User:Michael Rawdon/Temp/X-Men: Difference between revisions

I'm using this page to work out a temporary article regarding mediation of a dispute on X-Men. See Talk:X-Men for details. -mhr 06:39, 20 Aug 2004 (UTC)

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Following the success of the Fantastic Four comic launched in 1961, Marvel Comics produced a number of superhero titles which stressed character personalities and personal conflict as much as action. X-Men was one of the last titles of the first wave of this early 1960s renaissance, appearing in September 1963. It and The Avengers #1 (launched the same month) were the new Marvel's first forays into team comics. However, while The Avengers was immediately successful, X-Men was not.

The characters and concept were created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, who had also created the Fantastic Four. Lee has claimed that he introduced the concept of benign mutation as a source of superhuman powers so that he wouldn't have to keep inventing origin stories for all his characters. Issue #1 introduced the team and their arch-foe, Magneto, setting up the long-running theme of mutants being feared and hated by many normal humans (a metaphor for racism), and "evil mutants" such as Magneto being a visceral justification for that fear.

Billed as "The strangest heroes of all", Kirby's designs did much to make good that boast visually. The group's mentor and leader, Professor X, was a bald paraplegic who communicated via telepathy and thus rarely talked. Cyclops wore a special red visor over his eyes since if he ever removed or opened it, his powerful, uncontrollable energy beams erupted from his eyes. Angel sported a pair of wings which were part of his body, not devices such as those of Hawkman. Beast was larger than almost any normal human, with oversized hands and feet, the latter of which he could use as hands. And Iceman was covered in a sheath of snow (later ice), and had difficulty controlling his powers. A strange-looking group, by the standards of the day. Only the team's final recruit, Marvel Girl, was not unusual in her appearance. Moreover, the team other than Professor X were teenagers, a rarity among superheroes at the time (Spider-Man and the Human Torch being exceptions).

The X-Men were organized as a school for mutants, to help them learn to control their powers and exist safely alongside normal humanity. A precursor to this concept 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 children of "Children of the Atom" were also mutants, the results of an unintended experiment in genetic mutation. The term "Children of the Atom" has also been used frequently throughout the franchise's history to refer to mutants in the series.

Other than Magneto and his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, though, the early X-Men stories are not well-remembered, often featuring a variety of second-string and flat-out silly villains. Despite introducing a few memorable characters (Professor X's brother Juggernaut, and the mutant-hunting robotic Sentinels, the series did not achieve popularity, unable to graduate from bi-monthly to monthly publication until #14. Issue #17 (February 1966) was the last by Lee and Kirby.

Lee's protege, Roy Thomas, assumed the bulk of the writing chores after Lee left, and Werner Roth, under the pseudonym Jay Gavin, was the main artist. The book continued to founder, however. Thomas wrote an extended storyline involving a secretive group of villains, seemingly killed one of the major characters, and wrote a crossover with The Avengers. Roth gave way to Don Heck on art. But nothing seemed to work.

By 1968 the book was teetering on the brink of cancellation, and Marvel assigned a pair of top-tier artists to try to save it. [Jim Steranko]] illustrated a few issues, and he was followed by Neal Adams, whose stories are remembered as the best the 1960s X-Men had to offer. Unfortunately, it was too little, too late, and with #67 (December 1970), the X-Men were converted to a reprint title, with a few guest appearances in other titles, such as The Avengers.

By 1975, Marvel management had substantially turned over, and Thomas helped to motivate a revival of the X-Men. Giant-Size X-Men #1 (Summer 1975) was written by Len Wein and drawn by Dave Cockrum, and introduced a new group of X-Men. Unlike their predecessors, these X-Men were adults, and used to acting independently. This led to more interpersonal conflict as members often didn't fully trust - or even like - one another. Cockrum's dynamic designs also proved eye-catching.

The special was successful enough to launch the X-Men's series anew, and X-Men #94 (August 1975) continued the adventures of the new team. Wein did not make the transition, and was succeeded by Chris Claremont, who would become more closely associated with the X-Men than any other individual in its history.

Claremont and Cockrum put some novel spins on superheroes. Claremont liked to write strong female characters, and oversaw the development of Marvel Girl into the far more powerful Phoenix, setting up one of the series' best-remembered stories. Cockrum had a penchant for inhuman-looking characters, such as Nightcrawler. And the team leader, Cyclops, constantly struggled to mold his group of strong-willed individuals into a cohesive team.

