The first 17 issues---Magneto, Brotherhood, Lucifer, Sentinels, Juggernaut, Blob, Unus are obvious if minimally textured classics.

The concepts of the prejudice, Cerebro, Danger Room, The concept of the school, the little mentioned hidden connection to the government etc. layed a fantastic foundation for the future.

The first misstep IMO was not letting Quicksilver & Scarlet witch join after X-Men 11. I understand the then mandate of not too many characters, but it was always stated thay they were trying to add more students/team-members and they just couldn't pull the trigger when the time came. QS & SW could easily been left out of main 'battle' story due to being 'trained' in the the X-Men team method.

I have heard that Stan rode Thomas so hard on not doing anything major to the team or the members or the mutant conflict that he had little choice but coming up with lame (new & retread) villains. Banshee had to be changed to male, for some silly reason and other editorials intrusions. Only when the book had sunk so far in sales did management allow Thomas and other writers to get back to the intended theme of the book.

Roth wasn't a bad artist, but clearly didn't have Kirby's ability to create interesting new characters and that didn't help either. The 'fill-in' books when Roth was slowed by illness---Merlin, Mole Man-Tyrannus, Mekano are total rubbish and the lack of one artist during the 'factor 3' wrap-up really hurt. What can you say about the Frankenstein/Grotesk death of Prof X issues, that is kind? Even the Lorna Dane intro Steranko/Heck issues were terribly uneven. The Barry Smith 'tryout' issue with Blastaar is a low point and meaningless to boot as it has nothing to do with nothing. So we're talking about nearly 40 wasted issues during the absolute peak of 1960s Marvel heyday. They just couldn't turn it around.
Really, Stan should have let Kirby do detailed layouts and plotting (at a better pay rate) during the early Thomas run, instead of throwing him in the thick of it with only a mediocre Werner Roth to collaborate with.
Thomas wasn't yet capable of taking this concept to its potential with only an average artist(s) for support.

Last Edited By: Lockjaw Oct 22 09 12:39 PM. Edited 3 times.