10 Times Passing The Superhero Torch Was For The Better

Most people don’t realise that Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's original version of the X-Men wasn’t a hit at all. In fact Marvel stopped production of new stories altogether following issue #66. It wasn’t until Len Wein and Dave Cockrum rejuvenated the team in the mid 1970s, introducing new characters into the comics, that the X-Men everyone knows and loves were introduced.

Wolverine, Storm, Colossus and Nightcrawler kicked life back into the X-Men name, making the group of mutants more diverse. The X-Men went from a book about teens with powers to a readable soap opera. No two issues were the same, whether they were fighting Krakoa the living island, or saving one of the original team from an unstoppable cosmic force.

With Wein and Cockrum’s help, the X-Men grew from clueless teenagers that relied on Xavier, to grown adults that were natural born leaders, Cyclops, Storm and Wolverine would go on to lead the X-Men into battle countless times, sometimes without Xavier’s assistance.

As much as we owe the creation of the team to Stan the Man, we owe even more to Wein and Cockrum for giving the team a second chance, and of course to Chris Claremont, who marshalled the team's journey for many years to come.