rec.arts.comics.marvel.xbooks FAQ: 2/8

[Kate the Short]

Archive-name: comics/xbooks/main-faq/part2
Posting-frequency: monthly
URL: http://users.rcn.com/kateshort/faqs/

-= REC.ARTS.COMICS.MARVEL.XBOOKS =-
Frequently Asked Questions
Part 2

Version 2003.02, last updated November 2003
URL: http://users.rcn.com/kateshort/faqs/racmxFAQ/faq2.html

------------------------------
Subject: Table of Contents

Part 2:

HISTORY OF THE X-TEAMS AND X-TITLES
* The 1960s and 1970s: Early history
* The 1980s: An explosion of new titles
* The 1990s: Claremont's exit, mega-crossovers
* 2000 and beyond: New (and newer) directions

------------------------------
Subject: A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE X-TEAMS AND X-TITLES

Please note: Background information on the creators and the X-titles
editorial offices is based on over a decade's worth of interviews,
articles, and personal questions, and as such is not directly
attributed here. Now that some of Marvel's staff members are on Usenet,
they are welcomed to correct and amend any of the answers listed below.
Individuals who are looking for more recent summaries of plots and
events would do well to visit Paul O'Brien's X-Axis Reviews website at
http://www.esoterica.demon.co.uk/ .

------------------------------
Subject: The 1960s and 1970s

In 1963 (our time, not Marvel time), Professor Charles Xavier gathered
together a group of five young mutants to help them train their powers.
He also hoped that they could help protect innocents from "evil
mutants," as well as do good deeds for the rest of humanity. This group
was called the X-Men, after the eXtra-powers that each member possessed
(the resemblance to Xavier's last name was not entirely coincidental).
This original team consisted of Cyclops (Scott Summers), Marvel Girl
(Jean Grey), Iceman (Bobby Drake), Angel (Warren Worthington III), and
the Beast (Hank McCoy). The book was written by Stan Lee and pencilled
by Jack Kirby. Magneto was the villain of the first issue, and his
fiendish plot was to terrorize a missile base to prove how tough he was.
Havok (Scott's brother Alex) and Polaris (Lorna Dane) were semi-regular
members who later joined the team. Mimic (Calvin Rankin) was briefly a
member, and Changeling pretended to be Professor Xavier for a while.

The original X-Men title was "cancelled" after 66 issues, due to low
readership. It became a reprint title, reprinting original stories it
had shown only a few years earlier, while the X-Men went to supporting
roles in titles like Amazing Adventures and Ka-Zar Quarterly.

This all changed with the introduction of the "new" X-Men in Giant-Size
X-Men #1, which came out in 1975. Written by Len Wein and penciled by
Dave Cockrum, it had the original team captured by the Living Island of
Krakoa, who manipulated Xavier into bringing together a second team of
mutants to help feed its unholy hunger: Nightcrawler (Kurt Wagner),
Wolverine (Logan), Banshee (Sean Cassidy), Storm (Ororo Munroe), Sunfire
(Shiro Yoshida), Colossus (Piotr Rasputin), and Thunderbird (John
Proudstar). This new team succeeded in rescuing the old heroes, and most
of the new recruits stayed on to form the team that would make the X-Men
comic book legends. The title restarted with X-Men #94, with Chris
Claremont taking over for a sixteen-year run as writer. Soon after,
Thunderbird died and Sunfire quit, while Angel, Jean, Iceman, Polaris,
and Havok left the team on good terms. Soon afterward, Jean Grey joined
the infamous shuttle mission and "died", and Phoenix entered the picture
in X-Men #101. X-Men became The Uncanny X-Men with issue #114.

------------------------------
Subject: The 1980s: An explosion of new titles

Kitty Pryde (of many names, notably Shadowcat) was introduced to the
team in UXM #129, just as the Hellfire Club intrigue and the Dark
Phoenix Saga were getting underway. The Phoenix Saga left Jean Grey
dead on the moon in UXM #137, which led to Cyclops' departure in #138
and Kitty (first called Sprite and Ariel) joining in #139. Cyclops
returned just in time to join the team in space for the Brood Saga,
UXM #161-167.

Around UXM #160, Claremont and then-editor Louise Jones (who was yet to
marry Walt Simonson), concieved a new title that would focus on the
school aspect of the X-Men, instead of the superheroics. Apparently
someone in Marvel had decided that there should be a companion book to
the X-Men, and Claremont was anxious to avoid what he called a "West
Coast X-Men" book.

This spinoff book had no title for a long time, until the creators
decided to use the term which they had just been using in their design
meetings for it: the New Mutants. This was also a tribute to the
Kirby/Lee X-Men, since the original name for that comic was going to be
"The Mutants," until someone convinced Stan Lee that not enough of the
buying public knew what mutants were to make it a sensible title.
Claremont was the writer of the New Mutants, and Bob McLeod was the
first penciler. The New Mutants debuted with Sunspot (Roberto DaCosta),
Wolfsbane (Rahne Sinclair), Psyche (Dani Moonstar), Karma (Xi'an Coy
Manh), and Cannonball (Sam Guthrie). They fought Donald Pierce, a
renegade member of the Hellfire Club, in their first appearance. Over
the years, they were joined by Magma (Amara Aquilla), Magik (Illyana
Rasputin, Colossus' sister), Cypher (Doug Ramsey), and Warlock (an
alien being, not to be confused with the cosmic superhero of the same
name). The title was cancelled and rebooted after issue #100.

Kitty Pryde was demoted to the New Mutants for a short while, but soon
rejoined the X-Men team as Shadowcat. Rogue joined the team in UXM #171,
and Phoenix II (Rachel Summers, daughter of an alternate Jean Grey) was
introduced in the late 180s of the title. Meanwhile, former X-Men team
members Angel, Beast, and Iceman all resurfaced in "The Defenders",
retitled "The New Defenders", for a couple of years. Cyclops, on his own
leave of absence, met and married Madelyne Pryor, who looked like Jean.
Together, they had a son, Nathan Christopher Charles Summers, who was
born in UXM #200 while the New Mutants and X-Men were in Asgard.

Around the time of UXM #200, a third team/title was introduced. These
would be mutants disguising themselves as humans to help fight mutant
hatred. Bob Layton was the writer and Jackson Guice was the penciler,
and the title was called X-Factor, after the genetic trait that the X-
Factor members would be hunting down. Heavily promoted in the Marvel
trade press, the original X-Factor consisted of Cyclops, Iceman, the
Beast, Angel, and Jean Grey. Marvel attempted suspense by keeping the
mysterious "fifth member" unrevealed, but since the four men were known
going in, it was obvious that they were going to resurrect Jean Grey for
the title. X-Factor found themselves bringing in Rusty Collins, a
pyrokinetic, in their first appearance. They, too, trained young
mutants, bringing in Tabitha Smith (of many codenames including
Meltdown) and others.

Soon after that, Chris Claremont came up with an idea that would prove
to be the bane of straightforward storytelling in the X-Titles: a
crossover. While crossovers were used in comics at that time (especially
at Marvel--see Secret Wars II), a multi-title crossover on the scale of
the Mutant Massacre (a title used in partial irony) was pretty new. In
it, X-Men Nightcrawler, Colossus, and Shadowcat were badly hurt, while
X-Factor member Angel lost his wings. Psylocke (Betsy Braddock), Dazzler
(Alison Blaire), Longshot, and Havok joined the X-Men in the following
months.

The Mutant Massacre crossover was so popular that the editor of the X-
Men, Ann Nocenti, decided to hold another one to help keep sales up
during the competitive summer months. Claremont agreed, and presented
the Fall of the Mutants--unique in that while it was a "crossover," none
of the characters of one book met the characters of the other two books.
However, the result was tons of bloodshed--Angel became Archangel, Doug
Ramsey was killed, and the team of X-Men, plus Madelyne Pryor, was
killed. Of course, Madelyne and the X-Men were resurrected, but were
invisible to scanners. They went to Australia and were joined by silent
teleporter Gateway.

With the interest in the X-titles remaining at a high level, Classic X-
Men was created to reprint the adventures of the "new" X-Men, beginning
with Giant-Size X-Men #1. Unlike most reprint books, Classic X-Men also
had up to four new pages inserted into the old story, sometimes not with
the most smooth of seams, written by Claremont and drawn by some current
artist, which would expand upon the old story. Each Classic X-Men also
had a brand new story that took place around the time of the reprint.
The first run of new stories in Classic X-Men were written by Claremont
and drawn by John Bolton. When the press of Claremont's writing didn't
give him time to write any more in Classic X-Men, a few other writers
were allowed to do some, but eventually Marvel removed the backup
stories (last backup: #44, the Rogue origin story) and the new "filler"
material, and retitled the book X-Men Classics, which reprinted
unaltered copies of Uncanny X-Men. This title was cancelled at #110
(which reprinted UXM #206).

For a long time, Chris Claremont opposed giving Wolverine a solo title.
Claremont feared that overexposure would ruin the mysterious nature of
his background which helped make him so popular (Marvel solved that
dilemma by making Wolverine's revealed past so confusing that nobody
could figure it out). A few Wolverine limited series came out, such as
"Wolverine" and "Kitty Pryde and Wolverine", but neither fulfilled the
thirst for more Wolverine stories. Wolverine finally got an ongoing
series, previewed in the new weekly comic, Marvel Comics Presents. In an
attempt to cut down the "fanboy" appeal, which Claremont feared was
driving requests for the title and would ruin its long-term prospects,
he deliberately set the popular mutant in an unpopular setting for young
fans--the exotic South Seas of Madripoor. Based more on old movies than
pop comics, Madripoor was both an attempt by Claremont to write the
character in a setting he found fun, as well as to confound the fanboys
who were just looking for "cool" action scenes. By putting Wolverine
into yet another personality, as "Patch," Claremont also could keep
mystery up around the mutant without revealing his ever-appealing "true
background."

By this time, X-Factor's hidden agenda of pretending to be mutant
hunters while actually saving mutants had been exposed. They were living
as just another mutant superhero team in Ship off the coast of New York.
At the same time, some of the X-Men who were separated during the Mutant
Massacre and Fall of the Mutants had moved to England and set themselves
up (with some established English heroes) as Excalibur. Chris Claremont
wrote and Alan Davis pencilled the book. The first members were Captain
Britain (Brian Braddock), Nightcrawler, Shadowcat, her dragon Lockheed,
Meggan, and Phoenix II, and they were challenged by Mojo's Warwolves in
their first appearance. The book was cancelled with #125.

Around this time, Claremont planned to do one last crossover that would
clear up a bunch of loose ends, finalize some old plot threads, get rid
of some old characters, and answer some old questions. It was called
Inferno, and was distinctive for how non-mutant titles worked themselves
into the story without being required reading (like Spider-Man's
appearances in Inferno). Basically, two demons teamed up with Madelyne
Pryor (who was revealed to be Sinister's clone of Jean Grey and called
herself the Goblyn Queen), and gathered babies for a sacrifice that
would allow them to take over the world. Scott and Maddie's son was one
of the babies. The X-Factor kids and the New Mutants teamed up to rescue
the babies, while X-Men and X-Factor met, saw the real true Jean Grey
was alive, and trounced Sinister.

Claremont hoped that Inferno would be so unwieldly that no one would
want another crossover. It didn't work. Inferno just made people want
more "X-overs". This meant more writers had to be called in, and it
increased the chance that artists and writers would mess up continuity
and otherwise have their quality of work suffer. Despite the fact that
crossovers end up producing lower quality work from all involved in the
stories, poorly-planned and ill-plotted crossovers continued for years.

After the events of Inferno, the team was "joined" by mall rat Jubilee
(Jubilation Lee). During various events, most of the team ended up going
through the Siege Perilous, which sent characters all over the world and
"resurrected" them in new situations (such as Havok as a military leader
in Genosha, Colossus as an artist in New York, Rogue split from the
Carol Danvers persona in the Savage Land, and Psylocke as an Asian
ninja). Poor Storm had been deaged by Nanny and thought dead, though she
ended up as a child thief with Gambit (Remy LeBeau) in New Orleans. A
short-term team of backup X-Men was formed on Muir Island with Legion,
Forge, Siryn, Banshee, and a few others. They went looking for the other
X-Men.

Shortly after this, Claremont was getting burned out on the X-titles. He
was writing most of the issues while working on novels, and he started
to fold under pressure from editorial influences as to what should be in
the X-titles (as well as his own recycling of old ideas). Wolverine and
New Mutants were the first books he resigned from. Wolverine was moved
to a variety of writers, eventually settling on Larry Hama for a long
stretch, while New Mutants was passed on to Louise Simonson.

Somewhere around here Rob Liefeld stepped in. He was brought over to New
Mutants because Marvel thought a young penciler might better relate to
young characters. Bob Harras, the editor of the X-titles (note that the
titles had grown large enough that a group editor was needed to keep
them all together) thought the title of "New Mutants" was oxymoronic on
a book approaching its one hundredth issue, and wanted a change in the
focus of the book to match the change of title. So, he put Rob Liefeld
on New Mutants as penciler, with Louise Simonson as writer. Cable was
introduced as their mysterious leader. Half of the team left. The
remainder was kidnapped by former X-Factor assistant Cameron Hodge and
taken to Genosha where they were put on trial.

This led to the X-Tinction Agenda, where all of the various characters
of X-Factor, X-Men, and New Mutants reconnected. Warlock was killed, the
kids were rescued, and everyone tried to figure out how they should
proceed. The New Mutants and X-Factor kids stayed with Cable (except
Wolfsbane), while the others contacted Xavier in space (where he'd been
since UXM #200). They soon fought the Shadow King, and again tried to
figure out what to do. So, around UXM #281 and X-Factor #71, there was a
massive reshuffling of teams.

------------------------------
Subject: The 1990s: Claremont's exit, mega-crossovers

Only a few months after the X-Tinction Agenda crossover, the New Mutants
title was replaced by X-Force, with Rob Liefeld as "plotter" and
penciler, and Fabian Nicieza as scripter. New characters Feral (Maria
Santos) and Shatterstar (Gaveedra 7/Ben Russell) and old character
Thunderbird (James Proudstar, brother of the original Thunderbird) had
shown up in the last issues of New Mutants, and helped to form the new
X-Force team. X-Force was perhaps best summarized by its main character,
the cyborg Cable. In the Marvel Universe, Cable stood for "taking the
fight" to the bad guys. In the real world, Cable stood for a change
towards action and fight-fests, as opposed to the usual slower-paced,
character-focused issues of Claremont. Young hordes of fans bought
X-Force with glee, making its first issue the highest shipping comic in
modern comic history up to that time. Both ideas proved to be spurious.
Cable ended up "taking the fight" to the villains about as often as the
X-Men did.

Debuting within months of X-Force, the new X-Men title (not the same as
Uncanny X-Men, which had been referred to in abbreviation as X-Men) was
created to further saturate the X-Men market, and, more importantly,
saturate the then fan-favorite art of X-Men artist Jim Lee (teamed up
with by-then co-star Chris Claremont). Five different covers were offered
to fanboys and speculators, who bought multiple copies.

Seeing the figures, the powers-that-be at Marvel decided that current
fans must be attracted more to art than writing, so they promoted a new
generation of young artists and emphasized many more merchanizing tie-ins,
emblazoned with the new art styles, that one could buy to "fit in" with
the X-Men experience, including t-shirts, posters, pins, and so on.
Unfortunately, the fan-favorite artists were not happy that they got
little to no return on their work when their art from an Uncanny X-Men
issue was reprinted on a poster or t-shirt. For these reasons, as well as
various claims of "creative control," the leading artists of the X-titles
left Marvel and founded Image Comics where, with complete legal control
over their new characters, they would make as much money as they could
over the merchandizing of their own creations.

Meanwhile, the preferred treatment of the artists over the other creative
staff caused stress among the creators. Fed up, Chris Claremont finally
left the titles with X-Men #3 and UXM #281. Claremont and other writers
(including New Mutants writer Louise Simonson) stated in interviews that
their main reasons for leaving were annoyance over the amount of editorial
nit-picking in their stories, and sense of powerlessness given the amount
of editorial favor for the artists as compared to the writers.

X-Men continued to sell, and Jim Lee stated in interviews that he had
plans for the title all the way up to issue #50, but before a year was up
he was already working at Image. This left Bob Harras in a pickle. He had
no artistic staff, and many of the writers who had been working for him
had already left the X-titles. To fill the creative gap on the main titles,
Harras recruited a bunch of new artists of varying ability, as well as two
Marvel in-house writers, Scott Lobdell and Fabian Nicieza (Fabian was also
an editor at Marvel, while Lobdell had a second career as a stand-up comic).

X-Men became a companion book of Uncanny X-Men. There were supposed to be
differences in members, purpose, and focus between the two books, but the
ongoing crossovers and Marvel's scrambling to cover the "X-odus" (as the
departure of the creative staff on the X-titles was called) made it
essentially a twice-monthly book coming out under two different titles.

X-Factor, meanwhile, had undergone yet another change of direction. It
lost the original members to the new X-Men title, and picked up a bunch
of mutants that had been lurking in the background of Marvel stories for
decades as their main characters: Havok, Polaris, Multiple Man (Jamie
Madrox), Wolfsbane, Strong Guy (Guido Carosella), and Forge. This "new"
X-Factor was well received due to the excellent work of the new creative
team of writer Peter David and penciler Larry Stroman. It was cancelled
and rebooted after issue #149.

When the X-Men animated series came out, Marvel, never slow to miss a
potential tie-in, put out the new title X-Men Adventures, which did
adaptations of the cartoon series. Since the cartoon series itself was
adapting three decades of X-stories, long-time X-readers tended to get
odd feelings of deja vu. It was later joined by the title Adventures of
the X-Men, which printed original stories based on cartoon continuity.
Both were later cancelled, as was the cartoon series, and X-Men: The
Manga" was created, publishing the same stories X-Men Adventures used
to publish. Plagued by lateness, it too was cancelled.

As part of Marvel's new marketing strategy, the Unlimited series of
books was brought out. The idea of the Unlimited books was to focus on
stories that would be more "character-based" than normal Marvel titles,
whatever that would mean, and would be told in just one oversized issue.
For a while, the title went to an anthology format, including three
short stories per issue.

Also around this time, Marvel came out with a group of titles that
shared a common theme: they were placed about 100 years ahead of
"normal" Marvel history. Called the 2099 series, they featured a bunch
of alternative future versions of Marvel standards, including Spider-Man
2099, Punisher 2099, and X-Men 2099. Aside from reverent mentions of
some of the older X-Men, however, X-Men 2099 rarely had anything to do
with the continuity of the "older" titles. After a few years, it too
was cancelled.

If nothing else, Marvel has always shown a rather strong interest in
keeping its old stories available to the public (maybe because it's
cheaper just reprinting the old stuff). The next X-title to appear was
in this vein: X-Men: The Early Years, which reprinted the original X-Men
series, from back in the 60s, while X-Men Classics continued to reprint
the "new" X-Men stories. It was cancelled after 19 issues. The book was
replaced by Professor Xavier and the X-Men, which retold the early tales
from a more modern viewpoint. It also was cancelled after a few issues.

Eagle-eyed FAQ-readers are no doubt seeing a familiar pattern here.

Various other crossovers and battles took place over the next few years.
Just after the reshuffling, Bishop appeared from the future, and joined
the X-Men team. X-Cutioner's Song featured the introduction of Stryfe
and the Legacy virus, and revealed Cable as Scott and Madelyne's son
returned from the future and the return of Apocalypse. (It was around
this time that Scott Summers and Jean Grey finally married.) Fatal
Attractions featured the death of a de-aged Magik, the return of
Magneto, and Colossus' choice to defect to Magneto's acolytes. It also
featured Magneto ripping the adamantium off of Wolverine's bones through
his skin. Xavier eventually mindwiped Magneto to stop him. It didn't
stop the Acolytes, though, as yet another crossover (this time between
Avengers and X-Men) called Blood Ties featured the kidnapping of
Quicksilver's daughter by Magneto Acolyte and impersonator Fabian
Cortez. The art was "kewl" and the events were extreme, but something
was still lacking.

The decision was made to make yet another title to expand on the X-Men
theme and return to the basic ideas of the old X-Men and the New
Mutants: teaching young mutants to both fit in the world as well as to
use their powers. The Phalanx Agenda crossover introduced the new cast
of young mutants, which eventually became Generation X. Scott Lobdell
wrote and Chris Bachalo pencilled this new title, which featured Banshee
and the White Queen (Emma Frost) teaching the younger generation of
mutants in Frost's Massachussetts Academy, now the "School for Gifted
Youngsters". Xavier finally changed the original X-mansion school to an
"Institute for Higher Learning." Generation X featured Jubilee
(Jubilation Lee), Husk (Paige Guthrie), M (Monet St. Croix), Skin
(Angelo Espinoza), Synch (Everett Thomas), and Chamber (Jonothon
Starsmore) as the first students, and they found themselves facing
Emplate in their first issue.

In summer 1994, as Generation X was just hitting the stands, the
greatest crossover of all was planned: the end of the universe! Age of
Apocalypse (AOA), and its lead-in, Legion Quest, tied it all together.
Due to a time-travel glitch, an alternate reality was created. In this
"World Without Xavier," Apocalypse was in charge, and Magneto led the
heroic opposition. All of the writers' (and some fans') fantasies came
true: Cyclops was a villain, Jean Grey and Wolverine were a couple,
Magneto and Rogue were married with a child, Doug Ramsey wasn't dead,
and Kitty and Colossus were married, to name a few. All of the comics
were retitled and renumbered (starting at #1). The casts were scrambled
as well, with X-Force becoming Gambit and the X-ternals as the most
extreme example. Through the machinations of all the books, the timeline
was restored to normal, with four AOA characters remaining in the "real"
timeline: X-Man (Nate Grey), Sugar Man, the AOA version of Beast, and
Holocaust. Nate Grey got his own title, X-Man, the only AOA title to
continue past the crossover itself. When AOA ended, numbering of the
other titles continued where it had left off.

The next mega-crossover was Onslaught. In that crossover, a psychic
construction with all of the worst parts of Xavier and Magneto decided
to try taking over the world. This crossover was different in that in
had a greater impact on the rest of the Marvel Universe than it did on
the X-Men themselves. Onslaught set up the reboots of Iron Man, the
Fantastic Four, the Avengers, and Captain America, and caused the
characters' (temporary) removal from the Marvel Universe. Rob Liefeld
had once again been courted to raise sales on those four titles, even
though Mark Waid's previous six months of work on Captain America had
turned the title into a solid seller. After Liefeld, Jim Lee, and others
finished their runs on the titles (Liefeld's being shorter than the
planned 12-issue run), the books were restarted with number 1 issues.
Meanwhile, Waid wrote some issues of the X-Men, adding Cannonball to the
team, but left soon after. A Magneto stand-in, Joseph, was briefly a
member, as was Quicksilver (Pietro Maximoff, Magneto's son).

Following Onslaught, the X-Men were on their own during the Operation:
Zero Tolerance crossover. As "Operation: Zero Tolerance" continued, Bob
Harras realized that things were not going well in the X-titles. On the
main front, Uncanny X-Men and X-Men writer Scott Lobdell was trying to
tank the story because he wanted the X-Men to lose and editor Mark
Powers refused to let them. At the same time, X-Factor was becoming a
mess of new characters, and Excalibur was going through writer cramps as
Warren Ellis left the book. So Harras acted to change things.

The first books to get the big treatment were the X-Men and Uncanny.
They were given to Joe Kelly and Steven T. Seagle, respectively, who
shook things up by adding three characters: Marrow (a terrorist),
Maggott (a South African), and Cecelia Reyes (a doctor). The book went
in some interesting directions, but their tenure lasted only eight months
since management decided that a new, different direction was in order.
Listening to complaints about the size of the X-Men team, a decree was
made that the book should have a team of 7 or 8: Wolverine, Storm, Marrow
and Rogue would stay on; Excalibur, which was rapidly losing sales, would
be closed down, and its main three characters--Shadowcat, Nightcrawler
and Colossus--would return. And then there was Gambit.

After decent sales on Gambit's mini series and letters asking for his
return after being unceremoniously dumped in the snow in Uncanny X-Men
#350 (after revealing his part in the Mutant Massacre), a solo book was
set to spring out of events in one of the down-time issues. Fabian Nicieza
returned from his editorial stint at Acclaim Comics to begin the writing
job on the title. (It was eventually cancelled with #26.)

With such upheaval--dissolution of a team book, retrenching on the two
core titles, Larry Hama leaving Generation X after dismal reception and
new writer Jay Faerber coming in with new ideas, and John Francis Moore
setting up X-Force in a new way--Harras turned to the remaining book:
X-Factor. Writer Howard Mackie and editor Frank Pittarese were asked to
come up with something radical. The result? X-Factor would halted at
#149 (after constantly promising a big payoff in issue #150) and Havok
would go to another universe where the rules were changed. This would
last for a year, and then Havok would return to take the team in a
different direction. Harras was ecstatic and he okayed the move. X-
Factor became Mutant X, a twelve issue maxi-series that was received so
positively, the book was continued. (Unfortunately, the positive start
soon turned negative, and the book was cancelled with #32.)

Back to the core titles. The drastic reduction of the X-Men's numbers,
combined with the addition of Marrow and the members from the defunct
Excalibur team, left everyone in a bit of a muddle. The Psi-War soon
stripped Jean Grey, Psylocke, and Cable of their telepathic powers. (Of
course, in typical Marvel fashion, the power losses lasted for only a
short time.) Seagle and Kelly came up with some very interesting plots,
but the two authors were soon replaced by Alan Davis, who was supposed
to come on for six issues only but stayed until a "full-time
replacement" could be found.

Davis was forced to do the "Rage Against the Machine" event immediately
after his second story arc. The story, leading to the annuals, launched
the M-Tech line: Warlock, Deathlok and X-51: Machine Man. Sales on the
three books were dismal. (Although Warlock was the most X-related, and
the best-written, Marvel held the cancellation on X-51 another month
thinking it possible to remarket that title as an X-book. Didn't work.)

Xavier was missing around this time, and the X-men went on a search for
him. Cerebro, who had been taken by Bastion earlier, was rampaging and
Xavier was hiding from the machine, not able to contact the X-Men.
During the "Search for Xavier," they found him. Joseph turned out to be
a copy of Magneto. After the battle with Magneto, Joseph died and Magneto
was given Genosha by the UN. Then came "The Shattering." Xavier felt
something was wrong, and dissolved the team. During "The Shattering," the
members of the teams went off on their own, to recover from the events of
O:ZT and the like.

It was during this ebb that Bishop returned home to the mansion and chose
to go his own separate way as well. Bishop: The Last X-Man #1 began in
"The Shattering," when he and Storm were alone in the mansion. Before he
could change his mind, he was whisked away. Bishop:TLXM chronicled the
tale of Bishop versus the Chronomancer (aka Fitzroy) in an alternate
future. While Bishop was somehow sucked back into continuity during the
Twelve storyline, he was whisked back to his own title soon afterward.
(Bishop returned home again in his title's final issue, #16.)

------------------------------
Subject: 2000 and beyond

Information on "The Twelve" had been around for eons. An entire question
in this FAQ centered around who the possible candidates were, based upon
a handful of Master Mold appearances. The only thing certain was that it
had to do with a future conflict with Apocolypse. People weren't even
sure whether the Twelve were all heroes, or included the major good guys
*and* bad guys of the fight with Apocalypse. Apocalypse, of course, was
trying to take over the world. He wanted to obtain the powers of the
twelve most powerful mutants. He was going to take over Nate Grey's body
as his new host, but Cyclops sacrificed himself and the two merged.
Soon after that, the X-Men lost their powers due to a plot by the High
Evolutionary and Sinister, and went their merry ways trying to live new
lives powerless. During this time, Professor Xavier went into space to
teach mutant Skrulls how to use their powers.

All of this was a setup for the return of the master X-Men writer, Chris
Claremont. Claremont had been an editor for Marvel for years, and rumors
were always circulating as to whether he would return and "rescue" the
titles from their poorly-written existence. So a new event was concocted
to bring him back and increase sales--X-Men Revolution! The two main books
would be given over to Claremont, while three of the other titles (X-Man,
Generation X, and X-Force) would be given to "plotmaster" Warren Ellis.
The books would all include a "six-month gap" during which all kinds of
"neat" changes would happen, allowing the new writers to take the teams in
plot-leaping directions. All of this was to take place shortly after the
release of the "X-Men" movie in July 2000.

