In Retroactive I’ll take you on a visual comic cover tour of the past covering all the covers for a particular series. Each entry will cover an entire year and I’ll always have one comic from DC and one comic from Marvel. At the end of each edition of Retroactive I’ll select my overall favourite cover for that year for each series. Last time on Retroactive we covered The Flash’s Debut and Uncanny X-Men 1963. If you need a refresher, just click HERE. Below you’ll find the two series that I’m currently covering. Click on that specific logo to be instantly taken directly to that series. The last section is reserved for my Top Picks from each year. Click the logo or travel to the third page to view them.
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The Flash 1960
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Uncanny X-Men 1964
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The Speech Bubble 
I really like Flash # 111. First of all, there is a very intriguing tagline that could be the title of a sci – fi movie: “Invasion of the Cloud Creatures.” That tagline raises a lot of interesting questions: where do these creatures come from? How could a single man (even a super – powered one like Flash) destroy or at least defeat them? And why is Flash so frightened that he runs flat out, instead of facing them as a superhero is supposed to do?
I also love the unusual purple sky and the contrast between warm colours (Flash’s costume and the lightnings) and cold colors (the grass field and the trees in the background).
By the way, a tree is shown even in the following cover: 9 times out of 10 superhero comics have an urban setting, so it is quite strange that Flash had to face a villain in the countryside for 2 consecutive months.
As for the X – Men, I select UXM # 5. Even in this cover we have a very effective tagline: “Action!! Surprises! Suspense!” These are exactly the things I look for when I read a comic book, so, if I had lived in the ’60s, I would have taken UXM # 5 out of the spinner rack for that tagline alone.
I also love the fact that we’re seeing the fight between the X – Men and Magneto’s team from Angel’s point of view. This artistic choice makes us identify ourselves with Magneto’s hostage, and this is another thing a comic book should always do: to make you care for its characters.
The icing on the cake is Angel flying over the X – men title: it is a very subtle way to underline that he will be the leading character of the issue, even if he’s not involved in the fight between the X – Men and Magneto’s team.
“I really like Flash # 111.”
This was my runner-up cover for all the reasons you listed. In the end, my nostalgia for Captain Cold won out though. The more I look at, the more I get intrigued. Could this possibly be the work of the Weather Wizard? I must find out!
“By the way, a tree is shown even in the following cover: 9 times out of 10 superhero comics have an urban setting, so it is quite strange that Flash had to face a villain in the countryside for 2 consecutive months.”
Oh! Really good catch. I never really thought about but you are right.
“As for the X – Men, I select UXM # 5.”
And again you choose my runner-up. We were so close to being in-line this week, so close yet so far. Angel being helpless to aide his teammates, only being able to watch the villains enact their sinister plan is simply great and elicits a powerful emotional response from the reader. Simply x-ceptional!
P.S.: I gave a second look at the X – Men covers, and I realized that Angel ALWAYS flies over the X – Men title. This was surprising: I had always identified him as a supporting character, since characters like Cyclops and Jean Grey regularly upstage him, so why did Marvel decide to include one of the least exploited members of the team in the X – Men title? Maybe he became a supporting character later on.
“I had always identified him as a supporting character, since characters like Cyclops and Jean Grey regularly upstage him, so why did Marvel decide to include one of the least exploited members of the team in the X – Men title?”
Good question. Maybe because they thought he was the most unique looking? Maybe because he balances out nicely with the title? Maybe because his power was the easiest to get across why capturing our attention? Maybe they thought of the five powers this is the one most people would want? Maybe…we’ll never know. 🙂
Thanks, as always, for sharing your selections!
Thank you as well for your replies! : )
Great choices for this Retroactive of The Flash and X-Men. I really like The Flash #112 with the Flash and the Elongated Man on the cover, its always great to see these two on a cover. I thought we’d both pick Uncanny X-Men #’4 with Prof X and his X-Men surrounded by the towering forms of Magneto and his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. A really good X-Men cover!
“Its always great to see these two on a cover.”
I smell a mystery! 🙂 And this was his first appearance too.
“I thought we’d both pick Uncanny X-Men #4”
You know the saying: Great minds think alike! 🙂
Thanks for sharing your choices as well.