In the early 90s, Marvel and Impel had a wonderful work relationship. Not too long ago I brought up the 1990 Marvel Universe card series, so let’s take a look at another 90s staple: 1992’s Uncanny X-Men trading cards (Series 1), also from Impel.
I’ve stated a few times through my Lost in the Longbox column that I was really into X-Men during that “crazy” decade called the 90s, as were so many other kids from that time. The Marvel franchise really hit a milestone 22 years ago… they had toys, a cartoon series, fruit snacks and a recently relaunched comic series (that soon became a cash cow). So why not launch a card series as well, right?
The base set for Series 1 consisted of 100 cards and 5 chase holograms. The design of these guys was pretty basic, they’re on regular (generic) card stock with a very low gloss on the front. The backs seem to have a little less shine to them, more a of matte finish really. I would also like to note that I’m not a fan of the holograms featured in this series. They were all on this gold foil type of card and the color spectrum you see on normal holograms is harder to see on these. They lacked that cool 3D pop that you tend to get with most holo cards.
The series followed the traditional “Comic Book Cards” format, grouping them in the line of Super Heroes, Super Villains, Teams, Ex-X-men and Allies with the last 9 cards forming a giant puzzle that depicted an action scene of Xavier’s awesome mutant dudes wrecking stuff in the danger room.
The card designs are 100 percent loyal to the time frame they were created in. The colors, fonts and basic style just scream 90s, which also means they appear a tad dated by today’s standard. The backs were made to look like Xavier’s Cerebro Files. Basic stats (name, weight, height and first appearance) are all listed with a pretty cool power level chart showing how the characters’ strengths and weaknesses compare. Also included was a small paragraph on the character and at the bottom of the cards, much like Marvel Universe series one cards, there’s a special little factoid known as an “Xtra Fact.”
All 100 cards were all drawn by the same artist, Jim Lee, which is one of the main reasons I love these cards so much. Jim Lee just happens to be one of my most favorite comic artist ever. He was currently doing the X-Men series at this time so it was fitting for him to do the art design for these bad boys.
These cards aren’t rare or even terribly hard to find and, oddly enough, tend to sell higher individually than as a set. You can generally find this whole set with the holograms for anywhere to $20 to $30, depending on their condition and the seller. If you’re a completionist I guess you have to have the holograms, however I’d pass them up if you just want some gnarly X-Men cards, they just didn’t come out well. Happy Hunting!