The X-Men movie was a hit. It topped the box office and left some older
fans wanting to return to the titles. The excellent cast, including
Patrick Stewart as Xavier and Ian McKellan as Magneto, was paired with
nifty special effects to create a very enjoyable, albeit alternative,
version of the X-Men. Fans, and Marvel staff, hoped that the movie would
lead new readers into the newly-revamped books.

Chris Claremont took over the two main titles, with artistic help from
Leinil Francis Yu and Mark Morales on X-Men and Adam Kubert, Salvador
Larrocca, and Tim Townsend on Uncanny. His new plots, however, left a
lot to be desired. Some nifty points occurred, including the switch of
powers between Phoenix and Psylocke and the appearance of former foe
Tessa on the team, but most were not explained. New member Thunderbird
III (Neal Sharra) was introduced, and Cable joined the main ranks. The
big problem was that there were no logical, recognizable villains faced.
You see, Claremont and company felt that old villains like Magneto had
been beaten before, so a new group, the Neo, were introduced.

The Neo stories had many problems. The characters were supposed to be
very powerful, like mutant versions of mutants. A new step in evolution,
if you will. But their powers were tired, their motivations unexplained,
and their characters undefined. "I am ____!" became the standard of high
characterization for the Neo, the Goth, the Twisted Sisters, and the
like, all of whom were supposedly different groups. Shadowcat, who was
also given a major personality change, went missing. Nobody really
bothered to look for her. The same was true of other characters. And,
while the two titles were again supposed to be two books with two teams
and storylines, the state of perma-crossover left them effectively merged.

Meanwhile, Counter-X debuted in Generation X, X-Force, and X-Man. Warren
Ellis started out with some interesting ideas, but the stories generally
left fans divided. X-Man was revamped by Steven Grant and Ariel
Olivetti, and was generally the only success story. The change to Nate
Grey as a sort of shaman was a huge departure from the previous
conceptualization of the character. Loads of parallel-Earth stories
ensued, but the book had an increased fan base. Unfortunately, it was
cancelled with issue #75, at the end of its first year of Counter-X.

Brian Wood and Steve Pugh took over Generation X from Jay Faerber and
the Dodsons, and led off with a House of Correction storyline that had
huge gaping plot holes all through it. Luckily, later stories that
explained the death of Synch during the six month gap, and focused on
character development, were much better. However, at the end of the
first year of Counter-X stories, the title was cancelled with issue #75.

Ian Edginton and Whilce Portacio took over X-Force, the least successful
of the Counter-X revamps. The book, which had been interesting under the
run of John Francis Moore, had faltered. But the revamp, which stripped
the team to four characters and started out with a ludicrous story of
aliens taking over people in San Francisco, left characters with ugly
costumes, ugly faces, few lines, new powers, and murky colors. The book
was also late, late, late. Of all of the revamps, X-Force was the flop.

To tie in with the release of the movie, two new items debuted. X-Men:
Evolution was a cartoon featuring an alternate version of the X-Men. A
new Ultimate title, Ultimate X-Men, was also introduced, led by Mark
Millar and Adam Kubert. Like the movie, it featured black-leather-clad
X-Men in a team setting, though it was more like an alternate version
of X-Men #1. Neither seemed earth-shattering, though Ultimate was set
to be continuity-free (at least, compared with the main titles).

The shakeup that had begun with the new teams and titles and creators
was continued with the ascencion of Joe Quesada as the new Editor-in-
Chief after Bob Harras was fired. Many cancellations were announced,
including Generation X, X-Man, and Mutant X. Fabian Nicieza's well-done
Gambit was merged with Joe Harris' interesting Bishop (brought back to
our timeline for a joint miniseries), and both titles were cancelled.
John Byrne's nifty but slow X-Men: The Hidden Years, which was filling
in the gaps between (Uncanny) X-Men #66 and Giant-Size X-Men #1, was
announced as cancelled, but a write-in campaign and pressure from Byrne
meant that he had an extra issue or two to tie up loose threads.

Then came the restructurings and firings. Though Claremont's more recent
stories, dealing with the search for Destiny's diaries, seemed to give
more old-style characterization, he was released from the main books and
was given a third X-Men title to write. It was announced that the main
titles would be given over to Grant Morrison/Frank Quitely (X-Men) and
Joe Casey/Ian Churchill (Uncanny). Frank Tieri and Sean Chen took over
Wolverine with a back-to-basics approach (which translated into more
action). Popular Cable writer Robert Weinberg, working with Michael Ryan
and Andrew Pepoy, had given structure and intrigue back to that title,
but he was booted in favor of another writer. And in a bizarre twist, it
was announced that X-Force would be entirely revamped by Peter Milligan
and Mike Allred, and would feature a large team of all-new characters.

X-Men was renamed New X-Men as of issue #114, and Morrison and Quitely
introduced the scaled-down team of Cyclops, Phoenix, the White Queen,
Wolverine, and a newly-mutated Beast. They, along with Professor X,
reopened Xavier's school to a new group of students. Unfortunately,
Xavier had a twin sister, killed in the womb, that wanted to take over
his mind and ruin everything he'd worked for. A Chinese mutant, Xorn,
was introduced, as was a young winged mutant named Angel. The tone of
Morrison's New X-Men was distinct and unusual, and the book achieved
critical success, though some fans objected to new characterizations.

Uncanny X-Men was put in the hands of Casey and Churchill, who gathered
the team of (Arch)angel, Iceman, and Nightcrawler, added Chamber, and
included Wolverine for a few issues just for fun. The first few issues
focused on celebrity and family, as the team convinced Chamber that he
should join the team. After a visit to a mutant brothel, a mutant who
called herself Stacey X was added to the team. The Church of Humanity
was introduced as a threat. Sean Cassidy later showed up as the leader
of the European X-Corps, featuring former members of Generation X,
X-Factor, and Freedom Force (villains).

Meanwhile, Chris Claremont was shunted over to X-Treme X-Men, paired
with Salvador Larocca on art. He built a team using Storm, Bishop,
Rogue, Thunderbird, Sage, Beast, and Psylocke. Psylocke was killed
off by a villain named Vargas, and Beast's injuries and subsequent
"treatment" by Sage transferred him to the New X-Men team in a more
bestial state. Gambit rejoined the team, and two new characters were
introduced: Heather Cameron (Lifeguard), who could turn into whatever
form she needed, and her brother Davis (Slipstream), whose surfing-
teleportation powers were activated by Sage. Though the team was
supposedly formed to locate Destiny's diaries, a quest introduced in
X-Men #109, more of their efforts went towards battling organized crime
in Australia and Madripoor, and fighting off an alien invasion.

X-Force's makeover in the hands of Milligan and Allred was more of a
critical success. Almost all of the team featured in the first issue
was killed, and new team members quickly bit the dust after that,
until a more complex set of relationships developed between Orphan
and U-Go Girl and the newer team members. Conspiacies and corporate
links formed a backdrop to a unique set of characters, all trying to
figure out who they were while tentatively forming relationships
within a team that seemed unstable at best.

Cable was turned over to Tischman and Kordey, who took the character
in a more political real-world direction. Wolverine continued under
the hand of Frank Tieri, who seemed to believe that large, long
fight sequences were the epitome of characterization. Multiple Icons
miniseries were published, many of which seemed rather lame. One bright
spot was Judd Winnick's new Exiles title--a Quantum-Leap-inspired book
with a lot of light humor to it.

A mere year after the upheaval, the Marvel offices were at it again.
Quitely's slow pace meant that Ethan Van Sciver would become a regular
penciler on alternate arcs from Quitely on New X-Men. Low sales and odd
plots brought Chuck Austen in to replace Joe Casey on Uncanny, though
Casey's X-Corps idea became the X-Corporation in New X-Men and Uncanny.

Critical success X-Force was winning new fans, but older fans complained
about the bait-and-switch nature of the title, so it was relaunched with
the name X-Statix. To battle low sales, other titles were also renamed
and rebooted with #1 issues. Darko Macan became the new writer on Cable,
renamed Soldier X. Deadpool, a semi-X-related title, was renamed Agent X
and was written by Deadpool writer Gail Simone, with art by UDON Studios.
One new book, Weapon X, brought together a team of former X-Men allies
and foes (working for the government as a black ops team), and was
written by Frank Tieri with art by Georges Jeanty.

It is not clear if the relaunches and reboots will be successful, but it
is likely that Marvel will keep trying. At the very least, the new style
of the books means that there are finally three separate and distinct
core titles, and a number of supporting titles, that each have their own
team, purpose, style, and audience. Fans no longer felt compelled to buy
every issue of every title in order to keep track of what was going on.

*** Continued in Part 3 ***

Compilation Copyright 2000-2003 by Katharine E. Hahn
SEND ADDITIONS / CHANGES / DEAD LINKS / MOVED LINKS / UPDATES TO:
Kate the Short, ra...@yahoo.com (mailto:ra...@yahoo.com)

--
Kate the Short * http://users.rcn.com/kateshort/

[Kate the Short]

Archive-name: comics/xbooks/main-faq/part3

Posting-frequency: monthly
URL: http://users.rcn.com/kateshort/faqs/

-= REC.ARTS.COMICS.MARVEL.XBOOKS =-
Frequently Asked Questions

Part 3

Version 2003.02 last updated November 2003
URL: http://users.rcn.com/kateshort/faqs/racmxFAQ/faq3.html

------------------------------
Subject: Table of Contents

Part 3:

X-MEN COMIC BOOK QUESTIONS
* Who were the original X-Men? Who was the first X-Man? Who have
been X-Men? (+)
* How come Professor X has so much money?
* What classes does the Professor offer at his schools, anyway? (+)
* Wasn't there a title released in 1963 about a team of super-
powered misfits who banded together under some smart guy in a
wheelchair to fight against prejudice and the right to just be
yourself ... by DC Comics?
* When did Professor X start walking? Isn't he supposed to be in a
wheelchair? (+)
* Are there any gay X-Men? (+)
* Why do people hate the X-Men when they love the Avengers and the
Fantastic Four?
* Why can't Cyclops just wear contact lenses?
* Why doesn't Forge invent something that would neutralize powers
so mutants like Cyclops and Rogue can live normal lives? And how
can Rogue cut her hair, if she's invulnerable?
* Did Psylocke dye her hair? What about Rogue's stripe?
* I've got an idea! Why don't Rogue and Gambit use Leech so
they can have sex? Have they already had sex? (+)
* Is Rogue's inability to control her powers psychological in nature?
* Why does Rogue have claws? When did that happen?
* Was Rogue raped by the guards in the first Genosha storyline?
* What is the relationship between Mystique and Nightcrawler? Why
is Rogue involved in it, if she isn't blue? (+)

------------------------------
Subject: X-MEN COMIC BOOK QUESTIONS

Background information on the creators and the X-titles editorial

offices is based on over a decade's worth of articles, interviews, and

personal questions, and as such is not directly attributed here. Now
that some of Marvel's staff members are on Usenet, they are welcomed to
correct and amend any of the answers listed below.

--- Who were the original X-Men? Who was the first X-Man? Who have
been X-Men? (+)

The original X-Men, in the oh-so-darling blue and yellow geek suits,
were Cyclops, the Angel, the Beast, Iceman, and Marvel Girl.

Deciding upon the first X-Man is a bit of a trick. While Xavier did
bring Scott to his mansion first to become the first X-Man, it was
revealed in the 1960's run of the title that he actually had already
been helping Jean Grey cope with her telepathic powers. Thus, Jean was
his first real mutant student, and, by extension, his first X-Man, even
though Cyclops was the first of his mutant students to don a costume and
call himself an X-Man.

It should be noted that Scott Lobdell retconned this simple origin, by
having Professor X planning the second team of X-Men (from Giant-Size
X-Men #1) back before he had picked Scott for the first team. While this
is an annoying anamoly, it doesn't change the answer to the question,
since none of the second team of X-Men were ever contacted by Xavier
until long after Scott and Jean became X-Men.

As far as people who have been "X-MEN"...there are a few technical
distinctions. The following have generally been considered X-Men, with
asteriks noting the "sort-of" members: Professor X (Charles Xavier),
Cyclops (Scott Summers), Marvel Girl/Phoenix (Jean Grey), Iceman (Bobby
Drake), Angel/Archangel (Warren Worthington III), Beast (Hank McCoy),
Mimic (Calvin Rankin), Havok (Alex Summers), Polaris (Lorna Dane),
Changeling (posing as Professor X)*, Thunderbird I (John Proudstar),
Sunfire (Shiro Yoshida), Storm (Ororo Munroe), Wolverine (Logan, a.k.a
James Howlett), Colossus (Piotr Rasputin), Nightcrawler (Kurt Wagner),
Banshee (Sean Cassidy), Phoenix Force (posing as Jean Grey)*, Shadowcat
(Kitty Pryde), Rogue (Rogue), Phoenix (Rachel Summers), Magneto (Erik
Magnus Lensherr; also posing as Xorn), Dazzler (Alison Blaire), Psylocke
(Betsy Braddock), Longshot, Jubilee (Jubilation Lee), Gambit (Remy
LeBeau), Forge, Bishop (Lucas Bishop), Revanche (Kwannon), Cannonball
(Sam Guthrie), Dark Beast (impersonating Hank McCoy)*, Marrow (Sarah),
Maggott (Japheth), Cecelia Reyes*, Joseph (a Magneto clone), Quicksilver
(Pietro Maximoff), Cable (Nathan Summers), Thunderbird III (Neal
Sharra), Sage (Tessa), White Queen (Emma Frost), Chamber (Jono
Starsmore), X-Stacy (Stacy X), Lifeguard (Heather Cameron), Slipstream
(Davis Cameron), Northstar, and Cannonball.

In the technicality department, Binary (Carol Danvers) was with the
X-Men during the Brood Saga, but apparently didn't consider herself to
be an X-Man. The New Mutants called themselves the X-Men in X-Men
Annual #10 when they donned their graduation suits. Team members were
Cannonball, Mirage, Sunspot, Wolfsbane, Karma, Magik, Warlock and
Cypher. New Mutants teaching staff members Sharon Friedlander and Tom
Corsi just helped the team, and Stevie Hunter was a dance teacher who
regularly helped the kids. Maddie Pryor "died" with the X-Men, but did
not consider herself to be an X-Man (during the Australian stories);
likewise, Gateway was an associate of the team but not an official
member. There was a team of "Muir Isle X-Men" circa the mid-late 200s
of UXM, back when the X-Men were thought to be dead, including Forge,
Banshee, Siryn (Banshee's daughter), Legion (Xavier's son), Amanda
Sefton, Moira MacTaggart, Sunder, and Alysdane Stewart. The Eve of
Destruction team that Phoenix assembled circa UXM #392 included Dazzler,
Northstar (formerly of Alpha Flight), Sunpyre (Sunfire's sister Leyu
Yashida), and a bunch of other new characters that haven't been seen
since.

Other characters have operated with the three main teams of X-Men. Dani
Moonstar was allegedly a "part-time" affiliate of the X-Men as of X-Men
#102, but since she was only around for one or two issues, it doesn't
really count. Other characters such as Husk and Jubilee have shown up in
Uncanny X-Men, but Paige said in a thought caption that she hoped to one
day become an X-Man, indicating that she didn't have that status yet.
Other associated characters have shown up as members of X-Corp. Time will
tell whether these are full members or just associates.

--- How come Professor X has so much money?

Capitalism. The rich get richer.

Apparently, the Xaviers are an old money family, since the Graymalkin
estate (and the many-times rebuilt mansion) has been described as being
in the Xavier family for ten generations. So, Charles Xavier inherited
a lot of money. Xavier also has decent ties to the Avengers and to Reed
Richards of the Fantastic Four to get cheap access to funky technology
(as the easiest two examples: the image inducer was invented by Tony
Stark, and the unstable molecule costumes were made of fabric obviously
supplied by Richards). Finally, Professor X was formerly the consort of
an intergalactic queen (Lilandra), and got a bunch of cheap, high-tech
alien goods and repairs passed under the bed, as it were.

Among the cheap, high tech alien goods was a handy-dandy costume
machine, which presumably works with Reed Richards' unstable molecule
fabric. Hence the X-Men aren't spending a lot of money on clothing.
Which is a good thing, considering how costumes they go through on your
average crossover.

When Xavier's own money has been inaccessible, Warren Worthington has
been there to step in. He had a lot of money to start with, and appears
to have regained the money Hodge took from him when Warren "died". Note
that Emma Frost and Betsy Braddock are also financially well off.

--- What classes does the Professor offer at his schools, anyway? (+)

Apparently, Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters offered an accredited
high school equivalency degree for its privately enrolled students. The
"graduates" could try for a higher degree, now that Xavier also has an
Institute for Higher Learning, if it wasn't for the fact that they're
really the X-Men, and usually have other things to do than cram for
finals. Some X-Men have tried for higher degrees--Jean Grey went on to
Metro University--but generally there wasn't much higher learning going
on at Xavier's. Some of the older X-Men have served as "guest lecturers"
to Generation X at the Massachusetts Academy, but it's pretty likely
that none of them has a teaching degree.

Scenes from Claremont's run on the New Mutants showed classes being held
in world history, economics, and physical education (above and beyond
Danger Room training). Presumably the classes in biology would be
top-notch. Even when she was with the X-Men, Jubilee was shown studying
algebra.

Tom Galloway has more help: "It's strongly implied that Hank McCoy (the
Beast) earned his doctorate at Xavier's. He leaves the school directly
for what amounts to a job as a Principal Investigator at Brand
Industries, and there's really no time in his history when he could
otherwise have earned the PhD they credit him with." On the other hand,
X-Factor Annual #3 features a backup story where Beast is showing the
kids pictures of his time at a college outside of Xavier's, earning
degrees in biochemistry and genetics.

Don't mess with Marvel time, kids. These men are professionals.

As it stands, the promotional comic for Generation X had a whole list of
classes offered at Emma Frost's school. It included lots of specialized
PE, classes on leadership, cultural diversity, and physics with assorted
guest instructors. Still, Gen X first showed the kids in a classroom in
issue #21. More recently, both New X-Men and New Mutants showed students
in flight class, and Professor Xavier was lecturing on mutant rights and
politics, so students in Xavier's current school should be receiving
general and specialized curricula.

--- Wasn't there a title released in 1963 about a team of super-powered
misfits who banded together under some smart guy in a wheelchair to
fight against prejudice and the right to just be yourself ... by DC
Comics?

You're absolutely correct. The Doom Patrol came out in 1963 (the same
year as the X-Men), and featured Robotman, Negative Man, and Elasti-Girl
under the cryptic leadership of the Chief. Yes, the heroes were crippled
or maladjusted by the nature of them being heroes--Robotman was an
"omniplegic," Negative Man was wrapped in protective bandages, and so
on. The Chief did rule from his wheelchair, and their whole point was to
prove that even misfits and freaks could be a productive part of
society, despite prejudice.

The interesting thing is that so far as anyone can tell this was another
example in history of pure coincidence. The Marvel and DC creative teams
apparently came up with the ideas completely on their own.

It's really not surprising when you think about when this was going on.
Marvel had revolutionarized the comic book industry with the "Marvel"
style of superhero, who had the complications of dealing with real life.
Never ones to miss on the sales comparisons, DC began copying the Marvel
style. Pretty soon we had families of superheroes with troubles,
teenaged superheroes with troubles, clubs of superheroes with
troubles... it didn't take much imagination to go to the next
progression of "modern" superheroes, superheroes with physical troubles
based on their physique, or prejudice.

A man in a wheelchair would be the natural authority figure to lead this
team, since he'd be an iconic reminder that people with disabilities can
still be functioning people, while still not suffering from such a major
disfigurement that the Comics Code of the time wouldn't accept him as an
ongoing character. The wheelchair figure couldn't be one of the active,
crime-fighting heroes, because giving him the power to leave his chair
to fight crime would invalidate the whole reason to put him in a
wheelchair in the first place. Finally, the wheelchair figure had to be
a man, since this was still the 1960s.

After the leader is set, you fill your team to taste with your choice of
heroes suffering unwarranted prejudice. And after cancelling the book in
the late 60s, bring it back later to large acclaim: as one final bit of
trivia to further prove the existence of the Illuminati, both the X-Men
and Doom Patrol came back in their first "new" forms in issues numbered
94--UXM #94 and Showcase #94, although Doom Patrol had to get cancelled
one more time before they became highly acclaimed. Technically, the
"new" X-Men debuted in Giant-Size X-Men #1, but since we're allowing the
Doom Patrol to slide on a technicality, we'll do the same for the X-Men.

--- When did Professor X start walking? Isn't he supposed to be in a
wheelchair? (+)

Although Xavier first appeared in a wheelchair in X-Men (vol. 1) #1, he
wasn't always disabled. A flashback in X-Men (vol. 1) #9 revealed that
he was first crippled in a fight with Lucifer. He remained in the
wheelchair until Uncanny X-Men #167, when his body was cloned by the
Shi'ar after his original body was destroyed by the Brood Queen. The new
body allowed him to walk, play sports, and serve as a member of the team
(albeit in an ugly black-and-yellow costume) until his legs were crushed
once again in a fight with the Shadow King in UXM #280. A year later, he
was shot and was infected with a techno-organic virus by Stryfe in UXM
#294. He was cured and was able to walk for a brief period in #297, but
was soon wheelchair-bound again. Most recently, he was able to walk after
mutant healer Xorn restored his legs, following Xavier's mind-switch with
twin sister Cassandra Nova in New X-Men #126, although New X-Men #146
revealed that it was a hoax--Magneto, as Xorn, had used nanotechnology
to support Charles' spine, and removed the support at the end of that
issue. Expect to see the Professor in a wheelchair for the time being.

--- Are there any gay X-Men? (+)

Yes: Northstar. As of UXM #414, he's part of a "real" team of X-Men,
and the question should be settled. Right? Well, wrong; people seem to
want to know about the sexuality of other characters in the main titles
and of those in spin-off titles. And so, the debates continue.

For years, Marvel had one officially gay mutant, which was Northstar of
Alpha Flight. That's it. Technically, he wasn't even an X-Man until his
stint in Uncanny circa UXM #392.

Unofficial, but well accepted, was the Mystique-Destiny relationship.
Marvel tried not to admit it, but Claremont did, and enough in-comic
evidence exists to be certain on that score. For years, the most
definitive evidence was UXM #254. In it, Irene said, "This is Raven as
I know her, the spirit-soul within my dearest friend--full of strength
and courage and passion--that I have loved from the moment we met."
Later, Mystique said, "Irenie? You had a rough night..is anything the
matter?" You can work it out for herself how Mystique would know that.
In UXM #265, the Shadow King referred to Destiny as Mystique's leman--an
archaic word meaning "lover"--which Chris Claremont seemed to have
sneaked in under the censors' radar. As of the X-Men Forever miniseries
(2001), the two are officially out of the closet, since the recap in
issue #5 clearly states that Irene was Raven's lover. X-Treme X-Men #1
concurs; Mystique is referred to as Destiny's "true love." Raven has had
two children, of course, so there's strong evidence that she could be
bisexual. She was a member of X-Factor, so she technically counts as an
X-Man.

The character Bloke in the relaunched X-Force title was identified as
gay. His media packet in X-Force #117 covered a range of stereotypes (he
lived in San Francisco, liked musicals, and used to be rainbow-colored
before he turned bright pink). His kiss with a male mutant boyfriend in
X-Force #118 confirmed it. Unfortunately, as with most characters in the
relaunched X-Force team, Bloke's tenure was rather short-lived. Newer
team members Phat and Vivisector at first seemed to be joking about being
a gay couple (in order to gain more publicity), but as of issue #129 it
was pretty clear that they "did the deed." In X-Statix #4, they finally
decided that, while gay, they weren't actually interested in each other.

The character Xi'an Coy Manh was another character whose sexuality was
debated. X-Force #75 brought Karma in with short pink hair and female
roommates in Greenwich Village. Conversation between her and Dani then
suggested that Xi'an was a lesbian. Xi'an confirmed it herself in New
Mutants (vol. 2) #4, where she also seems to have a crush on Kitty Pryde.

The character of Mariko/Sunfire in Exiles revealed that she was gay in
Exiles #11, but the title is not one of the core titles, and is set in
an alternative universe.

Speculation runs rampant regarding the sexuality of other X-characters,
but here are the favorite candidates:

* Hank McCoy. The events of his mutation into a more lion-like,
bestial form left Hank feeling like "a Hindu sex god." After his
longtime girlfriend Trish Tilby broke up with him because she felt
the "bestiality" publicity would hurt her TV journalism career,
Hank told her that he thought he might be gay. The line, in NXM
#125, could be read sarcastically or literally. As of NXM #134,
he admits that he is just playing along with the media, and not
contradicting what anyone is saying about his sexuality.

* Bobby Drake. He is by far one of the most mentioned as living in
the closet. "Evidence" hinges on his lack of steady relationships,
his lack of self-confidence, and the fact that he hasn't lived up
to his potential. His confrontation with the White Queen in UXM
#331 is also popular, where she says, "You finally realized you're
not cut out to be an X-Man, so you've decided to use your mutant
ability to pursue your first love: Interior decorating?" This is
less flimsy that it might seem, since she has occupied his body,
but hardly definitive. His relationship with Opal Tanaka is used as
evidence both for and against, depending on how you rationalize
their breakup. Bobby also had some strong sexual tension in his
later dealings with Emma Frost, circa Generation X #57, where they
attend a school dance together. In UXM #415, Northstar says that
although he has a crush on Iceman, Bobby doesn't seem to be gay.

* Ororo Munroe. Primary evidence here is X-Men Annual #11, where her
heart's desire is to run off with Yukio. Supplementary to this is
the fact that she completely turned her life around after running
around with her for an evening (UXM #172-173), and Contest of
Champions II #1, where Yukio and Storm meet again. If you buy the
Storm and Yukio relationship, Yukio seems all for it. Otherwise
Storm's relationship with Forge has been difficult, but over a long
period of time. Again, she could be bisexual.

* Dani Moonstar. Primarily, see X-Force #75. Circumstantial evidence
for Dani's homosexuality or bisexuality has been sprinkled in other
issues of X-Force, but never as heavily as #75.

* Kitty Pryde. See her interaction with Karma in the Mechanix mini,
where fans see potential in her words to Karma that Kitty's "not
sure she feels that way" in response to Karma's crush on her.
Kitty's probably hetero, due to her numerous crushes on guys and her
relationship with Pete Wisdom over in Excalibur, but numerous fans
saw a potential seduction of her by Saturnyne/Courtney Ross in
earlier issues of that title.

* Shatterstar. His highly emotional attachment to Rictor is proof for
most. Others counter that he isn't of Western culture, so his
emotions aren't necessarily as repressed. On the other hand, X-
Force #56 indicates that his relationship with Rictor is much
deeper than friendship; the caption says "She has lost Warpath.
He [Shatterstar] has lost Rictor. Both see these missing
teammates as 'friends.' Both too stubborn to admit they may mean
more than that."

Other names bandied about frequently include Magik, Rachel, and most of
the X-Men universe at one time or another. Mr. Sinister's similarity to
Frank N. Furter (of Rocky Horror) has also been noted on many occasions.

The great trick with the discussion of gay X-Men is to avoid turning it
into a flamewar. Discuss it by all means; just be aware this is a hot
button for many people on both ends of the spectrum.

--- Why do people hate the X-Men when they love the Avengers and the
Fantastic Four?

Andrew Ingle supports an interesting theory, one that works inside the
Marvel Universe: "The people love superheroes. They dress up in spandex
and save the world! They're celebrities to them, brilliant, beautiful
celebrities. And you can see Cap or someone when they're coming. You
KNOW they're Cap. Their powers are their powers and that's what lets
them protect the world. They get their abilities for a reason. However,
a mutant is someone born with their powers, and they DON'T always dress
up in Spandex and advertise it. When you walk down the street, you don't
know whether the person across the crosswalk will spontaneously shoot
you with poisonous acid blasts from his eyeballs. Anyone can be a
mutant, but only Johnny Storm is The Human Torch. The fact that mutants
can be anyone is what scares people."

