The X-Men are a group of comic book superheroes published by Marvel Comics. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, they first appeared in X-Men #1 (September 1963).
The team’s original incarnation was unsuccessful but, after a 1975 reformation, they grew to become one of the most popular franchises in comic books and many writers and artists have become industry star as a result of their work on the franchise.
Since the early 1990s, the X-Men have been adapted into many other media, most notably two animated television series and a string of blockbuster Hollywood movies.
X-Men are mutants, human beings who, due to a quantum leap in evolution, are born with superhuman abilities. Mutants are often hated by regular humans both because of ordinary bigotry and because humans fear that mutants are destined to replace them. This fact is worsened by a number of mutants, most notably Magneto who use their powers to try to disrupt and dominate human society. The X-Men were gathered by the benevolent Professor X to protect a world that hates and fears them from Magneto and other threats.
Herein lies the sociopolitical undercurrent of the franchise. Mutants are often seen as a metaphor for racial, religious and other minorities that face oppression. Professor X has been compared to African-American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., and the team's arch-nemesis Magneto to the more militant Malcolm X.
| Table of contents |
In the early 1960s, Marvel Comics editor/writer Stan Lee, artist Jack Kirby and several other illustrators produced a number of superhero titles which stressed character personalities and personal conflict as much as action and adventure including The Fantastic Four, The Incredible Hulk and Spider-Man. X-Men was one of the last titles of this Silver Age renaissance, appearing in September 1963.
In the comic book series, the X-Men were founded by the paraplegic telepath Charles Xavier, a.k.a. Professor X. Xavier gathered the X-Men under the cover of a "School for Gifted Youngsters" at an large country estate in Westchester County, New York.
Cover-billed as "the strangest heroes of all", the original X-Men consisted of five teenagers still learning to control their superhuman powers:
A precursor to the concept a school for feared mutants appeared in the 1953 science fiction novel Children of the Atom by Wilmar Shiras, which has been credited - though never officially confirmed - with inspiring the X-Men. The title characters of the novel were also mutants, the results of an unintended experiment in genetic mutation. The term "Children of the Atom" has also been used at times during the X-Men franchise's history to refer to mutants in the series.
Despite the philosophical concepts which appeared in the X-Men series, Lee has said his motivation for inventing genetic "mutants" was to find a way to create a number of super-powered characters without having to come up with a separate and interesting origin for each one.
X-Men #1 also introduced the team's arch-nemesis, Magneto, who controlled magnetism and who felt that mutants should rule over normal humans. Magneto's character would later be fleshed out to reveal that he once shared a friendship with Professor X and that his decree that mutants must conquer or be conquered grew from his experiences as a Holocaust survivor. X-Men #4 introduced Magneto’s team, the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.
While a few other important villains debuted during the 1960s - such as Professor X's superhumanly strong stepbrother the Juggernaut and the mutant-hunting robot Sentinels) - the X-Men often fought easily-forgotten mutant criminals, alien invaders and subterranean monsters. As a result, this era is largely regarded as unremarkable and the X-Men became one of the less successful Marvel series during the 1960s.
Lee and Kirby departed the series in 1966, handing the reins over to Roy Thomas and Werner Roth. In the late 1960s, Thomas was joined by well-known artists Jim Steranko and Neal Adams in an effort to save the series from sagging sales. These issues are more highly regarded by fans and introduced two more X-Men:
Though sales did improve while Adams was illustrated the book, it was too little and too late, and Marvel stopped producing new issues of X-Men in 1969. The series continued by reprinting old issues and the X-Men appeared in other Marvel comics, but faded to near-obscurity.
In 1975, writer Len Wein and artist Dave Cockrum introduced a new team of X-Men. Rather than teenagers, this group consisted of adults who hailed from a variety of nations and cultures. Giant-Size X-Men #1 introduced this team, called together by Professor X to rescue the original team from captivity on a radioactive “living island.”
This "All-New, All-Different X-Men" were led by Cyclops, and consisted of:
After Giant-Sized X-Men #1, Marvel began publishing new issues of X-Men, featuring the new team (minus Sunfire and Thunderbird). The series was illustrated by Cockrum and written by Chris Claremont, who would go on to become the longest-standing contributor to the series. One of the most important storylines of this era was "The Phoenix Saga" (X-Men #101-108, 1977) in which Jean Grey (seemingly) bonded with a cosmic entity called Phoenix and lead the team on an intergalactic mission. The saga introduced the Shi'ar alien race and its empress Lilandra, a recurring love interest of Professor X.
In 1978, Cockrum was succeeded by John Byrne, who co-plotted the series (retitled Uncanny X-Men with issue #142). This marked the beginning of what many consider the X-Men's first creative renaissance, during which the series became one of the most popular comic books in the industry.
