It all began here. Well, not really – it began 12 years earlier, but that one wasn’t really good, so this is the do-over. And another 10 years later, we got a do-over of the do-over. While most issues of Classic X-Men are fairly standard reprints, the first issue doesn’t stick to the original content. In fact, it leaves about half of the book out. But that’s probably because the original one was a Giant Size.

The original issue’s credits:

And the Classic credits:

I’m going to assume that you know something about Giant-Size X-Men #1. If you need a refresher, the Uncanny X-Cerpts have you covered.

Let’s just get this out of the way. This is not a reprint of Giant-Size X-Men #1. That book begins with Nightcrawler running from a mob. The Classic issue gives four new pages depicting the scene where Cyclops returns from Krakoa alone without his visor and his costume in shreds. It relays the backstory of what happened to the original X-Men and then sets Cyclops into the Danger Room while Professor X uses Cerebro to go after the new team. This establishes all of the key parts of the X-Men’s base right off the bat.

The next pages are directly from the source material. The only difference is the colorization, as by the time of Classic X-Men, a new style of coloring was used in comics and thus most panels have a slightly altered color scheme. It’s really only noticeable if you’re meticulously going through both books side by side looking for differences.

But you’d have to be mad to do that.

The original script of Len Wein is not altered in the slightest. Or at least the small part of it used in this issue, because after the new team is gathered, the other 23 pages of the original story is summed up in just two.

The funny thing is that there’s not really much left out of that story. Well, unless you get into the OTHER team of X-Men that were on the island and the cover-up of the true nature of Krakoa and the whole third Summers brother bit. But this isn’t that story.

Instead, the rest of THIS issue focuses on the night after the mission. If you read this new part alone, without it being placed in the original stories, it seems like it takes place in the middle of Uncanny #94. That issue starts with Sunfire abruptly quitting (again), only to be followed by most of the original X-Men, much to Xavier’s shock. This is followed by a night scene in which Cyclops decides to stay, and the next morning the varsity team takes off. That night scene would be where this ‘First Night’ story in Classic #1 would expand. After all, Sunfire is gone and Jean completely unloads to the Professor about her decision to leave.

What doesn’t work is that Classic #2 reprints #94, which shows Sunfire quit and Xavier again flabbergasted by his students’ decision to leave. But I’m nitpicking.

Anyway, the story unfolds with Cyclops being more into his job than his girlfriend, which leads her directly into the path, for the very first time, of the best there is at what he does.

This is interrupted by Angel, who bails on a friendly flight with Storm to knock Wolverine into a tree. Wolverine does not respond kindly, and this begins the hatred between the two characters that will eventually lead Angel to quit the team once and for all, as well as almost kill the runt in Genosha (waaaaaaaay down the line).

In the mansion, we get the first example of how much Chris Claremont despises Iceman as the frosty little jerk angrily dismisses Banshee, Nightcrawler and Colossus who are honestly the three nicest guys in the entire history of the team. He then runs into Thunderbird and attacks him before stomping off. Havok and Lorna smooch too.

Finally, we get a tear-jerker scene with Jean and the Professor in which she tells him that she feels imprisoned in the school and wants to branch out on her own. And she also is afraid that if she hangs around, she’ll end up banging Wolverine.

And then we get the Claremont proper speech of a brighter tomorrow as Xavier accepts that he has to let go of his older students.

Of course, when they all show up together in costume to start the next issue, he will have forgotten all of this and be shocked and angered by the X-Men’s decision to bail. Well, except for Iceman. Nobody likes Iceman.

So that’s it for the first issue. There wasn’t a lot to point out here since it was a mix of another writer’s work and new material, but I felt like it would be a disservice to start with the second issue just because it’s got more stuff.