As for the plots, Peter Lidkis reminds us, "There is hatred for mutants
in the MU. The difference is that Avengers is not THE book that focuses
on it. It only occassionally looks in on that hatred and then goes on
its next story line." So it's not unusual for people to overall love
the Avengers or FF--they're not *meant* to be hated as a matter of
course. The X-Men were meant to deal with prejudice and hate, so they're
going to end up being hated.

--- Why can't Cyclops just wear contact lenses?

As almost everyone known, Cyclops has a major vision problem. Namely,
he can't open his eyes without blasting everything in sight. Xavier
was able to create ruby quartz glasses to keep the powers in check.
Readers figure that the ruby quartz happens to share complementary
properties with Scott Summers' eye blasts, and contains the energy in
some way. The energy could overload the quartz, allowing Scott to
break through the visor in an emergency, but the quartz would normally
keep the beams in check (which is why Scott's "casual" red eyeglasses
don't come flying off his face from the blast force).

But what about contact lenses? Why couldn't Scott just do that?

For years, dedicated readers of the X-titles suggested this very idea,
only to be confronted with the facts: Scott can't wear contact lenses
because the beams come out of all of his eyes, not just the iris area.
A number of back issues regularly showed Scott covering his eyes with
his hands if his visor was broken, with red energy seeping out from
around his eyes. Apparently Scott isn't susceptible to the damage of
his eye blasts, just like he and his brother Havok were shown to be
immune to each other's powers; something in his DNA ensures that his
eyelids are not immediately blown to bits, so covering his eyes with
his hands makes enough sense.

The problem with contact lenses is that nobody can explain how they can
effectively work in Scott's case. If his whole eyes need to be covered,
he'd probably need full-eyeball contact lenses made out of ruby quartz
crystal. Not only couldn't the eye breathe (which would cause major
pain), but combat response time from Cyclops would be a bit hampered if
he tried to take out his contacts while foes attacked. It's no wonder
that Cyke carried a small pair of glasses, sort of like goggles, as an
emergency pair.

Of course, these reasons didn't stop Grant Morrison from providing
Cyclops with a pair of "emergency" contact lenses in New X-Men #115.
This created a whole new set of problems. The art portrayed the lenses
as the everyday kind, not the full-eyeball style, so it's odd that his
energy beams weren't already coming out all over the place. Readers
likewise can't figure out how Scott got the lenses in his eyes in the
first place. To put the lenses in, he'd either have to be in a very
controlled ruby quartz room, which could stand the force of his beams,
or he'd likely end up destroying the ceiling as he looked up and tried
to place the contacts on his eyes. While Scott could put his glasses
and goggles on without the need to open his eyes, the contacts don't
quite provide that luxury.

Contact lenses might be great for cosmetic purposes during a leisurly
stroll in Manhattan, or for a day at the beach, but X-Man Cyclops is
likely to get attacked, or need to help someone out, wherever he goes.
Now, Cyclops calls these his "emergency" contact lenses. If these are
supposed to be full-eyeball lenses, they should effectively shut down
his powers. If he removes them, Cyclops can't really *see*, and thus is
shut down as an effective fighter. If these contacts are for emergency
situations, shouldn't they help him easily get out of a situation, not
create more problems? This FAQ-keeper can just imagine the potential
damage if Scott drops one of the contacts on the floor while he's trying
to put it in...

--- Why doesn't Forge invent something that would neutralize powers
so mutants like Cyclops and Rogue can live normal lives? And how
can Rogue cut her hair, if she's invulnerable?

Okay, we all know the real reason this can never come true: if writers
start giving our heroes solutions to their power-based problems and
suddenly have to start worrying about writing real people, not just
costumes with code names, all that keen, cheap angst is thrown out the
windows. Still, we can think of a few Marvel Universe reasons why things
haven't changed for the better in mutant home remedies.

The best reason I've seen offered yet (and if you don't like it, go
think up your own, Marvel Science is not exactly an exacting art) is
that mutant powers are very strongly linked with genetic expression.
That is, while Spider-Man was never intended to cling to walls, say, the
whole point of Colossus' genotype is that he is designed to turn into
living metal.

Thus, any power nullifier that would allow mutants like Rogue or Cyclops
to live their lives without the pressure of their powers would, by
suppressing their power, cause large-scale cellular damage to their
bodies that, while useful for short-term durations like cutting hair or
an eye examination, would eventually end up depowering or killing the
mutant in question using such a nullifier for a long time. Cellular
disintegration doesn't seem like a fair price to pay for being able to
take off your glasses, so this helps explain why Scott hasn't gone to
Forge begging for a nullifier in a watch design.

The long-term removal of Storm's powers after being shot by Forge's
neuralizer circa Uncanny X-Men #189 might contradict this theory, since
her powers were gone for weeks in our world and several months while on
a parallel Earth (during the "Fall of the Mutants" crossover). However,
Claremont was deliberate in highlighting that Storm did still possess
her powers during that time, but that she was unable to consciously
access them. Her powers weren't removed, and so she slips through a
loophole.

Now, the above hasn't been actually said in any Marvel comic, so, like I
said, feel free to interpret it any way you want, although the above has
the advantages of being logical, consistent, and doesn't contradict
anything given in any Marvel comic, something tough to do with Marvel
Science Theories.

Now, considering the above theory as true, the mutants probably do have
access to power nullifiers on demand, but very rarely use them, for the
above reason. However, they'd be just what you needed if you wanted to
style or cut your hair, like Rogue, assuming she has even had a haircut
since absorbing Carol (in Avengers Annual #10).

--- Did Psylocke dye her hair? What about Rogue's stripe?

Psylocke's hair was certainly dyed in the beginning. She is naturally
blonde, since in "Captain Britain" (Daredevils #3/CB Archives #3) Brian
was shocked to see her hair purple. Remember, Betsy was a fashion model.
All flashbacks to her childhood also have her as a blonde (UXM #256, for
example). So we are fine up until the Siege Perilous. At that point it
gets complicated. When Spiral messed with Betsy's mind and body in UXM
#256, Spiral very easily could have made the color permanent.

Rogue is a little simpler. Back around the late 100's of UXM, the
letters column was answered by the characters for awhile. Wolverine said
that Rogue dyed her hair. While you will occasionally hear rumbles along
the lines of "peroxide in the Savage Land? I don't think so", there has
not been any evidence to contradict Wolverine. Besides, it neatly
explains why she mysteriously went from two white streaks to one, and
occasionally just to white bangs without the stripe in back. Oh, and
Rogue's hair is brown, colorists notwithstanding.

--- I've got an idea! Why don't Rogue and Gambit just use Leech so they
can have sex? Have they already had sex? (+)

You may not believe this, but you are not the first person to have this
brainstorm. As a matter of fact, you're nowhere near the first person to
think of this. You could have been meditating on this particular
solution to their troubles for centuries in a monastery in Attilan and
you'd still be nowhere near the first person to suggest this. This is a
suggestion which is offered so frequently by newbies to racmx that it's
capable of infuriating the long-term inhabitants of racmx just from its
frequent re-presenting, without even considering its innate
distatefulness. Just how great an idea it is to use a school kid as a
sexual aid? Ick.

This is closely related to the above power nullifiers question, and much
of the sage wisdom of that response applies here, as well. However...
UXM #349 neatly sidestepped the problem by subjecting both Gambit and
Rogue to a power-dampening field in Magneto's old Antarctic base. Of
course, the Comics Code kept Lobdell from actually saying anything
physical happened between them. The question that comes up next, then,
is: Did Gambit and Rogue actually have sex between #348 and #349?
The debate is far from settled, but the general consensus is that while
they certainly had a good time together that evening, full intercourse
probably didn't happen.

Given that Rogue was left powerless after events in X-Treme X-Men, the
question is possibly moot. In X-Treme X-Men #31 she shows up wearing
skimpy clothes and sporting one heck of a tattoo, and kisses Bishop full
on the lips. If she felt ready to take her relationship with Remy to the
next level, she's probably done it by now... assuming that she felt ready
to do so. Either way, it's her business, so until we see Rogue and Gambit
on-panel being very specific about their activities during those months,
the best one can assume is "probably." If her powers do come back, assume
that they'd use a power nullifier for moments alone, and not bring Leech
(or others) into their personal matters.

--- Is Rogue's inability to control her powers psychological in nature?

Probably, although the real issue is what "psychological" problems she
might have had. The most popular theory is that Rogue suffered some form
of physical abuse in her youth, causing her to subconsciously keep her
powers on all the time to prevent it from happening again. Skids'
problem deactivating her force field was revealed in X-Factor #16 to be
a result of her father's physical abuse of herself and her mother, and
the same logic is typically applied to Rogue's problem.

However, the problem with Rogue's powers may just be a lack of practice.
Steven Seagle in UXM #354 had Rogue giving mouth-to-mouth resucitation
to Joseph, and she was able to partially control her absorption power in
the process. At the time she claimed that since she was never allowed to
use her powers except when needed in combat, she never had a chance to
learn control, a rather obvious and clever solution to this longtime
problem.

Rogue's unexpected control over her powers isn't actually new, either;
even prior to the Carol Danvers event Rogue could control her absorption
to some extent (see Dazzler, for example). There is one panel in UXM
#239 that is used to support this; Carol, having taken over Rogue's body
after the fight with Nimrod, touches Betsy on the shoulder. When asked,
Chris Claremont confirmed it was intended to indicate that Carol could
control Rogue's power, even though Rogue couldn't. In addition, the X-
Men '97 Annual portrays the Gamesmaster as able to "keep her power in
check" by using his own. Since the Gamesmaster's powers are solely
telepathic, this indicates Rogue's real problem is solely a matter of
mental control.

--- Why does Rogue have claws? When did that happen?

Two words: "Maximum Security." In that storyline, Rogue absorbed a young
Skrull girl. Because the Skrulls can change their form, Rogue's body had
a severe reaction to the absorption. Basically, when trying to find a
form to shift to, the shape-shifting power comes up with multiple
examples: all of the people that Rogue has previously absorbed.

So far, Rogue has manifested Wolverine's claws and healing factor most
often, but she has also manifested powers and features of Cyclops,
Colossus, Nightcrawler, Storm and Magneto (in UXM #388, with Colossus
and possibly Storm also in Bishop #16), and Cecilia Reyes (X-Men #108).
This also explains the red glasses in X-Treme X-Men--she's compensating
just in case Cyke's optic blasts return unexpectedly.

As for why we're seeing the claws consistently... well, Rogue wants them
(on panel) so she can be tough, and Claremont (off panel) is using her
as a substitute Wolverine. Expect to see the new powers for a while.

--- Was Rogue raped by the guards in the first Genosha storyline?

No, she wasn't, and it says so right in the captions in the same issue
(UXM #236) it supposedly happened in. Check the series of captions
during the slow close-up to Rogue's cell. The guards slapped her around
some and made fun of her, but nothing along the lines of actual rape
happened:

All they did was touch her.
Rude hands, ruder glances--taunting promises of worse to come.
She couldn't stop them.
For so long, she dreamed of being able to touch another person,
without her power absorbing his/her psyche.
To hold, to caress, to kiss, just like any other-- normal--
teenage girl.
In those dreams, it was the most beautiful of moments.
She never imagined being handled against her will.

Note also that Rogue's Carol personality, as an "eyewitness," says in
UXM #244 that "Nothing happened. But that wasn't the point."

--- What is the relationship between Mystique and Nightcrawler? Why is
Rogue involved in it, if she isn't blue? (+)

The first inkling of a Mystique/Nightcrawler relationship came in UXM
#141-142, the original "Days of Future Past" storyline, which introduced
the whole "future ruled by Sentinels" idea to the X-titles.

Mystique, who was a villain from the Ms. Marvel series, was trying to
arrange the assassination of Senator Robert Kelly. Kitty Pryde was
possessed by her future self, sent back in time by Rachel Summers, to
try and stop Mystique. And somewhere in there, Nightcrawler saw
Mystique... and recognized her from somewhere.

The original plan from Claremont was that Mystique, a shapechanger based
in feminine form, was actually Kurt's father. Drunk and amnesiac after
the events of World War II, Mystique was taken in by Irene Adler
(Destiny), and the two of them had a child, Kurt Wagner (Nightcrawler).
Marvel being a corporate-run company that, for a while, didn't even
allow the word "homosexual" to appear in their books, quickly informed
Claremont of the Great Displeasure he would find if he were to pursue
that plot thread. It was thusly dropped, except for one scene in
Murderworld (UXM #177) where Mystique showed that she was capable of
killing anyone, even her adoptive daughter Rogue, except Nightcrawler.

Cut ahead to the 1990s. Claremont was long gone, and Lobdell and Niceiza
were left with the unpleasant task of cleaning up his loose plot ends.
They decided that Kurt would be the son of Mystique, but Mystique would
be his mother, not his father. The father, unrevealed, was implied to be
some nameless German baron. Rogue, as Mystique's foster daughter, is
thus Kurt's sister-by-law. It should be noted that the X-writers also
have had Sabretooth briefly be attached to Mystique, with the offspring
of that happy union being the nonpowered Graydon Creed, making him a
half-brother of Kurt.

All of the above was revealed in X-Men Unlimited #4, which is, quite
possibly, the single most ignorable comic book in recent history, and
thus highly suspect as a source of revelation on any subject. One hoped
future Marvel writers would ignore the "history" revealed in X-Men
Unlimited #4 just as blithely as X-Men Unlimited #4 ignored the history
it was built on.

Unfortunately, issues circa Uncanny X-Men #428 and following pick up
on that same storyline, exploring Kurt's parentage in "The Draco."
Now, apparently, count Christian Wagner and his wife (Mystique) wanted
children, but Christian was infertile. Mystique then proceededs to see
every available man in sight, as well as an in-vitro specialist, in
order to get herself pregnant. Eventually, she meets the perfect man,
has an affair, gets pregnant, and then realizes that the father of her
child is Azazel, a red-skinned, pointy-eared guy who hails from "La
Isla des Demonas" and has his own plans for the infant. Picking up from
the events of Unlimited #4, Mystique gives birth, is pursued by a lynch
mob, chucks the baby off a cliff, and doesn't notice when baby Kurt is
rescued.

There are still numerous issues left to this storyline, and it's not
expected that it will make the best sense, but after all this time the
answer seems to be in front of us. Meanwhile, in summary: Mystique and
Azazel are Kurt's parents, making Rogue his foster sister and Graydon
creed his half-brother (via Sabretooth).

*** Continued in Part 4 ***

[Kate the Short]

Archive-name: comics/xbooks/main-faq/part4

Posting-frequency: monthly
URL: http://users.rcn.com/kateshort/faqs/

-= REC.ARTS.COMICS.MARVEL.XBOOKS =-
Frequently Asked Questions

Part 4

Version 2003.02, last updated November 2003
URL: http://users.rcn.com/kateshort/faqs/racmxFAQ/faq4.html

------------------------------
Subject: Table of Contents

Part 4:

X-MEN COMIC BOOK QUESTIONS
* Why do so many people hate Scott Summers?
* How many Summerses are there, anyways?
- Simplified family tree
- The third Summers brother
- Timelost children
* What's the relationship between the Phoenix, Jean Grey,
Madelyne Pryor, and Rachel Summers?
- Is Maddie Pryor in Avengers Annual #10?
- Is Jean or Phoenix dead on the moon?
- When did Jean take the codename Phoenix? Is she Phoenix?
- Who's the Madelyne in X-Man?
- The problem with Excalibur #52
* What's the relationship between Cable, Stryfe, Ahab, and
Nate Grey?
- Cable and Stryfe
- Who's Ahab?
- Is Stryfe dead?
- What's the deal with Nate?

------------------------------
Subject: X-MEN COMIC BOOK QUESTIONS

Background information on the creators and the X-titles editorial
offices is based on over a decade's worth of articles, interviews, and
personal questions, and as such is not directly attributed here. Now
that some of Marvel's staff members are on Usenet, they are welcomed to
correct and amend any of the answers listed below.

--- Why do so many people hate Scott Summers?

There tend to be two major schools of thought on this. People hate Scott
Summers, aka Cyclops, because:

* Of what he did to Madelyne Pryor
* Readers find him dull and/or unimaginative

On the first count, harsh people with long memories are not going to
soften their opinion of a character's bad behavior. To them it is
simple: Scott left his wife and child to run off after his first love in
X-Factor #1. For the record, Madelyne did issue him an ultimatium and
they had been having marital problems. The best defense of Scott is that
Claremont had written him out and editorial staff of the time declared
Scott (and Jean) must come back. Madelyne was an inconvenience and hence
Inferno was born.

On the second count, many dislike Scott as a one-dimensional follower of
Xavier. Madelyne notwithstanding, they find his goody-two-shoes attitude
just plain irritating. Next to Wolverine, he's a nerd.

It's okay to like Scott, though. Usenet has lots of room for different
opinions.

--- How many Summerses are there, anyways?

Eternity only knows. But being a FAQ, we'll try to provide a reasonably
accurate starting count.

IN THE BEGINNING, lo, back in (Uncanny) X-Men #1, Scott Summers was
presented to the world, ironically enough, as an orphan. His parents had
died in a plane crash, and he knew of no other family. Also in #1 he
meets Jean Grey. Simple enough so far.

Fast forward to X-Men #54. Scott and the rest of the X-Men attended Alex
Summers' graduation. Alex eventually becomes an auxiliary member (UXM
#65) and becomes romantically involved with Lorna Dane. So far, still
pretty straightforward. (Alex apparently died, but that's another story.)

Fast forward now to issue #104. While in space, the X-Men met the leader
of a pirate band named Corsair. Sometime later (#108) it turned out that
Corsair was none other than Christopher Summers, father of Scott and
Alex. Christopher and their mother Kate had been kidnapped by the Shi'ar
when flying home from Alaska. Kate had died at the hands of the Emperor
D'Ken (Lilandra's mad brother). Scott discovered he had grandparents in
Alaska.

In the meantime Jean Grey had gone through the whole Phoenix thing and
died. In Uncanny X-Men #168, Madelyne was introduced. Scott fell in love
with her almost immediately, and she was not unamenable to his attention.
Scott proposed in #174, and they were married in #175.

Scott and Madelyne disappeared for awhile, but baby Nathan Christopher
Charles Summers was born in #201.

To date, we have:

* grandparents Philip and Deborah Summers
* Christopher and Kate Summers (Kate deceased)
* Scott and Madelyne Summers
* Alex Summers
* Nathan Christopher Charles Summers

Now it starts to get complicated.

In issue #141-142 the X-Men found about about a possible future (Days of
Future Past) where the X-Men had been mostly killed and mutants were
hunted down and killed or enslaved. This future had sent back an
emissary, Kate Pryde, by the power of Rachel Summers. It was quickly
established that time had already diverged because in Kate Pryde's past,
Scott had married Jean and had a daughter Rachel. (Note that Nate wasn't
conceived yet, much less born, at the time of this storyline). Fair
enough, except that in #184 Rachel made her way back to this reality,
and eventually to the X-Men. Scott had been absent at the mansion when
Kate Pryde made her journey, and the X-Men agreed not to tell him until
Rachel was ready. Rachel was already completely shattered by the fact
that her mother was dead, and didn't know how to talk to Scott. (Both
Scott and Jean finally found out the truth in X-Factor Annual #5.)
Shortly before Inferno, Rachel returned in Excalibur: The Sword is Drawn
(aka Excalibur Special Edition #1). She popped in and out of Excalibur
until issue #75, when she was sent to the future. She was last seen in
The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix, starting the Askani and finally
dying. Of course, time-travelers never truly die, so when she popped up
again in issues of Cable, nobody was truly that surprised.

In X-Factor #1, Scott (living in Alaska with Madelyne and Baby Nate)
received a call from New York. Jean Grey was in fact alive, and Warren
wanted to create a new mutant team. Scott left Alaska, Madelyne, and
Nathan Christopher behind. Madelyne was not happy, but shortly afterward
was kidnapped with her son by Sinister and the Marauders. Eventually,
she was rescued by the X-Men, but not before losing the baby to
Sinister's clutches. Fast forward to Inferno. Madelyne became the Goblyn
Queen and died, and Scott and Jean took custody of the child.

All was fine and dandy until Apocalypse got ahold of the child and the
baby got the Techo-Organic virus. Scott was forced to let the Askani
take Nathan into the future. Off in the future, Nathan was cloned
(Stryfe), trained as an Askani (Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix,
Askani'son), and eventually married to Jenskot (aka Aliya). His progeny
(or adoptive son; it's stated both ways) was Tyler, going by the name
Genesis (until he died in Wolverine #100). Cable came to the present in
New Mutants #87. During the X-cutioner's Song crossover, he was revealed
to be the child (more or less) of Scott and Jean, with much angst all
around. (At the time, Cable thought he was the clone.) One of the
advantages of coming from the future is that you can be older than your
parents.

Scott married Jean in X-Men (Vol. 2) #30. For the mother of multiple
kids, she's never had a baby in our time. She is not pregnant so far,
but dinos can't wait to see what happens when/if she is.

To recap:

* grandparents Philip and Deborah Summers
* Christopher and Kate Summers (Kate deceased)
* Scott Summers, aka Cyclops, and Jean Grey-Summers, aka Phoenix
* Alex Summers, aka Havok
* Rachel Summers, aka Phoenix II
* Madeylne Pryor, aka the Goblyn Queen (deceased)
* Nathan Christopher Charles Summers, aka Cable, and Aliya,
aka Jenskot (deceased)
* Stryfe, a clone (deceased)
* Tyler Summers, aka Genesis (deceased)

Scott fought Mr. Sinister several times, as Sinister is for some reason
obsessed by Summers DNA. In X-Men #23, Sinister made a cryptic comment:

"...but I care enough to wish you and your brothers to be
protected from this illness."
"Brothers?"
"Excuse me?"
"You said brothers--plural."
"I'm sorry, did I? I meant your brother, Alex."

Now, Scott has a complex family tree, with all the chronological
displacement and clones, but he had been sure he only had one sibling.
Shortly afterwards, Sinister (under the guise of Milbury), started
stalking a guy named Adam X, including pitting him against Shatterstar
in X-Force #29-30. In Captain Marvel #3, it was revealed that Adam X was
the scion of D'Ken and a human woman. Due to blantant hints in the X-Men
(see X-Men #39), it seemed pretty obvious the human woman was Kate
Summers. In semi-confirmation on racmx in 1998, Fabian Nicieza wrote:

ADAM X was INTENDED to be the illegitimate offspring of D'Ken and
Kate Summers. Taken from D'Ken and raised on a farming planet.

BUT--and it's a big but--since I never had the opportunity to tell
the entire story, what I intended is worth the screen it's printed
on.

So far this has not had any effect on the rest of the Summers clan, if
they know about it at all.

Just when things were mostly sorted out, Marvel sprang the Age of
Apocalypse on Summers devotees. As if the Marvel Universe didn't already
have enough chronologically displaced Summerses, there appeared Nate
Grey, who inconveniently didn't stay in AOA but crossed over. Nate was
the genetic progeny of Scott Summers and Jean Grey (a test-tube baby,
created by Sinister). Nate, called the X-Man, was essentially a younger
Cable without the T/O virus (and was much stronger as a consequence). For
more information on Nate and his death, see the Cable/Stryfe/Ahab/Nate
question below. (Alex apparently died, but that's another story.)

Rachel reappeared in the pages of Fantastic Four #414. Here, we learned
she had a child with Franklin Richards, named Hyperstorm. This had to be
in yet another alternative future, because Rachel wouldn't have had a
chance to give birth in her own.

One last time:

* grandparents Philip and Deborah Summers
* Christopher and Kate Summers (Kate deceased)
* Scott Summers, aka Cyclops, and Jean Grey-Summers, aka Phoenix
* Alex Summers, aka Havok (presumed deceased)
* Adam X, aka Xtreme
* Rachel Summers, aka Phoenix II, and Franklin Richards
* Hyperstorm, aka Jonathan Reed Richards
* Madeylne Pryor, aka the Goblyn Queen (deceased)
* Nathan Christopher Charles Summers, aka Cable, and Aliya, aka
Jenskot (deceased)
* Nate Grey, aka X-Man, from an alternative timeline (deceased)
* Stryfe, a clone (deceased)
* Tyler Summers, aka Genesis (deceased)

The scary thing is this is the simplified version of the Summers family
tree. I've kept it mostly to blood relations, but by widening the field
just a little, it's astounding. "Six Degrees of Scott Summers" as
applied to the entire Marvel Universe is something of a party game on
racmx after the other discussions start to dwindle.

--- What's the relationship between the Phoenix, Jean Grey, Madelyne
Pryor, and Rachel Summers?

Okay, it's Ultimate Confusion time. Once upon a time, there was a X-Man
named Jean Grey. She served well and true with the first team (in the
1960s run of the book), and was around for the new team, in the mid-70s.
She was a telepath, a telekinetic, and the girlfriend of the team's
deputy leader, Scott Summers, also known as Cyclops.

Well, during the first year of their new series, Jean Grey, in a
selfless act of heroism (UXM #100), sacrificed herself, giving her life
so that the rest of the team could survive a rather brutal reentry from
orbit. Then, from the crash site, Jean seemed to burst forth from the
water in a new form, a form that called herself Phoenix. She said she
was still Jean Grey, but had tapped somehow into a universal power
source which called itself Phoenix--hence her new name.

Phoenix proved to be a bit out of the usual X-Men's power range. She not
only saved the entire universe in her first major adventure, but was
also capable of telekinetically rearranging reality around her to her
liking. Unfortunately, she was also capable of being emotionally preyed
upon by Mastermind and the Hellfire Club.

The windup of this whole affair was the Dark Phoenix Saga, one of the
few storylines from Marvel that actually earned the right to call itself
a saga, and widely held not only to be the best single storyline in all
of the X-titles, but also one of the best stories in all of comics. Torn
between her human and cosmic sides, Phoenix eventually chose to commit
suicide on the moon to save Scott Summers, her lover (UXM #137). In the
words of the Watcher, "Though Jean Grey could have lived to be a god, it
was important that she die...as a human."

The death of Phoenix was also unusual in that it apparently affected the
creative staff as much as the characters they were working on. Unlike a
lot of comic book deaths (and all the cliches that go along with that
term), Phoenix's was referred back to by the characters, and actually
had some long-term effect on the path of the comic book. So much so that
it was a shock in #168 when Madelyne Pryor was introduced, since she
looked exactly like Jean Grey. Even more suspicious, she was the only
survivor of a large plane crash which happened at the exact moment that
Jean Grey died on the moon. Hmm.

Now, there had been a prior (heh) appearance of a Madelyne Pryor in a
Marvel comic--Avengers Annual #10 (note: first appearance of Rogue),
also written by Chris Claremont, featured a little girl who said her
name was Maddie Pryor, who was once sick but is much better now. A lot

of energy was wasted trying to link the two Pryors together until
Claremont, who was notorious for being lazy with walk-on character
names, admitted that the Maddie in Avengers Annual #10 was named after a
favorite singer of his, Madeleine Prior, the lead singer for the folk-
rock group Steeleye Span, and that the two comic characters had nothing
in common besides their names. Likewise, David Goldfarb reminds us that
in the first Genosha storyline Madelyne is shown having a flashback in
virtual reality (UXM #238) which shows her as the little girl from
Avengers Annual #10, singing "Gone to America," which is one of Steeleye
Span's biggest hits. It's likely just Claremont having a bit of fun.

In any case, Maddie's familiar looks and shared interests with Scott
(they were both pilots) led to them getting married in UXM #175, and
Scott leaving the X-Men to finally enjoy the peace and quiet of a
married life, notwithstanding the occasional jaunt into Asgard. Al
Patterson commends the FAQ for not even "getting into Madelyne's
transformation in X-Men/Alpha Flight, which demonstrated conclusively
the authors clearly never intended Maddy to be what she became." (The
firefountain did not affect mutants, but Maddy was transformed into
Anodyne, a healer. That should be impossible if she was, for example,
supposed to be a clone of Jean).

Around this time, however, Rachel Summers had successfully projected
herself back in time from the "Days of Future Past" future. The daughter
of Scott Summers and Jean Grey in that time line (Jean was still
Phoenix, but had had a lobotomy performed so that she couldn't access
her powers), Rachel was yet another in the endless line of mutants from
the future coming back in time to try and make things better for their
friends back up the time stream. Actually, she was one of the first--
back when she did it, she was just the second who had pulled it off, so
it hadn't become a cliche yet.

