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Title history

Publication history

X-Men (vol. 2)

In 1991, Marvel launched X-Men (vol. 2) as a spin-off of the parent title Uncanny X-Men, with co-writers Chris Claremont and Jim Lee, previously the penciler on Uncanny, moving over to X-Men, while studio mate Whilce Portacio took over penciling duties on Uncanny. X-Men #1 is still the bestselling comic book of all time, with pre-order sales of over 8.1 million copies, according to Guinness Book of World Records, which presented honors to Claremont at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con.⁵⁶ It is estimated that somewhere between 3–4 million copies were actually sold.⁷ The sales figures were generated in part by publishing the issue with five different variant covers, four of which showed different characters from the book that combined into a tetraptych image, and a fifth, gatefold cover that combined these four, large numbers of which were purchased by retailers, who anticipated fans and speculators who would buy multiple copies in order to acquire a complete collection of the covers.⁸

Chris Claremont left after three issues due to creative differences with editor Bob Harras.⁹¹⁰ Writers John Byrne and Scott Lobdell handled dialogue to Lee's plotting after Claremont's departure, and Lee himself left the title after issue #11 to form a new company, Image Comics with several other Marvel artists. Various creative teams contributed to the series from 1992 to 2001, with notable writers including Fabian Nicieza, Scott Lobdell, and Joe Kelly, with Chris Claremont returning to the title for a short run ten years after his original departure. Artists included Andy Kubert, and Carlos Pacheco among many others.

Initially, the book focused on the Blue team led by Cyclops, with the other members forming the Gold team led by Storm. This premise has at times faded from mention, only to be resurrected, with the X-Men divided at times into two and even three separate squads. Important events and crossovers covered by the series include the wedding of Jean Grey and Cyclops, X-Cutioner's Song, the Legacy virus, Fatal Attractions, Legion Quest and Onslaught. The series was interrupted and replaced by Amazing X-Men for four issues in 1995 as part of the Age of Apocalypse crossover.

New X-Men

Main article: New X-Men (2001 series)

In July 2001 during a revamp of the X-Men franchise, X-Men (vol. 2) was retitled to New X-Men starting with issue 114, featuring an ambigram logo. Along with these modifications, a new writer, Grant Morrison, was assigned to the title. These changes by the newly appointed Marvel Comics editor-in-chief, Joe Quesada, reflected his idea for flagship titles like X-Men to regain some of their former glory, as well as regaining critical acclaim.¹¹

Morrison's tenure on the title dealt with Cyclops, Wolverine, Phoenix, Beast, Emma Frost and Xorn. While the second squad of X-Men in Uncanny continued on as (now undercover) super heroes, Grant Morrison redirected these X-Men's mission to that of teachers. Additionally, New X-Men artist Frank Quitely redesigned the look of the team, giving them sleek, leather / polyester outfits instead of their traditional superhero uniforms for a more contemporary look and feel.¹²

Some more of the long-lasting changes that occurred during Morrison's run were the secondary mutation of Beast to resemble a lion-like rather than his former ape-like appearance, and Emma Frost introduced as a member of the team, recreating the ties between Jean Grey and the Phoenix (retconning the retcon), and the death of Phoenix. The school expanded from simply a training center to a legitimate school with dozens of mutant students, a story idea that was first explored in the X-Men film. One of the more controversial events of New X-Men happened in issue #115 when the island of Genosha and its inhabitants, including Magneto, were completely destroyed. This set the tone that dominated the rest of Morrison's tenure on the book.¹³

In June 2004, Chuck Austen, previously the writer of Uncanny X-Men, moved to New X-Men with issue #155. The title of the series reverted to its original title of X-Men in July 2004 with issue #157 during the "X-Men Reload" event. Peter Milligan became the new writer of the series with issue #166 and was replaced by Mike Carey with issue #188.

X-Men: Legacy

Volume 1

The title was renamed X-Men: Legacy starting in February 2008 with issue #208.¹⁴¹⁵ The new title reflects a shift in the series direction to focusing on solo X-Men characters versus being a team-based book as the title was previously.

