Marvel Klassik #3
Marvel Klassik #3 is the German-language hardcover that gathered the first nine issues of the original 1963–64 X-Men run into a single prestige volume, giving German-speaking readers their first convenient collected-edition access to one of Marvel's most consequential debut arcs. Within those pages sit the first appearances of Cyclops, Jean Grey (as Marvel Girl), Beast, Angel, Iceman, Professor X, and Magneto himself — together the foundational cast that would eventually become the cornerstone of decades of mutant storytelling. The volume also carries the debuts of the Vanisher, the Blob, and the full Brotherhood of Evil Mutants (Magneto, Mastermind, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, Toad) — six new characters introduced across just four issues — establishing the template of a superhero team defined by social allegory rather than cosmic accident. By packaging these issues in a high-quality hardcover format, Panini Deutschland brought the Silver Age origins of Marvel's mutant metaphor to an audience that had largely encountered the X-Men only through later translated monthly serials.
In "Wer stoppt ... Vanisher?", a disillusioned Beast leaves the X-Men after a violent encounter with a mutant-hating mob, only to find himself in the ring as a professional wrestler. When he crosses paths with Unus, a mutant immune to touch seeking to join Magneto’s Brotherhood, the X-Men must confront both a new threat and the unexpected consequences of Beast’s invention. Written by Stan Lee and Michael Strittmatter, with iconic art by Jack Kirby and inks by Chic Stone, this 1998 issue features a cover by Kirby, Brodsky, and Giacoia.
Sell my copy
Have this issue — or a whole collection? Get a fair offer from us, skip the marketplace fees and the hassle.
We Buy Collections ▸History
The Marvel Klassik series was Panini Deutschland's late-1990s answer to Marvel's own Marvel Masterworks program — a line of numbered hardcover volumes reprinting the earliest, most historically significant Marvel runs in durable collected form. The series ran to at least 13 volumes, with other entries collecting Silver Surfer, Fantastic Four, Incredible Hulk, and Thor material from the same Stan Lee–Jack Kirby era. Volume #3, covering the X-Men, was published in 1998, the same year Marvel US issued its own new Marvel Masterworks: The X-Men hardcover, suggesting Panini licensed and scheduled the volume in coordination with that wider anniversary publishing push around the X-Men's 35th year.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Reprints X-Men #1–9 (cover dates September 1963–February 1965), the complete Stan Lee and Jack Kirby opening run through at least issue #9, published originally by Marvel Comics.
- X-Men #1 (September 1963): first appearances of Professor X (Charles Xavier), Cyclops (Scott Summers), Marvel Girl (Jean Grey), Beast (Hank McCoy), Angel (Warren Worthington III), Iceman (Bobby Drake), and Magneto (Erik Lehnsherr) — all created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.
- X-Men #2 (November 1963): first appearance of the Vanisher (Telford Porter), a teleporting mutant villain and one of the X-Men's earliest adversaries.
- X-Men #3 (January 1964): first appearance of the Blob (Frederick Dukes), an immovable carnival strongman whose refusal to join the X-Men and subsequent memory-wipe by Professor X sets a morally complex early tone for the series.
- X-Men #4 (March 1964): first full appearance of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, led by Magneto and including Mastermind (Jason Wyngarde), Quicksilver (Pietro Maximoff), Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff), and Toad (Mortimer Toynbee).
- X-Men #9 features the first appearance of Unus the Untouchable (Gunther Bain) and prominently involves Ka-Zar (Kevin Plunder) and his sabretooth companion Zabu; it also brings the Avengers — Thor, Iron Man, Giant-Man (Hank Pym), and Captain America (Steve Rogers) — into conflict with the X-Men.
- Published by Panini Deutschland (Marvel Deutschland imprint) in 1998 as part of the Marvel Klassik hardcover series, a German-market equivalent of the Marvel Masterworks reprint program that ultimately ran to 13 volumes.
- The stories collected here were written by Stan Lee with pencils by Jack Kirby and inks by Paul Reinman, representing some of the earliest Marvel Silver Age superhero storytelling and the genesis of the mutant-as-minority metaphor central to X-Men's enduring cultural resonance.
Cast · 40 characters
Full credits
Full plot ⚠ may contain spoilers
▸ Reveal full plot — may contain spoilers
After being attacked by a mutant hating crowd, Beast gets fed up and quits the X-Men. He becomes a professional wrestler but meets Unus, a mutant who cannot be touched. Unus is trying to join Magneto's Brotherhood so he takes on the X-Men. The X-Men barely fend him off and find Beast has constructed a machine that will actually increase Unus' powers. The X-Men try to prevent Hank from using the machine, but, once Unus has been zapped, he finds that he cannot even eat without the food being repelled out of his hands. Beast returns him to normal and Unus promises to will steer clear of Magneto.
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).