Comics:X-Men Vol 2

History

X-Men

In 1991, X-Men (vol. 2) made its premiere. With the help of the speculator's market of the time and Jim Lee's popularity, X-Men #1, selling over seven million copies, became the best-selling comic book of all time, and still holds the record today ^[2]. Its first issues were written by long-time X-Men writer Chris Claremont, who left after a few issues due to creative differences with editor Bob Harras ^[3].

New X-Men

X-Men ran for 10 years, with various creative teams. In July 2001 during a revamp of the X-Men franchise, its title changed to New X-Men 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.^[4]

Morrison added fresh and original concepts during his time writing New X-Men. His tenure on the title dealt with Cyclops, Wolverine, Jean Grey, Beast, Emma Frost and Xorn. Grant Morrison redirected the X-Men’s mission to that of teachers, and introduced off-beat humor as well as several high-minded, science fiction concepts into the series. Additionally, New X-Men artist Frank Quitely redesigned the look of team, giving them sleek, leather / polyester outfits instead of their traditional superhero uniforms for a more contemporary look and feel.^[5]

Some more of the long-lasting changes that occurred during Morrison's run were the Secondary Mutation of Beast to resemble a feline rather than his former ape-like appearance, and the reintroduction of Emma Frost as a member of the team. 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.^[6]

Morrison's New X-Men was met initially with mixed reviews. Long-time, continuity-concerned fans regarded Morrison's initial issues as hype to pick up sagging sales. Newer readers, saw Morrison as a breath of fresh air in the world of the X-Books. Sales increased, and much of the negative reactions by the long-term fans changed to praise for revamping the title. Morrison's run proved to be one of the most successful runs on any X-Men title, and managed to become the critically acclaimed flagship title that Quesada had desired.^[7]

X-Men again

In June 2004, Chuck Austen, previously the writer of Uncanny X-Men, moved to 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. The series has since continued under the X-Men banner.^[8]

Relationship with other X-Men titles

Since the introduction of X-Men, the plotlines of this series and other X-Books have had varying degrees of intermingling. For most of its run, X-Men has featured a completely different battalion 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 1998 to 2000 by Alan Davis. During these times, the plotlines from X-Men and Uncanny X-Men led directly into each other.

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

Cast

Most recent Supporting Cast

• Cyclops, Emma Frost, Beast, Wolverine, Lady Mastermind, Karima Shapandar

Contributors

Collections

Trade paperbacks

Hardcover collections

References

1. ↑ Uncanny X-Men #142
2. ↑ The record for top-selling comic book
3. ↑ Creative differences
4. ↑ New X-Men
5. ↑ New X-Men
6. ↑ New X-Men
7. ↑ New X-Men
8. ↑ X-Men retitling

• Change of title to Uncanny X-Men
• Use of "Adjectiveless" used on Newsarama
• Comic Book Resources
• Claremont discussion from New York Metro
• Chuck Austen on X-Men title change
• New X-Men discussed by The Comics Journal #262
• X-Men at faqs.org