Cockrum departed and was succeeded by John Byrne with #108 (December 1977). Claremont and Byrne, together with inker Terry Austin, cemented their place as industry superstars for the next two decades with their 3-year run on the book. Byrne helped develop Wolverine as a ruthless and sometimes bloodthirsty character who was - unlike the vast majority of contemporary superheroes - willing to kill to do the job. By giving Wolverine a peculiar code of honor and a murky past, X-Men oversaw his growth into one of the most popular characters in comics.

The climax of the Claremont/Byrne/Austin years was the so-called Dark Phoenix Saga, in which Phoenix found her powers overwhelming her, and in her madness committing heinous acts of cosmic scale. Rarely had superheroes truly "gone bad" before this, and certainly not with such devastating results. Cyclops' deep love for Phoenix helped ground the tale as one of personal tragedy. Claremont and Byrne had intended her to be stripped of her powers and returned to her former life as a normal human, but at the last minute Marvel editor-in-chief Jim Shooter decided that Phoenix's acts were too great for her to get off with anything less than the ultimate penalty, and so the saga ended with the death of Phoenix in order to save the universe from the mad godling. Though details of the story have been retconned into different forms since then, the Dark Phoenix saga is widely regarded as one of the best and most important stories in the history of comic books.

Byrne and Austin departed after #143 (March 1981), and Cockrum returned for a time. The X-Men's popularity had begun an ascent which would last years. DC Comics had begun publishing what was considered their X-Men equivalent in The New Teen Titans. And the X-Men evolved into a franchise with the publication of The New Mutants #1 (March 1983), created by Claremont and Bob McLeod.

By this time, Marvel became careful to put rising stars as artists on the main X-Men book (now titled Uncanny X-Men). Cockrum gave way to Paul Smith, John Romita, Jr. and Marc Silvestri. While Claremont penned a "happy ending" for Cyclops, finally finding a true love to replace Phoenix, whom he married in X-Men #175 (November 1983), the X-Men soon thereafter became a marketing vehicle as much as a storytelling venue.

The third X-Men title was launched in February 1986 in X-Factor, created by Bob Layton and Butch Guice. It reunited the original X-Men under a somewhat flimsy premise, underscoring that the primary goal of the franchise was now to publish product more than anything else. This was soon followed by the first of a long line of crossovers, 1986's "Mutant Massacre", which featured storylines weaving among all X-Men-related titles over the span of a few months. For the next decade, Marvel and other comics companies would frequently publish crossovers among their major titles to encourage readers to buy books they didn't normally read, for without doing so they would miss part of the story. While such crossovers were typically billed as "major events", often they were simply brash and violent but had only a cosmetic lasting impact on the series. Nonetheless, it took readers years before they started treating crossovers as good points to stop buying titles they already bought, rather than start buying titles they didn't.

By the early 1990s, X-Men titles were many, varied, and - many fans felt - hard to understand. The main title underwent what some felt was a renaissance with artist Jim Lee, though Marvel promptly "cashed in" by launching yet another X-Men title by Lee, titled simply X-Men (a move which indirectly led to Claremont's departure from the franchise he'd helped build). Wolverine had graduated to his own solo series some years previously. And artist Rob Liefeld transfoirmed The New Mutants into the paramilitary X-Force. X-Men continuity also became rife with time-travelling and parallel worlds, characters returning from the dead or changing in radical ways (the title Excalibur often embodied all of these traits at once).

During the 1990s, Marvel Comics entered bankruptcy, eventually emerging with new owners. Under editor-in-chief Joe Quesada, the X-Men line was pared back and refocused. Fan-favorite writer Grant Morrison took over X-Men, retitling it New X-Men, while a few other titles continued on their own way. In 2004, following Morrison's departure, Joss Whedon and John Cassaday launched Astonishing X-Men, the latest title in the franchise. Meanwhile, many individual X-Men characters gained their own standalone series, and the franchise appeared poised for radical growth again.

Much of this is thanks to the popularity of the 2000 live-action feature film, X-Men, and its 2003 sequel, X2: X-Men United, which brought the heroes to the attention of the mainstream population. The characters have also been featured in animated series since the 1990s, although to far less impact on the franchise.

Charles Xavier was one of the first mutants born in the Marvel Universe in the 20th century. As a teenager, he developed telepathic powers, and learned that mutants such as himself were despised and feared by many normal humans for their superhuman powers.

He spent some years travelling the globe to broaden his horizons. During this time he met Erik Magnus Lensherr, another powerful mutant and a survivor of the Holocaust. Magnus' experiences had led him to believe that mutantkind's future could only be secured by ruling the world. Xavier, by contrast, felt that mutants and humans had to learn to live together to prevent a war which would destroy them all. Following an encounter with Baron Strucker, the two parted ways, Xavier mindful of Magnus' stated aims. Soon thereafter, in an encounter with the alien Lucifer, Xavier was rendered paraplegic, and returned to the United States.

