Spotlight: X-Men
Happy Sunday folks.
For today’s spotlight, we are going to be covering one of the most prolific franchises in all of comics, The X-men. Let’s get started shall we?
The X-men were created in September of 1963, debuting in X-MEN #1, which was written by Stan Lee, with art by Jack Kirby. The original name for the series was THE MERRY MUTANTS, which Martin Goodman (the publisher of Marvel Comics at the time) rejected, stating that no one would know what a mutan
t was. The X in X-men stands for the “x-gene” which is what separates mutants from regular humans, giving them special powers. The idea behind the series is that Professor Charles Xavier recruits a small group of young mutants to help them defend a world that hates and fears them. Professor Xavier runs the Xavier institute of higher learning, a school that is set up to teach and train young mutants, under the guise of being a boarding school. The original group of X-men was comprised of five members: Cyclops, Angel, Beast, Iceman, and Marvel Girl. When the series launched in the early 1960’s, the main threat to the X-men came in form of Magneto and his brotherhood of evil mutants. While the series had the usual comic book battles, the early issues of X-MEN dealt heavily with the ideas of racism and prejudice. Over the first few years of the series, there were very few roster changes, with only one new member, Mimic, being added, and he left shortly after joining.
The end of the 1960’s saw Lee and Kirby leave the title, and Roy Thomas and Neal Adams took the reins of the title. Thomas added two members to the team, Havok (the younger brother of Cyclops), and Polaris. In 1969 the X-MEN title was not selling enough copies to warrant new stories, so from issue #67–93 the book just reprinted earlier stories. As crazy as the idea of simply reprinting old issues may sound today, this was a fairly standard practice in the late sixties for comics.
In 1975, the X-men were given new life in GIANT SIZE X-MEN #1 by writer Len Wein and artist Dave Cockrum. Wein and Cockrum introduced an all new line-up that reinvigorated the franchise and the adventures of this new X-team began in issue #94. This new team featured characters from a variety of nationalities and age groups, giving the team a much more diverse flavor. The new team of X-men consisted of Cyclops, Jean Grey (formally Marvel Girl), Storm, Night Crawler, Colossus, Banshee, Sunfire, Thunderbird, and Wolverine, who would become the breakout character of the series. While many of the original X-cast didn’t make it onto the new roster, they would often make guest appearances.
Soon after X-MEN was relaunched, scripting duties for the title moved from Wein to a young writer named Chris Claremont. Claremont stayed on-board with the X-men for a while, lasting from 1975 until 1991. Art chores would pass from Cockrum to John Byrne in 1977 with issue #108. Claremont and Byrne put X-men on the map, crafting stories like “The Phoenix Saga” and “Days of Future Past”. The title would also change names in issue #94, becoming THE UNCANNY X-MEN.
The X-men increased steadily in popularity, and as a result, the series began to spawn a number of spin-off titles such as EXCALIBUR, X-FACTOR, ALPHA FLIGHT, THE NEW MUTANTS, and a solo WOLVERINE title. In 1986, there were enough X-titles to have a mutant-specific crossover, MUTANT MASSACRE. This was the first crossover to feature mutants specifically, and the first of many “X-overs” to come over the next few years.
The cast of the X-men continued to grow throughout the 1980’s as well, intorducing new characters such as Dazzler, Longshot, Forge, and Psylocke, as well as a whole new alien race, the Shi’ar. As the 1980’s came to a close, the X-men had gone from a series on the edge of extinction to a major comic franchise. Many of the artists who would go on to start Image comics were working on X-titles at the end of the 80’s, including Rob Liefeld, Marc Silvestri, Jim Lee, and Whilce Portacio.
In 1991, UNCANNY X-MEN was so popular Marvel comics launched a second X-men specific title. This new comic would be known simply as X-MEN. The title was scripted by Claremont, and penciled by Jim Lee. X-MEN #1 sold a ridiculous 8 million copies. Creative differences between Lee and Claremont would eventually lead to Claremont’s departure from the X-titles.
The 1990’s would see the X-franchise continue to grow in popularity and size. More spin-offs would come as well as more crossovers. Some notable new characters from the 1990’s included Bishop, Cable, Deadpool, and (inexplicably) Gambit. As popular as the X-men were, the end of the Millenium saw the X-men’s popularity begin to dwindle.
In 2001, the X-franchise got a shot in the arm from writer Grant Morrison. Morrison took over X-MEN with artist Frank Quitely and set about changing the image of the X-men. The team moved from spandex to leather, and a new status quo was set up. The title of X-MEN was changed to NEW X-MEN. In 2005, the number of Mutants in the X-verse was greatly diminished due to the HOUSE OF M crossover, which saw the Scarlet Witch de-power all but 198 mutants. Currently the X-men have moved to an island off the coast of San Francsisco, and set up a home for all the remaining mutants.
The X-men have also had a place in Hollywood, with three X-MEN movies being made, as well as a solo WOLVERINE movie. The First X-men movie was released by Fox in 2000 with Bryan Singer directing. Singer directed the Sequel in 2003, a story loosely based on the 1982 graphic novel GOD LOVES, MAN KILLS. Brett Ratner directed the third installment of the series, which flat out sucked.
The X-men has always been a platform for social issues. Given the genetic and racial make-up of the characters, themes like diversity, racism and equality have been an easy fit for the comic. The difference in ideologies between Xavier and Magneto has often been seen as an allegory for the difference between civil rights leaders Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Stories like GOD LOVES, MAN KILLS focus on the dangers of religious fanaticism, and groups like the purifiers are analogous to the KKK.
From a writing standpoint, the X-men are different from other team books. While most teams might have protagonists gathered together to fight a common enemy, the members of the X-men are gathered together for protection. There has often been a soap opera-style approach to writing the x-men, with Chris Claremont using romantic subplots to great effect. Another strength in the x-writing has been the ability to utilize the whole family of mutant characters to keep the series fresh. The rotating cast of characters has also been a drawback at times, as the books will sometimes become overcrowded and confusing. Writers like Joe Casey and Peter Milligan (both of whom are very good comic book writers) have often struggled to find a coherent voice with such a large cast of characters.
The art in X-MEN has long been a strong point of the series. In the 60’s, 70’s and early 80’s, the book had constantly solid, if not dynamic art from comic book hall-of-famers. Since John Byrne left the art chores on the book, in the early 1980’s, X-MEN has been a showcase for rising stars and industry hotshots. There was a good 15 year period where one could find the next big artist in comic books by picking up the latest issue. John Romita Jr got his start on the series. Marc Silvestri had a sketchy, angular style that was visually arresting. Joe Mad made manga cool. Jim Lee was Jim Lee. With the wide array of characters and locales in X-MEN artists have a chance to flex their creative muscles. Not every artist on the X-men has hit the mark however; Ron Garney was bland, Ian Churchill couldn’t handle deadlines, and Igor Kordey failed on every level an artist can fail on (except for hitting deadlines). Not every artist is cut out for a book with a large cast, and some artists can’t handle the pressure of producing on a monthly basis.
Throughout the ups and downs of the series, the X-men have always been a book about evolution: The evolution of man, the evolution of the team concept, evolution of ideas and art styles. There is at least one X-men story out there for everyone, the question is, what’s yours?
