The Death of Phoenix

Perhaps the most well-known Unpublished X-Men story was the original ending to X-Men #137, where Jean Grey lived.  Of course, this was rectified rather quickly when the story was published in Phoenix: The Untold Story in 1984.  This issue publishes the entire story with the original five page ending that was changed due to an edict by Editor-In-Chief Jim Shooter.

According to Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Phoenix_Saga

"The ending of the story was a matter of intense controversy with the editorial staff. Jim Shooter's recollections are that the original intent of the Dark Phoenix storyline was to introduce Dark Phoenix as a cosmic nemesis for the X-Men. This was what had been discussed originally amongst the creative team and Shooter, and this was the story development that had been approved. When Uncanny X-Men issue 135 was in the final artwork stages, Shooter happened to look at the proofs for the issue and noticed that the story included the destruction of an inhabited solar system, with an explicit mention of billions of lives lost. Louise Simonson feels it was Shooter's outrage over this plot element which led to him taking editor Jim Salicrup off the series several issues earlier than he'd been scheduled to."

"Upon questioning Salicrup about where the plot went from there, he was told that issue 137 ended with Jean being permanently depowered by the Shi'ar and released into the custody of the X-Men. Shooter disagreed with this development both from a storytelling standpoint as well as, secondarily, a moral standpoint, likening the ending to "taking the German army away from Hitler and letting him go back to governing Germany," and finding it out of character for the X-Men to retain friendly relations with a being who had committed genocide. Byrne and Salicrup explained that they had no problem with this resolution because they had always thought of Dark Phoenix as a separate entity who had possessed Jean Grey, with Salicrup drawing an analogy to the film adaptation of The Exorcist: "In the movie there's this little girl who's taken over and several people get killed, but by the end, when the demon's gone no one thinks, 'Let's kill that murderous little girl.'"However, on reading the issues over they agreed with Shooter that from the reader's perspective, she did not seem to be possessed, and Claremont admitted that while writing the Dark Phoenix Saga he was never clear in his own mind whether Jean Grey was possessed or her actions as Dark Phoenix were her own."

"Shooter, during a conversation with Claremont, suggested a scenario where Jean would be permanently imprisoned as a compromise, and Claremont responded that such a scenario was unfeasible since in his opinion, the X-Men would want to continually try to rescue Jean from imprisonment. Shooter claims that Claremont suggested having Jean die at the end out of frustration. Although Shooter claims that the suggestion was a bluff by Claremont, playing on the unwritten rule that main characters were not to be killed permanently, he accepted the idea. Ultimately, it was decided by Byrne and Claremont to have Jean commit suicide after her Dark Phoenix persona resurfaces at the climax of the fight against the Imperial Guard. Issue 137 was left largely unchanged, but the last five pages were completely rewritten and redrawn for the new ending, and Claremont also took the opportunity to write a second draft of his script. Because of this, comparison of the original and published versions of X-Men #137 reveals numerous differences in the script with no connection to the ending; for instance, in the original version of the day of rest, the individual X-Men are each thinking of their own personal issues, while the published version shows them reflecting on their decision to protect Jean."

"The original ending ultimately saw print in 1984 in Phoenix: The Untold Story. Besides the original version of Uncanny X-Men #137, it featured a transcript of a round table discussion between Claremont, Byrne, Simonson, Salicrup, Shooter, and inker Terry Austin, discussing the story behind the original ending and why it was changed."

Original cover art from Marvel Comics of the 1980s

On a side note, in theory this issue is supposed to take place in the alternate reality in which Rachel Summers is born, leading to Days of Future Past.

John Byrne Wolverine

Before Dave Cockrum drew Wolverine's face, there was much speculation as to what he would look like.  John Byrne came up with this design, which was later used for Sabretooth, with some changes.  This was the genesis of the idea that Wolverine and Sabretooth would be related.

From johnbyrnedraws.tumblr.com:

John Byrne had this to say about the image. "Ah, yes — that was my original suggestion for Wolverine’s face. I sent that to Chris and he responded “You blew it! Dave has already designed Wolvie’s face.”

Updated version of the original concept drawing of Wolverine under the mask by John Byrne. 2012.