The re-titled series follows on from the conclusion of the Messiah Complex crossover, where Professor X was accidentally shot in the head by Bishop. Shortly after the X-Men presumed him deceased, his body disappeared and his whereabouts were unknown. X-Men: Legacy initially followed the Professor's presumed road to recovery as well as the encounters he faced, such as a battle with the mutant Exodus on the psychic plane¹⁶ and discoveries about his past that include Mr. Sinister.

Many characters have been featured in the title, including Rogue, Magneto, Gambit, and the Acolytes. The title also featured flashbacks relevant to the ongoing present story as well as answered dangling plot lines throughout X-Men continuity.

As of issue #226, Rogue replaced Professor Xavier as the central character. Having now achieved control over her absorption powers, Scott Summers (Cyclops) has repositioned Rogue as mentor to the younger mutants under the protection of the X-Men on Utopia. Rogue is in the unique position to be able to help the students, due to her abilities, allowing fresh insight to their use and control. She has so far, also, been shown to face off against notable deadly adversaries including: Emplate and Proteus. She also took part in the X-Men: Second Coming crossover, acknowledging her special link to Hope.

The title was one of two ongoing books to house the Age of X crossover. The comic briefly followed the fallout from that story and featured a team composed of Rogue, Magneto, Gambit, Professor X, Legion, and Frenzy, but now follows Rogue's team of X-Men affiliated with the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning, featuring Gambit, Frenzy, Cannonball and Rachel Grey.

Volume 2

As part of the Marvel NOW! relaunch event, Volume 1 of X-Men: Legacy ended with issue #275. The X-Men: Legacy title was relaunched as a new series with a new issue #1, written by Simon Spurrier and penciled by Tan Eng Huat. The new series focused on Legion, the son of the recently murdered Charles Xavier, who is struggling to keep his multitude of personalities under control while trying to honor his father's legacy by preemptively fighting off threats to mutants using his many powers.¹⁷

The 25th issue of the volume was renumbered #300 to commemorate the longevity of the series. Issue #300 features a plot by a collaboration between the three X-Men: Legacy writers, Mike Carey, Christos Gage and Simon Spurrier. This is also the final issue of X-Men: Legacy.¹⁸

A third volume of X-Men: Legacy was planned, to be written by Chris Claremont. However, that series was renamed Nightcrawler after its featured character.¹⁹

Relationship with other X-Men titles

Since the introduction of X-Men, the plotlines of this series and other X-Books have been interwoven to varying degrees. For most of its run, X-Men has featured a completely different team of X-Men than other titles featuring the X-Men. While it was not uncommon for characters of one book to appear in the other, any major stories concerning characters were dealt with in their own team book.

X-Men and Uncanny X-Men have shared two periods of time where they were more or less treated as a single, fortnightly series. In both of these cases they shared an author: 1995 to 1996 by Scott Lobdell and 1999 to 2000 by Alan Davis. During these times, the plotlines from X-Men and Uncanny X-Men led directly into each other.

In July 2004, the cast of New X-Men was moved to the newly relaunched Astonishing X-Men, and most of the cast of the Uncanny X-Men was transferred to X-Men, vol. 2. With three main X-Men series running concurrently, members from each book continue to appear in the other titles.

Team roster

Professor X is the Headmaster of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters and mentor to the X-Men, but he is rarely a field operative of the team. In his role as mentor he has typically been present in the book, but he has notable absences, including issues #59–71 (in government custody after the Onslaught crisis) and #99–106 (educating Cadre K in space).

At many times the team roster has been the same as that appearing in Uncanny X-Men and during two periods, the two books have even been treated by their writer as a single bi-weekly title (issues #46–69 by Scott Lobdell and issues #85–99 by Alan Davis).

During issues #90–93 Wolverine was replaced by a Skrull infiltrator, leading to the storylines "The Shattering" and "The Twelve" and the Astonishing X-Men (vol. 2) limited series.

Gambit's group of students appeared prominently in issues #171–174, featuring the debuts of future recurring characters Onyxx and Bling!

After moving to Utopia in issue #227, Rogue became mentor to the various X-Men-in-training, who regularly appeared in issues alongside her.

