Wong 1 Tommy Lee Wong August 26, 2013 Ms.

Bell Period 2 A World Without Super Powers Comic Book History For many decades Comic books have been a part of the world, they came in existence as early as 113 A.C. in Rome having the similar ideas that modern day comics have now. Throughout the centuries the comic book ages have grew greatly and became very popular. In 1827, in Switzerland a man Rudolphe Tpffer created a comic strip and continued on to publish seven graphic novels throughout his time. In 1837, "The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck" was published by the Rudolphe Tpffer and it is considered one of the earliest actual known comic books in existence. Comic books are intended for use of all ages not just for the young but also the adults. In the 1920s to the 1930s China produced small little palm sized picture books as Britain targeted children for juvenile humor. In about the same time in America around 1938 the true comics of America debuted, it was considered the first action comics with Superman as the cover feature. The popularity of the Superman grabbed the attention of being the superhero ideal as the defining genre of all American comics. The genre soon lost popularity around the 1950s but re-established its popularity of the form from the 1960s until the late 20th century. Many terms like Golden Age, Silver Age and so on were created to describe the high points in superhero comic book popularity as the early writers of comic history were mainly superhero fans. There have been periods where superheroes were not popular or

Wong 2 comics of other genres were just as popular. Many fans of comic books helped with a wider expansion of the popularity of every different superhero or villain. About The Super Heroes The X-men are known as a team of mutant superheroes in the Marvel Universe. They were first created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, and first appeared in The X-Men #1 of September 1963. The basic idea of all the X-Men series is that under a cloud of increasing anti-mutant sentiment, Professor Xavier created a haven at his Westchester mansion to train young mutants to use their powers for the benefit of humanity, and to prove mutants can be heroes. Professor Xavier recruited Cyclops, Iceman, Angel, Beast, and Marvel Girl, calling them "X-Men" because they possess special powers due to their possession of the "X-gene," a gene in which normal humans lack and which then gives mutants their abilities. Early on, however many people believed the "X" in X-Men stood for "extra" power which normal humans lacked. It was also indirectly suggested that the mutations occurred as a result of radiation exposure, just like the amazing Spider Man. The first issue also introduced the team's archenemy, Magneto, who would continue to battle the X-Men for decades throughout the comic's history, both on his own and with his Brotherhood of Mutants which were introduced in issue #4 of the series. The X-Men universe also includes such notable heroes as Wolverine, Storm, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Rogue, and Shadowcat. Besides the Brotherhood of Mutants, there are the other villains that the X-Men have fought include the Sentinels, Apocalypse, Mister Sinister, and the Hellfire Club. Since the comic series of the X-Men have been adapted into other media, including animated television series, video games, and a commercially successful series of films. The X-men comic book

Wong 3 series was one of comicdoms earliest and most influential trendsetters in adopting a multicultural central cast. During the 1970s, the roster was diversified, adding characters from Canada, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Kenya, and the Soviet Union. Characters representing many other ethnicities and cultural backgrounds have subsequently been added. The stories themselves have often included themes relating to the status of minorities, including assimilation, tolerance, and beliefs regarding a "superior race". About The Author The author and creator Stan Lee with the success of Spider-Man in Amazing Fantasy, as well as the Hulk, Thor, Iron Man, and the Fantastic Four, created the series title after Marvel publisher Martin Goodman turned down the initial name, "The Mutants," stating that readers would not know what a "mutant" was. Within the known Marvel Universe, the X-Men are widely regarded to have been named after Professor Xavier himself. Xavier however claims that the name "X-Men" was never chosen to be an actually self-tribute. Stanley Martin Lieber was born in New York City on December 28, 1922, in the apartment of his Romanian-born Jewish immigrant parents, Celia ne Solomon and Jack Lieber, at the corner of West 98th Street and West End Avenue in Manhattan. His father, trained as a dress cutter, worked only sporadically after the Great Depression, and the family moved further uptown to Fort Washington Avenue, in Washington Heights, Manhattan. When Lee was nearly 9, his only sibling, brother Larry Lieber, was born. After creating the well-known American icon Captain America in 1941 Lee entered the United States Army in early 1942 and served stateside in the Signal Corps, writing manuals, training films, and slogans, and occasionally cartooning. His military classification, he says, was "playwright"; he adds that only nine men in the U.S.

