I used to read the various X-men titles back in my comic collecting days, which ended just after Magneto removed Wolverine’s adamantium (or when Scott and Jean got married, I can’t remember).
That was years ago.
I recently found myself next door to a comic shop and went to pick up a copy of an X-title on a whim.
Would someone care to explain to me what the hell happened to the series? Did Marvel wipe out their entire history to bring the books inline with the movies’ plots? Where are Psylocke, Colossus, Gambit, etc.
This would be better in Cafe Society, but short answer: it’s been years. Things change. Without change, any creative endeavor stagnates. In this case, LOTS of things changed. Colossus is dead, as is Psylocke, I believe. Gambit is still around, but so many things have happened since the point you mentioned that it’s rather futile to try to describe everything. Perhaps once this thread gets moved, some X-mavens might point you towards resources that’ll help you get at least a little caught up.
Lessie…Rogue and Gambit are currently de-powered, after a long adventure spent looking for Destiny’s journals. They now live in California, and Rogue has a nice tattoo. And her “real” name is apparently “Anna,” not Marie D’Ancanto. And Gambit and Storm, when wearing a wig and sunglasses, look enough like Pierce Brosnan and Halle Berry to be mistaken for said actors.
All that from a single issue of X-Treme X-Men, seen as the newsstand. (Well, the Borders Books & Music newsstand.)
Kitty Pryde is semi-retired, and attending college.
Apocalypse is dead.
Magneto used to rule Genosha for awhile, then it got blown up, and he died. Though it looks like he’s actually come back to life, recently.
Scott’s being an even bigger twit than usual, lately.
Xavier “outed” himself and the Xavier Institute as mutants. (Well, it was sort of “him” who did it.)
Wolverine’s real name is James Howlett, and he was born in the 1880s.
Beast “outed” himself as being gay, but it turned out that he was lying. (I think.)
The Legacy Virus is now defunct.
Mr. Sinister had a mid-life crisis and a nervous breakdown, and now lives as a surfer in Malibu.
Ok, Ranchoth (or others), which series did that info come from?
When I was still reading the series, we had Uncanny X-Men and X-Men (which Jim Lee started).
Which titles do those books correspond to now? When did they kill off the Uncanny X-Men title? Which books should I pick up if I want to get back into core of the X-Men universe?
Word of warning: Ultimate X-Men is set in the rebooted Ultimate universe and has no relation to Marvel continuity (or what’s left of it). It’s a fun read, for what it’s worth.
As seen from afar, by someone who wouldn’t touch most Marvel titles (especially the mutant titles) on a bet:
Uncanny is still around, but the recipient of such consistently awful reviews under writer Chuck Austen that the stench permeates all. I know Nightcrawler and Polaris appear in it, but for the most part I try to avoid all knowledge of this title.
Adjectiveless X-Men became New X-men, and centers on the school. Great reviews for the writing of Grant Morrison, but plagued with constantly changing artists. Scott, Jean, Emma Frost, Beast, and Wolverine are among the regular cast.
X-Treme X-men is a fairly new title (something like three years old, maybe less) launched apparently to give Chris Claremont something to do. He took a number of characters no one else wanted, like Rogue, Gambit, and Storm, for this title.
Ultimate X-men is another fairly new title that reboots the entire series, starting with revised versions of Beast, Wolverine, Scott, Jean, Prof. X, and Storm.
Armed with these entirely too brief summations, may I suggest heading over to The X-Axis for reviews and more?
You actually have good timing, IMHO. The battle in which Mags ripped out Wolvie’s skelton is a high point for the books, after which there were some other good things, but in general a downward trend. Morrison’s New Xmen, while still unfinished, has been worth reading. The only real problem in recommending it is that there are some gaping problems that may or may not be intentional. Morrison has a habit of having his characters doing things that you sort of get irritated or pissed about for being out of character… and then twisting that back on you. There are currently a lot of these hanging open (for instance, a certain major character is acting like an over the top parody of the things I, and many fans, hate the most about that particular character… but there are some subtle hints that this behavior is not quite what it seems, or even that this is partly satire)
If you want to enjoy his run, however, refuse spoilers, and check out the trades in a Barnes & Noble sometime. He starts with the trade called “E is for Extinction” and the Cassandra Nova storyline.