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The X-Men title may refer to the superhero team itself, the eponymous comic series , or the broader franchise including various solo titles and team books such as the New Mutants , Excalibur , and X-Force. In the Marvel Universe , mutants are humans who are born with a genetic trait called the X-gene which grants them natural superhuman abilities.
Due to their differences from the majority of humanity, mutants are subject to prejudice and discrimination and many X-Men stories feature social commentary on bigotry and justice. The X-Men have fought against a variety of enemies , including villainous mutants, human bigots, supervillains, mystical threats, extraterrestrials, and malevolent artificial intelligences. In most iterations of the team, they are led by their founder Charles "Professor X" Xavier , a powerful telepath who runs a school for mutant children out of his mansion in Westchester, New York , which secretly is also the headquarters of the X-Men.
Their stories have frequently involved Magneto , a powerful mutant with control over magnetic fields , who is depicted as an old friend of and foil to Xavier, variously acting as an adversary or as an ally.
No longer working in secret, they fight publicly for the safety of mutants, to build bridges between Krakoa and human nations, and to protect the Earth and Solar System from extraterrestrial threats. In , with the success of Spider-Man , the Hulk , Thor , Iron Man , and the Fantastic Four , co-creator Stan Lee wanted to create another group of superheroes but did not want to have to explain how they got their powers.
In , Lee recalled, "I couldn't have everybody bitten by a radioactive spider or exposed to a gamma ray explosion. And I took the cowardly way out. I said to myself, 'Why don't I just say they're mutants? They are born that way. The X-Men, I did the natural thing there. What would you do with mutants who were just plain boys and girls and certainly not dangerous? You school them. You develop their skills. So I gave them a teacher, Professor X. Of course, it was the natural thing to do, instead of disorienting or alienating people who were different from us, I made the X-Men part of the human race, which they were.
Possibly, radiation, if it is beneficial, may create mutants that'll save us instead of doing us harm. I felt that if we train the mutants our way, they'll help us — and not only help us, but achieve a measure of growth in their own sense.
And so, we could all live together. Lee devised the series title after Marvel publisher Martin Goodman turned down the initial name, "The Mutants," stating that readers would not know what a "mutant" was. The original explanation for the name, as provided by Xavier in The X-Men 1 , is that mutants "possess an extra power That is why I call my students X-Men, for EX-tra power!
The comic focused on a common human theme of good versus evil and later included storylines and themes about prejudice and racism , all of which have persisted throughout the series in one form or another.
The evil side in the fight was shown in human form and under some sympathetic beginnings via Magneto, a character who was later revealed to have survived Nazi concentration camps only to pursue a hatred for normal humanity.
His key followers, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, were Romani. The title lagged in sales behind Marvel's other comic franchises. However, these later X-Men issues failed to attract sales and Marvel stopped producing new stories with issue 66, later reprinting a number of the older comics as issues 67— This new team replaced the previous members with the exception of Cyclops , who remained.
This team differed greatly from the original. Unlike in the early issues of the original series, the new team was not made up of teenagers and they also had a more diverse background. Marvel's corporate owners, Cadence Industries , had suggested the new team should be international, feeling it needed characters with "foreign appeal". Wolverine eventually became the breakout character on the team and, in terms of comic sales and appearances, the most popular X-Men character, even getting his own solo title.
However, this team would not remain whole for long; Sunfire, who never really accepted the other members, quit shortly after their first mission, and Thunderbird died on the next. Filling in the vacancy, a revamped Jean Grey soon rejoined the X-Men under her new persona of "Phoenix".
Angel, Beast , Iceman , Havok , and Polaris also made significant guest appearances. The revived series was illustrated by Cockrum, and later by John Byrne , and written by Chris Claremont. Claremont became the series' longest-running contributor. The s began with the comic's best-known story arc, the Dark Phoenix Saga , which saw Phoenix manipulated by the illusionist Mastermind and becoming corrupted with an overwhelming lust for power and destruction as the evil Dark Phoenix.
By the early s, X-Men was Marvel's top-selling comic title. Its sales were such that distributors and retailers began using an "X-Men index", rating each comic book publication by how many orders it garnered compared to that month's issue of X-Men. When Claremont conceived a story arc, the Mutant Massacre , which was too long to run in the monthly X-Men , editor Louise Simonson decided to have it overlap into several X-Books.
The story was a major financial success, [17] and when the later Fall of the Mutants was similarly successful, the marketing department declared that the X-Men lineup would hold such crossovers annually. This period also included the emergence of the Hellfire Club , the arrival of the mysterious Madelyne Pryor , and the villains Apocalypse , Mister Sinister , Mojo , and Sabretooth.
In , Marvel revised the entire lineup of X-Men comic book titles, centered on the launch of a second X-Men series, simply titled X-Men. The first issues of the second X-Men series were written by Claremont and drawn and co-plotted by Jim Lee.
Retailers pre-ordered over 8. Internal friction soon split the X-books' creative teams. Claremont left after only three issues of X-Men , ending his year run as X-Men writer. Byrne was then replaced by Nicieza and Scott Lobdell , who would take over the majority of writing duties for the X-Men until Lee's own departure months later when he and several other popular artists including former X-title artists Liefeld, Portacio, and Marc Silvestri would leave Marvel to form Image Comics.
