X-Men Visionaries: Neal Adams

Reprinted from a memorial series of stories from 1969 and 1970, largely written by Roy Thomas and illustrated by Neal Adams, this edition also features some previously unpublished Adams work for X-Men in the '80s. X-Men Visionaries: The Neal Adams Collection covers nine issues where the original X-Men (Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Beast, Angel, Iceman, and then the newly Havok and Lorna Dane) battle the mutant persecuting Sentinels, grapple with the monstrous Sauron, combat their arch-villain Magneto (with the help of jungle hero Ka-Zar), and repel an alien invasion. Neal Adams, along with Jim Steranko, was widely recognised as the most innovative artist in comics at the end of the 1960's and his stunning work in these issues of the X-Men (well served by Tom Palmer's inks and Roy Thomas' well-paced and strong scripts) infused new life into the title and stopped it from being cancelled outright. Adams later said: "One of the things I and others observed was that after the X-Men was cancelled [the title was continued after March 1970 with reprints of old issues], almost every new artist and writer that came to Marvel wanted to do the X-Men because of those ten issues. And as the book was passed to each in his turn, they all do Sauron, they all do the Sentinels ... they all do Magneto."