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Rating: 
Summary: A review ...
Review: Just so it's clear to people what they are buying with this book, Uncanny X-Men Masterworks Vol. 3 reprints issues #22-31 of the 1960's series. These are ten issues of comics from July 1966 to April 1967, printed in a hardcover book with dust jacket, on full-color pages. ...
Rating: 
Summary: Fun, if "average" stories of Marvel's "Hard-Luck" Heroes
Review: Writer Roy Thomas & artist Werner Roth had a tough act to follow when they became the regular creative team on X-MEN in the mid-60's (following Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and-- at times-- Chic Stone). These early stories may come as a shock to anyone used to the overly-complex, darkly angst-ridden nightmare world that the ever-growing number of X-books have become over the last 25 years. They tend to finish in 1 or 2 issues, and Roth's art is almost refreshingly "clean", light and upbeat! With most of Marvel's books getting more visually "spectacular", X-MEN may have seemed an "outsider" to the rest of the line at the time. (Next to art by Jack Kirby on FANTASTIC FOUR, THOR & CAPTAIN AMERICA, Gene Colan on IRON MAN and DAREDEVIL, John Romita on SPIDER-MAN and Jim Steranko on S.H.I.E.L.D., these X-MEN stories have a Saturday-morning cartoon look by comparison!)Between X-MEN and THE AVENGERS, Roy was learning how to write comics on-the-job! His dialogue is something I can only take in small doses here, as he tries to cram every available space with word balloons, whether it's called for or not. Without Stan's sense of humor, Roy's plots have to stand on their own-- at times it feels like someone imitating a Marvel Comic more than an actual one. Roy improved over time, as his later work on this series with Neal Adams proved. A strange thought hit me by the end of the volume-- many of the featured villains were "borrowed" from other heroes' series! This is evident in my favorite story here, the 2-parter with Count Nefaria and a group of hired super-villains. You've got The Plantman and The Eel (Human Torch baddies from STRANGE TALES), The Scarecrow & The Unicorn (Iron Man foes from SUSPENSE) and The Porcupine (an Ant-Man & Wasp villain from ASTONISH, for cryin' out loud!). They're all pretty much 2nd-stringers, yet it's fun seeing them almost act like a "team"! One story has Jack Sparling art in such a different style it looks really odd in here-- all the rest are by Werner Roth. Judging from some of the "off-duty" scenes it appears Roth may have been more comfortable with romance than superheroics (a trait he shared with Iron Man artist Don Heck). One thing caught my attention reading this book-- Werner Roth's version of Jean Grey (Marvel Girl) bears an UNCANNY resemblance to actress Famke Janssen, who played the character in the recent X-MEN movie! It was as though he'd used her for his model-- I wonder if the producers used Roth's art as reference while casting the film?
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