X-Men Reprints?

[mlovest]

What's the scoop with all the reprinted X-Men stories? I guess I was asleep or somthing, but I didn't realize so many of the original series were reprinted. Did Marvel do this with any other series? Good thing the New X-Men came along!

 

V/R,

Mike

[Aces]

Issues 67-93 I believe...

[mlovest]

Thanks! What was Marvel doing, and why no new stories? That's strange...

 

V/R,

Mike

[Sal]

book was not exactly killing it on the newsstands, i believe. not sure why, exactly

[Tomega]

Thanks! What was Marvel doing, and why no new stories? That's strange...

 

V/R,

Mike

 

When Stan Lee and Jack Kirby first introduced the X-Men it was not received as well as Lee's other creations. The public at the time could not relate to it as much as a Spiderman or Fantastic Four. It was pencilled to be cancelled but some Marvel execs and Stan Lee decided to not give up on the series. Instead of being cancelled, reprints of old issues were released in 1970's. Marvel saw that the stories and artwork is solid and that maybe the series was ahead of its time. It was a cheap and easy way of making money and the reprints slowly created a little larger fan base and Marvel decided it was time for a re-launch in 1975. Most people do not know that the reprints are missing a few pages of the original stories - it was necessary to fit in the modern formats of the day. For reading the full stories, you are better off getting the Marvel Masterworks reprints.

[shadroch]

Marvel was reprinting a bunch of books at the time.

Some books were reprinted as part of the original numbering,although X-Men is the only super-hero title that got this treatment. All the Western books switched to reprints while continuing the original numbers,and I'm fairly sure Sgt Fury did as well.

At one point in the mid-70s,much of Marvels output was reprints.

Marvel Tales-Spidey

Marvels Greatest Comics-FF

Marvel Triple Action-Avengers

Marvel Double Action-Tales of Suspense

Marvel Super-Heroes-Tales to Astonish

Marvel Spectacular-Sgt.Fury,then Thor(or vice versa)

Marvel Adventures-Daredevil

Many titles that reprinted Marvels pre-hero stories,too many to list.

A bunch of Western Titles,and of course The X-men and Sgt.Fury

The period of time covered by the 20 and 25 cent covers seems to have been the zenith of this page in Marvels history.Strangely,DC didn't really follow this trend for whatever reason.They did have their 52,68 and 100 page books that included reprinted stories but don't remember them putting out a reprint line.

[Zonker]

Actually, DC did indeed have a short-lived all-reprint line:

 

Wanted

Secret Origins

Boy Commandos (2 issues of Simon & Kirby GA reprints)

Johnny Thunder (western)

Trigger Twins (a single issue!)

Legion of Super-Heroes (4 issues pre-dating Superboy 197)

Black Magic (S & K reprints from the same 1950s title)

 

Plus a handful of issues in which reprints continued the original numbering

Doom Patrol

Challengers of the Unknown

Metal Men (prior to the Simonson relaunch)

 

Not to mention the original incarnations of the 100-Page Super-Spectaculars, the Limited Collectors Editions, DC Specials, DC Super-Stars, which were 100% reprints.

 

Both DC and Marvel flooded the newstands with all-reprint material in the 1970s. In Marvel's case, I believe this was designed to bury the Martin Goodman / Larry Lieber Atlas-Seaboard line before it ever got off the ground.

[Norrin_Radd]

Actually, DC did indeed have a short-lived all-reprint line:

 

Wanted

 

That's "Wanted: The World's Most Dangerous Villains".

 

Another reprint series was "Super-Team Family" (although it did have some new team-ups).

[joe_collector]

book was not exactly killing it on the newsstands, i believe. not sure why, exactly

 

No conventional strong-man to take on the heavy hitters.

 

I'll never understand why Stan chose to go with five pretty wimpy characters, and then put them up against baddies like Juggernaut, Blob and the Sentinels, where a super-strong hero would really light up the story.

 

But that error was cleared up with Colossus and the New X-Men.

[Sal]

book was not exactly killing it on the newsstands, i believe. not sure why, exactly

 

No conventional strong-man to take on the heavy hitters.

 

I'll never understand why Stan chose to go with five pretty wimpy characters, and then put them up against baddies like Juggernaut, Blob and the Sentinels, where a super-strong hero would really light up the story.

 

But that error was cleared up with Colossus and the New X-Men.

 

i'm sure Stan was going every time he tried to figure a way to shoehorn Angel into a storyline. and the Beast...hey, he's great if you need someone to fight Toad, but other than that...

[the blob]

x-men 66 has a blurb from stan lee saying that it is the last issue, the comic had not been selling, etc. that issue also prints the circulation numbers and you can see how the latest figures they give were a real drop from earlier numbers.

 

i guess they decided to change their minds about an outright cancellation.