Trading Cards expanded in the 1990s to go beyond sports athletes and stills from movies. For comics fans, card maker Impel turned the Marvel Universe into pocket-sized collectible art. In 1992, at the height of the X-Men popularity, the brand teamed with the hottest artist in the world to create a monumental trading card series that still has no equal today. Abrams Books has published a digest bringing together those at Marvel behind the scenes and it not only collects the popular X-men trading cards of 1992 but tells the story of its place in history in The Uncanny X-Men Trading Cards: The Complete Series.
Whether you scrounged coins to buy a single pack of X-Men trading cards from an ice cream truck on the way home from school, at the checkout in the grocery store, or at your local comic book shop; there was nothing like the excitement of tearing open that pack. Especially when you found that incredible random gold hologram. For all my nostalgia and knowledge tied to the quality printed pieces of cardboard, there’s a ton this small book from Abrams told me which I never knew.
That’s just one way this collector’s item goes beyond being a binder full of trading cards. Featuring an introduction by writer Ed Piskor, tidbits from then Marvel Special projects Bob Budiansky, and notes from editor Tom Brevoort along with info from card series colorist Paul Mounts; every page of this book is like an Amazon X-Ray of the X-Men. After reading this book you’ll understand that without Marvel and Impel producing Marvel Universe cards and the X-Men series, these treasures may never have paved the way for follow-up masterpieces from companies like Fleer.
There’s only one issue the book has, for its size this digest doesn’t fully utilize the real estate when it comes to printing any of the cards on a single page. When there are no notes from the gallery, the empty space is a bit cringy.
While that might be a deal breaker for some, if you’re willing to give this book a chance you’ll find many more true believer details to love. Creatively the dust jacket is the well-known box art featuring Magneto while the hardcover features a classic blue and yellow wolverine that graced the B box in stores. Removing the dust jacket you’ll be treated to a reprinting of a classic insert from X-Men #1. For those of us that missed the power rating card exclusive to the metal tin set at the time, it’s printed within these pages. Fans and collectors of X-Men memorabilia will want to pick this book up if only for –the can’t get anywhere else touch– of more cards. Abrams has printed new cards featuring the interlocking cover art of the best-selling comic book of all time X-Men #1 and a mini collection of the danger room art in new series themed cards you can only get with this book.
The Uncanny X-Men Trading Cards: The Collection is a high quality convergence of the gorgeous art Jim Lee created for this trading card set and a documentary of the X-Men’s golden moment in time. I’ve bought these cards as a kid, then again as an adult including the random holograms; but this book gives the collector in me a true feeling of completeness from knowing how the piece of the X-men in a binder on my bookshelf came to be. Pick this up because we eventually need this digest treatment focused on Marvel Universe Series II cards or the 1993 Marvel Masterpieces set by Joe Jusko.
You can pick up The Uncanny X-Men Trading Cards: The Complete Series on sale at Amazon