Claremont and Byrne thrust the X-Men into a variety of desperate situations where their personal senses of self were tested, most notably "The Dark Phoenix Saga" (Uncanny X-Men #129-38, 1980). In this story, the aristocratic Hellfire Club seduced Phoenix, using Mastermind's illusions. This tampering with her mind unleased Phoenix's dark side and she went on to destroy an entire planet. Lilandra commanded her Imperial Guard in a battle against the X-Men for Phoenix's life on Earth's moon. Phoenix committed suicide to prevent further bloodshed, a watershed moment for comics; major characters had rarely been killed up to that point and sacrificial suicide had previously been inconceivable.
For their swan song, Claremont and Byrne produced "Days of Future Past" (Uncanny X-Men #141-142, 1981), which portrayed a dystopian future in which most of the X-Men are dead and Sentinels herd mutants into concentration camps. This uncompromising vision of the future has inspired many X-Men stories in decades since.
In 1982, Claremont wrote and Brent Anderson illustrated the graphic novel X-Men: God Loves Man Kills, in which Reverend William Stryker began a religious crusade against mutants, capturing Professor X to manipulate his powers to attack and eradicate mutant minds. The X-Men united with Magneto to battle Stryker, resulting in one of the clearest examples of mutants as a metaphor for race relations in the series. More than 20 years later, the story inspired the second X-Men film.
Meanwhile, Uncanny X-Men continued with Claremont and artists such as Paul Smith and later John Romita Jr.. Early 1980s storylines introduced the underground mutant settlement the Morlocks, explored Wolverine's love of Japanese aristocrat Mariko Yashida, saw Storm adjust to the (temporary) loss of her powers and form a relationship with the government weapons contractor Forge, and delved into Cyclops's relationship with Madelyne Pryor, a seeming doppelganger of Jean Grey. This last story ended with Cyclops marrying Pryor and retiring from the X-Men.
The X-Men gathered several new recruits in the early 1980s, including:
In 1983, the X-Men's growing popularity lead to the launch of New Mutants, the first in what would be a long line of spin-off series called X-Books. The New Mutants featured a group of teenaged mutants attending Xavier's school.
In Uncanny X-Men #200 (1985), both the New Mutants and the X-Men faced a drastic change when Professor X left Earth with Lilandra to heal from an attempt on his life. Xavier asked Magneto, who Claremont had developed as an almost sympathetic character, to become the school's headmaster and serve as an X-Man. The long-time villain accepted, though his tenure would be brief.
In the late 1980s, Marvel enlarged its number of X-Men related titles and the franchise became one of the company's greatest assets. In 1985, the original X-Men, including a controversially resurrected Jean Grey, formed X-Factor. Early issues of X-Factor introduced Apocalypse, an ancient mutant who would become a major X-Men adversary. In 1986, Wolverine was granted his own solo series, which often dealt with his struggles with personal honor and his past. In 1987 Marvel added the offbeat Excalibur, featuring Rachel Summers, Nightcrawler, Shadowcat and the English superheroes Captain Britain and Meggan.
Additional titles led to the regular use of fictional crossovers (sometimes called "X-Overs"), storylines which would overlap into several X-Books for several months. The first, 1986's grisly "Mutant Massacre," featured the Marauders, a group a murderous mutants, who slaughtered the Morlocks and severely injured many of the X-Men who intervened. The saga introduced Mister Sinister, a nefarious mutant geneticist who was the Marauders' leader. It also brought Sabretooth, previously an opponent of the martial arts hero Iron Fist, into the X-Men fold as an adversary for Wolverine, with the suggestion that the two were linked in the past.
In 1987, after several X-Men relocated to Excalibur, Claremont unveiled a new X-Men line-up consisting of Storm, Rogue, Wolverine, Colossus, Havok and several characters new to the team:
Following the 1988 "Fall of the Mutants" crossover, in which the X-Men died and were reborn fighting a demon called the Adversary in Dallas, the team briefly relocated to an abandoned outpost in Australia. The Australian period saw the introduction of the Reavers, a band of cyborg mercenaries, and the crossover "Inferno," which revaled that Madelyne Pryor was actually a clone of Jean Grey created by Mister Sinister. The X-Men and X-Factor battled Pryor, who was now the insane Goblin Queen, and the demons she had allied herself with.
In late 1989, Marvel began publishing Uncanny X-Men twice a month, allowing Claremont to write intertwined plot threats involving a number of X-Men. The 1990 crossover, "The X-tinction Agenda," pulled the X-Men back together, with two new members:
From 1987 until 1990 Marc Silvestri illustrated Uncanny X-Men. He was succeeded by young artist named Jim Lee, who was one of the most popular artists in comics during his tenure on the title.