Rachel ended up being adopted by the X-Men, but terrified by all of the
differences she saw around her (Scott marrying Madelyne, for instance),
she didn't tell Scott of her partial relationship to him. The birth of
Nathan, son of Scott and Madelyne, also further distanced her; in her
timeline, she was Scott's eldest child.

This relatively nonconfusing state of affairs lasted for a while, until
X-Factor was given the go by the Marvel editors. The whole "hook" of
X-Factor was that the original X-Men would take secret identities and
save mutant lives while posing as mutant exterminators. Because all of
the original X-Men had to show up for the idea of the comic to work, the
New Defenders title was cancelled to free up Iceman, Angel, and the
Beast, while Scott Summers was shown to be a deserter to both his wife
and son by being called from New York by... Jean Grey.

Yes, to get X-Factor "right", they resurrected Jean Grey. In the pages
of Avengers #263 and Fantastic Four #286, Jean Grey was found stuck in
an energy cocoon by the Phoenix Force, and then freed by the genius of
Reed Richards. The retconned story was now that Jean wasn't possessed by
the Phoenix Force, as before, but merely Xeroxed by it, with her real
body being placed under the sea in the cocoon so it could regenerate
from the radiation damage. Meanwhile, it was the actual deity-like
figure of the Phoenix Force itself who merely pretended to be Jean Grey
during all the adventures it had with the X-Men, all the way up to, and
including, the Dark Phoenix Saga.

Now this last bit annoyed a lot of older X-fans, a population which some
jokers have commented that Marvel apparently doesn't remember exist. The
whole strength of the Dark Phoenix story was that it was Jean Grey, the
human, who was able to overcome Dark Phoenix, the cosmic force, even if
she had to die to do it. Despite the claims from Marvel that the Dark
Phoenix story still had all its emotional strength and punch because the
Phoenix duplicated the emotions and thoughts of Jean Grey and had even
convinced itself that it was Jean Grey, it just doesn't hold up under
even casual scrutiny. It's no longer a human choosing to die from love,
it's a cosmic force pretending it's human who decides to fool a human it
supposedly loves into thinking that it's committed suicide, when really
it hasn't. No longer a sacrifice, it makes it a cosmic shell game, with
Scott's and the readers' emotions as the victims.

Hence you will get the odd comment on racmx about how the "real" Jean
Grey died on the moon. Some simply refuse to accept the retcon.

Eventually, Madelyne Pryor was revealed to be a clone of Jean Grey,
created by X-villain Mr. Sinister, in yet another of his endless
attempts to try and get some genetic material out of Scott Summers (in
this case, apparently, a son). Seduced by the renegade demon S'ym,
Madelyne was transformed into the Goblyn Queen (UXM #234), which brought
about the crossover called Inferno. This transformation was revealed to
be possible from yet another retcon.

Now, when the Phoenix Force pretended to commit suicide on the moon (UXM
#137), it sent a portion of itself back to the still-comatose Jean Grey
beneath the waters of Jamaica Bay, in order to give her the memories the
Phoenix had gained in her place. Jean rejected these memories, however,
and instead the portion of the Phoenix imparted them to the then-dormant
Madelyne Pryor, Jean Grey's clone by perennial villain Mr. Sinister.
This was such a traumatic procedure that Sinister was resorted to giving
her false memories of being the only survivor of a plane crash to ease
her troubled mind. It was that portion of the Phoenix Force that allowed
Madelyne to wield the powers that she did as the Goblyn Queen. All this
was revealed by Mr. Sinister in UXM #243. Inferno ended when Madelyne
killed herself in X-Factor #38 (who then fled as a psychic presence into
Jean's mind, only to be expelled forever in X-Factor #50, but that's a
minor subplot). The real Madelyne is dead.

Meanwhile Rachel had ended up over in Excalibur, after becoming the new
Phoenix in UXM #199. She remained so until the Adventures of Cyclops
and Phoenix limited series, when the Phoenix left Rachel for an unnamed
better host. This is a few centuries into the future, however. This
mini, by the way, is when Jean took on the name Phoenix at Rachel's
request. Hard as it is to believe, it's the first time Jean Grey ever
used the name. Rachel showed up in a few issues of Cable, where Nathan
rescued her. In the grand tradition of X-women who survive horrible
events, she decided not to rejoin one of the teams, but instead to go
to college. Of course, one can't be called Phoenix without the Phoenix
force taking notice of it, and in UXM #128, Professor Xavier speaks to
the Phoenix Force as it possesses Jean Grey. Currently, it looks like
the Phoenix is an entity which possesses Jean and ramps up her powers,
which is somewhat consistent with the spirit of previous stories.
Xavier's description of the Phoenix as part of Shi'ar mythology works
well enough--that's basically how the Phoenix Force was presented back
in the Dark Phoenix Saga twenty years ago.

This still leaves us to deal with the Madelyne who appeared in X-Man.
At first, readers thought the Madelyne running around in X-Man was a
construct; Nate Grey apparently created her in X-Man #5 out of her
memories floating around in the ether (X-Man #25). At that time, Nate
tried to un-create her and found he couldn't do it. In the Counter-X
issues of X-Man, Nate eventually found out that the "construct" theory
was a ruse. Evil Queen Madelyne was actually an alternate reality
version of Phoenix (Jean Grey). Writer Steven Grant said that Queen
Madelyne wanted to fool Nate, so in order to make the ruse work she
hypnotized herself into being Madelyne Pryor. Of course, this
information still can't explain the ghostly Madelyne that appeared in
Cable #76. Some readers figure that Queen Madelyne herself tapped into
Madelyne's memories floating around in the ether, which might explain
the psionic connection in the issue of Cable. While it's first said by
Queen Madelyne that she *replaced* Madelyne Pryor "several months ago"
(which some readers though may have occurred during the six month gap),
a later issue suggests that the Madelyne Pryor appearing in X-Man had
been Queen Madelyne all along.

So, as it currently stands, barring any future retcons, the relationship
is as follows:

* Phoenix: A really bored cosmic force who currently lends its powers
to an unknown individual.

* Jean Grey: A telepathic and telekinetic young woman who never had
the Phoenix Force, but now calls herself Phoenix.

* Madelyne Pryor: A clone of Jean Grey who had a portion of the
Phoenix force, became the Goblyn Queen, and was killed by Jean.

* Rachel Summers: An alternate-reality daughter of Phoenix, who has
gone into plot limbo.

* Queen Madelyne: An evil, alternate-reality Jean Grey who tranced
herself (and Nate Grey) into thinking she was Madelyne.

And then Ken Arromdee chirps up, saying "You need to mention Excalibur
#52 here." Paul O'Brien is of substantial help at this juncture. You
see, Excalibur #52 does not help matters. While it was supposed to clear
up Rachel's relationship to the Phoenix, in many ways it complicated it
further. This issue consists of the Phoenix telling its story to Xavier,
Jean Grey and Excalibur as Rachel was lying in a coma. Unfortunately,
the story the Phoenix told did not jibe with what had come before. In
Rachel's timeline, the X-Men never met Phoenix. Jean Grey was killed in
a nuclear explosion in Pittsburgh. Any differing stories would be
"memory implants". That was according to writer Alan Davis. Sadly, that
contradicts all of Claremont's stories that clearly had Phoenix as
Rachel's mother. Phoenix: The Untold Story was published to set up
Rachel's past. In fact, that was the whole point of Rachel's part in UXM
#199: claiming the legacy of her mother. Phoenix:TUS, by the way, is UXM
#137 with the original ending.

Rachel's memories were not messed up until Excalibur; she didn't have
that problem during her stint with the X-Men. Mojo was more likely a
cause, as Longshot went through similar difficulties. Another sticky
point was the nuclear bomb. Odds are good Kate Pryde would have
mentioned that....

But why would a celestial avatar lie?

Apparently it did, as Phoenix admitted to manipulating Rachel in later
issues. But why? This issue only gets messier. At this point, since we
now have all of the possible reference contradicting themselves, this
neutral researcher says "to hell with it" and closes the subject.

--- What's the relationship between Cable, Stryfe, Ahab, and Nate
Grey?

It's important to remember two basic things about Cable: he was created
much later than his vastly rewritten history would make him seem, and
the person who created him (Rob Liefeld) didn't set out to make him
anything in particular other than a cyborg with a big gun (history has
shown how such a character is appealing to Liefeld).

When Liefeld landed the job as new penciller for the New Mutants, he
immediately sat down and started sketching out new characters. He sent
them off to his editor, Bob Harras. Easily visible among the detritus
are most of the Mutant Liberation Front, and the two characters who
would become Cable and Stryfe. (Marvel Age #81 and #82 show some of
these early sketches.)

Walter Simonson, husband of then-NM-writer Louise Simonson, recalled the
design process in a message on racmx:

The design for Cable [was] originally one of several designs Rob
did for a villain (designs done for Stryfe IIRC). Bob Harras liked
the design as did Weezie and asked if they couldn't make a good guy
out of him. Weezie was already working on creating a new leader for
the New Mutants (something Bob was also interested in) and the
military background/attitude was always intended to be a part of
the character. Weezie was tired of the Prof. X attitude of whiny
leadership that was always agonizing over sending the New Mutants
into harm's way and thought that an interesting story direction
would be to create a leader who knew the score, understood the
dangers, and would in fact view the NMutants essentially as
soldiers, being sent into battle.

Interestingly enough, in an interview in Wizard #10, Liefeld states that
he gives co-creation status of Cable to Bob Harras:

I've told Bob Harras that if anyone should share creator credit on
Cable with me, it's him. Bob told Louise, "I want this character in
there." I can understand that she didn't want the character, but
the book was dying. [Snip to further down the paragraph.] I realize
the writer wasn't pleased with what happened, but there was a
reason for all of it; it wasn't just, "Let's make life hell for the
writer."

I wish I had this on the record: Bob said to me, "I want to bring
in a new central figure; make him a new teacher for the Mutants.
Give him, maybe, a bionic eye." I took that and sent him four
sketches--incorporating a bionic arm, the eye, everything. Bob
said, "Let's call him Quentin." I said, "Yucch!" I had already put
Cable down as his name on the sketches. Then in Louise's plot,
after being told his name was Cable, he was called Commander X
throughout. I said, "If this guy is called Commander X, I want
nothing to do with it." That seemed ridiculous to me.

In any case, the beginning designs weren't of Cable's background and
previous life; they were kewl designs based around a bionic eye.

According to Liefeld, the original sketch of Cable did include some
characterization, attached on a character profile:

The profile clearly identified him as a traveler from thousands of
years in the future who journeyed back in time to combat specific
menaces in the past that threatened the future of the Marvel
Universe. The menaces he had targeted were intended to expand the
title outside the mutant spectrum, and Dr. Doom and Kang the
Conqueror were chief among the threats I had suggested. I felt it
was necessary for Cable to face non-mutant nemeses in order to
increase his importance in the grand scheme of things. I was
determined to create a character with as much mystique and interest
as Wolverine and was deliberately mapping out a lineage that would
capture the attention of readers everywhere. He was a man of
mystery, a man with a mission that would slowly reveal itself over
the course of several years.

Cable was introduced in Liefeld's first issue of the New Mutants (#87),
as the not-yet-then tired idea of a mysterious mutant mastermind who has
been behind the scenes for years, but who we, the readers, have somehow
just never managed to see yet. He took over the leadership of the New
Mutants straight off, and we learned that he had an archenemy, called
Stryfe, whose face was always concealed by a pointy helmet. When the
word came down that New Mutants was going to be turned into X-Force,
with Rob Liefeld as its plotter/penciller, it was decided that a neat
way to end the New Mutants would be to unmask Stryfe for that dramatic
final panel. The only trouble was, nobody knew who he was really
supposed to be, so they didn't know what his shocking secret identity
should be.

Liefeld provides some additional insight into the process:

I also created an adversary for Cable named Stryfe who would test
him to the absolute limits of his abilities and help define him and
his struggles by being a formidable foe, the likes of which the New
Mutants had never really seen. I offered several considerations for
Stryfe's origin, one of them being that underneath all that armor
was a woman. Ultimately, the idea that Stryfe was actually Cable
seemed to offer more in the way of interesting story opportunities,
and Bob encouraged me to follow that path. It was the right move
and it helped catapult Cable's popularity to new heights.

So, there they were. Stryfe and Cable were now twins.

Around about this time Claremont was briefly writing X-Factor (#65-68)
(although under Whilce Portacio's plots). The son of Cyclops and
Madelyne Pryor, Nathan Summers, had by this time become a small plot
embarrassment (after all, it was tough to have Cyclops mooning over Jean
Grey again when he had a baby boy by his previous marriage to worry
about). Chris Claremont had never really liked the tot, and apparently
most of the readers shared his sentiments, so in a plot involving
Apocalypse and the Moon, Nathan came down with a techno-organic virus,
and was only barely saved when a visitor from the future, Askani, zapped
him up the timestream to save him with her futuristic medicine (X-Factor
#68). The reason? Nathan would become important to saving a bunch of
mutants in the future, so she couldn't let him die in the present.

Ken Arromdee reminded us to include here the folk legend of the Marvel
edict against having main characters of their superhero titles with
young children. Supposedly because their target audience will not
identify with such people, creators are strongly discouraged from having
any major characters with young children. A quick rundown of the major
births in Marvel, with perhaps the sole exception of Crystal and
Pietro's Luna, shows how strong this apparent edict is. It's highly
possible that the Nathan/Askani storyline came about from this pressure
as well.

Around about here Cable was revealed to be from the future. Since Nathan
was now in the future, it wasn't too far to suggest that Cable was
really Nathan. Of course, since Stryfe was obviously connected to Cable
somehow, now the question became "Which of the two was really Nathan?"
According to Liefeld, he'd been thinking that Stryfe was baby Nathan:

So imagine my surprise when I received a call from Bob Harras,
informing me that he, Jim Lee and Whilce Portacio had crafted a
story that would reveal that Cable was the son of Scott Summers and
Madelyne Pryor. I politely protested and asked Bob repeatedly to
reconsider what I felt was a decision that would be damaging to the
character in the long run. It became very clear that my protests
would go unheeded and I reminded myself that Cable was not my
character; he belonged to Marvel and I needed to accept that and
make the best of a frustrating situation. I chose to never address
the issue in the titles I was invested in and continued to work
hard to create an element of intrigue around Cable, even though it
seemed futile after the mystery surrounding Cable's true identity
had evaporated without my consultation.

Now a neutral observer would probably point out at this time that this
whole mess could have been avoided if these lads had been created with
the usual backgrounds most writers give their characters: you know, like
who they are. But that wasn't the hand that the X-writers had dealt
themselves, and X-readers had no end of fun watching a bunch of
plotlines swirl and weave about whether Cable was Stryfe's clone, or
vice versa, or how maybe they were both clones, or maybe they had
nothing to do with Nathan at all.

Fabian Nicieza provides another insight into the process:

To this day, I don't know how that all came about. I don't know if
it was a Jim/Whilce idea that they ran by Bob and he okayed and
cajoled Rob into agreeing to, etc. Or what. I just know by the time
I got involved in it, we all had pretty much accepted that would be
the working plan.

My original thinking was that Cable would be the clone and Stryfe
the real one, leading to more pathos for Cable and more tragedy for
Cyclops, but Bob and Scott both felt making them THINK that was the
case and then switching it around later would work better and I
quickly came to agree they were right.

So, finally, in issues of Cable written by Nicieza, most of the answers
were provided. As revealed by Sinister, Cable was indeed Nathan
Christopher Charles Summers (Cable #6), and the cyborg parts were
actually those parts of his body infected by the technovirus, which he
held in check with his telekinetic powers. Stryfe was his clone.

We'll side-track for a moment to mention Ahab. Ahab was the Master of
the Hounds from the "Days of Future Past" future--the one that Rachel
Summers was from. Hounds are mutants with powers useful for tracking
other mutants, who are controlled substances in that timeline. Back
when Cable still didn't have a past, Ahab was introduced in the Days
of Future Present crossover (Fantastic Four Annual #23, X-Factor Annual
#5, New Mutants Annual #6, X-Men Annual #14). During one fight scene
Cable and Ahab got close to one another, and Cable was shocked to see
some similarity to himself in Ahab. This was compounded by having Ahab
say: "What's the matter? See someone you know?" (X-Men Annual #14).

Since Cable was later revealed to be Nathan instead of Ahab, a new past
for Ahab was needed. A new character introduced in Excalibur #72, Rory
Campbell, was obviously intended to end up becoming Ahab, thus freeing
Cable from that unneeded bit of history. To that end, Rory lost his leg
(Excalibur #90) and became Mutant Liason for the British authorities
(Excalibur #101).

Back to Stryfe. By himself, Stryfe presented quite a few problems,
because he Just Wouldn't Stay Dead. Stryfe was first killed at the end
of X-Cutioner's Song. He then reappeared as a consciousness in Cable's
mind during the Sons and Fathers crossover between X-Men and Cable
right after the X-Cutioner's Song (circa Cable #6-8). Where he died
again, sort of. Stryfe then was seen in Hell years later in X-Force
#74, and his later appearances, alongside dead Dark Riders, were
assumed to have been a past version of Stryfe. Until, you know, he
popped up more regularly. Again. Like in the Blood Brothers crossover
between Cable and X-Man. Anyway, Stryfe is now apparently truly dead,
since he was killed in Gambit and Bishop: Sons of the Atom #6 by Dark
Beast, having his entire body crumble into bones and ash. Again.

Back to the last part of the question: Nate. Go grab some refreshment
or something now, you've been sitting long enough reading this answer.
In the 1995 Age of Apocalypse crossover, for reasons too bizarre to get
into now, Cable ceased to exist. In the AOA timeline, his counterpart
was Nate Grey, called the "X-Man". Nate, who shares a name that fans of
the X-titles should recognize as being a warning bell, was a genetic
construct of the Mr. Sinister of that timeline. Once again, for various
reasons that you had to be there to deal with, Nate was one of the few
survivors of the Age of Apocalypse that made it into the normal
timeline. On top of this, Cable reappeared with the resurgence of the
original timeline, so for a while we had, in one way or an other, two
(and a half, counting the psyche of Stryfe) versions of Scott and
Madelyne's son roaming around the Marvel Universe, none of which was
actually native to that universe. I don't think Hallmark prints enough
cards for there to be enough for Scott Summers to send one to each of
his relatives on Christmas.

Nate Grey, at least, was easily distinguishable by his name, and the
fact that he was at least 20 years younger than the others. He was also,
just to be nitpicky, the son of Scott and Jean (albeit by test tube),
not Madelyne.

Nate eventually came to realize the "Madelyne Pryor" whom he had known
since coming to this dimension was actually planning to use him as a
weapon. During the time he tried to free himself, he met another
dimension's Nate Grey, who helped to free his mind. Nate became a mutant
shaman, and spent his time traveling all over the world helping mutants
in need. X-Man came to an end with issue 75, in which Nate sacrificed
himself to save the world. Basically, he dissipated himself and another
being into every cell of every being on Earth, in order to stop alien
seeders from controlling it.

*** Continued in Part 5 ***

[Kate the Short]

Archive-name: comics/xbooks/main-faq/part5

Posting-frequency: monthly
URL: http://users.rcn.com/kateshort/faqs/

-= REC.ARTS.COMICS.MARVEL.XBOOKS =-
Frequently Asked Questions

Part 5

Version 2003.02, last updated November 2003

URL: http://users.rcn.com/kateshort/faqs/racmxFAQ/faq5.html

------------------------------
Subject: Table of Contents

Part 5:

X-MEN COMIC BOOK QUESTIONS
* How old is Kitty Pryde? Jubilee? The rest of the X-Men?
* What are the names and ages of the Guthrie siblings? How
many of them are mutants?
* What happened to the New Mutants and X-Force kids? (+)
* What happened to Excalibur? (+)
* What happened to X-Factor? (+)
* What happened to Generation X? (+)
* What about everyone else? (+)

------------------------------
Subject: X-MEN COMIC BOOK QUESTIONS

Please note: Background information on the creators and the X-titles
editorial offices is based on over a decade's worth of interviews,
articles, and personal questions, and as such is not directly

attributed here. Now that some of Marvel's staff members are on Usenet,
they are welcomed to correct and amend any of the answers listed below.

--- How old is Kitty Pryde? Jubilee? The rest of the X-Men?

It's hard to believe, but this is one of the questions that keeps X-fans
arguing over drinks at all hours of the night. This is because Kitty,
who joined the X-Men in the (our-time) 1970s when she was 13 1/2, was
still a teenager in the 1990s. She was extremely popular with the young
crowd just getting into the Claremont/Byrne run of the X-Men, since she
was roughly their age and was a witty, smart woman that you could either
agree with, or like to date, as the tastes may be. Claremont used to
keep track of her birthdays rather closely, but those eventually fell by
the wayside. She had a birthday in space (14th) during the 160s of UXM,
and she had a birthday in England (15th) in issue #26 of Excalibur.

Kitty made a reference to being old enough to drink in Excalibur #91,
which most people read to say that she was 16 to 18, based on Scottish
law. Warren Ellis, former writer for Excalibur, was quoted as saying he
thought she was 18, which was a proper age for a young woman having lots
of snogging with an older man.

In UXM #379, however, Kitty remarked to Colossus that she was "barely
sixteen." Many fans were upset because it seemed that the writers were
trying to retcon Kitty's likely sexual relationship with Pete Wisdom by
making her underage. The issue was credited to Alan Davis, but the style
of dialogue strongly suggested that Claremont (who was returning to the
titles) had ghostwritten it.

At the 2000 Chicago Wizard World convention, someone asked Claremont to
clarify Kitty's age, and he said: "She is what she is. She is below the
legal age of drinking and always has been." That said, she could be
18 but not 21, especially if Claremont was just referring to the
American drinking age and not the British one (which is eighteen in
Scotland). This is supported by X-Men Unlimited #36, which was written
by Claremont. In that issue, Kitty states that she left Deerfield five
years ago, she is enrolled at the University of Chicago, and she is
working at a bar in Hyde Park. Illinois law requires servers of liquor
to be at least eighteen years old (though one still can't drink until
age 21); additionally, Kitty was 13 1/2 when she left Deerfield. She's
got to be at least 18 or 19 years old by that reckoning.

Then there's Jubilee, the other young teenager. Jubilee was originally
about 15 when she leaped from the mall to Australia via Gateway's portal
(UXM #244), but Scott Lobdell saw it otherwise. In the Generation X
collector's preview, he decreed that Jubilee was 13 1/2, and as her
writer, his word was law on the subject. Near the end of the run of
Generation X, in issues #65-69, she says she's 16, so she's grown older.

As for the rest? There are no easy answers to that question. Neither the
writers nor Marvel Time are fairly consistent. There are some fixed
dates: Nightcrawler turned 21 in UXM Annual #4, Rogue was 17 when she
joined, Hank angsted about turning 30 in X-Men #20, and in X-Men #51
Scott said he was "twenty-fi--". More such dates exist. However, even
these examples demonstrate a problem: Hank is not five years older than
Scott. The original X-Men were under 20 when they started, and Bobby was
the youngest at 16.

Some of the former New Mutants also had ages stated on-panel. In Graphic
Novel #4, Juliana Sandoval mentions that she and Roberto are 14. In New
Mutants #2, the ages of four New Mutants show up on their computers:
Rahne 14, Bobby 13, Sam 16, and Xi'an 19. (For context, in NM #3 Banshee
remarks that "t'day's Kitty Pryde's [14th] birthday.") A letters page
soon afterwards corrected the ages, showing 'Berto as 14 and Rahne as
13, the youngest New Mutant. This helps, but only somewhat, as who knows
how many Marvel-time years have passed since then?

There is also the problem of real-world events; Forge fought in Vietnam,
and Xavier fought in Korea. Unless, as Paul O'Brien suggests, the wars
were fought more recently in the Marvel Universe, the numbers simply
don't add up.

--- What are the names and ages of the Guthrie siblings? How many of
them are mutants?

We turn to age sage Aardy R. DeVarque for help on this question. Thomas
Zebulun Guthrie (deceased) and Lucinda Guthrie are the parents of the
following children:

1. Samuel [+0] (oldest)
2. Joelle [+2/3] (oldest girl) [possibly Jo... Elisabeth]
3. Joshua [+3/4] (2nd boy)
4. Paige [+5/6] (2nd girl) [may be younger than Jedediah]
5. Jedediah [+6/7] (3rd boy) [also called Jeb]
6. (girl) [+9/10] (3rd girl) [often not depicted]
7. Lewis [+12/13] (4th boy) [twin]
8. (girl) [+12/13] (4th girl) [twin]

Some explanations are in order:

* [+number] is the approximate number of years between each child and
Sam. For example, the twins are approximately 12-13 years younger
than Sam; when he was 20 years old they were around 7 years old.

* The oldest girl has been identified as Elisabeth in some stories,
(i.e. Factor X #1, X-Men #36) and Joelle in others (i.e. UXM '95,
What If #92). The most likely explanation (without suddenly adding
a ninth sibling) is that her full name is something like "Josephine
Elisabeth Guthrie", and "Joelle" is simply a shortened form of her
first names, something not unheard of in the area the Guthries are
from. (For example, someone whose name is James Robert Smith might
be referred to as "Jim-Bob" or even "Jimbo".)

* Sam's brother "Zak" is mentioned as writing a letter regarding
their mother in X-Force #83, but in X-Men #79 the letter is signed
"Josh". This is obviously an error, but a possible in-continuity
answer is that Zak (more likely Zachary or Zachariah) could be
Josh's middle name--though it would seem that name is already
taken, as Zachariah is Sam's middle name.

* As of Generation X #1, Paige suddenly aged from only recently
having reached puberty in her previous appearance to being in her
mid-teens, without more than a week or two of "Marvel Time"
passing. This burp in continuity almost certainly places her ahead
of Jedediah in the birth order (where before it was uncertain which
of those two was older), but still definitely behind Josh.

* Uncanny X-Men '95 states that Paige is older than Josh, which
flatly contradicts Paige's first unnamed appearance in New Mutants
#42 and first named appearance in X-Force #32, as well as the
general impression given in all other issues in which Josh and/or
Paige have appeared. UXM '95 seems rife with examples of the writer
making up details rather than checking what previous writers had
done with the characters, so it is not a very reliable source of
Guthrie history.

* Bibliography of the relevant issues: Marvel Graphic Novel #4 ("New
Mutants"), Rom Annual #3, New Mutants #42, X-Force #32, X-Men #36,
Factor X #1, UXM '95 Annual, What If #92 (non-canon, but features
the Guthrie clan), X-Force #83, X-Men #79.

At any rate, it's obvious that the writers haven't been making up family
members as they went along, which is reassuring; but it's also clear
that no one ever bothered to write down names and ages officially, and
that occasionally writers and editors make up details rather than
research the answers, especially for something as "trivial" as a
character's birth order. Such is life in the Marvel Bullpen.

As for the question of mutancy in the family: Sam and Paige are the only
confirmed mutants, but Joelle is also depicted with size-changing powers
in Factor X #1, in the Age of Apocalypse timeline. She may simply have
latent powers in our timeline, or--since she was less than twenty years
old at the time, the number of years in the past that AOA diverged--she
may have been born with a different set of genes. As Paige was the same
age and had the same powers in AOA as in the normal Marvel Universe,
this second explanation seems unlikely. It is also possible that the AOA
version of her may have been a mutate of sorts, like Spider-man or the
Fantastic Four, rather than a mutant. In any case, in the normal Marvel
Universe, she was not detected as a mutant when a Phalanx broke into the
Guthrie house, and at one point she successfully joined an anti-mutant
cult that was well-equipped with mutant detection devices.

An ongoing question is whether or not Josh, the second-oldest, has a
"mutant singing voice", as could be inferred from New Mutants #42. Since
he's never called a mutant anywhere else, though--including X-Men #36
when a Phalanx broke into the Guthrie house and detected only Paige as a
mutant--he's probably just a very talented singer and Claremont used
his trademarked purple prose in New Mutants #42.

--- What happened to the New Mutants and X-Force kids? (+)

The first of the NM to leave was Xi'an Coy Manh, aka Karma. She left the
NM in issue #54, and went to find her siblings, Leong and Nga. This
involved hanging out with Wolverine. Karma popped up in X-Force #75,
saying that she was living in New York. With pink hair. She reappeared in
2002 in the Mechanix miniseries, living in Chicago, and has since joined
the cast of the 2003 New Mutants series. On a related note, Karma lost
all that weight in Asgard. The Fates put her in the desert, with a small
child to defend. After a few months, she was back to her original figure.
That all happened in New Mutants Special Edition #1. (Also available in
the Asgardian Wars TPB).

