A virtual treasure trove from the Marvel Age of Comics. It was spoiled by the addition of Part 1 of a six-part Origin of Wolverine Story, which did not fit in this tome either stylistically or in tone. The story would have been fine on its own or in another collection, but it did not belong here. It was sort of like having a Rage Against the Machine tune on a Doo-Wop compilation CD. Unfortunately Marvel has always shown little confidence either in the appeal or the celebration of their historical roots, especially when compared to historical collections of their publishing rival DC. The Origin of the Black Panther should have been included instead of the Wolverine story. Black Panther was the first hero of color in comics, and Marvel should have celbrated that fact by including that story here. Even though the character currently pales in popularity to Wolverine, Black Panther merited inclusion. Otherwise this was an almost perfect compilation of the stories that spurred the "Marvel Age" of the 1960s and beyond.

How cool is this? Marvel Comic's "Fantastic Firsts" reprints the first appearances of many of the greatest Superheroes in the history of comics. Included here are the origins of: Spiderman, Thor, Dr. Strange, Namor, Ant-Man (!), Iron Man, Nick Fury, Captain America, The Fantastic Four, The Avengers, X-Men and as a bonus the first issue of Wolverine: Origin (which doesn't really belong but I like it so no complaints here).

There are also introductions before most of the comics by many legendary writers and artists such as Stan Lee, Joe Sinnott, Gene Colan and John Buscema. Most of the fun in this book comes from seeing how drastically these stories have changed over time (check out Daredevil's original suit!) and revisiting the art of Jack Kirby, Bill Everett and other Grand Old Masters. This book belongs in the collection of any buff and would make a great gift for a comics-loving kid.

GRADE: A (Personal Favorite: The supercool but short lived Silver Surfer. The portrait of him, lonely and contemplative atop his board in the book's opening pages is awesome.)

Recently I have been into purchasing the original editions of these wonderful Silver Age Marvel Comics. I do enjoy the reprints, but I have recently felt that they don't have the charm of the originals. Of course there is the fact that the originals can be difficult to find and can be expensive. So, if you are not into finding an original and spending what an original demands, this paperback is, may I say, sensational.

When I was looking through to see what it offered, I was amazed at what I saw: every major Marvel character's origin from the popular Amazing Spiderman to the hard to find Astonishing Ant-Man. Reading all of these origins, one after the other, thrusts you into some of the best comic book drama and conflict that would make Shakespeare jealous. Alright, maybe I'm going overboard somewhat, but these comics really do tell good stories. My favorite: Journey Into Mystery starring The Mighty Thor. Here, a feeble Dr. Don Blake (love the alliteration)stumbles across a simple stick that turns into the Hammer which gives Dr. Don the ability to become Thor, the God of Thunder. Here, Thor battles unusual enemies: Green Rock-like Aliens that speak with hatred towards earthlings and are armed with gun-like weapons. Interesting villains, a good hero, and a thrilling good vs evil plot with good as the victor. This is what comics should be.

Treat yourself to this wonderful book. Take the ones that interest you the most and try to purchase the originals. Compare the charm.

Also, for teachers of reading and writing workshop, these stories are wonderful when it comes to the elements of story as well as craft lessons. The kids will love it.

This book is highly recommended.

This is a decent read for Spider-Man fans. All the stories are varied and use a good variety of villians. None of them are anything to write home about, but are good filler on a boring day. At least the book is enjoyable.

This book has been sitting away for about three years and upon the release of the movie, I decided to revisit my meager collection of Spidey novels. Some of the stories in this collection are quite good while others are placed in for filler.
The story Spider-Man itself provides a new take on the origins of the web-slinger. How ironic is it that the same man who penned the novelization for the movie could put an entirely different spin on the spider bite while at the same time introduce one of our hero's most celebrated adversaries.
"Suits" was also an insightful look into the workings of another superhero from the past who decided to hang up his tights and attempt to live a normal life.
"An Evening in the Bronx with Venom" provided more details about Spidey's most mysterious villain. I did not realize that Venom had vowed to protect the innocent and only preyed on the criminal.
I think my favorite story was "Five Minutes." The reader gets an inside glimpse at the married life of Peter and Mary Jane. We see what effects peter's double life has on his relationship with his wife. Although she knew going into the marriage that her husband would ot be a normal nine-to-fiver, MJ is a normal woman with feelings and it was nice to see how her mind works. What wife of a superhero would not long to have a normal life? Firefighter and police officers can't be everywhere at once so why must Spider-Man be expected to?
All-in-all the stories in this anthology were quite enjoyable. Some of them were just too short to be memorable. But most were quite exceptinal.

