The strangest super-heroes of all have certainly got a strange history. Like, for instance, did you know that Stan Lee very nearly called them the Merry Mutants? And that for the first few issues, Cyclops's real first name was going to be Slim? Or that, in issue #325 of Uncanny X-Men, the artist hid the plans for an experimental weapon? Well, we made that last one up, but the rest were totally true. And there's plenty more where that came from. In their fifty combined years of history, the X-Men have gone through numerous changes. Their uniforms have fluctuated from baggy black-and-white affairs to biker chic and back again. There numbers have swelled and shrank, with the core team's line-up almost constantly in flux, and numerous splinter groups springing up everywhere. Heroes have become villains, villains have become heroes, and then there was Doop... Certain changes, though, are best left forgotten. There are big parts of the X-Men's bibliography that have been effectively bowdlerised, embarrassing choices on the part of both the characters and creators which have all but been expunged. We say "all but" because the shameful episodes of the mutants' past are still there if you look for them. It's just that most people don't bother. Luckily for you lot, we're not "most people", so we have painstakingly gone through that fifty year history to dig up all the bits about the X-Men Marvel Comics would rather we leave well alone.
10. They Nearly Got Cancelled In The 70s
Nowadays, the X-Men comic is one of Marvel's flagship titles. Or rather, it's one of various flagship titles, as currently the merry band of mutants have diversified into a dozen different series, including (deep Banshee breath) A+X, All New X-Factor, All-New X-Men, Amazing X-Men, Uncanny Avengers, X-Men and X-Force. Phew. And that's before you get onto the spin-off solo titles for Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Magneto and Cyclops. Which is all the more staggering and impressive when you take into account that the X-Men were once the least popular characters on the Marvel roster. Yep, by 1970 - just seven years since its inception - the sole X-Men title had stopped publishing original stories and instead consisted of just reprints of old issues. It stayed that way until 1975, too, and in that period it looked like not only would we never see a new story starring the characters, but their title would get cancelled altogether. It was only with the relaunch in Giant Size X-Men, along with the introduction of writer Chris Claremont, that rescued them from obscurity and hoisted them to the heights of celebrity they exist in now.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