Amara Aquilla was the next to go. Magma decided the Hellions was more her
style, and left Xavier's in NM #56. In NM #62 she got a letter from her
father requesting she come home. Empath went with her (at the White
Queen's request). Amara did not have a happy ending; while she did avoid
the massacre of the Hellions, her whole life was ripped out from under
her in New Warriors #31. Nova Roma wasn't established by the Romans after
all. It was established by Selene for no apparent reason with a number
of brainwashed Britons. Amara was in fact Allison Crestmere, daughter of
the English ambassador to Brazil. After Child's Play she went to find
her life. Magma reappeared in X-Force #87, as one of the New Hellions.
She claimed she only wanted money and power, but she eventually helped
X-Force win the battle. After the New Hellions' schemes were stopped,
Magma left. She most recently showed up in Uncanny X-Men #423, in a
group of mutants crucified on Xaver's lawn, and has been recovering in
the 2003 New Mutants series.

Doug Ramsey didn't do a whole lot better. Cypher died in NM #60, during
Fall of the Mutants. He took a bullet that the Ani-Mator intended for
Rahne. (Yes, the same Ani-Mator responsible for Bird-Boy). While we're on
the subject, we should squash the rumors about Doug's demise, with help
from creator Louise Simonson (who wrote to racmx in 1999):

As for killing poor Cypher...I did that for several reasons. (There
was a rumor at the time that he was killed because the artist hated
drawing him. Another that I hated him because I had to keep
twisting stories to find some instance where there was language
that had to be translated.)

The real reason was...I know you'll find this hard to believe...
there was a write-in campaign from LOTS of readers who hated him
and thought he was boring and wanted us to get rid of him.
Preferably...they wanted him dead. We got LOTS and LOTS of these
letters.

So I decided to call these readers' bluffs and do exactly what they
were asking for. (On the other hand, I never kill a character
without knowing exactly how I'm going to bring them back...if I so
choose. It is comic books, after all! With Doug/Cypher, the way was
obvious.) Sooo...

I decided to have him die a noble death of loving sacrifice, saving
his dear friend Rahne. And (surprise, surprise) we started getting
LOTS of letters asking, "How could you? Doug was my favorite
character?!!!" (My favorite letter... and I think one of the most
honest... said, "I used to hate Doug and thought he was boring and
wanted him to die, but now that he's dead, I've realized he was
ALWAYS MY FAVORITE CHARACTER!") Lots of folks missed Doug ... after
he was gone.

Sadly, that was not the end of his story....

But first Warlock. Warlock never quite recovered from the death of Doug,
but he didn't have long to worry about it. He died himself in NM #95,
during the X-tinction Agenda. After repeated drains on his energy (some
voluntary, some not) Cameron Hodge sucked out the rest. What little
remained of Warlock was spread over Doug's grave.

Doug and Warlock were not left to rest in peace. Instead, "they" were
resurrected by Zero as Douglock (in Excalibur #77) for the Phalanx
Covenant. Paul O'Brien explains the plot: "This was addressed well in
early issues of Warlock's solo title. Basically, the Phalanx are
anything that's been infected by the Technarch's technovirus but haven't
been consumed. The Technarch regard the Phalanx as abominations, and so
the technovirus is programmed to make the Phalanx want to summon the
Technarch to their aid (so that the Technarch can easily locate them and
wipe the bastards off the face of the earth). Thus explaining the
Phalanx's plan in the Phalanx Covenant storyline." The resurrection was
rather difficult for Rahne, because Douglock retained many of the
memories of Doug. Now, of course, Warlock knows he's just a resurrected
Warlock. He last resided on Muir Isle with Rahne and Moira, the Warlock
title notwithstanding. Doug, as Kitty Pryde can personally attest, is
still in his coffin and grave.

Bird-Boy and Gossamyr were never seen again.

Illyana Rasputin had her final battle in Inferno. After the good in
Magik finally overcame the evil in her once and for all, she was reverted
to the child she was before she encountered Limbo (NM #73). She went to
live with her parents in Russia until the Soul Skinner killed them (X-Men
#18). Her final storyline included dying of the Legacy virus (UXM #303).
She later appeared as a ghost in an issue of Uncanny X-Men. A version of
Magik apparently showed up circa #30 of Exiles.

After Inferno, Dani Moonstar started suffering a fever, which turned out
to be the doing of Hela in Asgard. After sorting everything out, Mirage
decided to stay in Asgard (NM #87). Later she appeared as Moonstar, a
member of the MLF (X-Force #27). In X-Force Annual #3, it was revealed
she was working undercover for Cable, and was briefly reunited with the
team during LegionQuest (X-Force #43). She vanished again, and
reappeared working for SHIELD. After rejoining X-Force, she gained
quantum powers, and finally lost *those*. She split X-Force after Pete
Wisdom showed up. After leaving the team, she appeared as an assistant
to Wolverine and Forge in the core titles, circa X-Men #102. Most
recently, she has been Xavier's assistant in locating students in the
2003 New Mutants series.

Rahne Sinclair didn't make it out of Genosha intact (X-tinction Agenda);
she was turned into a Mutate. While most of the damage was undone, it
left Wolfsbane in permanent Wolfgirl mode as she joined X-Factor (#71).
Being in X-Factor was rather awkward for her though, because she was
still bonded to Alex. Much to the relief of all involved, she was cured
by Haven in #99. After Age of Apocalypse and the heart attack of Guido,
she decided to live on Muir Isle while her guardian Moira dealt the
Legacy Virus. She was a member of Excalibur for a short time, and was
seen in the pages of Warlock. She later had her powers removed by
Mystique when he tried to save Moira's life. One of her most recent
appearances has been Unlimited #43, the New Mutants reunion issue. By
the way, Rahne is pronounced like "Rain," as in the liquid from the sky.
This is given in a number of canonical sources. In X-Factor #87, her
dreams are Rahne's World, Rain Man and Rahne and Stimpy. The puns don't
work otherwise.

Julio Richter was in Mexico trying to get his family out of the
gun-running biz. Rictor brought Shatterstar along with him. The two
appeared in X-Force Annual '99. Rictor (by himself) appeared as a
member of the X-Corporation in NXM #128.

Rusty Collins joined the MLF and later joined Magneto's Acolytes. He
was killed by Holocaust in X-Men #42.

Sally Blevins joined the MLF and Acolytes with Rusty. Skids survived
the experience, and was last seen as a college student in X-Force #78-80
(though it was revealed to her classmates at Colorado State that she's a
mutant, so who knows whether she's still there).

Caliban was made into the horseman Death by Apocalypse. He came and went
in X-Force, last appearing in the Twelve Saga, disappearing, and popping
up again in Search For Cyclops #3.

Theresa Cassidy had her throat ripped out by Feral. Siryn survived, but
lost her voice (and with it, her powers). She left the team. Since then,
Deadpool had a hand in healing her, and she showed up in Wolverine. She's
not with any team right now. She was featured in Deadpool #56, where
Copycat beat her up. Siryn also appeared as a member of the X-Corporation
in NXM #128.

Bobby DaCosta quit the NM to go work for Gideon in NM #99. Sunspot later
became Reignfire in the future (first seen in X-Force #26) and created
the MLF. He recruited Dani after her fall from Asgard. He was Reignfire
until AOA (X-Force #43), then suddenly he wasn't anymore. It's been said
that Cable did it with some Askani mind techniques. Roberto later became
a full member of X-Force. Unfortunately, he was lured into the Hellfire
Club by Selene, who promised to bring Roberto's dead love, Juliana
Sandoval, to life in another dead girl's body. Since then, Roberto showed
up in Unlimited #43 for the New Mutants reunion, and has apparently been
a member of X-Corp given his appearances starting in X-Treme #31.

Gloria Munoz (Risque) was announced as dead in the New X-Men 2001 Annual.

Sam Guthrie became the field leader of X-Force and died in X-Force #7,
only to be reborn in X-Force #9. Since then, Cannonball's External (think
Highlander) status has been put in doubt by Selene, who hinted that
Cable may have set the whole thing up. He was promoted to the X-Men
team, but later returned to lead X-Force. He showed up in X-Force #117,
during the "new" X-Force's press conference, so the team apparently was
not killed at the end of their run. Cannonball appeared as a member of
the X-Corporation in NXM #128. He was part of a storyline beginning in
X-Treme #24, and recently left again with Lila Cheney.

Tabitha Smith joined the New Mutants after Inferno. Meltdown stayed with
the team through Pete Wisdom's portion of X-Force. She showed up in
X-Force #117. She's been popping up occasionally in Weapon X.

James Proudstar joined the New Mutants just before they turned into
X-Force. After blaming the Hellfire Club for his tribe's massacre,
Warpath came to terms with his family's death, and eventually found the
killer (it was Stryfe's doing, but there was an evil doctor involved).
He died, but came back after the team went to hell to get him back. He
was a part of Pete Wisdom's X-Force, and gained the power of flight. He
showed up in X-Force #117, and again as a member of X-Corporation Mumbai
(along with Feral and her sister Thornn) in NXM #133.

Jesse Aaronson was the last person to join the team. Jesse "Bedlam"
stayed through Wisdom's version of X-Force. He showed up in X-Force
#117. He was also among the crucified mutants in Uncanny #423, though
it isn't clear whether he lived or died.

Domino came and went throughout the years, as did Cable. She was last
seen in X-Force #115, after the rest of the team was "killed." Domino
showed up in an X-Corporation meeting in New X-Men Annual 2001. Both
of them have been seen in Weapon X as part of the opposition. (As a
side note, former Domino impersonator Copycat (Vanessa) was hanging
out in Deadpool's book for a while, and died in Deadpool #59.)

New-style X-Force members seem to die at the drop of a hat... X-Force
#116 saw the flashback death of Sluk and the deaths of Battering Ram,
Gin Genie, La Nuit, Plazm, and leader Zeitgeist. X-Force #118 killed off
Bloke. Saint Anna bit it in #119. Their evil mentor, Coach, was killed in
#120. After a short respite from the carnage, Spike (The Spike) and Edie
Sawyer (U-Go Girl) died in issues #127-128.

--- What happened to Excalibur? (+)

Alan Davis, creator of Cerise, Kylun (based on the boy from Excalibur
#1, created by Claremont/Davis), Micromax, and Feron, quit to do other
things. After his departure, Marvel decided they wanted Excalibur to be
more of a mutants-only title, and started systematically getting rid of
the interlopers.

Excalibur #58 was the last of the Davis issues, although #56-57 were
actually scripted by Scott Lobdell. The issues after were written by
Scott Lobdell and/or Richard Ashford, and are stories that make
Excalibur fans howl in agony, even before the undignified retirement of
characters fans had come to like.

Cerise left in #70. Cerise had been in the Shi'ar military before her
time in Excalibur, on a recruiting ship. Not approving of the atrocities
the crew committed in the name of the Shi'ar Empire (looting, pillaging,
genocide, etc.), she sent the ship into a sun. She did teleport herself
out first--that's how she landed in Excalibur. Now, Lilandra could not
let this pass. While she did not want her military committing such
crimes and sullying the name of the Empire, neither did she want unhappy
soldiers destroying valuable starships. Her solution was to sentence
Cerise to work for her as an aide, rooting out similar abuses. While a
cushy civil service job is better than a prison planet, this did
preclude Cerise staying on Earth (Excalibur #68-70). She attended Brian
and Meggan's wedding in Excalibur 125, and helped the X-Men during the
Maximum Security Crossover, where she was featured in X-Men #107 and
Maximum Security #3.

At least Cerise got a send-off; the others didn't do quite so well. But
Ben Raab, the last writer on the title (which was cancelled after issue
#125), was kind enough to answer the pleas of fans to get the dangling
plotlines regarding these characters resolved once and for all.

Feron was last seen under a waterfall, pining with Meggan (#71). Meggan
eventually got out, but Feron was forgotten about by the rest of the
team until he resurfaced in #124.

Micromax went to America to pursue a job offer (#71). As of #125, he
was still unemployed.

Kylun went to look for his family (#71), and is still living with them
(#125).

Rachel was also part of the purge; she replaced Captain Britain in the
timestream in #75. She popped back out of the timestream far in the
future in The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix LS #1, and by #4 had
died of natural causes. Of course, an earlier version of her also
appeared in Cable, where her brother rescued her. She decided to go
to college and try to be normal.

Pete Wisdom broke up with Kitty in the early 100s of the title. He left
Excalibur shortly before the team disbanded in Excalibur #125. He acted
as a mission overseer and team trainer during X-Force #102-105. Pete
died in X-Force #105, and his funeral was in issue #106. Of course, he
was faking. He reappeared in X-Force #115.

Brian Braddock and Meggan finally had their wedding in Excalibur #125.
They last appeared in the Excalibur: Sword of Power mini-series. They
also showed up for Betsy's funeral in X-Treme X-Men #3.

Lockheed just disappeared. He wasn't seen again until X-Treme X-Men
Annual 2001, though he also showed up for the Mechanix limited series.

Moira MacTaggert remained on Muir, working with daughter Rahne to find a
cure for the Legacy Virus. She died a few months later, when Mystique
set off a series of explosions on Muir Isle (X-Men #108). In death,
Moira transferred information about the Legacy Virus to Xavier's mind
(she may have suggested to Charles that Mystique's manipulation of the
virus was the key). Beast created a cure with Moira's knowledge.

Piotr, whose guilt over his sister's death from Legacy led him to join
Magneto's Acolytes, joined Excalibur after Avalon was destroyed in X-Men
#43. He beat up Pete Wisdom, but eventually became a full member of the
team. He left Excalibur to rejoin the X-Men. After Moira's death and
Beast's creation of the cure, Piotr took a vial full of the virus and
injected himself with it. Legacy was cured, but Colossus died in the
process (Uncanny #390). His feeling at the time was that it made up for
his failure to save his sister.

Kitty, who had joined Excalibur after recovering from her Mutant
Massacre / Marauders injuries, made her way back to the United States
with Kurt and Piotr, just in time to lose her powers along with the rest
of the X-Men, regain her powers, and fight Apocalypse. Shadowcat then
disappeared during the Neo storyline (and never revealed where she'd
been). She left the team after hearing of Piotr's death. She was last
seen enrolled in college (X-Men #111), and has also appeared in the
X-Treme X-Men Annual 2001 backup story and X-Men Unlimited #36, where
it's clear that she's enrolled in the University of Chicago. She was
in the Mechanix limited series, appeared as a major part of the God
Loves, Man Kills II storyline in X-Treme #24-30, and has since gone
back to school.

--- What happened to X-Factor? (+)

The original X-Factor members rejoined various incarnations of X-Men,
while the X-Factor kids generally became members of the New Mutants,
X-Force, or Generation X.

Alex Summers (Havok) was a member of X-Factor after the original X-Men
left. Havok presided over that team and was going to reorganize it after
their ties with the government were broken. Summers enlisted Shard,
Polaris, Multiple Man, Fixx and Greystone into his new X-Factor, only to
have the team go nowhere because Marvel used X-Factor #149 to ignite a
new series, MUTANT X. In the fateful issue, Greystone (who, like Fixx
and Shard, was a member of the XUE from Bishop's timeline) attempted
to return to his own timeline. The plan backfired, and the plane
carrying him and Havok exploded. Havok was sent to the Mutant X world,
inhabiting the body of that alternate universe's Alex Summers when he
"died." He appeared in the Mutant X title until it was cancelled. He was
seen apparently floating in Limbo after he "died" in Mutant X #32, but
he reappeared in a mental institution in UXM #411 and has since returned
to the mansion.

Lorna Dane (Polaris), who was also a leader of X-Factor, was on her own
for a while after Havok "died." Polaris later joined up with Magneto as
he ruled Genosha. During the Magneto: Dark Seduction mini-series, it was
revealed that Magneto was borrowing a portion of Lorna's powers in
exchange for lessons on how to use them. She turned against Magneto when
he attacked innocents to restore his powers with an enhancement machine.
She was seen helping the resistance in X-Men #112. After that, she came
back to join Havok, and seems to be quite a bit crazy after the events
of Uncanny X-Men (the 420s and 430s).

Jamie Madrox (Multiple Man) popped up on Muir Island with Wolfsbane,
Beast and Strong Guy. He was seen helping Forge in Genosha, though he
left as of X-Men #112. He reappeared as part of the X-Corps circa
UXM #401-404, and reappeared as a member of the X-Corporation in NXM
#128.

Guido Carosella (Strong Guy) had a heart attack. He later joined Lila
Cheney on yet another intergalactic tour.

Marshall Evans (Random) was last seen in Genosha, working with Blob
(X-Men #112). He was apparently killed in Weapon X #5.

Kyle Gibney (Wild Child) left X-Factor and was seen wandering about as he
mutated once more, ending up as a member of the new Weapon X title.

Pietro Maximoff (Quicksilver) starred in his own title for a while. He
helped Magneto rule Genosha for a short while. He left Magneto's side
during the Magneto: Dark Seduction mini-series. He appeared to be a member
of the Genoshan resistance movement until Avengers #38 showed that he had
rejoined his former teammates.

Shard, Bishop's sister, was kidnapped by Trevor Fitzroy, as revealed in
Bishop: The Last X-Men #2-3. Fitzroy was turning Shard human again. She
sacrificed herself in Bishop:TLXM #13 or 14 to give Bishop the energy he
needed to stop Fitzroy once and for all.

Forge showed up in X-Men Annual 2000, as well as in X-Men #102. He's
since joined Mystique in her new title.

Mystique became a terrorist and killed Moira MacTaggert on Muir Isle.
She was seen in the hospital in UXM #389, and reappeared in UXM #405.
In 2003, a Mystique title was launched, and she's been seen there and
in the Draco storyline circa UXM #432.

--- What happened to Generation X? (+)

Blink was killed by the Phalanx prior to the Age of Apocalypse story,
circa X-Men #37. An alternate, AoA version of her appeared in Exiles.

Gaia left to go explore the world. Nobody's seen her since.

Artie, Leech and Penance were sent to the St. Croix's home in Monaco to
protect them from the rising anti-mutant sentiment after Emma reopened
the Massachusetts Academy (Generation X #66-67). Leech was last seen in
Weapon X #5, strapped to a satellite dish.

Everett (Synch) was killed in an explosion at the Massachusetts Academy
when some racist and anti-mutant students decided to set a bomb
(Generation X #69-70).

The team disbanded as of Generation X #75. Angelo (Skin) and Jubilee
went to Los Angeles, Monet (M) returned home to Monaco, Paige (Husk)
went to save the trees, and Banshee apparently went home. Of these,
Banshee reappeared as leader of the X-Corps in UXM 401, and was joined
by Jubilee, M, and Husk in UXM #403-404. Monet reappeared as a member
of the X-Corporation in NXM #128, while Husk joined the Uncanny X-Men
team circa UXM #416. Paige and Jubilee both have been seen in UXM in
the 420s and 430s, while Angelo died in UXM #423 and was later buried.

Jono (Chamber) was accepted into the Uncanny X-Men team, and left in
UXM #415.

Emma Frost went to Genosha to teach a telepathy class (just before
Genosha was eradicated in New X-Men #115). She later joined the New
X-Men team.

--- What about everyone else? (+)

Calvin Rankin (Mimic) was seen in X-Force and Excalibur. Most recently,
he was part of the new Broterhood of Mutants in the High Evolutionary
storyline (circa X-Men #99 and UXM #379).

John Proudstar (Thunderbird I) was killed in the line of duty in UXM
#95.

Alison Blaire (Dazzler) left with Longshot. After staying with the X-
Babies in Mojoworld, she returned to Earth and then returned to the
Mojoverse (X-Men #113). Her life story was told in X-Men Unlimited #32.
She showed up again in Deadpool #67.

Longshot left the X-Men to find himself, reappeared, left to deal with
Mojoworld, and was last seen with a group of former mental patients
roaming the midwestern United States on their way to New York City. This
took place in the Longshot one-shot. He showed up again in Exiles #18-19.

Sarah (Marrow) left the X-Men powerless, and served as a camp counselor.
The Spider-Man/Marrow one-shot revealed that she'd been captured by
SHIELD and reprogrammed as a sleeper agent who would return to her
mutant form to hunt a target. Unsurprisingly, this created a serious
mental imbalance. She was thought dead, though the issue revealed that
she actually survived. She later appeared as a member of the Weapon X
team.

Maggott left the X-Men in search of better training. He showed up in one
issue of Generation X and left to pursue an artifacts hunter. He was
apparently killed in Weapon X #5.

Cecelia Reyes left the team to focus on her career as a doctor. In X-Men
#80, Reyes was still associated with the X-Men despite having set up
practice in Salem Center. She reappeared when a wounded Nightcrawler
showed up in her inner-city clinic. During a fight with the Neo, Reyes
became hooked on a power-boosting drug. The X-Men helped her get clean,
and she has since left the team, probably to return to her practice.

Betsy Braddock (Psylocke) died in X-Treme X-Men #2. Her death was
confirmed in XXM #3.

Sharon Friedlander died during the Fatal Attractions storyline.

Tom Corsi was last seen as a Generation X gym teacher circa #69.

Stevie Hunter last appeared in X-Men #30.

Spiral was last seen in the X-Babies Reborn one-shot.

Destiny died at Legion's hands during UXM #255, in the Muir Island saga.
Destiny was last seen as a ghost in Limbo (with Legion and Margali
Szardos) in Fantastic Four vol.2 #16.

Stonewall died in UXM #255, during the Muir Island X-men stories.

SuperSabre was decapitated New Mutants Annual #7, in one of the Kings
of Pain Annual back up stories.

Crimson Commando was badly injured in NM Ann #7, but he came back as a
partially nuts semi-cyborg. He later showed up in X-Men Annual #2 and
X-Factor #102.

Post died in Cable #87 when Pyro prevented him from killing Senator
Kelly.

Pyro died in Cable #87 after stopping the Brotherhood of Mutants from
killing Senator Kelly.

Senator Robert Kelly was assassinated by a human who was mad that the
Senator had changed his platform away from mutant-hating towards
compassion (X-Men #108).

Bastion was last seen in the M-Tech Warlock issues.

Fitzroy was teleported into bits in Bishop:TLXM #15. Bantam apparently
was left behind.

The Neo were recruited by Magneto in X-Men #110, after he killed two
of them. We haven't seen them since then.

The Reavers and the Shadow King last appeared in X-Treme X-Men Annual
2001. Pierce and some Reavers reappeared in New Mutants II #5.

Avalanche, Blob, and Radius all appeared as members of Banshee's
X-Corps in UXM #401. Prior to that, Avalanche was last seen in Cable
#87, Blob was last in X-Men #112, and Radius was last seen in Alpha
Flight volume 2.

Lady Mastermind (one of two feuding half-sisters) appeared in UXM #405.
Lady Mastermind (the other one) appeared in X-Treme X-Men #9, working
with Sebastian Shaw. Shaw popped up again in NXM #142.

Empath last reappeared in X-Treme X-Men #31.

Assorted Weapon X types, Alpha Flight members, and X-Men villians have
shown up in the Weapon X series, including Marrow, Kane, Sauron, Mesmero,
Maddison Jeffries (Box), Sabretooth, Wildchild, Agent 0, Wildside, Reaper
and newby Washout. Those guys formed the Weapon X team, with Soldier X
(Cable), Domino, Meltdown, Maverick and Blaquesmith appearing as the
opposition militia. Among random faces have been Locus of the MLF, whose
death by by Sabretooth was revealed in #2, and Omega Red, who showed up
in #3. Diamond Lil and Reaper were both killed in #5.

Other Alpha Flight members have shown up in issues of UXM, including
UXM #422 and again in #432.

Sabretooth, always busy, appeared in Deadpool #59, where he killed
Copycat, and also appeared in NXM #142.

(Mr.) Sinister showed up in an issue of Unlimited, where he offered to
resurrect Colossus, and was featured in Weapon X #13.

*** Continued in Part 6 ***

[Kate the Short]

Archive-name: comics/xbooks/main-faq/part6

Posting-frequency: monthly
URL: http://users.rcn.com/kateshort/faqs/

-= REC.ARTS.COMICS.MARVEL.XBOOKS =-
Frequently Asked Questions

Part 6

Version 2003.02, last updated November 2003
URL: http://users.rcn.com/kateshort/faqs/racmxFAQ/faq5.html

------------------------------
Subject: Table of Contents

Part 6:

X-MEN COMIC BOOK QUESTIONS
* Is Magneto Jewish or Gypsy? Was Joseph Magneto? (+)
* What is the Hellfire Club? Who are its members? (+)
* What is the relationship between Wolverine and Sabretooth
supposed to be?
* Does Wolverine have any real memories anyway? How about
real bones?
* Who was Wolverine before he was Wolverine? Does he even
have a real name? (+)
* Wolverine can regularly regenerate himself from a drop of
blood, right?

------------------------------

Subject: X-MEN COMIC BOOK QUESTIONS

Please note: Background information on the creators and the X-titles
editorial offices is based on over a decade's worth of interviews,
articles, and personal questions, and as such is not directly
attributed here. Now that some of Marvel's staff members are on Usenet,
they are welcomed to correct and amend any of the answers listed below.

--- Is Magneto Jewish or Gypsy? Was Joseph Magneto? (+)

It appears that Magneto is Jewish, although his wife Magda likely is a
gypsy. However, Marvel being Marvel, it's good to set forth the
evidence. This is a summary of Rivka Jacob's excellent research on the
topic:

In UXM #150, after Magneto thinks he has killed Kitty, he says: "I
remember my own childhood ... the gas chambers at Auschwitz, the guards
joking as they herded my family to their death. As our lives were
nothing to them, so human lives became nothing to me." Storm is about to
blast him for "killing" Kitty, and she says, "If you have a deity,
butcher, pray to it!" Magneto answers, "As a boy, I believed. As a boy,
I turned my back on god forever." Magneto can't be a political prisoner
or atheist--he can only be Gypsy or Jewish if his entire family is at
Auschwitz.

In UXM #161, we see for the first and last time Magnus' tattoo from
Auschwitz. His number is #214782. Xavier says, "That tattoo, Magnus,
were you ...?" Magnus answers, "Auschwitz. I grew up there." Magnus'
number is high for someone who was there from the beginning of the camp,
but it is a standard number, without the A of the 1944 arrivals, or the
Z of the Gypsies, or the other special classification symbols. Of
course, the penciller probably didn't know these details...

In Vision and the Scarlet Witch, Vol. 1, #4, Magneto tells Vision about
his youth. Pictured is the Auschwitz camp, with guards tormenting
emaciated prisoners, one of whom displays a prominent and exaggerated
Star of David on his clothing. In the next panel, however, Magneto sort-
of goes into a fantasy. He says, "But unlike the other victims, I
possessed the power to fight back." He imagines he's hurling Nazi tanks
away with magnetic energy. Only Jewish prisoners wore the Star of David.

In UXM #199, Magneto (with Lee Forrester and Kitty Pryde) arrives at the
National Holocaust Memorial in Washington, DC. (It's not really Lee, but
Mystique, trying to capture Magneto). "Lee" says: "Man's inhumanity to
man... how easily the race kills." Magneto answers: "Then, Lee, it was
the Jews. My nightmare has ever been that tomorrow it will be Mutants."
Why would he say that, if he weren't Jewish? Next, Magneto tells Kitty
EXACTLY how to address the gathering in order to get information about
dead or missing family members. Isn't it obvious that he's done this
before? Why would he address a Jewish Holocaust gathering looking for
information about his family if his family weren't Jewish?

In UXM #211, Magneto reacts to the Morlock Massacre out of pure emotion,
saying, "NO! The horrors of my childhood, born again...only this time,
Mutants are the victims, instead of Jews." If he weren't Jewish, he
wouldn't have said Jews, or he would have at least added the name of
another people targeted by the Nazis.

In New Mutants #49, Magneto dreams of the massacre of his family. Here
we see for the first time, his family--father, mother, sister--as
they were gunned down in front of open graves. The family members are
dressed in middle class urban clothes. No peasant dress, no Gypsy
clothing. It's Magnus and his family who are out of place. They are
well-dressed, an urban family in a rural setting. This matches accounts
of what happened to Czech and German Jewish families who were moved east
and sometimes removed to woods and rural settings where they were shot.

