My first X-Men comic was 1993’s X-Men Vol. 2 #20, a tale I’ve shared on many a podcast at this point. But my first issue of Uncanny X-Men was #301, which came out just a couple weeks later.
As Uncanny issues go, it’s not a load-bearing one. Battle of the Atom hasn’t even ranked it yet. Trevor Fitzroy goes after Forge for Upstarts points, and ends up getting his ass handed to him by the Gold Team, particularly Colossus, who is having a rough one between the recent deaths of his parents and the pending death of his sister, Illyana, of the Legacy Virus. (Don’t worry, she’ll get better.)
One thing I’ll always remember about it, though, is the opening splash page of Selene trapped in Fitzroy’s spooling machine, her body being ripped apart into horizontal ribbons. It made naive, 12-year-old me see ol’ Trevor as a true threat for an extreme era of comics.
Over the years, I’ve come to see John Romita Jr., the artist who drew that issue, as a warm blanket, his blocky, bulky figures taking me back to the excitement I felt diving into the deep end of X-Men and being completely lost but wanting to know more.
The son of the second most influential Spider-Man artist after Steve Ditko, Romita Jr., 69, has worked in comics for nearly 50 years (more if you count his influence on the design of the original Prowler in Amazing Spider-Man). He’s drawn the X-Men, Spidey, Superman, Batman, Daredevil, Captain America, the Hulk, Iron Man and pretty much every Big Two character you can think of, not to mention Kick-Ass, his collaboration with Mark Millar that went on to become two movies.
Why all these warm fuzzies for Jazzy Johnny Jr.? Super Jersey Comic Expo on Tuesday announced Romita as the first big guest of its 2026 show, returning to The Dome at Adventure Crossing in Jackson, New Jersey, April 18 and 19.
It’s Romita’s first New Jersey convention appearance in 10 years, said show co-founder Paul Brown, who recruited Romita while at HeroesCon in Charlotte, North Carolina.
“He agreed to do the show on the spot when I told him one of his comics was the first I ever read, and now I’m co-owner of the largest comic con in NJ,” Brown said.
That comic, incidentally, was Uncanny X-Men #300. Beat me by a month.
Tickets for Super Jersey Comic Expo are on sale now at $20 for one day or $30 for the weekend, and a portion of the proceeds will benefit multiple sclerosis research.
For more info, visit superjerseyexpo.com or follow @superjerseyexpo on socials.
Dan Grote is the editor and publisher of ComicsXF, having won the site by ritual combat. By day, he’s a newspaper editor, and by night, he’s … also an editor. He co-hosts The ComicsXF Interview Podcast with Matt Lazorwitz. He lives in New Jersey with his wife, two kids and two miniature dachshunds, and his third, fictional son, Peter Paul Winston Wisdom. Follow him @danielpgrote.bsky.social.
