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Uncanny X-Men #56
May, 1970

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TO VIEW THE UNPUBLISHED VERSION

This was Neal Adams' first cover for X-Men, done at a time when it was viewed in the office as an endangered book, teetering on the precipice of cancellation.  Some would later say that it was selling decently but that the returned copies — the ones unsold by wholesalers and returned for credit — were being tallied incorrectly, and returns on other Marvel titles were being tallied for X-Men

In any case, the important thing to know is that the goal at that point was the shake up the X-Men title and try to make it different.  To that end, Adams designed a cover with the title characters strapped to their logo...a cover that was quickly vetoed by Publisher Martin Goodman, who said it made the title of the book too difficult to read.  One wonders if that might not have been a good thing, considering the fact that he believed readers already weren't rushing to buy a book called X-Men.

Adams, trying to get something special on the cover, had to settle for the issue's villain just holding the logo.  At one point at DC, this kind of thing was forbidden and not because it made the title of the publication hard to read.  It made it difficult for foreign publishers to reprint the cover if they had to figure out how to work their local logos into an existing drawing.

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