Voice of the X-Men!
This week, F.O.O.M. Friday looks at F.O.O.M. #10, which featured the (then) all-new Uncanny X-Men!
The issue is actually pretty thin when it comes to the new X-Men, but a long-winded article about an FBI agent investigating the mutant phenomenon did turn up some interesting trivia by cribbing from what may have been Stan Lee’s original X-Men character descriptions from the 1960s. I don’t know if Stan was thinking about animation, or if he was just being thorough, but the character descriptions reference contemporary 1960s actors for the voices of the X-Men.
For example, did you know that Cyclops was supposed to have the voice of Anthony Perkins? According to F.O.O.M. #10, it’s true!
Hmm. Relationship issues, can be charming or a jerk … I guess it fits. And now we know that when they call Scott, “Cyke,” it’s really short for “Psycho!”
Charles Xavier had the voice of Leslie Howard (“without English accent”); the Angel was to sound like a young Gene Barry; and the fastidious Beast had the voice of the equally-fastidious Tony Randall!
That may or may not fit, but at least the Beast got a voice. Iceman and Marvel Girl were identified only as typical teenagers. Poor Jean was also described as falling “… madly in love at the drop of a hat. Presently has a crush on Professor X, Cyclops, Angel, and Lord-knows-who-else.”
Since Marvel Girl is listed as age 17 1/2 while Professor X was “Thirty-ish” that’s kind of … eww. Maybe Stan the Man was still getting over Stanley Kubrick’s 1962 film, Lolita?
Posted on January 17, 2014, in FOOM Friday! and tagged Anthony Perkins, Beast, Cyclops, F.O.O.M., Marvel Comics, Tony Randall, X-Men. Bookmark the permalink. 13 Comments.
dangvozden
Paul O'Connor
Kris (not Chris)
markginocchio
miloapama
Dean Compton
Moya
ryanmcswain
Longbox Graveyard 
Stan’s choices regarding actors serving as the voice models for the X-Men is a bit strange to say the least (Yikes!). In terms of how most Silver and Bronze Age fans (back in the day) probably imagined the X-Men actually jabbering, many would have likely judged these actors as being about as suitable as Herman Munster and Grandpa.
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Yeah … Stan was in his forties when he did this work (IF he did this work), but he was still reaching back to his childhood referencing a character from Gone With The Wind for one of his voices. It would be like me saying somebody talked like Walter Matthau …
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An erudite, scholarly-sounding Beast is the way to go.
Another funny X-Men voice bit is that in Pryde of the X-Men, the failed pilot of a proposed X-Men series a couple years before the FOX show we got in ’92, Wolverine was AUSTRALIAN. I think Claremont alluded to him being an Australian expatriate at some point, if not in the series, than in an interview somewhere. Someone more diligent than me should find it.
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Er, I actually looked and all I could find was that Wolverine was Australian in the show due to some production idiocy, and nothing to do with Chris Claremont’s intentions at all. So nevermind that.
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I recall Marvel has at least a couple times tried to slip the punch at having made Wolverine a Canadian. It was a running joke with a Canadian comics friend of mine that “there was no way Logan could be Canadian,” owing to politeness issues and etc. But I think the canon still holds that Wolverine is from the Great White North, which is as it should be, given that he was originally designed specially to appeal to Canadian audiences when Marvel was trying to expand their newsstand presence in that country.
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I’ve read on another site that FOOM #10 mentions that Beverly Switzler from Howard the Duck was originally going to be called Mercedes Bent. Is anyone able to confirm this or even better to post a copy of the article?
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Sorry, Nick, since I moved I no longer have my copies of FOOM close to hand. The next time I stumble on the stack in my locked-away collection I will give a look.
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Thanks for getting back to me. Nick
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