Tuesday 29 January 2013

More Mutant Genesis Nostalgia

A couple of weeks back you may remember I posted up an Excalibur: Mutant Genesis poster, which was mailed to me by Janet-Elizabeth Black. Well, accompanying this Janet was also kind enough to also scan in another 3 posters from Mutant Genesis, and while they're a little bit of tangent from the usual focus of this blog I thought I'd share them with you here. I'm on a bit of rose-tint-filtered (Or should that be Ruby Quartz, where the X-Men are involved?) 90s nostalgia kick at the moment, and hope you won't mind indulging me a little.

As always click to open a larger version.






First up Larry Stroman's poster for Peter David's first run on X-Factor. I actually have this issue somewhere. Peter David is one of very few writers who has managed to produce an incredibly consistent amount of good work. Granted I do prefer his 2000s incarnation of the team, but this really was a great change of direction for a book which had started its life as way of separating the founding 5 X-Men into their own book. Rather than cancel it, they gave the book over to Havoc and Polaris (Who I guess you could say were the 6th and 7th 'Original X-Men') working as a Pentagon Funded government team. That always threw up some interesting stuff. And when it comes to characters like Jamie Madrox, Guido Carosella and Rhane Sinclair few people know how to get the best out of these characters like Peter David. This was a book which I dipped in and out of throughout its life, until it was replaced with the alternate universe series Mutant X.






Secondly the poster for Rob Liefeld and Fabian Nicieza's X-Force, in all its over the top, steroid induced goodness. Just don't look at their feet... ;)

In all seriousness I know folks love to point out the flaws in Liefeld's artwork, but X-Force really was a huge revolution for the X-Books. New Mutants had been needing a bit of freshening up for a while, and actually having a guy like Cannonball decide to abandon Xavier's direction in exchange for Cable's was a big deal at the time.

Yes, the costumes do look pretty ridiculous, but I've always had plenty time for both Domino and Cable to this day. Never really got Feral, though. 






And finally a Jim Lee poster for his and Chris Claremont's X-Men. Complete with a plug for one of Claremont's novels in the bottom left. The art remains great. Proper Magneto as a villain. Remember that concept? You know, before all the X-Men villains began to become X-Men? Such a novelty... :)

I can even forgive the Asian-bodied Psylocke. This time.

I think we often forget just how big a deal Chris Claremont was in the 80s and 90s. He was the Bendis of his day, and then some. X-Men #1 remains the best selling comic of all time, and nobody ever will ever likely match his 17 years on the X-Men flagship title. He made the X-Men into everything that we frequently take for granted these days. That should not be forgotten.

In addition to these posters Janet also sent me a scan of one of the marketing cards for Mutant Genesis. 
Check it out:




Excalibur. As part of a brand-wide initiative. Man, it seems so long ago.

Nightcrawler is chosen here to represent Excalibur, rather than Captain Britain. Something practically unthinkable a couple of years earlier. Brian's name is even credited last in the blurb on the back of the card. A sign, maybe, of things come.

You'll also notice the reference to Excalibur going 'Bi-weekly' (A curious US comics industry term which doesn't actually mean 'Twice a Week' but every fortnight. Two issues per month.). That can't have been easy for Davis, who was of course both writing and pencilling each issue.

Anyway, enough of my nostalgic prattling... 

I hope you enjoyed seeing these and thanks again to Janet for sharing them. 


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