I should start off by saying that I'm not a Spider-Man collector. It's not that I don't enjoy the series (because I do), but I just don't buy it as regularly as I do the X-books. I do know the backstory extensively, though, having purchased anthologies of the early Amazing Spider-Man issues. But with everything else, I'm essentially a blank slate where this character is concerned, and I'm open to just about all possibilities.

So, without a lot of backhistory in my mind, I found this novel quite enjoyable. These stories work because they were written to BE stories. All too often, comic book novel adaptations are usually comic books without the art, and they fail for it. But the various writers here keep their medium in mind, and work with it.

The novel starts off with the necessary retelling of Spider-Man's origin. I quite disliked this, to be honest. It smacked of "Hey, here's some stuff we forgot to tell you the first time!" The revelation that Dok Ock was performing the radiation experiment that charged the spider that gave Peter Parker his powers was not in the original version of the story, so I'm guessing this came from the Untold Tales of Spider-Man series (and I still don't like it).

There are actually a few more stories in that vein (basically, they "fill in gaps" where there were no such gaps in the original comic books). One story has Peter Parker questioning his desire to be Spider-Man after a vicious encounter with the Vulture. He takes a vacation to Atlantic City, and there, a retired superhero by the name of the Black Bee convinces him not to give up. It was inspiring and very human, but I couldn't break away from the fact that it didn't appear in the original books.

Toward the end of the novel, though, there was more room for making new stories up - especially when they're not of major superhero import, but rather of human interest. For example, the last story, "Five Minutes," involves no major villains. It only involves Spider-Man anguishing over being five minutes too late to save a suicidal man, and David powerfully conveys Peter's inner torment.

On the other hand, there's one story that I just can't get into. It's a story by Ann Nocenti; she tells about Spider-Man's investigation into an organ-smuggling ring. It's a story that needs much more development than she has room for. It seems much more like a prologue for a full novel than a self-contained story. But it's the only weak part of the novel.

In essence, the Ultimate Spider-Man is as appropriate a title as you can give to this novel. It retells his origin, explains his emotional conflicts and inner motivations, and even includes some classic battles with the Vulture and Venom for people who want solid action. It's definitely perfect for people new to Spider-Man, and long-time fans should get something out of it, too.

I see that some people criticsized the previous Daredevil Masterworks volume for the coloring -- i.e. coloring was too garish. Well, unfortunately that again is the case with this volume. The coloring is garish and simplistic. This really backfires on the Gene Colan issues since his rendering technique had a subtletly and style to it. That type of illustration really calls for a corresponding subtlety and style in the coloring. Unfornatunately that's not what we get with these reprints. And didn't Frank Giacoia ink issue #20? ...

The theme of this Volume 2 collection of "Daredevil" comics for the Marvel Masterworks series ends up being not about the character but rather who was going to be the definitive artist for the series. These ten issues of "Daredevil" start with John Romita (Sr.) doing the illustrations over Jack Kirby's layouts and then his own pencils, but then we have the first appearance of Gene Colan, who I always considered the definitive artist for the Man Without Fear. Yes, Frank Miller has few peers when it comes to creative layouts and he redefined the character when he was writing and drawing the comic book, but nobody draws better looking women in the Marvel Bullpen than Colan. Actually, "Daredevil" was not his best work, which appeared when he drew "Dr. Strange" and "Dracula," but this was the comic book where he established himself as a first rate artist.

"Daredevil" was always one of my favorite comics, long before Miller gave it cult status. Part of it was Colan's distinctive artwork, but I also liked the character's secret identity of Matt Murdock, attorney for the downtrodden. I always thought this made DD the ideal Marvel character to have his own television series, which could involve equal parts courtroom drama and superhero action, but the movie pilot they did a few years back simply did not click. This particular collection of ten issues are dominated by a couple of team-ups between old hornhead and a pair of other Marvel heroes, Ka-Zar, Lord of the Jungle, and the Amazing Spider-Man (check out the classic cover on issue #16). I always liked the scene where Spidey figures out Daredevil's secret identity and tries to get Foggy Nelson to confess. In terms of villains there is a two-issue fight with the Gladiator (whose whirling circular saw blades on his gauntlets always struck me as a rather bad idea) and Colan's debut involves a two-part return engagement with DD's old nemesis the Owl.