After looking at the original 1976 version of Logan’s face, John tried his hand at doing it again. He wrote: "Morning’s exercise: the same face, with thirty five years of additional experience driving the pencil…"

http://johnbyrnedraws.tumblr.com/post/56549418945/updated-version-of-the-original-concept-drawing-of

Seventh Line-Up

Another X-Men Line-Up, this time the Chris Claremont and Jim Lee version of the team circa Uncanny X-Men #275.  Art is by Tom Morgan and Josef Rubinstein, and you can check out the previous team rosters from The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Master Edition here:

http://unpublishedxmen.blogspot.com/search/label/Line-up 

What If Magneto Formed The X-Men?

While still working on Uncanny X-Men Chris Claremont and John Byrne came up with an idea for a new story:  What if Magneto Had Formed The Original X-Men?  While this issue was never produced, several pages of character sketches exist.  However, John Byrne has just completed a commission of what the cover might have looked like!

The first page of the issue, a tribute to X-Men #1, was completed.

Jean Grey's codename was Psyke.  Dani Moonstar of the New Mutants originally had the codename Psyche.

While Cyclops is unchanged here, other sketches have different versions of the visor.  Jean Grey's costume is also slightly different here.

Beast had arm gauntlets with retractable claws, and Archangel was to have a flaming sword.  Angel's name would be changed to Archangel later in X-Factor.

 Both Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver were to be part of this team.

The Photoshopped  image below was going to be the cover piece for this article until John Byrne came to the rescue with the excellent commission at the top of the page.

For more information about this story, check out John Byrne's Forum:

http://www.byrnerobotics.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=43669&PN=1&totPosts=103

Neal Adams Loves, Marvel Kills

Comic Book Legends Revealed has a detailed article examining the story behind these unused pages by Neal Adams.  The pages were for a graphic novel that later became God Loves, Man Kills by Chris Claremont and Brent Anderson.

http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2011/02/11/comic-book-legends-revealed-300-part-1/

Days of Future Past Revisited

With the X-Men: Days of Future Past movie coming out next year, I thought I would feature some of the covers that were inspired by the original cover for Uncanny X-Men 141 by John Byrne and Terry Austin, which can be seen below:

Finally, there's this Wizard cover by John Cassaday that follows the look of the original very closely.

Check back later this week for more Days of Future Past art, and check out this post for another interpretation:

http://unpublishedxmen.blogspot.com/2012/11/days-of-future-past.html

X-Men #106 Unpublished Splash Page

X-Men #106 featured a fill-in story by Bill Mantlo and Bob Brown.  However, for it to fit in with their current story, Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum devised a two page framing sequence that replaced this splash page.

Art from Heritage Auctions:

http://comics.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=7066&lotIdNo=171003#Photo

Merry X-Mas!

Happy Holidays to all the readers of Unpublished X-Men!  Today we bring to your attention Marvel Holiday Special #1 from 1991, which featured a short story by Scott Lobdell and the late, great Dave Cockrum.  The best part is that this story leads directly into the splash page for the now classic Uncanny X-Men #98 by Cockrum and Claremont!

Marvel Holiday Special also features a cover by Art Adams, also posted for your holiday enjoyment.

New New Mutants

There's so much John Byrne unpublished material floating around that instead of doing a John Byrne week I decided to dedicate a whole month of Unpublished X-Men to John Byrne material.  There's easily enough artwork to do an entire blog of just John Byrne art.  To start with, I thought I would introduce the genesis of what later became the New Mutants.

Kitty Pryde

  In 1978 John Byrne did this original character design for Kitty Pryde. Below the art John wrote this note to Chris Claremont: "My concept here is that Ariel should be not so much a new member of the X-Men per se, but rather the first member of a second team, a kind of "X-Men in training" team, which could possibly also include that black kid from F.F. 203.  They'd all (However many there are - say 5?) wear this modernized version of the original x-costume, and each would occasionally go on missions with the first team.  Should the concept prove viable, we might even do "interlude" episodes with these youngsters on missions of their own. The thing to avoid, of course, would be the "Legion of Substitute X-Men" Stigma"

Caliban

In the book X-Men Companion II, interviewer Peter Sanderson asked John Byrne:  "Now, back in the days when she was called Ariel, it seemed you folks were working on a character Caliban.  How did that concept evolve?"  Byrne replied:  "Oh, I was just in a comics shop at one point and I said "Ariel" and somebody said "Caliban" and it was like, "Of course if we're going to have an Ariel, we must have a Caliban."  So- (...) He was going to be an incredibly ugly Living Cerebro kind of character, whom we would never see entirely.  We would only see bits and pieces of him.  And he would live in this dark room in the back of the mansion and Kitty would be able to relate to him for some reason.  Chris defined the situation as being that she can't stand Nightcrawler because he is "wrong" somehow, he is a human done sideways, but Caliban was so hideous and so deformed that he was a broken thing, like a bird with a broken wing, and she could relate to him on that level."