After the X-Men's return to the West Chester, New York and Professor X's return to Earth in early 1991, Marvel revised the entire lineup of X-books. Artist Rob Liefeld transformed The New Mutants into the platoon-like X-Force, led by the mysterious warhawk Cable. The original X-Men abandoned X-Factor and returned to the X-Men, many of them much different from when they left. Beast had developed blue fur and earned a PhD in genetics and Angel, now called Archangel, had been transformed by Apocalypse and now had blue skin and metal wings. Meanwhile, Havok, Polaris and several secondary mutants formed a new, government-affiliated X-Factor.
To make room for the enlarged main team, Marvel launched a second X-Men series, simply called X-Men. Written by Claremont and illustrated by Lee, the new series featured the "blue team," consisting of Beast, Psylocke, Rogue, Gambit, Cyclops and Wolverine. Uncanny X-Men, written and illustrated by Lee and Whilce Portacio, featured the "gold team," consisting of Colossus, Iceman, Archangel, Jean Grey, Storm, and Bishop, a gun-toting renegade mutant from a distant future. Professor X, Banshee and Jubilee stayed on as non-combatant X-Men.
The popular art of Lee and Liefield and the buzz produced by this reformation raised the X-Men's popularity even further and the first issues of X-Force and X-Men became two of the best-selling comic book issues of all time, thanks mainly to the sales boom from comics speculators.
Amid the success, internal friction split the X-Men books' creative teams. Claremont left after only three issues of X-Men due to clashes with Marvel editors and with Lee, ending his fifteen-year stint as X-Men scribe. Months later, Liefield and Lee left Marvel with several other popular artists to form Image Comics.
The X-Men's rise in popularity continued, largely thanks to the Fox Network's top-rated X-Men animated series, which debuted in 1992. Meanwhile Uncanny X-Men was handed over to writer Scott Lobdell and artist Joe Madureira, whose manga-like style helped generate a new interest in Japanese-style comics in the U.S. X-Men continued with writer Fabian Nicieza and artist Andy Kubert and later Lobdell and artist Carlos Pacheco.
X-overs continued as almost annual events during the 1990s. Although they consistently boosted sales, many fans complained that they were just contrived publicity stunts. Some of the more prominent crossovers from the decade include:
The 1990s saw an even greater glut of X-books, with numerous ongoing series and miniseries running at any given time. Ongoing series from this time included Generation X, starring another team of teenage mutants and X-Man, starring a powerful young mutant from the "Age of Apocalypse" reality. Marvel launched solo series for several characters including Cable, Gambit, Bishop and Deadpool, a saracastic mercenary antagonist of X-Force. In 1998 Excalibur and X-Factor ended and the latter was replaced with the parallel world series Mutant X starring Havok.
In 1997 major characters such as Bishop, Gambit, Jean Grey and Cyclops were written out of the X-Men, and a new team was assembled consisting of Wolverine, Rogue, Beast, Storm and several newcomers:
When writer/artist Alan Davis began his stint as X-Men scribe in 1998, he scrapped that team, keeping Marrow, Rogue, Storm and Wolverine and returning Shadowcat, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Gambit and Professor X. Fans considered Davis' stint, during which he illustrated X-Men and Adam Kubert illustrated Uncanny X-Men, a moderate success, but Marvel ended it when Claremont agreed to return in 2000 to write both core X-Men series.
Marvel instituted a six-month time gap between issues of X-Books, allowing Claremont and illustrators to completely revise the X-Men in a single month (a similar overhaul occurred in most other X-Books). Claremont's second stint featured a cast of the old regulars plus new arrivals:
Wandering plot lines and forgettable new villains plagued Claremont's return, leading Marvel Editor-in-Cheif Joe Quesada to remove him in early 2001. Quesada paired Claremont with artist Salvador LaRocca for a new title, X-Treme X-Men featuring Thunderbird, Psylocke, Bishop, Sage, Gambit, Rogue and Storm operating outside the central X-Men.
At the same time, Marvel cancelled Gambit, Bishop, X-Man, Mutant X and Generation X and completely overhauled X-Force. While these series sold well, Quesada argued that so many mutant superhero titles had become redundant.
Marvel launched a few new books, not based on the "fighting for a world that hates and fears them" routine, including Weapon X, a mercenary group employing Sabretooth, Marrow and several other hard-edged characters, Exiles, a group of reality-hopping mutants from various parallel words, and the new X-Force (later retitled X-Statix) featuring a group of publicity-seeking, corporate-sponsored mutants. A new New Mutants series followed.
