Stan Lee's immediate successor as writer of the X-Men, Roy Thomas, returns to the franchise in May to launch a new volume of X-Men Legends, Marvel's title in which classic X-Men creators tell tales set in their contemporary eras. In X-Men Legends #1, Thomas teams up with artist Dave Wachter to tell a Wolverine story set in the era of Logan's debut.
Though Wolverine's first appearance in Incredible Hulk #181 was scripted by writer Len Wein, Thomas helped co-create the character as editor - and now, he says he's getting a version of his longtime wish to be the one to write Wolverine's debut by returning to his earliest days.
"You could've knocked me over with one of the Angel's wing-feathers when editor Mark Basso invited me to scribe a two-part X-Men Legends story set back in the general period of the X-Men book during the period when I was originally writing it (as Stan's successor) in the latter 1960s," Thomas states in the announcement.
"After some thought, it occurred to me that what would really be fun would be to write a story that took place right after the crashing of Wolverine into the Marvel Universe in ‘1974’ - since, after conceiving the character in broad outline (and some specifics), I turned him over to the considerable writing skills of Len Wein," Thomas continues.
"But I have long kinda wished that I had scripted that story myself. This is the closest I'm gonna get - so I'm having a ball with it! (Artwork's pretty great, too!)"
Thomas wrote Uncanny X-Men #20-44, as well as #55-64 and #66. The title then began to feature reprints of older X-Men stories from issues #67-93, at which point the team was revised with a new roster and creative team in the legendary Giant-Size X-Men #1, featuring who else but Wolverine as a member of the new team.
Writer Chris Claremont quickly became the title's writer, guiding it for almost 20 years thereafter. Claremont himself will return to the X-Men in another flashback limited series focusing on Gambit in his earliest days with the X-Men.
X-Men Legends #1 goes on sale May 18 with covers from Kaare Andrews, Dan Jurgens, and Niko Henrichon. Stay tuned to Newsarama for Marvel's full May 2021 solicitations coming later this month.
X-Men Legends is a title built in a lab for new stories from some of the best X-Men creators of all time.