In the X-Men Classics #12 back-up story, we see the actual scenes of
Magneto's and Magda's escape from Auschwitz. The war is almost over, and
it is the winter of 1944-1945. The Gypsy camp was murdered in the gas
chambers in August 1944. This scene, by Claremont and Bolton, takes
place on Jan. 20, 1945, two days after the camp was evacuated and the
death marches began. Some 70 of the Sonderkommando, Jewish prisoners who
were forced by the Nazis to lead the victims to the gas chamber, haul
the bodies to the ovens, and burn or bury the dead, were kept to help
destroy the evidence of the death factory, before they were to be
killed. Some 200 women from the woman's camp, Jews, were chosen to fill
in the huge pits where bodies were burned. The SS soldiers sent back on
Jan. 20th were sent to kill the women. Magneto was saving Magda because
at that point, he wasn't the target, yet.

In New Mutants #61, Magneto thinks to himself, "An ill wind is coming...
they are registering mutants... like they once registered my people in
Poland...! Who knows what horrors await us." Only the Jews were forced
to wear armbands with the Star of David on them, and registered before
being forced into ghettos in Poland (beginning at the end of 1939).
Young Magnus, who was already at Auschwitz by 1942, would only have
experienced the Jewish people in Poland (including German Jews who had
already been deported there in the first months of the War) being
registered.

In X-Factor Annual #4, Doom challenges Magneto to a duel of wills, with
a helmet that pulls out unpleasant memories and torments the wearer.
Magneto takes his turn--Doom describes what he sees, "...after the
ignoble defeat of the Nazis in Germany, you and the woman Magda you
rescued, fled the prison camp Auschwitz, in Poland." Doom confirms that
Magnus and Magda "fled" or escaped Auschwitz before liberation and after
the Gypsy camp was murdered.

In Uncanny #274, Magneto recalls his life in Auschwitz: "Zaladane has no
such compunction. And I hear the echo of Der Fuhrer's voice in the radio
of memory, smell the awful stench of the sick and dying as the cattle
cars brought the comdemned to Auschwitz. I wear red, the color of blood,
in tribute to their lost lives. And the harder I try to cast it aside,
to find a gentler path... the more irresistibly I'm drawn back. I should
have died myself with those I loved. Instead, I carted the bodies by the
hundreds, by the thousands... from the death house to the crematorium...
and the ashes to the burial ground. Asking now what I could not then...
why was I spared?!" This is what the Sonderkommando did. This is
fundamental to the history of the Holocaust, to the history of Nazi
Germany--making the *Jews* the ones who had to do all the dirty work in
the death camps.

In X-Factor #92, an Acolyte says, "You've seen this place Havok! You've
seen the sentinels! You tell me... where's the sense in letting the
flatscans do to the mutants what Hitler did to the Jews?..." The
Acolytes have done research on Magneto; they worship him. This one says
"the Jews" as a parallel metaphor. Why say that, if Magneto isn't
Jewish?

Now comes the infamous X-Men Unlimited #2. In that issue, Gabrielle
Haller stated definitively that Magneto was a Gypsy of Sinte descent.
However, nearly everything that Gabrielle Haller says about Magneto's
history, including the claim he is a "Sinte Gypsy," is false. For
example, Danzig was not annexed. It was a Free City, under League of
Nations protection, that voted itself a Nazi government and welcomed the
Nazi troops in like liberators. Gauleiter Forster, the extremely anti-
Semitic Nazi leader of Danzig ordered all the remaining Jews of Danzig
to be kicked out of the city in 1939, not the Gypsies. Auschwitz wasn't
opened as a Polish political prisoner camp until the summer of 1940, not
1939. The Gypsies were sent to German municipal camps, in Germany and
the Greater Reich, as early as 1933. But they were not sent to Auschwitz
from Germany until 1943. The only people who were in a work camp in
Auschwitz before it opened were 300 Jews from the town of Auschwitz who
were forced to transform a collection of horse stables and army barracks
into the Polish prisoner camp. (Fabian Nicieza wrote Magneto as a Gypsy
at the request of editors Kelly Corvese and Bob Harras, so don't blame
Fabian!)

In X-Men #40, which takes place in Israel, Legion pulls out Magneto's
memories. One can see a picture of young Magnus with older male
prisoners, standing behind and below a high, barred window. This is an
accurate portrayal of the quarters of the Sonderkommando at Auschwitz I.
At Auschwitz I, only the Sonderkommando (other than prisoners awaiting
execution) were kept in isolated basement cells, the windows of which
were high, barred, and as seen from the outside, half-below ground
level. And why is Magneto in Israel anyway? Why would a Gypsy go to
Israel when at least 30,000 Gypsies lived in Germany in the late 1960s
and early 1970s? And many more Romany formed a thriving community in
Paris. Why go to Israel to "find himself" or find his "soul"? Any Jew
can emigrate to Israel, under the Law of Return. All Magneto had to do
was show them the tattoo on his arm, and he was home. Furthermore,
Magnus at this time had forged papers, that identified him as "Erik
Magnus Lehnsherr." He could have immigrated to any country in the world,
including the United States! If he were a Gypsy, and didn't want to
self-identify as such, why not go to America? The Romany today deeply
resent the focus on Israel, and the support Israel enjoys among nations
of the Western world, while the Gypsies continue to be persecuted and
ignored.

In Astonishing X-Men #3, Magneto says, "Long before Xavier died...
before this point of divergence... I stood by helplessly as millions of
my people were led to slaughter in the name of 'genetic purity.'" The
AOA is a divergent timeline, starting from the same events as in our
own timeline. 250,000 to 500,000 Gypsies were murdered (possibly as many
as 750,000). Millions of Russians, Ukrainians, and Poles during the
course of the invasions, and in political violence, and in acts of pure
murder, were exterminated. But only the European Jews were "led to the
slaughter" in the millions because of one man's racial beliefs.

In X-Men #72, we learn that the name *Erik Lehnsherr* (revealed by
Gabrielle Haller in X-Men Unlimited #2 to be Magneto's real name) is
fake, and so Haller's assertion that Magneto is a *Sinte* Gypsy was
based on false and forged identity papers. Basically, Magneto needed the
fake Sinte identity to have a better chance of success on his search for
Magda (who *was* a Gypsy) after she had run away from him. Magneto,
speaking with Georg Odekirk, the man who forged the papers, says, "Do
you remember what you promised me the night I came to you, torn and
filthy, nearly a quarter century ago? I was searching for my beloved
MAGDA, determined not to lose her as I had lost so many others in the
fire that engulfed all of Europe during my childhood. The authorities
were in pursuit of me for the "crime" of avenging my daughter's murder.
I was willing to deny who I was... everything that my family died for...
so that I could find one woman... so that I would not be caged AGAIN.
The Erik Lehnsherr fabrication was a convenient means of ensuring that.
You swore that the forged papers were FLAWLESS, that your skills were
unsurpassed... but now, you have proven to be a liability. Your work has
been called into queston by my enemies, and they will trace Erik
Lehnsherr the Sinte BACK to you." Odekirk protests, "That is impossible!
That forgery was impeccable! My work is..." Magneto answers: "It was not
ENOUGH! You gave birth to Erik Lehnsherr, Odekirk. And tonight, you have
killed him. My secrets shall die with him. All that remains now... is
MAGNUS." Only the Jews and Gypsies were targeted as entire peoples, and
killed for no reason other than they were Jews and Gypsies. Magnus was
either one, or the other. Since in X-Men #72 it is revealed that he is
NOT a Gypsy, we must conclude he was born a Jew.

More recent issues have supported the retcon of the Magneto-as-Gypsy
retcon that appeared in X-Men Unlimited #2. In X-Men #111, Trish Tilby
calls Magneto the "rumored son of Israel." Furthermore, in X-Men #112,
Scott Summers describes Magneto as a Jew: "It's ironic, really. Magneto
lost his family in a Nazi death camp, persecuted just because they were
Jewish for the crime of being 'different.' Fifty-odd years later ... and
this time he's the monster. It's his army prepared to cleanse the Earth
of a race they've decided isn't worthy to continue. he's become what
he's always hated." It would be unlikely that the writers and editors of
the comics would include references to Magneto as Jewish unless they
were envisioning him as such. Outside canon, Magneto is described as
Jewish in the 1996-97 "Mutant Empire" trilogy of novels by Christopher
Golden.

If you want more details, including scans of relevant passages and
images, visit the "Magneto FAQs and Background Info" section of Alara's
Magneto Page at http://www.alara.net/xbooks/mag/faq.html.

As for the Joseph/Magneto cloning issue, Terrafamilia helps us out: To
be a stickler for detail-- Joseph was emphatically stated to *not* be a
clone. A copy, yes, but not a clone. Astra, a previously unknown
character retconned to having been an original member of the Brotherhood
of Evil Mutants, replicated Magneto using various and sundry bits of
highly advanced alien tech she had snatched over the years during her
travels through the galaxy (she's a high power intradimensional portal
style teleporter). Basically, she sent Magneto through a molecular
transporter type system and made a copy, which she altered to be younger
and more pliable. Unfortunately Magneto escaped during his and Joseph's
first encounter, so Joseph had time to develop a mind of his own while
he was supposed to be tracking down his quarry. Joseph's dead now,
having sacrificed himself for some reason or another.

As for Magneto's existence... Magneto was stabbed by Wolverine in X-MEN
#113. In NEW X-MEN #115, he appeared in a wheelchair, sitting in a
building in Hammer Bay as it was crushed by a Sentinel. He was presumed
dead as of that issue, until being revealed as Xorn in New X-Men #146.

--- What is the Hellfire Club? Who are its members? (+)

The Hellfire Club is a direct homage / tribute to the 1960s UK Avengers
show with Patrick MacNee and Diana Rigg. In an episode called "A Touch
of Brimstone", Steed and Mrs. Peel face a top secret political group
which named itself after the legendary 18th-century secret society. The
members of the "Inner Circle" all wear period costumes, and at one
point Mrs. Peel assumes the role of "the Queen of Sin", wearing a black
leather costume that's the image of the White Queen. (That's also why
the White Queen has the first name Emma--it's an homage to "Emma Peel".)
John Byrne has admitted using it as an inspiration, since it was one of
his favorite action/advenute shows growing up. Hellfire Clubs did exist
in the real world, but they were usually "gentlemen's" clubs of the 18th
century dealing as upper-class brothels. The best-known characters were
based on popular actors: In the X-Men Companion II (Fantagraphics Books,
1982), Byrne says that Sebastian Shaw was based on Robert Shaw, Harry
Leland was Orson Wells, Donald Pierce was Donald Sutherland, and Jason
Wyngarde is Peter Wyngarde.

Anyway, in Marvel Comics, there have been many different incarnations of
the American Hellfire Club / Inner Circle, as well as numerous
international clubs. The HC members tend to be mutants who want to rule
the world through a combination of raw power and subtle political and
financial maneuvers. Membership is passed down to one's offspring, so
people like Warren Worthington III (Angel) and Brian Braddock (Captain
Britain) are members of the club. The club first appeared at the start
of the Dark Phoenix Saga in Uncanny X-Men.

According to Ultimate X-Men (the coffee-table book, not the text-story
collection or the comic series of the same name), the American branch
of the Hellfire Club was founded in the 1770s by "wealthy trading
company owner Sir Patrick Clemens and his mistress, Diana Knight" who
emigrated from Britain to New York City. The Hellfire Club mini-series
reveals that the American club members were loyalists who battled the
Captain America of the American Revolution. The mini-series also gives
some background on Sebastian Shaw, showing how he transformed the Inner
Circle of wealth and privelege to an Inner Circle of mutants.

The backup story of Classic X-Men #7 introduces the reader to the
previous leaders of the club, namely White King Edward Buckman and his
White Queen, Paris Seville. According to OHOTMUDE, Shaw had up until
then risen to Black Bishop. On the same New Year's Eve when Jean Grey
became the Phoenix, Buckman was telling Sebastian Shaw what a fine Black
King he'd make. However, this was just a ruse to put Shaw in a false
sense of security, since Buckman and Paris actually intended to kill all
mutants, including Shaw and his four associates: Emma Frost, Harry
Leland, Tessa and Lourdes Chantel. In the fight that ensued, Lourdes
Chantel (Shaw's lover, a teleporter) was killed. Retribution was quick
to follow; under Emma Frost's telepathic control Buckman shot all of the
members of the Council of the Chosen before Shaw snapped his neck. Shaw
then took control of the Club, and renamed the Council the "Inner
Circle."

The club was formally introduced to X-Men readers during the Dark
Phoenix Saga. The Inner Circle was lead by Sebastian Shaw (the Black
King) and telepath Emma Frost (the White Queen). Shaw's assistant was
Tessa, an extremely intelligent human who later joined the X-Men as
Sage (where she displayed newly-found telepathic powers). The Black
Bishop was Harry Leland, who could manipulate mass. The White Bishop was
Donald Pierce, a cyborg who wanted to become White King. Mastermind, who
disguised himself in order to lure Phoenix into the club as its Black
Queen, was an applicant for Inner Circle membership.

The Hellfire Club appeared again in Marvel Graphic Novel #4, which
introduced the New Mutants. Pierce worked against Xavier in recruiting
Cannonball, but Tessa realized that Pierce was a threat to the Inner
Circle, and promised to deal with him. (Pierce was later seen in full
cyborg mode leading the Reavers in the Australian Outback era of
Uncanny. Donald Pierce returned in the Domino mini-series and later
turned up during the Ladronn issues of Cable.)

Years later, around the time of Uncanny #180-190, Selene became the new
Black Queen, after she was introduced by her agent/worshipper Frederick
von Roehm, (the Black Rook). Selene was a type of vampire, and she'd
appeared in New Mutants. Around the same time, Emanuel Da Costa (father
of New Mutant Roberto DaCosta) was recruited to become the White Rook.
Issues of Uncanny also revealed that Emma Frost was training her own set
of younger mutants, the Hellions, who went up against the X-Men before
becoming a longtime rival of the New Mutants.

After the defeat of Nimrod in Central Park, the Hellfire Club
disappeared from Uncanny, but continued to appear in The New Mutants,
where Frost, Shaw, and Selene pitted The Hellions against Xavier's
students. The two teams interacted on a number of occassions.
During this time, Magneto served as headmaster of Xavier's school.
In one memorable story (after the Beyonder killed and resurrected them)
the New Mutants became Hellions (and therefore wards of the Hellfire
Club). Magneto was named to the position of White King. He and Storm
shared the title for a while, and Magneto called himself the Grey King
after Shaw was booted out of the club (circa New Mutants #75).

The Hellfire Club underwent a number of dramatic changes in the 1990s.
In Uncanny #281, the Hellions were killed and Emma Frost was put into a
coma (she woke in Uncanny #314). Soon after, Sebatian Shaw was
overthrown by Shinobi Shaw, who was supposed to be Sebastian's son, but
had mass / intangibility powers more like those of Harry Leland.
Shinobi replaced the entire Inner Circle (some with members of The
Upstarts) and this new Circle is what stands in X-Men Annual #3. The
"upstart" Inner Circle was composed of Shinobi Shaw (Black King),
Benazir Kaur, Reeva Payge, and Benedict Kine (White King). It's only
assumed that the aforementioned ladies held the rank of queen. Circa
Uncanny #319, Shinobi attempted to bring Storm, Psylocke, and Angel in
as members of the Inner Circle, but they refused.

The Club next appeared in Generation X's first annual. Emma Frost's loss
of the Hellions caused her to align with Xavier and train his new team.
This resulted in her abandoning her position in the Club, though she was
still known as the White Queen. Her younger sister, Cordelia, tried to
insinuate herself into Shinobi's Hellfire Club, but she was refused
entry.

After Onslaught, Sebastian Shaw was finally able to overthrow his son.
Selene returned to the Club as well, bringing with her Trevor Fitzroy
and X-Man's Madelyne Pryor. Madelyne eventually double-crossed Selene
and sought to supplant her as the Black Queen. Issues of X-Man indicated
that Madelyne assumed the title for a short time, and Sebastian Shaw
called her "my queen." This version of the Inner Circle did not last
very long, though. Madelyne soon left to follow Nate Grey (and was again
replaced by Selene) while Fitzroy sent himself to the future as the
Chronomancer (see Bishop: The Last X-Man #1). Tessa also announced that
she was no longer in the employ of Shaw, and later aligned herself with
the X-Men. At one point, Emma's sister Adrienne Frost announced that she
was the new White Queen (circa Generation X #62) but she was never seen
in that role.

Club membership was readjusted once more beginning with Fantastic Four
Annual '99, which established that Black Queen Selene was running the
club with the demon Blackheart (Mephisto's son) as her Black King.
Selene later showed up in X-Force, where she converted Roberto DaCosta
into an HC member. Berto should have inherited his father's White Rook
position, but he's apparently the Black Rook. No current White Hellfire
Club members are confirmed as such.

As if that wasn't enough, there have been quite a few stories mentioning
the (presumably original) London branch of the Hellfire Club. Beginning
in Excalibur #92, Warren Ellis mentioned the London branch. It was
connected to the American Club by name and occassional association,
but the London Club had distanced itself enough that Shinobi Shaw
convinced Brian Braddock (Captain Britain) to enter the London Club and
act as informant for whatever plan was brewing. The London Club used the
colors Red and White for its Inner Circle, as opposed to the Black and
White of the New York Club. During the Excalibur run leading up to issue
#100, Brian planned to enter as the Red Bishop (since his father had
apparently held that position), but he ended up becoming its Black Rook.

The Red King was an Indian man we'd never seen before, and the Black
King was likewise a new character. The Red Queen was sorceress Margali
Szardos, better known as Amanda Sefton's mom and Nightcrawler's adoptive
mother. The Black Queen, named Emma Steed, was a psionic skinner who
looked very much like the Damask character that appeared in the Age of
Apocalypse storyline. (She was also the spitting image of Diana Rigg,
who played Emma Peel in the classic Avengers episode mentioned above.)
The Red Rook, Scribe, was a recorder of sorts, whose body was being used
by Mountjoy, a refugee from Bishop's timeline. She had powers of
intangibility, superior strength, and agility, which may have come from
Mountjoy instead of from her own ability. (It should be noted that
Mountjoy was a refugee from Bishop's future who was revealled to have
snuck through Fitzroy's gateway while riding another criminal. Bishop
became aware of his prescence in the mainstream timeline present and
pursued him in theBishop Limited series by Ostrander and Pacheco).

Excalibur #100 revealed that the London Hellfire Club and black ops
organization Black Air had bribed their way into the pockets of many
important politicians. The Club attempted to utilise the powers of a
demon trapped under London to cause enough chaos that they and their
agents in Black Air could seize power. They kidnapped Excalibur member
Douglock to use as a sort of power conduit, but unfortunately they'd
underestimated the power of the demon and pretty much drove themselves
mad. The Black King and Red King ended up dead, while Red Queen Margali
was snatched into Hell / Limbo by Belasco (see the Soulsword question),
and the Black Queen escaped to parts unknown. The Red Rook, Scribe,
eventually showed up in X-Man #23, where she later battled Madelyne.

The London Club also made an appearance, via flashback, in a story
involving Cable (circa Cable #49). "The Hellfire Hunt" had Cable chase
Donald Pierce and Sebastian Shaw across the Atlantic to prevent them
from stealing Apocalypse's technology. On the flight there, he and Irene
Merryweather read the diary of a previous Union Jack who had battled the
Club in his day. The story also involved the Harbinger, a creation of
Apocalypse (see CABLE #50). These events referenced the events of The
Further Adventures of Cyclops & Phoenix. That story--the origin of
Sinister--revealed an alliance between Apocalypse and the London Club of
1889. The Hellfire Club planned to increase strife around the world,
making the world ready for Apocalypse's eventual return.

Obviously, the Hellfire Club and its Inner Circle have deep roots in
the Marvel Universe. In addition to the London and New York branches,
there are apparently chapters of the Hellfire Club in Moscow, Rio de
Janeiro, Tokyo, Venice, and Hong Kong. Jamie Braddock, Brian Braddock,
and Betsy Braddock all had membership through their father, who was a
member of the London Inner Circle. Warren Worthington III had membership
through his father, and his girlfriend Candy Southern was also a member.
Howard Stark, Iron Man's father, was a member, as was Senator Robert
Kelly (see Uncanny #247). The Hellfire Club mini-series indicates that
the Greys (Jean's parents) probably are members as well.

--- What is the relationship between Wolverine and Sabretooth supposed
to be?

Once upon a time, this was one of the big Unanswered Questions in the
X-titles. Of course, once upon a time Bernard the poet was a recurring
character in X-Men as well. Dig those groovy rhymes!

Wolverine and Sabretooth were originally designed, most likely by John
Byrne once he got his hands on them, to be son and father, respectively.
Nothing was ever made of this, besides the usual murky hints behind the
scenes. As time went by the relative popularity of Wolverine versus the
great obscurity of Sabretooth (up until recently, he was still a second-
string villain found working for no-name crime bosses in Spider-Man
titles) made such a revelation rather silly in the eyes of Marvel, so
they just shifted the whole thing over to them both just having some
sort of relationship in the past, but of an unspecified sort.

Recently, Wolverine and Sabretooth have been revealed simply to be
former secret agents who worked on the same team with other mysterious
mutants such as Maverick. A blood test performed by some considerate
S.H.I.E.L.D. medical technicians in Wolverine #42 finally gave us a
definite answer: they aren't related by blood at all. Sabretooth once
believed himself to be Logan's father, but that was merely a vestige of
the Weapon X's memory implant procedures.

--- Does Wolverine have any real memories, anyway? How about real bones?

Apparently, almost all of Wolverine's memories are constructs, thanks to
the ever-dependable Weapon X program and the demands of Marvel writers.
What he had as his original skeleton has become even more of a muddled
pile of murk thanks to the Fatal Attractions storyline. A brief synopsis
of what was once known to be true will be attempted here, but as
discussions on racmx have shown, this question is a retcon in action,
and even Wolverine fans are still confused over the whole affair. Those
of us who are just neutral bystanders will have to be content with what
follows, and leave the heavy arguments to the knowledgable Wolvie sages
on racmx.

IN THE BEGINNING, like, pre-X-Men (Hulk #181), even, Wolverine was just
designed to be a spunky teenager working for the Canadian government,
who had claws stuck in his gloves. One gets the opinion that perhaps
there were some slight budgetary problems in the Canadian Secret Service
at the time. There was a suggested subplot which would reveal him to be
a "super-evolved" real wolverine, made into human form by the High
Evolutionary, but that was never followed up on.

Now, when Wolverine was put into the X-Men, Chris Claremont decided that
since he was in the X-Men, he needed to have a mutant power.
Furthermore, he didn't like the idea of having the adamantium claws just
part of the gloves, as then "anyone who could get the gloves could be
Wolverine." So, he revealed that the claws are actually housed in
Wolvie's arms.

Eventually, we find out that all of Wolverine's skeleton is bonded with
adamantium. Adamantium is the hardest known non-magical substance in the
Marvel Universe, capable of ignoring point-blank nuclear strikes. Chris
Claremont also revealed that Wolverine was much older than he'd
originally been planned to be. Wolverine's vaunted healing factor wasn't
mentioned in the stories until UXM #142, although it was first shown in
the UXM issue in the mid 110's when Wolverine got his arm chomped on by
a dinosaur.

Time passes. We learn that Wolverine may have gotten his adamantium from
the Canadian special weapons project, Project X. There is a good clue
out that the adamantium bonding process was stolen for Project X from
Lord Darkwind, a Japanese nobleman who performed the same sort of
operation on Bullseye, a nonpowered assassin and foe of Daredevil's.
Lord Darkwind's daughter, Lady Deathstrike, has been hunting Wolverine
for years to kill him, since him having that skeleton is an insult to
the heritage of her father. The process was either stolen by or for
James Hudson, head of the Alpha Flight project, which was responsible
for the superpowered protection of the Canadian provinces and interests.

Then comes the Weapon X storyline (MCP #72-84). Wolverine, who up to
this point is thought to just be a fast-healing mutant of indeterminate
age, is now revealed to apparently have had some form of natural "bone
claws" where his metal ones ended up, because when they were filling him
full of adamantium, that's where a bunch of it pooled up (sounds more
like a scientist was skipping on quality control, but, hey, it's
comics).

The idea of the Weapon X project was that it would create all these
super-soldiers, and then release them back into the general public with
no memory of who they were as "sleepers." So they wouldn't remember
their experiences at the Weapon X facilities, they were all programmed
with false memories. To help keep watch over this odd idea, a computer
program named Shiva was written, who could take over one in an almost
endless series of robots to hunt down and destroy any Weapon X soldier
who, somehow, showed signs of remembering who he really was. Currently,
Wolvie has fooled Shiva into thinking it killed him.

So, with that added to the muddle, we then get the unusual Fatal
Attractions crossover, where Magneto pulled the adamantium off of
Wolvie's bones through his skin pores (X-Men #25). So, Wolvie (aside
from hurting real, real bad) was growing new bone claws because he
originally had bone claws (and they got covered in adamantium), and
Magneto removed the original ones.

The lastest addition to this saga is that the adamantium was preventing
his mutation from expanding any further. In this case, that meant his
turning into pure animal, with the unbearably heightened senses and
uncontrollable instincts (Wolverine #92).

The memories problem was repaired by Epsilon Red (by the same people who
brought you Omega Red).

As of Wolverine #100, we have a new incarnation of Wolverine. To Larry
Hama's credit, Wolverine did get his adamantium back. For a few panels.
Then Wolverine rejected it and lost what was left of his mind. The
current version is now a mutant who can withstand almost any amount of
physical abuse. Elektra took it upon herself (Wolverine #101) to help
Logan return to humanity, and it mostly worked.

To make matters worse, Sabretooth had been the recipient of Wolverine's
old adamantium. The stuff was then ripped out of Sabretooth and given
back to Wolverine by Apocalypse, who made Wolverine his horseman Death
for a short time. Wolverine #145 displayed the moment in a flashback,
but the first appearance with the metal back was as Death in Astonishing
X-Men Vol. 2 #1.

--- Who was Wolverine before he was Wolverine? Does he even have a
real name? (+)

In 2001, a new miniseries was created by Joe Quesada, Bill Jemas, and
Paul Jenkins, penciled by Andy Kubert and digitally painted by Richard
Isanove. Creatively named "Origin," the book was set in Alberta and
British Columbia, Canada, and was supposed to tie up a lot of loose ends
about Wolverine's origins. We'll summarize the important parts for you,
so you don't have to spend dozens of dollars trying to buy the darned
thing.

Issue #1 used misdirection, and convinced many readers that Dog, the
beaten and abused son of lowlife groundskeeper Thomas Logan, was
Wolverine. Origin #2, however, revealed that Wolverine was James Howlett,
the weak child of an aristocrat, James Howlett, who was a gentle and soft
man, and his wife Elizabeth, who has been sequestered in the mansion ever
since the death of her first son, John. It's likely that Elizabeth
Howlett had an affair with Thomas Logan, and that James is actually their
son, since Thomas sneaks into the mansion in issue #2 to take Elizabeth
away with him, and she doesn't protest too much. Either way, Thomas Logan
ends up dead when James pops his claws. Something odd happened with his
dead older brother, though--John Logan died at age twelve, apparently
after an illness, and Mrs. Howlett says something to the effect of "ohh
... Not *again*. Not *you*, James" in Origin #3. Apparently she's seen
*somebody* pop claws before. It's too much for her, so she kills herself
with a rifle. When the news is brought to Grandpa Howlett, he asks Dog
what happened... and Dog lies and says that Rose had a gun.

After Grandpa Howlett forces Rose and James to leave the Howlett home,
Rose takes James by train to British Columbia to work in a quarry. Since
James is in a daze from the appearance of his claws, and they need to
hide their identities due to James' killing of Thomas Logan, Rose gives
the foreman the name of "Logan" for James. (The foreman, Smitty, is
where Logan picks up his characteristic use of "bub.") After working
lower-class jobs for a long while, Logan becomes stronger, following an
internal "urge" to learn how to track animals. As of issue #4, he
prefers the name "Logan" instead of James. He doesn't know what happened
in Alberta (apparently his mind is blocking the memories), and though
Rose wants to talk with him about it, he won't listen. She writes an
account of it in her narrative diary, hoping that he'll learn the truth
from the diary someday. Logan still seems to remember his claws, though,
and after two years at the camp, he pops them out again.