Another popular new X-Men series was Ultimate X-Men, a reinvention of the concept featuring teenaged versions of the X-Men and meant to appeal to new readers. Ultimate X-Men was set in the Ultimate Marvel Universe, alongside Ultimate Spider-Man and The Ultimates, ect.
Other drastic changes included the deaths of long-running characters Colossus and Psylocke, and the uncovering of Wolverine's beginnings in the 2001 Origin mini-series, which revealed that Wolverine was born James Howlett, son of rich plantation owners in late 19th Century Canada, and has long suffered fits of amnesia.
2001 also saw the ascent of writer Grant Morrison and artist Frank Quitely to X-Men, retitled New X-Men. featuring the line-up of Beast, Jean Grey, Professor X, Cyclops, Wolverine and Emma Frost, a seductive telepath and former White Queen of the Hellfire Club. The team was outfitted in black leather uniforms resembling those of the 2000 |X-Men film and a student body of teenage mutants was added to Xavier's School. New X-Men was known for its high-minded science fiction concepts, its sense of humor and its ambitious, unexpected twists and turns such as the killing of 16 million mutants in Genosha at the hands of the Sentinels. Most fans applauded Morrison's smart, edgy approach and, for the first time since the early 1980s, there was a consensus that the X-Men franchise was not only commercially but artistically successful.
Meanwhile Uncanny X-Men was revamped by writer Joe Casey and artist Ian Churchill and later writer Chuck Austen and artists Kia Asamiya and Ron Garney. The book, which focused on traditional action and adventure, featured Iceman, Nightcrawler and Archangel and several surprising new additions to the team:
In 2004, Morrison left New X-Men and Marvel prepared for what was already being called the "post-Morrison period". Marvel cancelled X-Treme X-Men and placed Claremont back on Uncanny X-Men. The company also launched Astonishing X-Men with writer Joss Whedon (well-known as the creator of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and artist John Cassaday. Marvel also launched several new X-Books including Rogue, Nightcrawler, District X (in which Bishop polices a mutant neighborhood of New York City), New X-Men: Academy X (a continuation of New Mutants starring Xavier's student body), and a new Excalibur (featuring Professor X's attempt to rebuild Genosha).
In 1989, Marvel Entertainment produced a pilot for an X-Men series called Pryde of the X-Men. It never aired, although a comic book adaptation was produced from the pilot's animation cels.
In 1992, the Fox Network launched an unrelated X-Men animated series with the roster of Beast, Cyclops, Gambit, Jean Grey, Jubilee, Professor X, Rogue, Storm and Wolverine. The team's major adversaries included Magneto, Mr. Sinister, Sabretooth, Apocalypse and the Sentinels. The series often utilized stories from the Claremont years and even produced its own versions of the Phoenix and Dark Phoenix Sagas in its third season. The series was an extraordinary success, becoming one of the most watched animated series in television history. It continued for five seasons, ending in 1997, but Fox and the ABC Family Network began airing reruns after the success of the 2000 X-Men film.
In 2000, Warner Brothers Network launched X-Men: Evolution, which portrayed Cyclops, Jean Grey, Nightcrawler, Rogue and Shadowcat as teenagers attending regular high school in addition to Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. At the latter, Professor X, Storm and Wolverine were their teachers. The series, which was aimed at younger children than its predecessor, irked longtime X-Men fans but gathered moderate ratings. The first season mainly featured Magneto's Brotherhood of Mutants. Later seasons predominantly featured Apocalypse as an adversary and introduced versions of The New Mutants and Magneto’s Acolytes. The series ended in 2003 after its fourth season.
In 2000, 20th Century Fox released X-Men, a $75 million film adaptation of the comic book, directed by Bryan Singer. The film featured Cyclops (James Marsden), Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) and Storm (Halle Berry) as leather-clad X-Men who also serve as teachers of Professor Xavier’s Patrick Stewart School for the Gifted. Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) and Rogue (Anna Paquin) were two mutant wanderers who crossed their path. The team battles Magneto (Ian McKellen) and his Brotherhood of Mutants, who created a machine that turned humans into mutants and planned to affect a congregation of world leaders. The film gathered good reviews, approval from fans, and earned $157.3 million at the box office, helping usher in a new era of Marvel movies including 2002's Spider-Man and 2003's Daredevil and Hulk.
In 2003, the sequel film X2: X-Men United, also directed by Singer, was released. That film was loosely based on the 1982 X-Men graphic novel God Loves, Man Kills. Instead of a minister, William Stryker Brian Cox is a high-ranking army general who leads an assault into Xavier’s school to build his own version of Xavier’s mutant-hunting computer Cerebro. The film also introduced Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming) to film-goers. The movie was an even greater success than the first, earning $214 million and many fans and critics considered it a superior film.
X3 is planned for 2006.