It was a typical September day in 2003. I was in 7thgrade and I had never read a comic before. I had grown up on X-Men: The Animated Series and was still on a high from seeing X2 three times or so in the summer. For some reason or another (presumably love), my Mom brought me home an issue of Uncanny X-men #427 from Kroger (a grocery store that gave me my first comic and later took my job. It’s funny how life works). I can’t tell you how many times I read that comic the next couple of months. That comic was where it all began and I honestly can’t be sure who I’d be today if I’d never read it. So thank you, Uncanny X-Men.
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It was 1963 (a good 40 years before I got my first comic) when Stan Lee was trying to come up with a new comic. He was trying to come up with something new since he had exhausted radiation (Gamma rays, cosmic rays, radioactive spiders ,etc). Lee was struck by the idea of mutation and knew he wasn’t going to have to worry about coming up with more origin stories for a while.
Originally wanting to call the series The Mutants, I don’t think Lee knew what it would become. The mutant community began small with just six heroes and one enemy. These days? I’m not even sure an X-pert like myself could name every single mutant character that has every appeared in Uncanny X-men and its many, many spin-off titles.
But what really divides The X-Men from so many other titles?
The action is supreme and in your face while the characters are memorable (particularly Wolverine, Magneto, Deadpool, and Cyclops). But these are both things that comics all across the marvel universe continuum have. What truly seems to set it apart are the themes. I know that makes me sound pretentious but think about it; I don’t think a mainstream superhero comic has ever been this deep.
The struggle that the X-Men go through is not one that the typical superheroes deal with. Sure, The Thing looks funny and Peter Parker has to balance his life, being a superhero, and sometimes NYC has been against him. With the X-Men, it’s so much more; they’ve awoken with their friends crucified on their lawn and have had busloads of their students killed all in the name of God. A good deal of mainstream comics rarely go this dark with their conflict.
The prejudice in these comics make them truly unique and something unlike any other comic. And this prejudice, this basic need to survive, makes their story worth so much more. In recent years, the mutant race was brought down to a mere 300 or so. With every character death, the mutant kind is brought closer to extinction in their fight to survive. While this series began with typical superhero/super villain fashion, it has evolved into so much more.
In the more recent years, the themes of Uncanny X-Men have taken a new direction. With the total mutant count dwindling smaller and smaller after every story arc, the story has become a matter of asking just how far one man would go to insure his people’s survival. Cyclops has changed so much and he’s definitely evolved into one of my favorite characters in the series. While he started out as the boy scout that was Charles Xavier’s favorite, he was has broken away from Xavier’s ideals. He is his own man and is willing to kill, assassinate, lie, and send kids into battle.
And it’s this mentality that really lead to the schism between Cyclops and Wolverine. While Scott has evolved from a boy scout into a hardened survivalist, Wolverine, over the years, has changed from the feral killer into a mentor figure (I wouldn’t say a Father figure; more like a really badass Uncle) through a continuous group of young girls that he’s taken under his wing. I wouldn’t say that Wolverine has been softened but he’s been changed – an antithesis to the way Scott’s been changed.
Not only is the character development something to be admired, the story arcs are some of the most memorable in Marvel comics. The Dark Phoenix Saga, Days of Future Past, Messiah CompleX, Second Coming, and The Age Of Apocalypse. All of these comics are must reads for any sort of X-Men fan. The X-Men story arcs masterfully blend action and the emotional strife of the characters. No series does it better.
For most of its run (aside for some of the 90s), Uncanny X-Men has been the flagship title of the X-Men series. Like a cat giving birth to a litter of kittens, Uncanny X-Men has given Marvel a vast array of titles: District X,Astonishing X-Men, New Mutants, Generation Hope, Generation X, Excalibur, X-Men, X-Factor, X-men Legacy,Deadpool, Wolverine, X-23,X-Force, New X-Men, and so, so much more. It always seems like half the racks at the comic store are saturated with X titles. That is an absolutely beautiful thing that no one should ever have a problem with.
Finally, after 48 years and 544 issues, this spectacular series is coming to an end. I give Uncanny X-Men and it’s eight phenomenal writers a massive salute as it comes to its finale; but like a Time Lord (Must I reference Doctor Who in every article? Yes), the series is not dying; It is simply regenerating – but instead of turning into Matt Smith, this phenomenal series is regenerating into Uncanny X-Men (vol 2) and Wolverine And The X-Men.
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