Roy had the almost unique opportunity to "learn on the job". And it shows.

According to Sol Brodsky (I think), Stan did NOT want to hire Werner Roth. There could be 2 reasons for this. 1)He's a "romance" artist, and B)he did not want to be writing his own stories. In this case, MAYBE, both. Apparently, Alex Toth jumping ship after only ONE month caused an opening, and on Brodsky's advice, Roth got in.

But as soon as Jack Kirby left the book, Stan was in a fix. Hence, within 2 months, Roy Thomas. I guess at that point you had an inappropriate artist teamed with a neophyte writer. The Thomas-Roth X-MEN remind me more of a Saturday monring adventure cartoon than most things Marvel was putting out at the time.

The 2 things I can say in Roth's favor, under the circumstances (his not getting full scripts up-front), is, 1)he draws pretty people (I still feel, to this day, that his X-Men are the "definitive" versions), and 2)his art is nearly-indestructible (meaning, it looks "good" even when inked by Dick Ayers, Vince Colletta, or, God help us, John Tartaglione!).

I guess you just have to see it for what it is. I sometimes wonder if Roy's dialogue EVER really improved-- at least, on "modern day" books. (To me, he only seems to really shine when he's writing "period" stuff-- like CONAN.)