Jim Lee's X-Men designs would be the basis for much of the X-Men animated series and action figure line as well as several Capcom video games. The s saw an even greater number of X-books with numerous ongoing series and miniseries running concurrently. Though the frequent crossovers were criticized by fans as well as editorial and creative staff for being artificially regular, disruptive to the direction of the individual series, and having far less lasting impact than promised, they continued to be financially successful.
Many of the later additions to the team came and went, such as Joseph , Maggott , Marrow , Cecilia Reyes , and a new Thunderbird. Xavier's New Mutants grew up and became X-Force , and the next generation of students began with Generation X , featuring Jubilee and other teenage mutants led and schooled by Banshee and ex-villainess Emma Frost at her Massachusetts Academy. In , Excalibur and X-Factor ended and the latter was replaced with Mutant X , starring Havok stranded in a parallel universe.
Marvel launched a number of solo series, including Deadpool , Cable , Bishop , X-Man , and Gambit , but few of the series would survive the decade. In , Claremont returned to Marvel and was put back on the primary X-Men titles during the Revolution revamp. He was later removed from the titles in and created his spin-off series, X-Treme X-Men. The book is often referred to as the Morrison-era, due to the drastic changes they made, beginning with " E Is For Extinction ", where a new villain, Cassandra Nova , destroys Genosha , killing sixteen million mutants.
Morrison also brought reformed ex-villain Emma Frost into the primary X-Men team, and opened the doors of the school by having Xavier "out" himself to the public about being a mutant. The bright spandex costumes that had become iconic over the previous decades were replaced by black leather street clothes reminiscent of the uniforms of the X-Men films. Morrison also introduced Xorn , who would figure prominently in the climax of his run. Several short-lived spin-offs and miniseries started featuring several X-Men in solo series, such as Emma Frost, Mystique and Nightcrawler.
Another series, Exiles , started at the same time and concluded in December which led to New Exiles in January written by Claremont. A new series titled X-Statix spawns from and replaces X-Force ; it is a series that explores the crossroads between heroism and being a celebrity, and how being a mutant is only acceptable as a medium of disposable entertainment.
It was known best for being a series that killed most of the introduced cast and having one of the highest team turnover rates for a superhero comic. The most prominent member to come out of X-Statix was Doop who is a green glob reminiscent of Slimer from Ghost Busters. X-Treme X-Men was cancelled. X-Statix ended in October Also, the X-Men returned to more traditional if not slightly revised costumes, as opposed to the black leather uniforms from the movies.
New X-Men: Academy X was also launched focusing on the lives of the new young mutants at the institute. This period included the resurrections of Colossus and Psylocke , a new death for Jean Grey , who later returned temporarily in the X-Men: Phoenix - Endsong , as well as Emma Frost becoming the new headmistress of the institute.
Several short-lived spin-offs and miniseries started featuring several X-Men in solo series, such as Gambit and Rogue. Notable story arcs of this decade are " Gifted " , " House of M " , " Deadly Genesis " — and " Endangered Species " In , the " Messiah Complex " storyline saw the destruction of the Xavier Institute and the disbanding of the X-Men.
It spun the new volumes of X-Force , following the team led by Wolverine, and Cable , following Cable's attempts at protecting Hope Summers. In , " Messiah War ," written by Craig Kyle and Chris Yost to serve as the second part in the trilogy that began with "Messiah Complex," was released.
A new New Mutants volume written by Zeb Wells, which featured the more prominent members of the original team reunited, was launched. The X-Men were also involved in the " Secret Invasion " storyline. In , the aftermath of the " X-Men: Schism " storyline led to the fallout between Wolverine and Cyclops.
Meanwhile, Uncanny X-Men relaunched for the first time ever and served as the flagship title for Cyclops' Team. In " Avengers vs. X-Men " served as a closure to the "House of M" and "Decimation" storylines. It featured the death of Professor X and the reappearance of new mutants after the return of the Phoenix Force. Notable additions to the X-Men have been Warbird and Blink.
The " Avengers vs. X-Men " storyline also took place during this period. In , as part of the Marvel NOW! New flagship title All-New X-Men was launched which featured the original five X-Men members who were brought to the present day by Beast and were made a separate team led eventually by Kitty.
The relaunched Uncanny X-Men featured Cyclops, his team and the new mutants, taking up residency in the Weapon X facility, which they have rebuilt into a school — the New Charles Xavier School for Mutants.
An all female book titled simply X-Men was also launched. During All-New Marvel Now! Also, Wolverine and the X-Men was relaunched and turned into mutants-in-training book. In , for the 50th anniversary of the X-Men, " Battle of the Atom " was published which involved members of both X-Men schools trying to decide what to do about the time-displaced original X-Men, culminating in a confrontation with a version of the Brotherhood and the X-Men from an unspecified future date.
In , Wolverine was killed off in the " Death of Wolverine " story arc, as the conclusion of a storyline that saw him lose his healing factor after he was infected by an intelligent virus.
Notable additions to the X-Men have been Firestar and M.
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