On the interpersonal level the love triangle between Matt, Foggy, and Karen Page hits a low point when Foggy dresses up like a rather frumpy Daredevil to impress Karen and has to be rescued by the real article. The Spider-Man issues are above-average but you will not really find any classic "Daredevil" tales here. What you do have is the stage being set for the first period of glory days in the history of the comic book, when Matt had to create his twin brother Mike and the Jester first showed up to cause headaches for old hornhead.

Great artwork. John Romita. Gene Colan. Stan Lee at the helm. 'Nuff said.

But what's interesting is to compare these issues with the Lee/Ditko Spiderman issues of the same time period. Daredevil's personal problems are weak and insipid, especially in comparison: "Karen can't love me because I'm blind, etc." An ace lawyer with super hearing should be able to detect her pulse picking up when he's near. Then later, "I can't tell her I love her because Foggy loves her too." Some of it reads like a bad "Millie the Model" issue. I can only think that the early issues covering DD's personal storyline were hindered because the artists (though all great) kept changing.

Even with some lousy thought-balloons and odd plot twists, it's still early DD. It's still Marvel when it was creating one of its most unique characters. It still ran circles around the DC issues of that day.

i'm about halfway through this collection, and it's not so bad. it does have that kinda corny 60s dialogue, but that's the way comics were back then. i am twenty years old, and i just started reading comics. when i was younger, i watched all the cartoons and collected the cards, but i never actually read the comics. now that i have started, i've realized how worth reading all of these comics are! anyway, if you want to start getting into Daredevil, this would be a good collection to read. once you get past it, i would read some of the issues that Frank Miller wrote. those are supposed to be some of the best. as a new comic-reader, i am open to reccomendations of good comics that i should read. if anyone has anything they think i should read, please let me know.

this has been Apollyon

It is so fascinating to compare the art styles of the three giants of comic art represented in this collection. After a so-so start with Bill Everett and Joe Orlando (inked by Vince Colletta), Wally Wood takes over with his eccentric, disciplined, almost scientific approach to illustrating castles, weird inventions and other gee-whiz stuff. Then John Romita brings his muscular, vibrant, dynamic and organic compositions to the title, and it really comes alive (his work looks exactly like the bright, catchy, somewhat "cartoony" classics Romita did for Spiderman as that character's best artist). Next comes Gene Colan, who's facile virtuosity, flowing figures, and unique camera angles became the definitive Daredevil "look" that originally caught my young eyes back in the '60s. Stan Lee's trademaked psuedo-hip wisecracking and underlying decency bring nostalgic warmth and amusement to my heart. Though the art has never been equaled and looks strong in black and white, this series of reprints should be in color! And not the phony computor color they're using nowadays with the little airbrushed-looking highlights, but just plain old ordinary flat comic book color like they had in the ones my mother threw out.

Once upon a time I bought every comic book that Marvel put out each month. Of course, that was back when comic books were about a quarter apiece. Then suddenly there was a giant proliferation of titles, the New Universe line, and everything else they could think of to throw our way. When "Conan the Barbarian" went down for the count I cut back big time and was reading only two Marvel title: Iron Man and Daredevil. I always thought there was some sort of significance to the combination, since there were relatively unique as Marvel superheroes without super-strength. I started reading "Iron Man" around the time Tony Stark starting hitting the bottle big time but "Daredevil" was the second Marvel comic I started reading after "Spider-Man." I liked the fact that Matt Murdock was a lawyer; actually I thought they should have played it up a lot more than they ever did in the comic.

I suspect "The Essential Daredevil, Volume 1" is going to receive a lot of attention once the movie version opens at the end of this week. Unfortunately, readers might be put off by the fact that they are not going to find Electra, Bullseye or the Kingpin of the Frank Miller glory years in these reprints of the first 25 issues of "Daredevil: The Man Without Fear!" They will find good ol' Franklin "Foggy "Nelson, as well as Karen Page, and even Mike Murdock, along with guest appearances by Spider-Man (#16), the Thing (#2), and Namor the Sub-Mariner (#7). Reading these issues again I was struck by how much trouble DD had finding really good villains. I think borrowing Electro from Spider-Man for issue #2 was a mistake, because that works against establishing the character on his own terms (ditto with the Ox in #15). The Owl (#3, #20) seems like a second rate Vulture, the Stilt-Man (#8) seems one of the most impractical villains ever, and it is a toss up as to who is sillier, the Matador (#5) or the Leap Frog (#25). Mr. Fear (#6) is the villain who should be pop up the most as DD's obvious counterpart, but it is the Gladiator (#18, #19, #23) who gets the most storylines. However, the best stories are those where Daredevil goes up against heroes like the Sub-Mariner, Ka-Zar (#12, #13, #24) and Spider-Man. No wonder it took a long time for Daredevil to find his own villains (the Jester was my favorite until the Kingpin became the major player in the series).