After receiving a doctorate degree, Xavier founded his School for Gifted Youngsters in New York state, and began to recruit students to his school, intending to help young mutants learn to control their powers and live peacefully with the rest of humanity. His first four students were a quartet of teenaged men whose mutant powers had recently emerged, and they became the founding members of the X-Men. Xavier - known to his students as Professor X - gave them blue-and-yellow uniforms for their training, as well as code-names: Cyclops, Angel, Beast and Iceman. Soon thereafter they were joined by their first female recruit, Marvel Girl.

Part of Xavier's goal for his school was for his students to defend the world against so-called "evil mutants", and their first adventure as a team involved defending a missile base from Xavier's former comrade Magnus, who now styled himself the supervillain Magneto. The X-Men were successful in this goal, but Magneto remained their most deadly foe, despite his many setbacks.

The X-Men's early years involved many battles against evil mutants, such as The Vanisher, The Blob, and Magneto's Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Xavier's half-brother Cain Marko, long jealous of Xavier's talents, gained mystic powers and attacked the team as the nigh-unstoppable Juggernaut. Along the way, the X-Men grew up: Cyclops, a withdrawn youth, emerged from his shell to become the X-Men's field leader. He and Angel vyed for the attentions of Marvel Girl. Beast proved an adept scientist, and eventually earned an advanced degree of his own.

Though Xavier had the covert aid of an FBI operative in the early years, and the X-Men won the approval of many other super-heroes, they and other mutants remained feared by most humans. This fear and mistrust came to a head when a scientist named Bolivar Trask created the Sentinels, robots who were programmed to seek and neutralize mutants. Trask's plans ended tragically when the Sentinels decided that the best way to defeat the "mutant menace" was to take over the Earth; Trask gave his life to defeat them.

The X-Men's early years involved fights against an endless array of villains, including a protracted battle against the underground organization Factor Three, at the conclusion of which Professor X and Marvel Girl unveiled new, distinct costumes for the team members to commemorate their passing into adulthood. Tragically, not long afterwards Professor X was killed by the subterranean monster Grotesk, leaving the X-Men truly on their own.

Following an encounter with The Avengers, the X-Men again fight Magneto, who this time was also aided by Polaris, a young woman with magnetic powers who believed herself to be Magneto's daughter. This proved to be a lie, and Polaris joined the X-Men.

In the early 1960s, Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Stan Lee, artist Jack Kirby and several other illustrators brainstormed a line of comic books which launched what Lee called the "Marvel Age of comics." The Marvel Age introduced a revolutionary new approach to comic books, where superheroes are more human and fallible than morally and physically perfect predecessors such as Superman and Wonder Woman and face regular problems in addition to costumed adventures. The X-Men were one of the last major entries in Marvel's Silver Age, which began with the Fantastic Four and also introduced The Incredible Hulk and Spider-Man, among others.

In the comic book series, the X-Men were founded by the paraplegic Professor Charles Xavier, also known as "Professor X", who possessed telepathic powers. Xavier gathered the X-Men under the cover of a "School for Gifted Youngsters" in Westchester County, New York at an estate that would later be known as the "X-Mansion".

Cover-billed as "the strangest heroes of all", the original X-Men consisted of five teenagers still learning to control and use their powers:

• Angel, who flew from two feathery wings that extended from his back.
• Iceman, who froze moisture in the air around him and who could cover his body with at first with snow and later with solid ice.
• Beast, who possessed ape-like strength and agility and could use his feet as hands.
• Marvel Girl, who possessed telekinetic powers and later developed telepathy. Today, this character is better known by her actual name, Jean Grey.
• Cyclops, who emitted destructive "optic blasts" from his eyes that could only be controlled by a "ruby quartz" visor. He would become the X-Men's field leader.

A precursor to the concept of preternaturally gifted children brought together to study in secret, lest they be hated and feared by a world that would not understand them, appeared in the 1953 science fiction novel Children of the Atom by Wilmar Shiras, which has often been credited - though never officially confirmed - with inspiring the X-Men. The children of "Children of the Atom" were also mutants, the results of an unintended experiment in genetic mutation. The term "Children of the Atom" has also been used frequently throughout the franchise's history, often as subtitle for X-Men publications and video games.

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, an "evil mutant" counterpart to the X-Men whose initial membership consisted of:

• Quicksilver, who possessed superhuman speed.
• Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver's sister, who could cast probability-altering "hexes".
• Mastermind, who created mental illusions.
• Toad, who could leap great distances.

