |
| "Only the bad guys kill." Man, I miss those days. Now The X-Men kill. |
Byrne does his damnedest to rectify the disappearance of Monster Island in his Mole Man story. He also does a good job at wrapping things up in a hurry. Still, it would have been nice to have five more issues to complete his original vision.
Junk
Food For Thought rating: 4.25 out of 5.
The
OCD zone- The font on the spine is ugly.
DVD-style
Extras included in this book: Covers to
X-Men: The Hidden Years #13-22 minus trade dress. (1 page)
Linework
and Color restoration rating: 5 out of 5. The core series needs
no restoration per se, while the vintage supplemental material uses
the post-2007 Masterworks files.
Paper
rating: 4.5 out of 5. Fair weight semi-glossy coated stock. Not
quite as shiny as what was used in Vol. 1 but definitely not matte.
Binding
rating: 4.25 out of 5. Perfect bound trade paperback. The thinner
cover allows this book to lay flat in one hand like a giant
periodical, at least for much of the book. I like that.
Cardstock
cover coating rating:
5 out of 5. While the waxlike lamination is consistent with Marvel's
usual quality, it was around the time of this book's release that
Marvel (or rather their vendor) began making the covers
ever-so-slightly-narrower than pages, resulting in occasional, minute
corner damage to the pages. The cardstock itself is also thinner than
what Marvel has used in the past. These are cost saves and they suck.
I dunno if you've looked in the GI Joe hardcovers thread recently, but our worst fears were confirmed and it looks like IDW is using the same awful restoration post-issue #50 from the tpb's in the new hardcovers, which now looks even worse because they're oversized! I think this is a case for the Collected Editions Consumer Resource Center. Maybe if enough people contact Mark Bellomo on facebook, something can be done before it's too late...
ReplyDeleteUgh. Glad to see I was right. >End sarcasm. I posted a link to his and IDW's Facebook pages. The restoration was so bad on the TPBs that I have considered dumping them and binding floppies.
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