Why is Uncanny X-Men the first Bronze Age Masterworks?
This is why. The first stretch of X-Men stories, reprinted in the first Masterworks volume, searched for its tone and its place in the Marvel Universe, striving simply to make a new team book work in the midst of dozens of other titles Marvel had going in the same time period. But from the very first issue in this volume, the reader can easily see what made Claremont’s Uncanny X-Men stand out. In X-Men #101, Jean Grey dies and is reborn as the Phoenix, marking the point where the series would begin its countdown to sky-rocketing new heights. As the Silver Age X-Men’s Marvel Girl, Jean Grey little more than a teenage Invisible Girl. She used her powers when directed by the men and wondered longingly why the shy leader never declared his love for her. Not to discount any of the writers who penned her stories back then, but Marvel Girl hardly broke new ground. When the “All-New, All-Different” series began she was relegated to the background with the rest of the original lineup of X-Men.