Several other important villains debuted during the 1960s era, including Professor X's superhumanly strong stepbrother who had become the the "unstoppable" Juggernaut and the mutant-hunting robot Sentinels, but the X-Men all too 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 sucessful 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 such as 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:

• Havok, Cyclops' rebellious brother who produced powerful "plasma blasts"
• Polaris, who possessed magnetic powers and was originally believed to be Magneto's daughter

Though sales did improve while Adams was on 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. The X-Men also 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:

• Sunfire, a hot-tempered Japanese mutant who wielded an "atomic flame."
• Thunderbird, an Apache man who possessed super strength and speed.
• Banshee, an Irish mutant who possessed a "sonic scream."
• Colossus, a quiet, reflexive Russian who could turn his body into "organic steel."
• Nightcrawler, a rascally German who possessed great agility and the ability to teleport. Nightcrawler also had a freakish appearance including blue skin, glowing eyes and a devil-like tail.
• Storm, a strong-willed Kenyan woman who controlled the weather. Storm would become the X-Men's leader in times of Cyclops' absence.
• Wolverine, a gruff Canadian government agent who possessed accelerated senses and a regenerative "healing factor". A covert agency had bonded the fictitious metal alloy called adamantium to Wolverine's skeleton, which included a set of three razor-sharp foot-long claws on each hand.

Giant-Sized X-Men #1 was successful enough that Marvel began publishing new issues of X-Men, featuring the new team minus Sunfire, who immediately quit, and Thunderbird, who died on the team's next mission. The series was written by Chris Claremont, who would go on to become the longest-standing contributor to the series. Cockrum illustrated the title for two years, drawing such stories as "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 #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.

Although their adventures were inventive and exciting, many consider the interplay among the characters and their differing viewpoints and morals the key to the series' success. Wolverine, in particular, became immensely popular, his rough-and-tumble demeanor combined with his sense of honor being a source of personal and team conflict. One scene, ground-breaking at the time, implied that Wolverine killed a guard off-panel in order to break into an enemy stronghold, an act which marked Wolverine's nearly unique role as an anti-hero in mainstream comics.

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. Despite its brevity, 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 the story inspired the second X-Men film.

Meanwhile, Uncanny X-Men continued with Claremont and artists such as Paul Smith and 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:

• Kitty Pryde, a Jewish-American teenager who "phased" through solid objects. She would later be called Shadowcat.
• Rogue, who involuntarily absorbed the abilities and memories of anyone she touched. Rogue was introduced as a member of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, now led by the shape shifter Mystique. As a member of that team, she permanently absorbed superhuman strength and the ability to fly from the superhero Ms. Marvel, and turned to the X-Men for redemption.
• Rachel Summers, the second Phoenix. Rachel was the adult daughter of Cyclops and Phoenix from the "Days of the Futures Past" timeline and inherited her mother's telepathy and telekinesis.

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 tenture would be brief.

In the late 1980s, Marvel continually increased its number of X-Books 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 an important 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 came the offbeat Excalibur, featuring Rachel Summers, Nightcrawler, Shadowcat and the English superheroes Captain Britain and Meggan.

With X-Books came "X-Overs," crossover storylines which would overlap into several X-Books for two to three 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 were 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:

• Dazzler, a former disco singer who could turn sound into light and energy beams.
• Longshot, a television action star with "good luck" powers from the absurdist dimension run by the tyrannical network head Mojo.
• Psylocke, an English telepath and femme fatale.

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 X-Over "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 globe-trotting X-Men. The 1990 X-over, "The X-tinction Agenda," pulled the X-Men back together, with two new members:

• Jubilee, a teenage "mall rat" who produced plasma "fireworks" from her finger tips
• Gambit, a suave Cajun thief who "charged" small objects, usually playing cards, with explosive kinetic energy

From 1987 until 1990 Marc Silvestri illustrated Uncanny X-Men. He was succeeded by young artist named Jim Lee, who would soon become a comic book superstar of unprecedented popularity and change the X-Men more drastically than they had been changed since 1975.

After the X-Men's return to the X-Mansion 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 rasied 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 Salvador LaRocca.