Byrne's comments refer to Ariel and Caliban, characters in Shakespeare's The Tempest.  Notice that John Byrne's description of Caliban's powers in the above image differ from the powers mentioned in the article.

Caliban appeared as a drastically different character in Uncanny X-Men #148 drawn by Dave Cockrum.

Willie Evans Jr.

Peter Sanderson went on to ask why Caliban was never introduced during John Byrne's tenure on the X-Men, and Byrne replied "Because Shooter killed the concept of a second team of X-Men, the X-Men in training, because he said it sounded too much like the Legion of Substitute X-Men, so it died right there and Kitty became the only one who ever made it into the book. (...)  Kitty, Caliban, and Willie Evans Jr, that little black kid who was in the Fantastic Four about three years ago, who made the monstrous versions of the FF, were the only ones we were sure were going to be in it."

Willie Evans Jr. was a mutant who could create and animate solid matter with his mind.  He first appeared in Fantastic Four #203 by Marv Wolfman and Keith Pollard.  There weren't many good images of him in the issue, because in the story he was hospitalized, and had created nightmare versions of the FF while he slept.  I have included an image of Willie and one of his creations, Grunt, from the Marvel Phoenix Force Handbook.

The New Mutants as published bears some striking similarities to Byrne's original concept, so much so that John Byrne posted in his forum:

"One slightly amusing -- perhaps even bordering on ironic -- moment that came out of the birth of the New Mutants was Shooter calling me up one day to ask if I intended to "make trouble" over this book. It seemed he actually remembered the idea had originally been mine, and wanted to know if I intended to make any "claim" on the book -- like, for royalties, for instance.  I assured him that if Chris promised to make no "claim" on ALPHA FLIGHT, which was also in launch mode at that time, I would make no "claim" on NEW MUTANTS.  (Chris' only contribution to Alpha Flight, as some of you may recall, had been the name of the group.)"

The original forum post can be found in this thread:

http://www.byrnerobotics.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=40626&PN=190&TPN=1

Of course, the concept of new students was later used in New Mutants by Chris Claremont and Bob McLeod, introducing completely new characters who would form a team that Kitty Pryde refused to be a member of.  It's still fun to imagine what could have been if these concepts had been used, since at the time everything Claremont and Byrne had done with the X-Men had been a huge success!

Secrets Behind The X-Men

Instead of posting some unpublished artwork today, I decided to draw your attention to a blog called Secrets Behind The X-Men.  It has several well researched articles regarding stories and concepts that didn't make it to print.  One of the most recent articles mentions Sketch, a character who was originally designed to become a new X-Man.

Sketch and the X-Men by Adam Kubert

The entry reads: "When Claremont took over Uncanny X-Men and X-Men vol. 2 in 2000, the idea was to introduce a new X-Man in each series. The one was Thunderbird in X-Men vol. 2. Claremont told about the other in Wizard #103: “She’s actually an animation artist from Japan. She draws things and they come to life. We call her Reanimator.”  However, when she was introduced in Uncanny X-Men #383, it was under the name Sketch. And then she was never seen again. Claremont commented on it to Cinescape.com in 2001: ”Also lost in the shuffle: More on Sketch.”

The site is filled with tons of information about ideas that never came to fruition.  As a fan of Chris Claremont's X-Men stories, I was sorry that his return to the X-Men was cut short.  However, counting X-Treme X-Men, X-Men Forever, a third turn on Uncanny X-Men, Excalibur, New Excalibur, Exiles and GeNext, his output on X-Men related titles nearly equaled the number of issues on his first historic run.  For further reading, check out :

http://secretsbehindthexmen.blogspot.com/