More than any other comic book property, the X-Men have a long, involved, and frequently nonsensical history. The characters were originally introduced back in the sixties and had trouble finding their footing, eventually reverting to reprints and on the verge of cancellation before a reboot introduced fan favourites like Wolverine. It's kind of unthinkable now that they're, like, crazy popular, which is mainly thanks to the movies. The X-Men films did a commendable job at honing all of the lunacy in the comics the alternate timelines, soap opera love triangles, robot clones, constant resurrections into something that worked as a Hollywood franchise. ...Then The Last Stand happened, and then Days Of Future Past reset all the continuity, and now the films are about as confusing as the source material after all. At this point, you have about as much chance of untangling the various retcons, couplings and timeline divergences in the films as you do the comics. But you know what? Audiences were given fair warning. All of the films are stuffed to the mutant gills with little winks, nods and references to the larger, more convoluted continuity of the comics. Hidden right under your nose. From conspiracy theories to cameos, foreshadowing to just dorky in-jokes, here are eighteen X-Men Easter eggs you never noticed.
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/
