World Famous Comics: X-Men Visionaries: Jim Lee TPB
X-Men Visionaries: Jim Lee TPB
By: Chris Claremont Publisher: Marvel Comics Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Marvel Comics Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 304 Publication Date: October 01, 2002
The Jim Lee era, part 1 In the early1990's the X-Men were the best selling comics around, and that had a lot to do with superstar artist Jim Lee. Lee's stylized and action-oriented artwork was the perfect counterpart to Chris Claremont's dynamic characters, and he soon became the definitive X-Men artist, as well as one of the decade's most imitated. The X-Men: Visionaries - Jim Lee trade paperback collects every single issue of Uncanny X-Men that Jim Lee worked on, including:
Uncanny X-Men #248 - This throwaway Nanny story was really only significant for being Lee's first issue on the title.
Uncanny X-Men #256-258 - This killer 3-part series, which was part of Marvel's Acts of Vengeance crossover, brought Wolverine back to Asia, completely overhauled the Psylocke character, and put our heroes up against the Hand and the Mandarin. This story, which drew inspiration from the best Asian cinema, was one of the most memorable Claremont/Lee collaborations.
Uncanny X-Men #268 - Still regarded as one of the best single-issue X-Men stories of all time, this issue chronicled the first meeting of Wolverine and Captain America, and brought their adventure full circle 50 years later. The Black Widow also plays a major role.
Uncanny X-Men #269 - This issue features Rogue in a solo adventure that takes her all the way to the Savage Land to encounter none other than Magneto. This one sets the bar pretty high for all future "hot chick in the jungle" stories!
Uncanny X-Men #273-277 - This storyline is focused on two major events. The first features Rogue, Magneto, Ka-Zar, and Nick Fury in the Savage Land against the new mistress of magnetism Zaladane. The second finds the rest of the X-Men sent to space to encounter the Shi'Ar, the Starjammers, and their mentor Professor X. The question is who are the good guys and who is really pulling the strings? These issues also brought new characters Gambit and Jubilee into the fold and set the stage for Jim Lee's best-selling X-Men relaunch.
Since the stories don't all interconnect, it's hard to look at this as a cohesive story, but most of the storylines here are very impressive. Claremont had his faults (try a drinking game where you have to take a drink every time Psylocke explains exactly what her psychic knife does), but he put together some wild tales here. Lee's artwork is nothing short of incredible. It's probably his best X-Men artwork overall, and looking at these pages it's easy to see how he became such a superstar.
My only real complaint with this collection is that given the very high cover price they should have made it a hardcover. The interior pages are sturdy and much glossier than the originals, so why not give it a more durable outer cover, especially if you're going to charge a hardcover price.
Still, that's a minor complaint. Overall this collection is still the most attractive, most affordable way to experience Jim Lee's entire Uncanny X-Men output in one hefty volume.
Graphic SF Reader Not as cool now as it seemed to be then. Not much doubt that Jim Lee is very influential on an artist and how comic artwork has developed, but when you look back on it you see it is very 90s, and not timeless in the way John Romita Jr. or Paul Smith's work was, so part of the reason for the fall of comics at the time, too.
Jim Lee's classic work This compilation book has the reprints of Uncanny X-men comics, it has a lot of fighting pages, you can see the evolution of the caracter gambit, fight with the starjammers,etc, and above all this book has in my opinion the beginnig of the X-MEN'S GOLD AGE. If you are a fan of Jim Lee's draws, Chris Clarenmont plots then BUY THIS BOOK!
TWO Important Warnings . . . First of all, NONE OF THESE REVIEWS ARE FOR THE RIGHT PRODUCT!! The trade paperback that is for sale on this page reprints only ONE Jim Lee X-Men issue! I don't know how Amazon constantly gets this screwed up, but they are all-too-often posting reveiws for different products on the same page. Anyway, the product in question is the CHRIS CLAREMONT edition of the X-MEN visionaries TPB line, and it is THAT book which i am going to pan forthwith: This is an ego-indulgent selection of largely unrelated X-Men comics that totally disregards the reader and instead ends up as a vehicle by which Claremont can compile what he wrongly imagines to be his most "visionary" stories about this legendary superhero clan. Now, i have immense respect for Claremont and great admiration for everything he has contributed to the X-Men and superhero comics in general, but, that said, this collection still sucks. Instead of focusing on what makes the X-Men great (their teamwork, their collective inner conflicts about the society they seek to protect, the various ways in which their powers mesh and interact to create an indomitable fighting force, etc), Claremont picks a few rather inane and unrelated plot fragments dealing with what he feels are essential "character developements" among individual members of the various team incarnations. Consequently, the reader is presented with virtually actionless soap-opera like episodes dealing with Storm's love affair with Forge (beautifully illustrated by Barry-Windsor-Smith, but still terrifically dull when taken out of context), Kitty Pryde's sage-sensai relationship with Wolverine (terribly illustrated, despite C.C.'s editorial statements to the contrary, and also dull when removed from its broader storyline), a humorless farce of a bedtime story involving cartoonlike effigies of the aforementioned heroes, a single issue of the Hellfire Club/Savage Land story arc (already available in the vastly superior "Dark Pheonix Saga" TPB) and Claremont's later collaboration with Jim Lee (again, beautifull art, but questionable story selection). Most of these comics seemed poignant and relevant when i read them the first time as a 13 and 14 year old boy, but removed from their larger plot-contexts and veiwed in retrospect, they no longer have much to offer most fans. A huge dissapointment all-around (up to and including Claremont's self-aggrandizing editorial remarks) that is capped off nicely by the fact that NONE of the original covers are reprinted with the rest of the contents. This is really the final insult to the readers and fans when you consider that, especially in the case of the Barry W. Smith issues, the covers were the most memorable things about these comics!! If you want a quintessential Claremont X-Men story, you should get the Dark Pheonix trade and avoid wasting your money on this junky, slapdash book.
Jim Lee draws the X-Men! This book should be titled "How to draw the X-Men by Jim Lee". Seriously. The stories here are nothing to shout about though the Claremont wit is to be seen in many panels. The real draw of the book is Lee's art which is gloriously reproduced here. For those of us who grew up in the 1980s, we felt this revolution firsthand. Comic books would never be the same again after Lee. The impact of his hyper-detailed, solid-bodied art hit comic-readers the way Neal Adams did in the 1970s. Lee understands the iconism and sexiness of superhero comics and display his knack for capturing both with his pencils (aided by inker Scott Williams).
The highlights: 1) Lee draws the best one-page splash Captain America EVER! 2) Psylocke's transformation from English lady to sexy Asian assassin. 3) The Crossing storyline - see Jim Lee draw cosmic! Shiar, the Imperial Guard, the Starjammers, etc. 4) The Magneto/Rogue Savage Land storyline - Jim Lee's Magneto is unbelievable. Regal, majestic and sexy at the same time. This is a Magneto that a girl will fall in love with - and literally does - the girl in question, unlikely as it is, Rogue! See also Jim Lee's drawing of Nick Fury, the SHIELD helicarrier and Kazar.
Get this volume and the following volume, "X-Men: Mutant Genesis" for the greatest X-Men eye-candy in history.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
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