Wong 4 Army were given that title. He married Joan Clayton Boocock on December 5, 1947, and in 1949, the couple bought a two-story, three-bedroom home at 1084 West Broadway in Woodmere, New York, on Long Island, living there through 1952. By this time, the couple had daughter Joan Celia "J.C." Lee, born in 1950, another child, Jan Lee, sadly died three days after delivery in 1953. Lee by this time had bought a home at 226 Richards Lane in the Long Island town of Hewlett Harbor, New York, where he and his family lived from 1952 to 1980, including the 1960s period when Lee and his artist collaborators would revolutionize the comic books. Stan Lee is an American comic book writer, editor, publisher, media producer, television host, actor, voice actor and former president and chairman of Marvel Comics. Summary Of The Comic In this X-men universe comic issue the characters Wolverine, Storm, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Rogue, Iceman, beast and Shadowcat start out playing some extreme mutant baseball where they talk about how they enjoy each others company as mutants. In the meantime the teams archenemy Magneto is devising a plan and creating trouble within their homeland. Soon enough back at Genosha which is the dedicated state of leadership under Magneto rule, Magneto gets together with the other following villains Polaris, Mystique, Phoenix, and Toad to discuss their next attack and plan. Back at the Xavier Institute the X-men are interrupted by the High Evolutionary. The High Evolutionary discusses with them the idea of what if they could be human again. The High Evolutionary told them a story of birth of mutants and the changes that have occurred up in space and what has happened up there, and how there is a way to go back. Will they become to be normal or to stay mutant? During this time Magneto was already

Wong 5 on the move, he stripped the power of Genosha. Mystique has changed from her normal human appearance back into a mutant. First Iceman and the others started to slowly change back into humans. Some became handsome and others shrunk very ugly. Lastly the change happened to the rest of the X-men and they all lost their super powers. Once their powers were gone they felt like it was a kind of a living death and werent very happy with it. High Evolutionary said to them forget about your old life and start living your new normal human life. Personal Review Reviewing the comic of the X-men, my thoughts are what the following comic book issue is going to be like, how they are going to get their powers back, and how are they going to get back at Magneto? Many people of the X-men comic series such as their many fans enjoyed the debut of the ever long lasting series of X-men. Many people after the first issue wanted more and more. I learned that the X-men series caught the attention to many viewers of young ages to older adult interests. The X-men series would start out problems in one issue and finish up the superhero and villain controversy after a few other issues later throughout the comic. Soon the popularity to continue to read caught on for me just as many children actually wanted an idol or a super hero icon to follow, to copy, and to grow up to be. The comic book series was a good addition to America and how it brought people together as a country I felt. At first I felt just like the many editors, readers and publishers that didnt exactly approve or was extremely fond of the idea of the X-men but as the series was given a chance in the comic world it brought in more popularity not just to me but for many more people to gain interest at to start following the super heroes on their wild and bizarre journeys. I enjoyed reading this comic book as

Wong 6 it expanded my outlook on how the comic book world has impacted not just America but also many other countries as they choose to do the same ideas of amusement and humor out of a colorful and short worded comic book with the characters to follow along with. At times the X-men comic seemed to get very serious as a problem was about to occur or a big change was climaxing, the intense points were big attention grabbers to me.

Wong 7 Work Cited Page Coogan, Peter. 2006. Superhero: The Secret Origin of a Genre. Austin, TX: MonkeyBrain Books. Hayman, Greg and Henry John Pratt. 2005. What Are Comics? A Reader in Philosophy of the Arts. Ed. David Goldblatt and Lee Brown. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc. 410-424. Awards. Retrieved 3 October 2010. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comic_book1.^ "Previous Winners". The Eagle About.Com- the inventors. Last edited: 01/24/2013 http://inventors.about.com/od/cstartinventions/a/comics.htm Lee, Stan; Jack Kirby (August 2005). Son of Origins of Marvel Comics 1. John Buscema, Don Heck, Bill Everett, Gene Colan. Marvel Comics. p. 448. ISBN 0671-22166-3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-Men last modified on 19 August 2013 at 03:11. Vaux, Robert. eHow Contributor http://www.ehow.com/facts_5125797_history-men comics.html#ixzz2dNMcWHDx Mair, George (2002). Excelsior!: The Amazing Life of Stan Lee. Fireside Books. p. 5. ISBN 0-684-87305-2. Stan Lee