In Origin #5, Rose becomes interested in Smitty. Smitty ends up giving
Logan a book about Japanese Samurai fighters, presumably leading to his
interest in that culture. At the end of the issue, Grandpa Howlett talks
of letting "the fear of what happened to his brother" cloud his
judgement, and sends a messenger to find James and Rose--except that the
messenger is Dog, Thomas Logan's son from issue #1. In issue #6, there's
a cage match in which Logan is called "the Wolverine." He throws a fight
against Smitty, who was in the cage matches to earn money so that he and
fiancee Rose could leave the quarry. When Dog appears and fights Logan,
Logan remembers that Dog is actually the one who killed his father, not
him. Rose tries to stop them; popping his claws, Logan accidentally
kills Rose. He then runs off into the Canadian wilderness, leaving Dog
and Smitty behind.

Apparently it's all true, because Xavier's freaky sister Cassandra Nova
called Wolverine both "Mr. Logan" and "James" in NXM #126.

At the WizardWorld 2002 Comicon Quesada spoke for a while about Origin.
The story didn't tell much about Wolverine's origin, they said, because
the people at Marvel have planned a sequel. "Bill [Jemas] wants to do it
tomorrow," said Quesada, "but I want to let 'Origin' sit a while." So
who knows when we'll find out the details of how Wolverine went from
teenage quarry worker to Weapon X agent.

And, just to clear things up: Dog is not Sabretooth. Really.

--- Wolverine can regularly regenerate himself from a drop of blood,
right?

Only if you only reread one annual.

In Uncanny X-Men Annual #11, the X-Men get involved in this very
symbolic quest to determine the worthiness of the entire human race, and
all that other light afternoon sort of entertainment. In the end, only
Wolverine is left to strive for the goal, this immensely powerful alien
god-gem gadget thingee. Unfortunately for Wolverine, the alien Horde is
right behind him, and slaughters the poor mutant--but not before a
single drop of Wolvie's blood lands on the immensely powerful alien god-
gem which super-cosmically charges the superpowers of that blood to
regrow an entire Wolverine, adamantium bones and all. In short, don't
try this at home, kids, at least not without an immensely powerful alien
god-gem of your own.

The simplest evidence against Wolverine having this amount of
regenerative ability, however, is that in the numerous issues with no
alien god-gems in sight that Wolverine gets pounded in, none of the
blood he's leaked so copiously over everything has ever grown into
another Wolverine.

*** Continued in Part 7 ***

[Kate the Short]

Archive-name: comics/xbooks/main-faq/part7

Posting-frequency: monthly
URL: http://users.rcn.com/kateshort/faqs/

-= REC.ARTS.COMICS.MARVEL.XBOOKS =-
Frequently Asked Questions

Part 7

Version 2003.02, last updated November 2003

URL: http://users.rcn.com/kateshort/faqs/racmxFAQ/faq7.html

------------------------------
Subject: Table of Contents

Part 7:

X-MEN COMIC BOOK QUESTIONS
* Which X-Men haven't been mutants?
* What is the Siege Perilous?
* Why did the X-Men lose their invisibility to electronic
scanners?
* Psylocke, Revanche, Kwannon, Betsy Braddock ... help?
* When did Psylocke and Phoenix switch powers? Wasn't Psylocke
telepathically holding the Shadow King captive?
* When did the Beast turn blue and furry? Wasn't he unfurry
again for a while? When did he become a lion?
* How come other mutants seem to be changing their powers and
appearances? (+)
* Is Longshot Shatterstar's father?
* There's an External at my door. What does that mean? Should
I be concerned? Is it contagious?
* Who are the Twelve? Why are they important?
* Is Apocalypse dead?
* What is the Legacy Virus? Who's had it? Hasn't there been a
cure for a while?
* What is the Soulsword? Who has Magik's Soulsword now?
* Is the Malice who worked with the Marauders the same one
that appears in Fantastic Four now and then?
* Do you lose your mutant powers in the Savage Land? Where is
the Savage Land, anyway?
* What happens when the Blob meets the Juggernaut?

------------------------------
Subject: X-MEN COMIC BOOK QUESTIONS

Please note: Background information on the creators and the X-titles
editorial offices is based on over a decade's worth of interviews,
articles, and personal questions, and as such is not directly
attributed here. Now that some of Marvel's staff members are on Usenet,
they are welcomed to correct and amend any of the answers listed below.

--- Which X-Men haven't been mutants?

Mimic, the original Phoenix, Longshot, and (possibly) the two Psylockes.

Mimic is Calvin Rankin, the son of a scientist, who got caught in an
explosion in his father's lab, and gained the ability to copy
superpowers of every superhuman near him, and keep all the powers until
the people he stole them from were over a mile away or so. He's been
killed a number of times in a variety of filler stories, and brought
back just as often to just die again. Scott Lobdell tried to retcon this
in a backup story somewhere by saying that Rankin was a latent mutant
who just got his powers started up by his father's explosion. While
there have been other latent mutants who have gained access to their
powers in such dramatic ways in Marvel history, Scott Lobdell is also
responsible for such continuity goofs as Storm declaring she resents and
hates her thieving heritage, and all of X-Men Unlimited #4, while the
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe still has Rankin as a non-
mutant. This FAQ will go with the OHOTMU.

The original Phoenix (the one in UXM #101-137) was once Jean Grey, who
was a mutant, of course, but has since been retconned into being the
cosmic Phoenix Force itself, just pretending to be Jean Grey. As a
cosmic entity, Phoenix automatically is disqualified from being a
mutant; they have enough troubles as it is. See the entry on the Jean
Grey/Phoenix relationship question in this FAQ for more information.

Longshot was a genetically-designed being from the dimension of the
Spineless Ones. As an artificial life form, he cannot, by definition, be
a mutant; his "free will" could be described as a design malfunction,
but actually, it was programmed into him by Arize (Longshot #1-6). Even
if he showed up on a mutant detector, something for which there is no
textual support, he's still not a mutant, because nothing in his genetic
makeup happened by mutation. He was built from the ground up.

The original Psylocke, Betsy Braddock, is the sister of Brian Braddock,
aka Captain Britain. Both she and her brother gain their powers from
their not-entirely human heritage (their father was from Otherworld).
This was stated directly in her pre-X-Men appearances, as recounted now
in the "Captain Britain" trade paperback. However, there are statements
made in the X-titles clearly identifying her as a mutant--including a
caption where Betsy described herself as a mutant in UXM #213, and an
identification by the Master Mold in UXM #247. One reader points out
that telepathic powers are unusual even for the Otherworlders--Brian's
powers are more typical. While this doesn't prove that she is both a
hybrid and a mutant, it adds a little credibility to the notion.

Kwannon may have been a mutant, or it may have been simply genetic
engineering--it was revealed that she was a low-level empath, with her
source of powers undetermined. (However, this generally means "mutant
powers", especially where the X-titles are concerned.) The practical
upshot of all this is that since Psylocke finally occupied Kwannon's
body, the question of her mutancy no longer concerns her Otherworld
origins.

--- What is the Siege Perilous?

The Siege Perilous is a large, brooch-like magical gemstone that Roma, a
powerful mystical entity, gave the X-Men after the Fall of the Mutants
storyline (UXM #229). The whole idea of the Siege was that one could
send people through it, who would be "judged" by some unknown, higher
power (possibly Roma herself), and then be given a second chance at life
if found worthy, so they could try and correct their evil deeds, so to
speak.

This interesting way for heroes to rehabilitate their villains lasted
for about one storyline, the original encounter with the Reavers (UXM
#229) in Australia, until the press of crossovers and editorial
interference kept Claremont from using it much more than he did.
Claremont was, believe it or not, reportedly planning on spending well
over a hundred issues of the X-Men based in Australia, and thus his
leaving during the X-Odus could be viewed as somewhat of a relief,
depending on what you thought of the Oz-Men. Indeed, pretty soon the
Siege became an escape route for the X-Men from their enemies, as a
series of vicious, horrible encounters ended up with the X-Men believing
themselves better off reincarnated through the Siege than captured by
their enemies. Having Psylocke control their minds so they thought it
was a good idea (it was mainly hers) helped also. She had a vision in
UXM #250 of the remaining X-Men being turned into cyborgs and left for
dead.

So most of the X-Men popped through, and ended up, mostly with amnesia,
all over the world, mostly living lives they felt mostly "better" in
than superheroing--for the most part. The Siege was then captured by
Donald Pierce, who destroyed it (UXM # 251).

The X-Men who went through the Siege were:

* Rogue: Pushed through it by Dazzler (UXM #247). Reappeared in the
Outback in #269, then went to the Savage Land with Magneto who
freed her of Carol Danvers.

* Dazzler: Convinced by Betsy in #251, reappeared in Malibu and found
by Guido in UXM #260.

* Colossus: Convinced in #251, reappeared in Soho as Peter Nicholas,
artist, in UXM #259.

* Havok: Had doubts, but Betsy coerced him psychically in #251.
Reappeared as a Genoshan prelate in UXM #270.

* Psylocke--Went through #251. Reappeared in #256, only to become a
nimbo.

Storm did not go through, as she was captured by Nanny in #248 (although
they thought Havok killed her). She was de-aged, paired with Gambit in
UXM #266, and then re-aged to adulthood in #272.

Wolverine was left to bleed to death in the Australian wilderness in UXM
#251, where he was found by Jubilee.

Longshot had left voluntarily in #248 to find himself.

The original Siege Perilous, by the way, where Claremont got the name,
was the seat at the Round Table of King Arthur which had letters on it
that prophecied that only the "purest and greatest" of all knights would
sit there, who turned out to be Galahad. See the appropriate Malorian
(and other) sources for more on King Arthur, Galahad, and the Grail
Quest. Siege Perilous literally means "the dangerous seat."

--- Why did the X-Men lose their invisibility to electronic scanners?

After the X-Men died in Dallas during Fall of the Mutants (UXM #227),
they were resurrected by Roma via the Siege Perilous. One of the gifts
Roma gave the X-Men was that they were invisible to electronic scanners,
television cameras, and so forth, to better help cement their reputation
as "legends".

This power served the X-Men well enough during their Australian days
(although, for no explained reason, the computers at the Reavers base
were capable of detecting them, and the X-Men themselves wondered why),
but soon after they went tumbling through the Siege Perilous for a
second time it became apparent that the X-Men had lost their
"invisibility." There being no other explanation for this power loss in
the first place, it's generally assumed by the racmx crowd that Roma's
spell wore off.

Of course, there's a more logical explanation of why and when the X-Men
lost their invisibility to scanners, as explained by Chris Claremont at
the 2000 Wizard World Chicago convention: They lost the power somewhere
between pages 10 and 11 of UXM #279, or around page 1 of X-Men #4. This
was a reference to Claremont's last work on the titles, so apparently
*he* had planned to still have it going when he left the books.

--- Psylocke, Revanche, Kwannon, Betsy Braddock ... help?

The two Psylockes are an unusual matter. After the fun with the Siege
Perilous, Betsy Braddock was caught by the Hand, a bunch of techno-
demonic ninjas, and apparently turned into an Asian woman (UXM #256),
for reasons too vague to go into here. While odd, and apparently mainly
an excuse to draw Betsy in a bunch of tight-fitting quasi-Asian outfits,
it was still accepted that Psylocke was Psylocke. She just looked...
different.

Then Revanche entered the scene (X-Men #20). She looked just like
Betsy's old body, but had an Asian name (Kwannon). Confused yet? In
another retcon, the unconscious Betsy apparently was discovered by the
original Kwannon after tumbling out of the Siege. Kwannon, who looked
just like the new Betsy's Asian form, touched her and got psychically
zapped by Betsy, somehow passing both Betsy's powers and personalities
to Kwannon, while passing Kwannon's personality to Betsy.

Enter the Hand. The head of the Hand, Matsuo Tsurayaba, was in love with
Kwannon despite her belonging to a rival ninja clan. Now, apparently the
original Betsy was not turned into an Asian, but the Asian body of
Kwannon was brainwashed by the Hand into believing that she was Betsy.
In this they had help from the demonic dancer of Mojo, Spiral. Meanwhile
the original Betsy's body was programmed by Spiral, behind the scenes,
to still think it was Betsy but remember that it was Kwannon once, just
to bug Matsuo. All of this was sorted out in X-Men #31-32.

--- When did Psylocke and Phoenix switch powers? Wasn't Psylocke
telepathically holding the Shadow King captive?

Psylocke and Phoenix switched powers in the "six month gap" between
Chris Claremont's return to the two X-Men core titles. When Claremont
debuted, Jean Grey had a Phoenix shadow eye tattoo on the astral plane,
while Betsy had all of Jean's telekinesis but none of her telepathy.
The actual switch was never shown and never explained, which caused a
lot of confusion to new readers of the titles.

While the power switch was interesting, it came at a bad time for
Marvel. The X-Men movie had just debuted, and in it, Jean was very
definitely a telekinetic. Jean was also a telekinetic in the former
X-Men cartoon and was set to be a telekinetic in the X-Men: Evolution
cartoon. Thus, editorial wasn't too pleased about it. When the titles
were handed back to Scott Lobdell in preparation for yet another team
of writers, Jean seemed to be regaining her telepathy (which also was
not explained).

On a CoolBoard interview with Sean Thack, Claremont revealed his ideas
behind the power switch, and whether it'll be explained:

I thought it would be fun. I thought she was in a rut, that
readers had come to take her personality and powers for granted.
I wanted to give her a challenge to overcome, to cycle her back
to a place in her life where she needed to become a student once
more, to emphasize the "School" aspect of Xavier's institution.
I wanted to establish a strict differentiation between her and
Jean. Instead of them being echoes of one another, they could now
function independently both as individuals and team members. There
was always an explanation and had I managed to find the time last
year, the story would have been presented in the X-Men Annual. But
that window of opportunity passed and given the current status quo
within the X-Canon, the fact that Jean has been restored to her
default status quo as a telepath/telekinetic, I doubt the story
will ever be told. Why explain a continuity twist that no longer
exists? It's done, we move on, end of that story. This is who she
is, this is what she does, now our focus is on what happens next.

As you can see, it's likely a dangler that will be remembered only by
the fans.

As for Psylocke's telepathy holding the Shadow King in place, that's a
whole other story. It seems most likely that he escaped when Psylocke
died in X-Treme X-Men. In X-Treme X-Men Annual 2001, the Shadow King
returned, and tried to take over Rogue's mind. Since Rogue had once
absorbed Psylocke's powers, and therefore possesses some of Psylocke's
powers and psyche, Gambit figured that Rogue could contain the Shadow
King in a corner of her own mind, just like Psylocke had. The solution
apparently worked, since Rogue survived the battle, but it's likely
that he'll pop up again if Rogue ever purges Psylocke's powers.

--- When did the Beast turn blue and furry? Wasn't he unfurry again for
a while? When did he become a lion?

The Beast's normal form isn't fuzzy. Up until the cancellation of the
original X-Men series, he looked like a human with an ape-like body: no
fur, but big, elongated arms, hands, and feet. He had the same powers as
he does now: strength and agility.

Then, in Amazing Adventures #11 (1972), the Beast got a job at the Brand
Corporation, a subsidiary of Marvel's evil megacorporation, Roxxon. He
was researching the "genetic source" of mutations (the X-factor), and
isolated a hormone that would activate the X-factor. In typical comic
book timing, as soon as the Beast discovered this wonderful hormone, the
sinister Secret Empire tried to steal it from him. So Hank McCoy did
what any award-winning researcher would do with his potentially Nobel-
prize-winning experiment: he drank it.

The resultant enchancement of his mutant nature turned him into his now
famous fuzzy form, but with grey fur, and with a healing factor that
would shame Wolverine--bullet holes healed as fast as they were made.
Various misadventures ensued, until the computer Quasimodo drained the
Beast's excess life energy in Amazing Adventures #14, which left him not
only without his nifty healing factor, but also turned his fur blue.

He stayed that way all the way through his service in the Avengers and
Defenders until X-Factor was inaugurated. In their second issue, a story
was started which brought the Beast back to Brand, where much the same
sort of process left him back the way he was in the first X-Men series.
During the Fall of the Mutants he was infected by Pestilence (X-Factor
#19), resulting in a biochemical imbalance that increased his strength
each time he used it with a corresponding decrease in his intelligence.
A kiss from Infectia (#31) turned him back blue and fuzzy again, this
time with near-Hulk level strength (X-Factor #33).

Beast eventually lost most of that superstrength, and was back in his
"normal," highly agile, slightly-superstrong blue fuzzball form until
his lion-like form debuted in New X-Men #114. This was confusing, since
he was appearing in his normal form in the first issues of X-Treme X-Men
at the same time. However, in XXM #3, Sage first saw Beast's potential
mutated form. Just pretend that the events of New X-Men occur after all
of Beast's growing pains.

--- How come other mutants seem to be changing their powers and
appearances? (+)

It's hard to tell, exactly. Mutation in the Marvel Universe often
occurs during extreme physical or psychological stress. Combining the
removal of everyone's powers by High Evolutionary with increased sunspot
activity (radiation) has apparently created a bumper crop of odd power
increases and mutant births all over the world.

That said, there are a few obvious cases of this "secondary mutation,"
as well as a few other characters who have shifted appearances:

* Angel: Not a secondary mutation, apparently. His shift from metal
wings to feather wings is apparently due to Apocalypse's mucking
with his DNA and that eventually wearing off. He lost his blue
skin pigment in Uncanny X-Men #411 after Black Tom Cassidy drained
his life force.

* Beast: Secondary mutation. Evolved into a lion-like form. Gained
strength and speed.

* Emma Frost: Secondary mutation. Gained an extremely tough diamond
exoskeleton which can block physical damage and radiation. However,
she can't use her telepathy in this form.

* Iceman: Secondary mutation? After the events of the X-Men Forever
miniseries, gained the ability to become "living ice," and seems
to have his flesh turning into ice on a permanent basis.

--- Is Longshot Shatterstar's father?

Maybe, maybe not. This idea generally comes from X-Men #11, where
Dazzler says to Longshot: "'Shatterstar'? You've got to be kidding!"
(They had just found out she was pregnant.) This and the fact that both
are from Mojoworld are what most people base the relationship on.

Fabian Nicieza, who was writing X-Force at the time, was rather upset
about this. He intended no such thing, and soon made a point of giving
Shatterstar a different origin. According to X-Force #39, his real name
is Gaveedra 7 and he was born in a test tube. Also, in Dazzler's last
appearance (X-Men #47), it was strongly hinted she had miscarried. So,
as things stand now, there is probably no relation.

However, one writer's original intentions don't always conicide with the
conclusions of later writers. The following bits of in-continuity trivia
complicate this question considerably:

* According to Beast, Shatterstar has the exact same DNA as Longshot.
This is an interesting dangler, especially in light of the fact
that Longshot and Shatterstar don't even have the same number of
fingers.

* According to Spiral, Shatterstar is the son of an "Arize-spawn" and
a human. Longshot and Dazzler are the obvious suspects here, but
the story was deliberately vague on this point.

(FAQ-keeper's note: I don't have any issue numbers handy for these
events. If anyone out there does, please forward 'em to me at
ra...@yahoo.com.)

I'd love to say that X-Force #60-61 (The Origin of Shatterstar!)
resolved this. Heck, I'd love to say these issues resolved anything at
all. They don't. All it did was move Shatterstar into the body of
Benjamin Russell and make Spiral somehow involved. That doesn't really
get at any of the answers this FAQ-keeper was looking for, and doesn't
say anything about Longshot particularly.

However, there is a light at the end of this tunnel. The whole Benjamin
Russell/Shatterstar question was brought up in X-Force #56, when the
Gamesmaster told him that "Shatterstar" was nothing more than a sick
fantasy of Gamesmaster's creation. X-Force #76, however, has Mojo
telling Arcade that Shatterstar is still his own property, "no matter
what the omnipathic Gamesmaster wishes to believe." While this doesn't
yet answer the question of Shatterstar's parentage, it does place
Shatterstar's origin squarely back in Mojoworld.

--- There's an External at my door. What does that mean? Should I be
concerned? Is it contagious?

First off, don't be alarmed. Many Externals are simply poor excuses for
a supervillain, too innately lame to make a living any other way, and
they are probably only looking for a handout. Treat them with kindness,
patience, and respect, and they'll probably leave you alone, although
they may mutter a bit about impossible designs and grand world-spanning
plans before they leave.

The Externals first showed up in the storylines of Rob Liefeld in X-
Force #10. The idea was that they are a type of mutant whose "full
potential" is not realized until they're killed. And then they're
reborn, and they become, well, immortal, except they could only be
killed by cutting off their heads, or something like that. In any case,
any similarities between Externals and the immortals from the movie
Highlander are obvious and often commented on. Currently the term is
mainly used to refer to any mutant that enjoys immortality by virtue of
his mutant powers.

X-Force #37 is possibly the closest thing the Externals will ever have
to an origin issue. It explains how En Sabah Nur (aka Apocalypse) found
the Celestial ship, how old each of the Externals actually were, and why
they acted the way they did. Apocalypse's origin is explained in more
detail in his limited series, "The Dawn of Apocalypse".

Anyway, so much for immortality. Selene killed most of them off in X-
Force (#52-53). The only ones left are Selene, Candra (who may or may
not have died in X-Men #61), and Apocalypse. Apparently Cannonball
wasn't one of them after all, according to Selene in X-Force #53.

--- Who are the Twelve? Why are they important?

The Twelve, in no particular order, are Magneto, Xavier, Cyclops, Cable,
Jean Grey/Phoenix, Mikhail Rasputin, Iceman, Storm, Sunfire, Polaris,
Bishop, and the Living Monolith/Living Pharaoh. They were gathered by
Apocalpyse in his quest to become a godlike being with more power than
the Phoenix force or the Celestials.

According to Uncanny X-Men #377 (specifically Apocalpyse):

The Monolith is at the core of it all, as the primal earth which is
the foundation for all that is to be mine. Magneto and Polaris are
opposing magnetic poles, serving to control the flow of energies at
play here... energies under constant pressure from the forces of
nature itself. The elemental extremes of Iceman, Storm, and
Sunfire... stimulated by the unrestrained energies of man and the
heavens, free of any grounding or gravity. Father, mother, and
son-- Cyclops, Phoenix, and Cable-- far, far stronger as a whole
than the sum of their parts... linked to the powers of time and
space wielded by Bishop and Rasputin, respectively. The power of
pure thought that is Xavier.

Nate Grey was the 13th member of this merry band, and was slated to
become Apocalypse's new host body. Unfortunately, things didn't go as
planned. Instead, Cyclops sacrificed himself and became a merged half-
Apocalypse being. The team members consider him dead. This FAQ should
also note that Wolverine served as Death, the fourth horseman of
Apocalypse, during much of the shindig. The being they thought was
Wolverine was actually a Super-Skrull so brainwashed into his disguise
that even *he* didn't know he was anything other than Wolverine.

Of course, the final version of the Twelve contradicted much known about
the Twelve up to that point. First, the original Twelve were a vision by
a deranged Sentinel of the dozen most important mutants. The problem is,
these twelve had shown up in other issues (Power Pack #36, X-Factor #14,
X-Factor #68) as well, and even they hadn't been consistent.

The members who had shown up in every version of the Twelve were Xavier,
Cyclops, Jean Grey, Storm, and Franklin Richards. What of the other
seven? In one version, all the original X-Men were implied. Cable, in
both baby and adult forms, was shown in another. Cannonball was clearly
shown in one version. So, we add Iceman, Beast, Archangel, Cable, and
Cannonball to the list. Other possibilities included Dani Moonstar,
Mystique, Psylocke, Wolverine, and Dark Beast.

Uncanny X-Men #-1 cleared up the origin of The Twelve, albeit somewhat
ambiguously. Sometime after Rachel Summers switched places with Captain
Britain in the timestream (Excalibur #75) she rescued and befrended
another time-lost refugee from the 20th century named Tanya Trask, the
daugter of the original creator of the Sentinels, Bolivar Trask. Upon
learning of her father's genocidal legacy, Tanya determined to alter the
timeline by reaching back to the past and convince her father of his
doomed path. Rachel followed her back and erased the memory of her
contact with her father, seemingly setting the timeline right again.

However, it turned out that Tanya's true plan was to store within the
memory banks of Trask's first Master Mold--so deeply even Trask himself
(and later his son and successor Larry) were unaware of it--the identity
of the infamous "XII", The Twelve, whose failure Tanya determined as the
true cause of her dark future and without whom, somehow, mutant genocide
and Sentinel conquest will be averted. Their identity, however, was
never divulged.

--- Is Apocalypse dead?

We hope so.

During the aftermath of The Twelve storyline, Cyclops was thought dead,
although Apocalypse had merely disappeared as a merged "Cyclopalypse"-
style being, with his soul in Cyke's body. Eventually, Phoenix and Cable
decided that Cyclops might be alive, and they went looking for him.

During the Search for Cyclops mini-series, Phoenix and Cable found
Cyclops. Phoenix professed her love for Scott, and was able to rip
Poccy's astral self out of Scott's body. Cable then impaled the astral
form with his psimitar. This apparently killed Apocalypse.

--- What is the Legacy Virus? Who's had it? Hasn't there been a cure
for a while?

The Legacy Virus was a once-interesting plot device that served as a
parallel to the AIDS/HIV virus. Basically, it was spread from mutant to
mutant, and it caused mutants to die by accelerating or increasing their
powers to the point that they burned themselves out. Obviously, such a
nasty virus caused even more fear of mutants in the Marvel Universe.

As with all plot devices, it started out interesting and became a
cliche. The virus was supposed to be Stryfe's legacy--his post-death
gift to the world, if you will. Thus the name. However, one couldn't do
justice to the plot device by quickly creating a cure, since that would
not only cut the story short, but also trivialize the actual search for
an AIDS/HIV cure. So the story plugged away, year after year.

During its time, the Legacy Virus affected many mutants, including
Abyss, Bolt, Feral, Magik, Mastermind, Maverick, Moira MacTaggert,
Nicodemus, Omega Red, Pestilence, Psynapse, Pyro, Revanche, and of
course, Sinister's Assistant who let the darned thing out in the first
place. A team of mutants led by Exodus and Random and a set of
"Morlocks" created by the Dark Beast round out the medical list.

Most notable in the list above are Magik and Moira. Magik received the
virus after she'd been deaged post-Inferno, though a retcon during the
New Mutants mini-series revealed that teenage Illyana was infected when
Mikhail et al journeyed into the NM's past. Her death served as a huge
catalyst, since Colossus' grief led him to join the Acolytes. More on
that in a moment.

Back to Moira. Moira was a genetic researcher, of course, and so was
often exposed to nifty little things like viruses. The odd thing was
that she caught the virus AS A HUMAN. This was meant to parallel the
spread of the AIDS/HIV virus into the general population, but her
search for the virus cure waxed and waned as the plotline's prominence
varied due to shifts in writers and storylines.

Brian Fried reminds us that Zero give Douglock the key or cure to the
Legacy Virus a few years back. In "The Douglock Chronicles," which
introduced Douglock to Excalibur, Zero gave Douglock information to
cure the virus, and then was promptly destroyed for accessing that
information. (Side note: the issue was written by Scott Lobdell, who
also wrote the Excalibur issues in which Moira contracted the virus and
X-Men Prime, where the idea that the cure is connected to Cable's DNA
appeared.)

Every nasty Marvel Virus needs to have its cure, and one certainly was
around; the characters just didn't collectively realize it. Again, if
the virus cure was put off, lots more neat stories could be told that
used it as a plot device (or, as the case may be, neater stories could
be told that *didn't* use it as a plot device). The solution got placed
in a drawer until the writers and marketing staff had nothing better to
use.

A second factor was Warren Ellis' apparent dislike for the storyline and
the switch from Moira's story to the Black Air / Pete Wisdom / Alien
conspiracy stuff that culminated in "The Black Air Trilogy" and
Excalibur #100. It wasn't until Ben Raab came on that the plot was
handled again. In a few issues, it seemed that Douglock would clue in to
the fact that he had the cure, and all would finally be resolved.

