Like the Original X-Men?

When I first saw this ad more than 30 years ago, I knew little about the new X-Men who featured in the series at the time and had never read about the original team pictured on the left.

Even in their original uniforms, though, I could identify Angel and Cyclops because of the wings and visor. Yet I had no idea that Marvel Girl of the original team had any connection to Phoenix of the new X-Men.

Familiar only with Beast from the Avengers, I did not recognize the early version of the character rendered in the ad without the blue fur.

But the most puzzling character to me at the time was the "snowman" (a callback to X-Men #1, when Iceman dressed up like a snowman in a gag sequence).

A few years later, with more knowledge of comic book history under my belt—and after Angel, Beast, and Iceman regrouped—I thought Marvel could have reworked this ad to say:

Like the Original X-Men? Then You'll Love the New Defenders!

What Price Power?

The variant cover of Ultimate New Ultimates #1 looked like a dream come true. The version of the Defenders from Ultimates 2 finally got the superpowers they desired.

But in exchange for superhuman abilities, these Defenders turned away from their heroic aspirations—buying into an evil plot to steal Thor's hammer, Mjolnir. The five-issue limited series ended with these criminal Defenders facing capture by Captain America, Iron Man, Hawkeye, and Thor.

Roll Call: (back) Black Knight, Nighthawk, Son of Satan, (front) Power Man, Valkyrie, and Hellcat (who now resembled a spotted version of Tigra).

Jeph Loeb and Frank Cho were the writer and penciler on the Ultimate New Ultimates series.