Marvel Comics Library. X-Men. Vol. 1. 1963-1966

When Marvel publisher Martin Goodman asked the brilliant Stan Lee to develop a new comic series, he had no idea that he would get something like The X-Men. No one foresaw that these superheroes would develop into a true pop culture phenomenon - not Goodman, not Lee, and not even the clairvoyant futurist Jack Kirby. Conceived by Lee and Kirby as mutants, they began as a charming, motley team of misfits. They were teenagers with "eX-tra" powers given to them at birth, not by random cosmic rays or an atomic explosion. Trained and led by a sober professor, the heroes were able to save the world from threats and villains.The first stories laid the foundation for much of what made the X-Men an intersection of comics and pop culture. Feared, misunderstood and persecuted by the public, the mutants waged their own civil rights battle. Despite their disparate superpowers, the misfits Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Angel, Beast and Iceman found safety in their community. Professor Xavier confronted his enemy Magneto, who in turn had gathered a brotherhood of evil mutants and was fighting against all humanity.Lee and Kirby were inspired to take the comics into the Marvel Age and invented a whole host of villains and characters that would become staples of the Marvel heroic sagas: The super-powered siblings Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, the collossal Blob, the unstoppable Juggernaut, Ka-Zar, the jungle dweller from the Savage Land, the demigod The Stranger from the stars, and Bolivar Trask with his army of Sentinels who hunted mutants. As Lee and Kirby gave way to new talent to pursue other realms of the Marvel Universe, Atlas-era cartoonist Werner Roth teamed up with the up-and-coming.