The front cover lists Stan Lee, Wallace Wood, John Romita, Gene Colan & Friends, which means a couple of significant artists get dumped in the "Friends" category, namely Bill Everett and Joe Orlando, who drew the first issues, along with Jack Kirby, who did layouts for Romita to ink on a couple of issues. With all due respect to the remarkable transformation Frank Miller in terms of writing and page layouts, Gene Colan was always by favorite Daredevil artist. I always liked the fluidity of his art, not only on DD but also "Dr. Strange" and "Dracula," not to mention the way he drew the ladies in general and the Black Widow in particular. The 25 stories represented in this collection are not the best Daredevil stories, but they are the groundwork for what was to come. Hopefully the fact that the movie has come out will get them to put out the next couple of volumes in this series (although we know they will stop long before they get to Miller's issues, which I believe are already available in full color reprints).

The Sept 1, 1963 X-Men #1 starts this book off and goes through issue #24. Featuring Angel, Iceman, Marvel Girl, Cyclops, and a very human looking Beast.

I bought all of these to back track and read the previous things that had happened within the comic. This serves the purpose but was disapointed that they were not in color.

I bought all of these to back track and read the previous things that had happened within the comic. This serves the purpose but was disapointed that they were not in color.

The incredible reprinted art from a lot of old comics makes this book worthwhile. The text is very, very weak.

THis book is a very generic portrait of Marvel, with one serious flaw: the book is edited by Marvel itself. This means that the writer, altough a real expert in comic book history, could not deal with all the subjects in a neutral way all the time. So, what we have is, generally, praise after praise for this mighty (with justice) company, but no real insight into their history. Of course, there is not space for such, since the book is crowded with magnific art from various artists and various comics. I think it lacked appendices, which could have lists of Marvel's greates artists, MArvel's greatest selling books, Marvel's greates histories. The book is also clearly outdated, since it was first published in 1992. Since then, there was the "mutiny" from the artists (Silvestri, Jim Lee and McFarlane, amongst others) who left to form their own company; the writer, altough mentions it, doesn't explain why Stan Lee, whose role in the company since 1980 is to supervise adaptations to movies and animated features, permitted such lousy adaptations as THE PUNISHER, for example. It does not touch the fact of how the artists were totally underpaid until Jim Shooter was Editor-In-Chief, nor how Lee permitted one editor after another to resign due to the sheer impossibility of editing 54 books at the same time. All in all, this book is great for the art, but for text PEter Sanderson's work, MARVEK UNIVERSE, is better.

i got the book, opened it in my car and spent half an hour fliiping through it until i realized that i had to get to the office...finished it that evening!
i liked the whole concept and found out a lot (!) of interesting information about marvel, the people behind it, the philosophies, the characters.
the book is easy to read and easy to use.
i dropped off one star from the rating because, in the end, it is rather shallow and there were times when i wanted more information but there just wasn't any.
a good read.

I think I can see why this feature was finally cancelled. Ant-Man/Giant-Man had just about the worst roster of villains of all the early Marvel heroes. And by "worst", I don't mean evil or malicious, I mean laughable or mediocre.

Henry Pym's "top of the line" super foes, the ones that returned for more than one fight, were third-rate bad guys like Egghead, the Porcupine, and the Human Top. And then there were the "mighty" opponents that Ant-Man/Giant-Man only fought once--Comrade X, the Unknown Protector, the Scarlet Beetle, El Toro, and others. Villains so lame even Stan Lee didn't dare to bring them back for a second go-around.

By comparison, in the same time frame, the Fantastic Four was fighting the Mole Man,, Doctor Doom, the Sub-Mariner, the Puppet Master, the Mad Thinker, and the Super-Skrull, while Spider-Man was tackling the Vulture, Dr. Octopus, the Sandman, Kraven the Hunter, and the Green Goblin. Even Iron Man, who had to contend with the "Commie villain of the month" syndrome for a while, finally found a worthy opponent in the form of the Mandarin.