Crossovers 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 X-Tinction Agenda" (1990), in which the government of Genosha, a fictional island off the coast of Madagascar where mutants are used as prison labor, captured the X-Teams.
• "The X-Cutioner's Song" (1992), in which Cable's clone Stryfe framed the X-Force leader for an attempt on Professor X's life. He also captured and tormented Cyclops and Jean Grey, who were revealed to be Cable's parents.
• "Age of Apocalypse" (1995), in which Professor X was killed by his time-travelling son before he ever formed the X-Men. An alternate reality unfolded in which Apocalypse ruled North America and Magneto led the X-Men as a resistance force.
• "Onslaught" (1996), which dominated all Marvel series for two months. In that storyline, Professor X's dark side, called Onslaught, battled the X-Men, The Avengers and the Fantastic Four.
• "The Twelve" (1999), in which Apocalypse conspired to capture a dozen mutants and absorb their powers, becoming omnipotent.

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.

A sales boom in the comic book industry helped the expansion of the X-Men franchise. However, these sales proved untenable and collapsed in 1995, bringing most of the industry with it. As a result, Marvel declared bankruptcy in 1996. A year later the company settled its bankruptcy suit and attempted a recovery. The new situation would lead to significant changes for many of Marvel's series, including the X-Men.

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:

• Cannonball, a Kentuckian who flew at jet speeds. Cannonball already had a long history as a member of the New Mutants and X-Force.
• Marrow, a former Morlock whose body grew protruding bones which she could remove and use and blades or clubs.
• Maggott, a South African whose digestive system took the form of two mechanical slugs that could exit his body and eat through anything.
• Cecilia Reyes, a Puerto Rican-American doctor who projected a reflexive force field around her body.

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:

• Thunderbird, an Indian man who generated bursts of fire. He had no connection to the original Thunderbird.
• Tessa later called Sage, who for years was seen as an assistant to the Hellfire Club but was revealed to be a spy for Professor X. She possessed telepathic powers and a "computer brain".

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 LaRocca for a new title, X-Treme X-Men featuring Thunderbird, Psylocke, Bishop, Sage, Gambit, Rogue and Storm operating outside the X-Mansion.

At the same time, Marvel cancelled Gambit, Bishop, X-Man, Mutant X, Generation X and a brief, John Byrne-created retro series, X-Men: The Hidden Years 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, and 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, corperate-sponsored mutants. A new New Mutants series followed.

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.

Most significantly, 2001 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 warped, subtle 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:

• Husk, a former member of Generation X who could shed her skin, transforming into a different substance in the process.
• Northstar, an openly gay former member of the Canadian superhero team Alpha Flight who possessed superhuman speed and flight
• Juggernaut, who had been a criminal and enemy of the X-Men since the mid-1960s until he settled down and joined 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 2000 writer Mark Millar and artist Adam Kubert introduced an updated and re-envisioned version of the X-Men as the Ultimate X-Men. This title is set outside of the Marvel Universe continuity in the Ultimate Marvel Universe, and started from scratch with new versions of each character.

In this version the X-Men, other than Professor X and Wolverine, are still teenagers. The team originally included these two as well as Cyclops, Jean Grey, Colossus, Iceman, Beast and Storm. "Ultimate" versions of Nightcrawler, Rogue, Shadowcat, Angel and more have since been introduced. Their enemies have included revised versions of the Hellfire Club, The Sentinels, and Magneto and the Brotherhood of Mutants.

Many of the versions of these characters keep only the basics, changing them to be more accessible to casual readers (particularly teenagers and younger readers) who are unfamiliar with the decades of history and continuity that the characters have accumulated. The Ultimate titles (Ultimate X-Men, Ultimate Spider-Man and The Ultimates) have proven commercially successful, thanks at least in part to the popular creative teams on each series.

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 ran its own truncated 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 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 Storm (Halle Berry) Cyclops (James Marsden) and Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) as leather-clad X-Men who also served as teachers at Professor Xavier's (Patrick Stewart) school for mutant children and teenagers. Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) and Rogue (Anna Paquin) were two mutant wanderers who crossed their path. The mutants battled Magneto (Ian McKellen) who built a machine that turns humans into mutants and planned to affect a congregation of world leaders. His Brotherhood of Mutants included Mystique (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos), Sabretooth (Tyler Mane) and Toad (Ray Park). 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 a government siege on the X-Men's headquarters to build his own version of Professor X's mutant-hunting computer Cerebro. The X-Men team up with Magneto and Mystique to battle Stryker. The film also introduced Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming) to movie-goers. The movie was an even greater success than the first, earning $214 million and many fans and critics considered it an improvement to X-Men.

X3 is planned for 2006.

• List of X-Men
• List of X-Men comics
• X-Men (animated series)
• X-Men: Evolution
• X-Men (movie)
• X2: X-Men United

• Quotes from the X-Men film at Wikiquote
• Official movie page
• Chronology.Net X-versum continuity and timelines
• Children of The Atom Information on the 1953 SF novel that was a precursor to the X-Men, and author Wilmar Shiras