Uncanny X-Mas!

This Marvel Subscription ad imposed Santa hats onto Marc Silvestri's X-Men.  I'm not sure what this image was originally produced for, but I'm fairly certain it was used on a coffee mug.  The image at bottom was taken from a comic produced for Marvel's stockholders.  There's some horrible photoshopping on Rogue's head because part of her face and hair was missing in the original publication.

Merry X-Mas, mutants!

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Perhaps the most well-known Unpublished X-Men story was the original ending to X-Men #137, where Jean Grey lived.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.

Superaventuras Marvel

This modified version of Uncanny X-Men #132, from an international edition.

(I suspect it's Portugese)

Hope

Here's a sketch cover for Uncanny X-Men #1 (2011) featuring Hope Summers by Carlos Pacheco.

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 

Dazzler as Grace Jones by John Romita Jr.

According to Wikipedia:

"Dazzler was originally a project commissioned by Casablanca Records in the mid-to-late 1970s to be a cross-promotion in the mold of KISS, who had two successful comic book tie-in super-specials by the end of 1977. Marvel Comics would develop a singing superhero, while Casablanca would produce a singer. The two companies would then work with Filmworks and produce a tie-in motion picture; Marvel Comics Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter wrote a treatment for the project.

The character was originally conceptualized as "The Disco Queen" with the power to make people tell the truth. Initially, no one wanted anything to do with the project. Marvel Comics appointed former Archie Comics writer Tom DeFalco to the character and he developed some changes to the character, namely suggesting light-based powers. Roger Stern conceived of the character's name, Dazzler, while John Romita, Jr. provided pencils."

"Artist John Romita, Jr. originally intended for the character to resemble model, actress, and singer Grace Jones, as seen in early depictions.However, representatives from Filmworks – wanting to promote model and actress Bo Derek – insisted on design changes to reflect Derek's features.

To promote Dazzler, Casablanca wanted it cross-promoted within several key Marvel Comics titles: The X-Men, The Fantastic Four, and Spider-Man in particular[citation needed], with Dazzler debuting in The Uncanny X-Men because she was a mutant character. However, Casablanca continued to request conceptual changes to the character's appearance and personality, leading to several cancellations of the project. Eventually, Casablanca Records backed out of the Dazzler project altogether due to financial concerns. Marvel Comics, left with a much-publicized new character, decided to launch the project as a monthly series.

According to writer Tom DeFalco, Dazzler was canceled "five or six times" prior to its launch in March 1981. At the time, Marvel Comics was looking for other filmmakers to invest in a Dazzler cross-promotion. However, Jim Shooter and Stan Lee decided to launch the series without such a partnership because of their "faith in the character.""

Paul Smith Week / Uncanny X-Men 169

While this image later saw print in the back pages of Classic X-Men #24, it was originally intended to be the cover for Uncanny X-Men #169.  Check out the original art and the published cover below.

Classic X-Men 111

This pinup appeared as the last page of the last issue of Classic X-Men.  If the next issue had been published, it would have reprinted Uncanny X-Men #207, which included this battle between Wolverine and Phoenix over the fate of the Black Queen.  The Terry Dodson art below was most likely intended to be the cover for what would have been Classic X-Men #111.

Days of Future Past - Two Takes

We're concluding a week of Days of Future Past art with a look at two commissions by John Byrne, one is a reinterpretation of the classic cover to Uncanny X-Men 141, and the other is a direct recreation of the original art.

Uncanny X-Men 388

Here's an unpublished cover for Uncanny X-Men 388 by Salvador Larroca.

Uncanny X-Men 173 Redux

Here's a modern day take on the classic cover for Uncanny X-Men, by the original artist Paul Smith.

Adam Hughes Homage to Uncanny X-Men 173

Here's Adam Hughes' cover for the X-Men Classic reprint of Uncanny X-Men 173, with Rogue out in front, and Wolverine behind.

Uncanny X-Men 173 Week

Here's an unused cover sketch for Uncanny X-Men #173 by Paul Smith.

Update:  Gerry Turnbull has informed me that this piece is a convention sketch, and not an unused cover!

And here's the final cover that saw print.

The Unpublished X-Men Logos

Comic book letterer and logo designer extraordinaire Todd Klein has a fascinating blog about comic book logos.  Here is a preview of my favorite of the many unused logos designed by Rian Hughes in 2006.  Ultimately, Marvel decided to use a logo more in line with Jim Steranko's classic design.

(Note that the issue number and creative team don't actually correspond with the cover art for Uncanny X-Men 477.)

Here are links to Todd Klein's entire series of articles on X-Men Logos:

(The above logo can be found here in part 9)

X-MEN Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Update

Also, you can check out his blog for many more discussions about logos, comics, and life in general!:

http://kleinletters.com/Blog/

Dave Cockrum Week concludes!

Here's a sketch of Wolverine in the costume Dave intended for him, along with "Mean" from Kitty's Fairytale (Uncanny X-Men #153)

And this concludes our Dave Cockrum Week, with a heartfelt thanks to Dave for the wonderful characters he brought to life!

Mike Collins

This cover for Uncanny X-Men #264 by interior artist Mike Collins never saw print, the published issue had a cover by Jim Lee.

...and Nightcrawler too

A costume design for Nightcrawler by Alan Davis for his return to Uncanny X-Men in issue #444.

No Smoking Allowed

Wolverine fell victim to Marvel's No Smoking policy in Uncanny X-Men 448, when he was forced to put away his cigar in this panel by Olivier Coipel.  Here is the original panel, followed by the edited version that saw print.

An Exceptional Homage

Up until this point, the only artists featured on this site were Marvel artists who have worked on X-Men related comics at some point.  However, I had to make an exception for Covered, a blog that features reinterpretations of classic comic covers.  One of my favorites is this version of Uncanny X-Men 234 by Roderick Constance, a concept artist from California.

Covered can be found here: http://coveredblog.blogspot.com/,

and Roderick's website is located @ http://shadowshapes.com