Probably the best battles in this volume are the two in which Giant-Man squares off against another Marvel hero--once against Spider-Man, and once against the Hulk.

Still, the Ant-Man/Giant-Man collection offers a fun look at the dawn of the "Marvel Age of Comics", and there's good artwork by Jack Kirby, Don Heck, and others--even a fill-in story drawn by Steve Ditko!

This most neglected character of Marvel's Silver Age--who initially was on a par with Thor, Iron Man, Spidey et al in that he had his own series, is finally showcased for all to see.

Giant Man is my favorite character in all of Marvel and the Wasp is right up there too. It is hard for me to describe why I like them so much; maybe its the fact that others could care less about them. But if you are at all curious about them I would encourage you to give this book and these characters a try. The stories are fun, fast-paced and a perfect example of what Marvel was putting out at the time. Take a growth capsule and enjoy!

This book is a great collection of fun, oddball, comics. Featuring a character that was obviously a creator favorite, given the many revamps. They just couldn't give up on the guy! Many of these stories have been quite hard to come by, even for hardcore fans, unlike the old FF or Spiderman or other more popular characters who have all been reprinted more frequently.

Wild, silly villains and the black & white format not only keeps the price down but gives you a great opportunity to see the quality of the cartoonists line work, apart from the primitive coloring of the time. Any work by Jack Kirby is worth Five stars!

There are a few really compelling stories here - mostly the ones that focus on the victims and the rescue workers. But there is also, sadly, a great deal of garbage.

There's actually a fair amount of America bashing here. Some stories are patriotic, but, for the most part, the people holding or displaying American flags are protrayed as ignorant bigots.

Now, the artists and writers have every right to express their views. If that sort of thing is your cup of tea, I suspect you'll regard the more anti-American stories as provocative and stimulating. To me, they seemed like more of the same tired cliches I used to hear all the time before 9-11.

There's also a fair amount of the mushy-headedness about Islam which seems popular in this country these days. ...

The worst stories were those that tried to make some sort of political point. In one, an alien shows up and explains why we are all doomed if we don't adopt the Democratic party platform. (I'm really sort of neutral on abortion, but I always have to shake my head when someone starts preaching about the need to take care of the poor, the weak, the children, the elderly, the fish, the birds, the dung beetles, and then insists, even by omission, that destroying a human fetus is just fine.)

I guess what I'm trying to say is a lot of this felt very contrived. The more powerful stories and pictures were the ones where the author/artist was writing/drawing from the heart. The worst were the ones were the author was "moralizing," for a lack of a better word.

Firstly - I bought this book. Therefore, my money went towards the funds that helped victims of the atrocities of 11th September. It was the least I could do. (I also signed a book of condolence, but we all know how practically useful _that_ is.)

Secondly, this book is a remarkable ragbag of responses to the attack. One of the striking thing about the 9-11 attack is that it was the first time in nearly 200 years that the US mainland had been attacked. (Pearl Harbour doesn't count because, at the time, Hawaii was not a state of the US, it was still a "dependency" - shorthand for "ex-colony".)

The best responses in this book are the ones that take a, shall we say, dialectical response to the attack - those that at once focus on the innocent victims (cause it was a terrorist attack, and terrorism by nature is aimed at targeting the innocent in order to make the guilty feel guilty) and that also have a longer historical perspective. Because, and I'm almost embarrassed to point this out - the 9-11 attack did not happen because some deluded lunatics somewhere took it into their heads to be mean to Americans. It was the ultimate suicide attack, the nec plus ultra of the recent bombings in Jerusalem.

The best pieces in this book do not merely recognise the heroism of New York firefighters and police personnel - which is a sort of heroism that I, for one, don't doubt. But the facts are, this kind of heroism has been displayed around the world by populations under attack from US-funded or US-trained forces. It's not a very nice fact to have to face, but unless it is faced, there is little chance of events like 9-11 never happening again.

The sad thing is, much of the more ambitious pieces in here rely on "private" tragedy (as if these events had no more significance than the deaths of people in New York) and public jingoism - witness Stan Lee's asinine allegory about sleeping elephants. Stan, if the elephant's population was happy, it's because it had stolen so much from other countries already. Learn a little history.

Those of us who have learned to live with the potential for terrorist attacks on a daily basis are a little less naive than much of the authorship of this book. I grieve as much as anyone else for the dead of 9-11. But I cannot pretend that it isn't the kind of thing that happens around the rest of the world, as a result of the insanely inequal distribution of wealth.