Contributors

Collected editions

Trade paperbacks

Thick trade-paperbacks (Complete/Ultimate Collections)

Hardcover collections

External links

• X-Men at faqs.org
• X-Men comics on Marvel.com
• X-Men (1991) at the Comic Book DB (archived from the original)
• X-Men: Legacy (2008) at the Comic Book DB (archived from the original)
• Uncannyxmen.net
• X-Men Legacy Annotations

References

1. The first issue of X-Men (vol. 1) to be named Uncanny X-Men[usurped] https://web.archive.org/web/20070616114829/http://www.timberdonkey.com/x-men/uxm/142.php ↩

2. Montgomery, Paul (10 August 2012). "Marvel NOW! Q&A: X-Men Legacy". Marvel.com. Retrieved 10 August 2012. http://marvel.com/news/story/19207/marvel_now_qa_x-men_legacy ↩

3. "SPURRIER & KIM GO ON THE "OFFENSIVE" FOR ALL-NEW MARVEL NOW!". Comic Book Resources. 6 November 2013. Retrieved 6 November 2013. http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=48962 ↩

4. "1st Look: March's X-MEN: LEGACY #300". Newsarama. 10 December 2013. Retrieved 11 December 2013. http://www.newsarama.com/19774-1st-look-march-s-x-men-legacy-300.html ↩

5. Morse, Ben (August 10, 2010). "SDCC 2010: Marvel Breaks World Record". Marvel.com (Press release). Archived from the original on August 18, 2010. https://web.archive.org/web/20100818014508/https://www.marvel.com/news/comicstories.13598.sdcc_2010~colon~_marvel_breaks_world_record ↩

6. Johnson, Rich. [X-Men #1 The Guinness World Record Best Selling Comic Of All Time?], Bleeding Cool, July 22, 2010 ↩

7. "My Monthly Curse by Phill Hall #9 – Taking Apart a Guinness World Record". Bleeding Cool. May 9, 2011. https://www.bleedingcool.com/?p=77678 ↩

8. Miller, John Jackson. "X-Men #1, One Piece, and world records", The Comics Chronicles, November 16, 2010. /wiki/Miller,_John_Jackson ↩

9. Foege, Alec. "The X-Men Files", New York Magazine, July 17, 2000 http://nymag.com/nymetro/arts/features/3522/ ↩

10. Harth, David (2024-04-12). "A Guide To Reading '90s X-Men Comics". CBR. Retrieved 2024-06-09. https://www.cbr.com/xmen-nineties-comics-reading-guide-starting-points/ ↩

11. Deppey, Dirk (2004). "X-Men... Retreat! (Part 1 of 2)". The Comics Journal. No. 262. Archived from the original on May 5, 2006. https://web.archive.org/web/20060505022850/https://www.tcj.com/262/e_jista.html ↩

12. Deppey, Dirk (2004). "X-Men... Retreat! (Part 1 of 2)". The Comics Journal. No. 262. Archived from the original on May 5, 2006. https://web.archive.org/web/20060505022850/https://www.tcj.com/262/e_jista.html ↩

13. Deppey, Dirk (2004). "X-Men... Retreat! (Part 1 of 2)". The Comics Journal. No. 262. Archived from the original on May 5, 2006. https://web.archive.org/web/20060505022850/https://www.tcj.com/262/e_jista.html ↩

14. "Marvel Comics Solicitations for February 2008". Comic Book Resources. November 20, 2007. Archived from the original on May 2, 2008. https://web.archive.org/web/20080502171540/http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=12000 ↩

15. Schedeen, Jesse (2008-02-27). "X-Men Legacy #208 Review". IGN. Retrieved 2024-06-09. https://www.ign.com/articles/2008/02/27/x-men-legacy-208-review ↩

16. Divided we stand in April: Declassified, Comic Book Resources Forums http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showthread.php?t=206684 ↩

17. Montgomery, Paul (10 August 2012). "Marvel NOW! Q&A: X-Men Legacy". Marvel.com. Retrieved 10 August 2012. http://marvel.com/news/story/19207/marvel_now_qa_x-men_legacy ↩

18. "1st Look: March's X-MEN: LEGACY #300". Newsarama. 10 December 2013. Retrieved 11 December 2013. http://www.newsarama.com/19774-1st-look-march-s-x-men-legacy-300.html ↩

19. "Chris Claremont Returns to the X-Men with "Nightcrawler" Ongoing Series". Newsarama. 15 January 2014. Retrieved 2 February 2014. http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=50308 ↩