This is a good book. But it is as much symptom as it is diagnosis.

I am using these two volumes to do my senior thesis and have read the other reviews and am convinced that some reviewers need to BACK OFF. This was written in commemoration for those who had a hard time dealing with the tragedy, not for you to criticize. The artists and comics who made these works did so as a way to understand and as a way to vent. I am sorry, but if you are going to criticize a creative effort to release you have no compassion. Some stories are disturbing, but the whole event was and has been disturbing. I am sure someone is going to think I am waving my flag a little to wildly, but you know what I am just calling it as I see it. Until you spent the day watching from your window as the towers fell down and smoked up the whole city to tell them how to do there job!

An overview of the classic Marvel heroes coupled with newer stories to bring this into the 90s. Priced a little on the high side considering the number of stories in this volume. Commentary by Stan Lee in sometimes enlightening but leaves out a lot of real information. Creators such as Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko do not get the full credit that they deserve.

"Origins of Marvel Comics" presents the origins and history of its most famous creations with introductions from Stan (the Man) Lee that are interesting if not insightful. I am certain that to some degree Lee is mythologizing these actions of comic creation, but I really have no idea where to draw the line on how much credit he gets in all this and am not ashamed that my copy of this book is autographed. The main thing about this volume is that at a time where reprints were few and far between, "Origins of Marvel Comics" gives you the first appearance of classic super heroes along with what in 1974 were more recent stories as well. For "The Fantastic Four" we get issue #1 where they take on the Moleman and #55 "Where Strikes the Silver Surfer," both of which are drawn by Jack Kirby. "The Incredible Hulk" offers more Kirby art with issue #1 (with the Hulk still grey on the cover) and #118 where he fights the Sub-Mariner drawn by Herb Trimpe. "Amazing Fantasy" #15 provides the first story with Steve Ditko's Spider-Man while #72 of "The Amazing Spider-Man" features "Rocked by...The Shocker!" drawn by John Romita. Kirby again draws both stories when "Journey Into Mystery" #83 introduces "The Mighty Thor" while issue #143 has Thor, Balder and Sif taking on the Evil Enchanters. Finally, there are a trio of stories with Doctor Strange, Master of the Mystic Arts, drawn by Ditko and Marie Severin. Of course the origin issues are of more interest than the others and do not really add anything significant. There are other volumes in this "series," providing more of the same.

Ironically good old Stan Lee is in a suit with Marvel over the 10% profit he asked for..... the success of the Spidey movie.

He did the same thing to his co creators. He robbed them of credit. I couldn't stand to see Stan in interviews say how he made his creations with the help of an "artist". What an understatement! Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko were the major artists who wrote the story through their rough margin notes and what they drew for Stan each month. Stan just filled in the ballons with dialogue. The "artists" were just as much writers as Stan was. Kirby and Ditko provided Stan the universe he calls his own.

A random collection of stories, three are no better than the fan-fic you find on the net - the rest are relatively good - the star is Steel Dogs and Englishmen.

Maybe try a library instead of forking out.

...are three probable titles to the X-Men related short stories featured within. This anthology book is one of the better ones I've read, with some talented writers adding their voice to the X-Men history. It has some really excellently written battle sequences and the stories primarily take place in the X-Men's past. It also has those stories that have you groaning in pure agony. (How do some of these people get published?! Good Grief! Don't ruin my favorite character! Did you even *read* the comics?!) Without taking away the suspense, one such story is about how Jubilation Lee goes ga-ga over an Olympic ice skater and saves him from certain death while sporting a red velvet skating costume. Jean and Rogue sparked the interest while poring together over the recent championship footage on tape. How often do Rogue and Jean hang out together like cooing girlfriends and chit-chat about the wide world of figure skating? It was an inept excuse to write about figure skating and get published in an X-Men anthology.

Despite the rough spots, the book has more good tales than bad, and certainly fairs better than most comic anthologies published. It is worth it for a rabid fan who wants more history, more insight, and more attention on their favorite characters.

This is a collection of 13 short separate stories. They each feature a different team member as the main character and the stories vary in focus. From action to tears, from humor to courage and self examination. Some are well written,(Peace Offering and Once a Thief come to mind) and others are quite forgetable,(The Stuff Dreams Are Made Of was very dissapointing). To this mix add the wonderful introduction written by Stan Lee telling how the idea for the Xmen was concieved and you get a book worth buying.