Marvel being Marvel, however, it was decided that the only reason people
were reading EXCALIBUR was for Kitty, Kurt, and Piotr; their moving back
to the core books would leave no purpose for Excalibur. Raab had to
close down his loose storylines to accomplish this. Of course, he also
couldn't reveal the cure for the Legacy Virus in Excalibur because those
types of events happened in the core books, like all other important
storylines (see the second WIZARD X-MEN SPECIAL for more info on this).
Raab left Douglock with a serious case of amnesia, in the hope that some
other writer could eventually use the material. Even the Dark Beast's
solution (in X-Men Unlimited #10) was completely forgotten so that Moira
and Mystique would have the honours of being involved.

In any case, Mystique and her terrorist brotherhood decided that the
best way to deal with anti-mutant humans was to mutate the Legacy Virus
so that it would infect the human population instead. She broke into
Muir Isle to get the information, and ended up blowing up Moira in the
process of destroying Moira's research lab. Moira, never one to give up,
fed the information from her research and Mystique's statements into
Xavier's brain, who finally passed it on to Legacy Virus researcher and
noted X-Man Beast.

Beast was quickly able to develop a cure; the problem was, he then
realized that since the original virus was spread once the first
infected mutant used his powers, the new cure would likewise only spread
once an infected mutant used his powers--thus sacrificing someone to
the greater scientific cause.

The FAQ will pause at this time to point out that it was pretty dumb of
Beast to leave the cure unlocked in a room with Piotr, who not only had
lost his sister to the disease, but also had lost his parents to murder,
his brother to we-can't-remember-where, and his former girlfriend and
teammate Kitty to they-never-told-us-but-she-came-back-afterward.

Piotr injected the cure, transformed into his organic steel form, and
passed away. This apparently released the cure into the air, so within
just a few days of Marvel Time the Legacy Virus was cured, Hallelujah!
This all happened in Uncanny #390. If nothing else good came of the
issue, at least Colossus can no longer be poorly written (as long as
Sinister remains far from his DNA, that is), and the plot device has
been resolved and buried.

--- What is the Soulsword? Who has Magik's Soulsword now?

The Soulsword was created from a piece of Illyana's own soul in issue #4
of the Magik Limited Series, and ever since then has been the symbol and
source of its owner's mastery of the other-dimensional realm of Limbo.
After the teenage Illyana reverted to her younger self in the wake of
the Inferno crossover, the Soulsword appeared in a rock outside
Excalibur's lighthouse for Kitty Pryde to claim. She, however, was quite
willing to leave it there, based on her previous experiences with it.
(She became the owner of the sword previously during the Secret Wars II
crossover, in New Mutants #35-37, when Illyana was temporarily killed by
the Beyonder.)

In Excalibur #37, Dr. Doom showed up at Excalibur's door with a proposal
to go to Limbo with Kitty and the Soulsword in order to mine the place
for an energy-producing metal called promethium. Doom eventually tricked
Kitty into letting him have the sword, which he stuck into the heart of
Limbo to convert the entire planet/dimension/place into promethium. Doom
got out before the place went critical, leaving the sword behind. It was
claimed in issue #39 by the pseudo-demon Darkoth, who remained alone in
Limbo with the sword. And the matter was thought to be done with.

That is, until Scott Lobdell handed Warren Ellis a plot for the
Soulsword Trilogy (Excalibur #83-85). Lobdell was apparently completely
unaware of the aforementioned Promethium Exchange storyline, but we can
reconcile this by simply noting that something bad must have happened to
Darkoth between issues #39 and #83. In any event, the Soulsword started
to manifest itself in Kitty's possession again, and two other new
characters named Gravemoss and Shrill tried to take it from her.
Eventually the sword was passed off to Nightcrawler's sorceress
girlfriend Amanda Sefton, who made the mistake of giving it to her
mother, Margali Szardos.

Sometime after that, Belasco abducted Margali and stole the Soulsword.
In X-Men Unlimited #19, it was revealed that Margali had placed her
mind in Amanda's body, and placed Amanda in her body. She then took
Nightcrawler to Limbo, where she proceeded to defeat Belasco and knock
the sword away from him. Margali and Amanda were restored to their
proper bodies, and Amanda decided that she would became the mistress of
Limbo. At the end of that issue, the Soulsword, wielded by a silver-
armored hand, pushed through the dire. Readers never saw who that was,
so much energy was expended discussing whether Illyana was back.

Margali later turned up in a Claremont Fantastic Four annual that
dealt with the Hellfire Club. It's also in that FF annual that Amanda
likely made her first, uncredited appearance as Magik. In any case, in
the Black Sun and Magik mini-series, Amanda appeared in Illyana's
traditional silver armor, apparently holding the title and role of
Magik. The case seems closed.

--- Is the Malice who worked with the Marauders the same one that
appears in the Fantastic Four now and then?

No. The Malice who worked in the Marauders was some sort of pure psionic
entity who could possess people and make them into "dark versions" of
themselves. She eventually got stuck in the body of Lorna Dane by the
machinations of Mr. Sinister (UXM #239), which led to the Malice persona
eventually being zapped out of Lorna by Zaladane, the purported Queen of
the Savage Land (in UXM #250). Mr. Sinister finally destroyed this
Malice in X-Factor #105 because she had outlived her usefulness.

The Fantastic Four's Malice, who occasionally possesses Susan Richards
(the Invisible Woman), has nothing to do with Sinister's Malice. This
Malice was a mental creation by the fourth Hate-Monger and the Psycho-
Man, and it is merely the alternate personality of Sue Richards as an
"evil" person. Same idea, different approach.

However, the Vertigo that worked with the Marauders is the same Vertigo
that started out with the Savage Land Mutates. Just while we're on the
subject of Savage Land and Marauders.

--- Do you lose your mutant powers in the Savage Land? Where is the
Savage Land, anyway?

The Savage Land is one of the fixations of Stan Lee, co-creator of much
of the Marvel Universe, that has survived longer than other favored plot
ideas of his (how many Marvel comics are taking place around a circus
currently, for instance?).

The Savage Land is a direct tribute/descendant/ripoff of those classic
"Lands that Time Forgot" sf/fantasy stories. It's in that "peninsula"
sticking out of Antarctica, and the horribly complicated history of it
can be found in various editions of the OHOTMU. Basically, it was set up
as a type of alien wildlife preserve, and it's been run by a variety of
administrations since (currently, no one is in charge of the elemental
machineries that keep the Savage Land warm and tropical in the midst of
the vast ice field).

The X-Men have had numerous adventures in the Savage Land, and are good
friends with Ka-Zar, the main hero of the Savage Land, as well as with
the tribe of the Fall People. In none of those cases have the X-Men ever
lost their powers just from being in the Savage Land, although various
villains they've fought there have dampened their powers while in there.

This question largely comes from X-Men: the Animated Series fans, since
the Savage Land in X:TAS apparently drains the mutant powers from those
mutants who visit it. (It may be that the X:TAS Sinister had something
to do with that as well.) This is most certainly not the case for the
comic-book X-Men and Savage Land, though.

--- What happens when the Blob meets the Juggernaut?

What happens when the unmovable object meets the irresistible force? In
this case, it's easy. Magic, in the case of Juggernaut, wins. The Blob
is merely very, very difficult to move, not impossible. Juggernaut's
unstoppability, on the other hand, derives from the Crimson Gem of
Cyttorak. As magic, it can't be defeated by mutant powers.

*** Continued in Part 8 ***

[Kate the Short]

Archive-name: comics/xbooks/main-faq/part8

Posting-frequency: monthly
URL: http://users.rcn.com/kateshort/faqs/

-= REC.ARTS.COMICS.MARVEL.XBOOKS =-
Frequently Asked Questions

Part 8

Version 2003.02, last updated November 2003

URL: http://users.rcn.com/kateshort/faqs/racmxFAQ/faq8.html

------------------------------
Subject: Table of Contents

Part 8:

COMICS INDUSTRY QUESTIONS
* Why did Chris Claremont leave the X-titles? Why did Peter
David leave X-Factor?
* Are any Marvel staff reading racmx?
* What's a dangler? Is it related to a six month gap?
* What's a Claremontism?

X-MEN OTHER-MEDIA QUESTIONS
* How is _X-Men: The Movie_ different from the comics?
* What cameos are there in _X-Men: The Movie_? (+)
* What's new in _X-Men 2_? (+)
* What other movies or cartoons are there?

HISTORY OF THIS FAQ

CREDITS (+)

------------------------------
Subject: COMICS INDUSTRY QUESTIONS

Please note: Background information on the creators and the X-titles
editorial offices is based on over a decade's worth of interviews,
articles, and personal questions, and as such is not directly
attributed here. Now that some of Marvel's staff members are on Usenet,
they are welcomed to correct and amend any of the answers listed below.

--- Why did Chris Claremont leave the X-titles? Why did Peter David
leave X-Factor?

For this question, the FAQ-keeper is going to try and be as objective as
possible, which is tough on a question in which all information has so
far come in from interviews in fan press. However, this is definitely a
FAQ, and deserves being treated in this FAQ. Here's hoping for
objectivity.

Chris Claremont left the books he had worked on for almost half his life
because of one person, the X-titles group editor, Bob Harras. Claremont
had often stressed in interviews how important having an editor who
worked well with him on the stories was, and was thankful that all the
editors he had had (this was during Nocenti's reign) had been wonderful
and talented. Obviously, something went wrong as Harras took over,
although the eventual cause was due to problems on both sides.

The problems have been revealed in a few interviews. Harras is in a bit
of a hot seat in the very competitive, corporate atmosphere of Marvel.
One slip of the titles, and he has to explain himself to his superiors.
He's therefore always interested in keeping the books popular and
selling well, a sensible attitude for any editor.

Something that obviously caught his eye was the huge upswelling of fan
support for artists of the "Image" type (although they weren't called
that back then, since Image hadn't been created yet). Rob Liefeld, Jim
Lee, Todd McFarlane, Marc Silvestri, and Whilce Portacio were at the
forefront of a style in comics that was very popular at the time. So
popular that when McFarlane requested a title to try out his burgeoning
desire to write his own stories on, he got one starring the Marvel
flagship character, Spider-Man. The Marvel Offices were so impressed
with the sales figures coming from these artists that they were willing
to do almost anything to keep them.

One thing they weren't, though, was to give up some of the money they
were making out of selling licensed materials (t-shirts, pins, posters,
etc.) done by those artists. For these as well as other reasons, the
above artists and a few more fled Marvel in what has come to be called
the X-Odus, since so many of them worked on mutant titles at the time.
They went and founded Image. For more information, you should ask at
rac.misc.

How this relates to Claremont leaving, as well as his good friend and
fellow X-writer Louise Simonson, is as follows: maybe on his own,
perhaps because of pressure from the offices above him, Harras was
extremely protective of the Image artists on his titles. Somebody,
somewhere, was convinced that they were why the titles were selling, and
wanted them made as comfortable as possible. The trouble with the Image
artists on monthly books, like the X-Men, has been shown: they're all
terribly slow, and usually were late. This annoyed Claremont, who was
accustomed to working with workhorses like John Byrne and Dave Cockrum.

Also, as the Image team started recognizing how much strength they had
at Marvel, they started asking for more power. Jim Lee, Claremont's
penciler at the time on UXM, in particular wanted more say in how the
plot went. Claremont, usually more than happy to co-plot with his
artists, didn't like the fact that Lee's idea of co-plotting was that he
drew the issue any way he felt like, and then shipped it off to
Claremont, usually just under deadline, for him to fill in the dialogue
balloons with no say in what would appear in the issue. While the usual
practice at Marvel is to have the art made before the dialogue is
written (it's a practice that started back when Stan Lee was writing
every Marvel book in the 60s, and it's even called the "Marvel Style"
comics-writing), usually co-plotting involves the writer and the artist
deciding what will be in the issue together.

When Claremont complained about this, and the usual tardiness of Lee, to
Harras, he was told that his opinions were recognized, and things were
being worked on. However, nothing apparently was ever done. Indeed,
Harras gave Lee complete plot veto on any new plot lines (it should be
noted that Lee did not request anything like that from Harras). This
meant that Lee had all effective plotting power on the X-Men title,
since he could, if he felt like it, deny Claremont any plot that he
didn't like.

All of this might seem a bit rude, and possibly Claremont felt that
after giving twenty years of his life to this one title, he was entitled
to a bit of info as to what, exactly, the editor of that book wanted
from his writer. Apparently Harras either never answered, or else didn't
answer to Claremont's satisfaction, so after issue #3 of the new X-Men
book, Chris Claremont left the X-titles. A sign of the atmosphere he
left in was that his departure wasn't even mentioned in the letter
columns of the books he had written for sixteen years. Louise Simonson,
who had much the same experiences happen to her, left at about the same
time. To be frank, Claremont's scripting, plotting, and dialogue had
been slipping in his final years, and a sabbatical would certainly have
been helpful even in more calm circumstances.

With the departure of what was once the most dependable writing corps in
the history of major comics, Harras was now free to fill the titles with
writers who wouldn't complain so much about the artists who wanted to
run the titles a bit more indepth. The first person he got, though,
perhaps in an attempt to reclaim some of the "Big Name" marquee value he
lost when Claremont left, was old X-Men penciller and co-plotter John
Byrne. Byrne, however, was not going to even be given the illusionary
title of "writer"; he was just there to script Jim Lee's X-Men plots,
and Whilce Portacio's plots for Uncanny X-Men.

Byrne lasted only five issues on Uncanny (#281-285), and only two on the
new X-Men (#4-5). According to Byrne, he encountered the same troubles
as Claremont as scripter of the books. Lee and Portacio were
consistently late. Pages were faxed to Byrne hours before deadline for
him to dialogue as they came in, often without knowing how the book was
going to end because the plotter/artists hadn't bothered informing him.

Byrne complained to Harras. Byrne pointed out that in any other DC or
Marvel comic, the writers usually got three months to work on one issue
(most are done far before then, but that's the usual margin of safety).
He didn't mind working a few extra nights and burning the midnight oil,
because he liked the X-Men, but all he asked for was at least one month
to actually think about the issue. Harras thanked him for his comments,
and said he would work on it. No further pages were ever faxed to Byrne
for him to script.

Having now annnoyed most of the major X-writers of the past to the point
that they wouldn't work with him, Harras ended up with Scott Lobdell (a
stand-up comedian and comics writer Harras offered the job to at a
party) and Fabian Nicieza (one of Marvel's editors) as his main writers
on the X-titles. All was looking good until the X-Odus occurred, and
suddenly Harras didn't have all the Big Name Artists that had to be so
carefully protected. The chances of Harras getting back Claremont and
Byrne to write now that the artists who were partially to blame for
driving them away were gone was rather slim, so there was an obvious
period of scrambling at the X-offices to get creative teams to cover the
books.

With Claremont gone, the brightest bit of writing in the X-titles had to
be Peter David, the new writer on the "new" X-Factor. Easily mixing his
standard blend of top-notch humor with good characterization, David was
impressing people with how interesting a bunch of once second-rate
mutant characters could be. Not even this relationship was a smooth one,
however, because David quickly became annoyed by another mainstay of the
mutant titles: the crossover.

David didn't like the fact that the mutant titles invariably crossovered
once a year, often for three or so issues. He also didn't like how he
was always given fill-in artists because artist Joe Quesada was never on
time with his art (a common complaint apparently). He felt that it was
an insult to the reader to have to make do with shoddy art that was
rushed out because the regular penciler couldn't be bothered to get his
art out on time.

Meanwhile, he expressed disgust that the X-Office didn't even want him
continuing his main plot during the crossovers. He had to fight and
complain just to get one page per issue in of his normal, supposedly
ongoing, plot in his own book. Why? The editors said that it was simpler
if there was no ongoing plot in the crossovers, because then it would be
easier to collect the whole thing in a trade paperback for future resale
value without having to edit out those annoying exterior plotlines.

David's other complaints (which were listed for the net.community in a
resignation-style letter) included the mangled rescripting of a plot
device that originally was supposed to detect whether a woman's fetus
was a mutant or not (thus possibly opening the option of an abortion),
as well as demands about what characters he was supposed to feature in a
given issue. A message posted by David to an AOL folder in March 2000
sums it up:

Two reasons: I was having to backburner my ongoing storylines
every three issues or so to accommodate crossovers (giving it a
very dis-jointed feel) and the editors were "taking over" the book
in that they were dictating storylines and developments that I felt
were going to be damaging (ex: Insert Random as a member of the
team and kill off the Multiple Man.) Also they were changing my
dialogue unilaterally after I'd turned it in without telling me.
So I walked.

With that being what he had to live with, David resigned from X-Factor.
The usual bunch of scrambling, fill-in teams rushed to fill his and
Quesada's shoes (Quesada, like most of the "hot" artists, apparently
couldn't be bothered to keep to a monthly standard).

As a final note, it's unsure just how much ill-will there still is over
the X-Odus fallout. Claremont and Lee, for instance, apparently like
each other enough that Claremont wrote three issues of Lee's
WildC.A.T.S. comic (hardly a major sign of dislike).

Chris Claremont returned to Marvel a few years ago, albeit in a
different capacity. He was a Vice-President position at Marvel, in
charge of story development across the Marvel titles, and his writing
tasks included Fantastic Four and a six-issue run of Wolverine.
Evidently Claremont had enough fun on the titles that he decided to come
back--the Revolution of the X-titles saw Claremont return as scripter
and plotter of the core titles just shy of 100 issues after his
departure.

Unfortunately, Claremont only lasted twenty issues--ten on each title.
He wrote X-Men #100-109, and UXM #381-389. Claremont's second run often
emphasized the problem he faced with his run on Fantastic Four: Chris is
a fantastic writer once he's gotten steam built up, but he's a writer
who needs time to think before putting pencil to page. Given the sudden
shift over to full-time writer of the titles (while he was writing the
FF), he didn't have time to work out all of the plot dynamics until he
was about to leave the main titles. While some of the plots were quite
interesting, others left a lot to be desired. The Neo characters were
very flatly characterized, the plot with Shadowcat was left on a back
burner when the editors wanted the plots to speed up and go in another
direction, and the six-month gap meant that characters were neither
familiar to the fans coming to the books from the wildly popular X-Men
movie, nor to the fans who had been reading through the years.

Claremont wasn't fired from the core titles. However, when new Editor-
in-Chief Joe Quesada started restructuring the X-Books a year after
Claremont's return, he gave Claremont a choice: share the core book
writing with one other writer, or move to a single new title that would
be separate from the core titles. Claremont opted for the latter.

--- Are any Marvel staff reading racmx?

Some are. Most come and then go again, though. Some do so because
they're no longer involved with the X-Titles, others because they can't
keep up with the sheer volume of discussion, and others because they
just aren't that interested.

Over the past few years, the newsgroup has been visited by the likes of
Chris Claremont, Peter David, Keith R. A. DeCandido, Warren Ellis, Jay
Faerber, Steven Grant, Larry Hama, Joseph Harris, Rob Liefeld, Scott
Lobdell, Fabian Nicieza, Brandon Peterson, Joe Pruett, Ben Raab, Tom
Raney, Steven Seagle, Gail Simone, Louise "Weezie" Simonson, Walter
Simonson, Robert Weinberg, Anthony Williams, Brian C. Wood, Ethan
Van Sciver, and J. Steven York. If you wander over to our sister group,
rac.misc, you'll also see Kurt Busiek, Tony Isabella, and Christopher
Priest. Still others have participated with rac.* regulars on mailing
lists or message boards. Some are/were regular contributors, while
others posted a single response and never returned.

All this means, of course, that posters on racmx should maybe think
twice before posting up personal attacks on the creative staff of the X-
titles, since, unlike for a long period of Usenet history, they're
finally around and a lot of racmxers would like them to continue to
contribute to the group.

Not insulting people in general is a good policy to aim for, of course.
Not threatening them, however, is something that needs to be
underscored. Many fans tend to get angry at a creator's treatment of
their favorite characters, and may occasionally post (in jest) threats
of violence on the newsgroup, i.e.: "Such-and-such writer should be
drawn, quartered, and hung for doing this to Wolverine, and if I ever
find out where he lives I'll likely do it myself." This is Not Cool.
Please don't do it.

--- What's a dangler? Is it related to a six month gap?

Danglers are the racmx term for juicy bits of storyline that are raised
in the comics, and then... never show up again. For example, if Storm
receives a mysterious package, and a big deal is made of what might be
in the package, and then the package and its contents never show up
again, that's a dangler.

Danglers happen for a few reasons. Sometimes, a writer is juggling so
many plots that he or she neglects to pay attention to one of them. By
the time the writer remembers the plot point, it's probably no longer
interesting to the readers, so the dangling plot thread is just left to
dangle, instead of properly being tied off.

In other instances, the editorial staff creates danglers. Sometimes a
writer really wants to finish a storyline, but the editors realize that
the storyline is dragging and the readers are losing interest. In that
case, the plot threads are just dropped while the writer needs to work
on new plotlines. A great example of this is the X-Men Revolution arc
that Chris Claremont was writing. He had every intention of telling
readers what happened to Kitty Pryde after she disappeared, but the
editors asked him to take the plotlines in a different direction, so
readers will never know where Kitty actually ended up between the space
station and college. A change in writers is often accompanied by a
healthy amount of danging plotlines. Obviously, new writers have ideas
about what they want the X-Men to do, so they usually don't bother to
tie up the plot threads that a former writer can't finish before leaving
the book.

Finally, there's the six month gap. This editorial device has been used
a few times by Marvel staff to give new writers a "clean slate" after
ending a major storyline or before beginning a new direction for the
line of titles. Such a gap was used after the Age of Apocalypse. Rogue
had absorbed Gambit's powers just before AOA, but now it was supposedly
a few months after everything returned to normal, and the characters
had moved away or hit the road to deal with various problems. We never
really saw what happened in-between the end of AOA and the beginning of
Rogue-on-the-Run; we just knew that Iceman had taken after her.

As a second example, the X-Men "Revolution" concept at the time the
X-Men movie was released was designed to return Chris Claremont to the
team books, as well as letting other writers take over struggling titles.
To allow the writers to bring in their own ideas, the first issue of a
new writer's plot would feature the teams and characters as if six months
had passed. Often, plotlines dangling before the gap were left dangling,
and new twists that supposedly occurred "during" the six month gap would
sometimes become danglers as well, if the writers didn't get to explain
the plot before editors requested rewrites or assigned a new writer to
the book. The power switch between Psylocke and Phoenix is one example.

Is there a solution to danglers? Probably not. Writing to request an
explanation of a dangler might remind the editors that a juicy plot
device is available for writers to use, but most of the time the books
will take whatever shape the current writers and editors want.

--- What's a Claremontism?

Most writers who have written many stories have developed a certain
cadence and language in their writing style. Chris Claremont is very
well known within comics circles for his trademark phrases, which are
called "Claremontisms" by the fans. As with all trademark phrases, some
beome tired cliches after a while, but others remain fond memories of
past stories and characters.

Do you recognize any of these Claremontisms?

* Ah'm nigh invulnerable when Ah'm blastin'.
* Back off, bub. We take care of our own.
* Bub
* Bunky
* By the white wolf!
* Comes with the uniform.
* Cripes!
* Da, Tovarisch!
* Flamin' muties!
* Flamin' _____!
* Goddess!
* Heart's Desire
* Hidey-hole
* I am _____!
* I love you. And I, you.
* I possess you, body and soul!
* I'm the best there is at what I do. And what I do... isn't very pretty.
* It was sweet of you to worry.
* It wouldn't be polite to disappoint them!
* Me an' mine.
* Me and my big mouth.
* No quarter asked, none given
* Not today, and not by you.
* Our own fate, our very lives, they're nothing.
* Selfsame
* Sugah
* Take your best shot!
* That fact alone makes them deadly beyond imagination.
* The focused totality of her psychic power!
* Ungaublich!
* We did none harm, yet harm was done to us.
* Wolverine! Fastball special!
* Yum!

------------------------------
Subject: X-MEN OTHER-MEDIA QUESTIONS

NOTE: These questions pertain to the movie and cartoon versions of the
X-Men, not to their actual comic-book incarnations.

--- How is _X-Men: The Movie_ different from the comics?

There are many, many ways that the movie is different from the actual
mainstream continuity of the comics. For one, the school has far more
mutants in it than the casts of Uncanny, X-Men, Generation X, and the
Hellions/New Mutants/X-Force kids combined.

The team in _XM:TM_ consists of Cyclops, Jean Grey, and Storm, all led
by Xavier. In movie continuity, Cyke and Jean are not yet married
(though they share a room in the mansion), and Jean is a doctor.
Wolverine and Rogue first meet in Canada, instead of meeting when Rogue
runs away from the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and comes knocking at
Xavier's door. A few other things must be noted about Rogue. First of
all, in the regular comics Rogue has the powers of flight and
invulnerability, which she gained from Ms. Marvel in the classic
Avengers Annual #10. She's also had her distinctive white stripe from
the get-go. Furthermore, the Rogue of the comics has *never* revealed
her real name on-panel, and it's strongly believed that if anyone knows
it other than Rogue's original parents, it would be Mystique (Rogue's
foster mother) or Destiny (Mystique's long-time companion).

The villains and supporting cast also have changed. Toad probably
received the most changes to his character, and all are improvements.
The Toad of the comics was always an Igor-like hunchback to Magneto, and
usually did little more than jump around uttering annoying lines. The
Toad of _XM:TM_, however, can climb walls much more efficiently, has a
strong tongue that can grasp items, and a rather nasty ooze.

--- What cameos are there in _X-Men: The Movie_? (+)

Quite a few cameos of (and homages to) familiar characters appear in
_XM:TM_. They are:

* Bobby: Bobby Drake is Iceman, an American adult who can create ice
and snow from the moisture in the air, and travel on created ice-
slides. (He has lines.)

* Kitty: Kitty Pryde is Shadowcat, a Jewish-American teenager who can
phase through walls and short-ciruit any electronics she passes
through. (She has lines.)

* John: St. John Allerdyce is Pyro, an Australian adult villain who
can control, but *not* generate, any fire or flame. (He has lines.)

* Jubilee: Jubilation Lee is Jubilee, a Chinese-American teenager who
can make colorful fireworks and small explosions. (She has no lines
but can be seen in the same two classroom scenes as Kitty.)

* Dani: Danielle Moonstar is a Native American teenager who can make
your dreams or nightmares materialize in front of you. (She has no
lines but can be seen in the same two classroom scenes as Kitty.)

* Colossus: Piotr Rasputin is Colossus, a Russian adult who can turn
his entire body into organic steel. He's an artist, and is
currently an X-Man. (He has no lines but can be seen in the
opening mansion scenes sketching near the lily pond and basketball
court.)

--- What's new in _X-Men 2_? (+)

Loads of familiar friends and new characters show up in _X2_. The plot
is relatively simple: Colonel Stryker is using a drug created from his
mutant son's body in order to control mutants (specifically, Nightcrawler
and Deathstrike) as assassins. Stryker also raids the mansion and is able
to capture several students. The X-Men discover this plot and work for a
brief time with Magneto and Mystique (she having broken him out of jail)
in order to rescue their students. They also need to rescue Xavier, who
has also been kidnapped and is being brainwashed into killing all of the
mutants on earth via his Cerebro machine. At the end of the film, Pyro
goes off with Magneto and Mystique, Wolverine leaves Stryker to drown,
and Jean gives her life to allow the X-jet to take off. In the final
scene, Rogue, Bobby, and Kurt all appear in uniform with the X-Men team.

Cameo-wise, there are a few goodies. Colossus armors up and helps the
students escape from the mansion when Stryker attacks. Kitty is seen
phasing through a wall, while Siryn is seen giving off her trademark
scream. Jubilee is among the kidnapped students held at Stryker's base.
Hank McCoy and Sebastian Shaw are seen in a televised talk show debate
that is playing when Mystique seduces Magneto's prison guard in a bar.
A student with a forked tongue by the name of Artie doesn't remotely
match any characteristics of the character found in the comics, and
there doesn't seem to be a match for another young boy who can change
TV channels just by blinking. There are also *many* X-Men and Marvel
characters and organizations listed as file folders when Mystique, as
Deathstrike, breaks into Stryker's computer system to download the
plans of his hidden base.

--- What other movies or cartoons are there?

There have been quite a few attempts to cash in on the X-Men craze in
other media. A quick rundown:

* _Pryde of the X-Men_ (1989)(TV)
_Pryde_ was the first attempt to make an X-Men cartoon. Characters
include Cyclops, Wolverine, Colossus, Xavier, Emma Frost, Toad,
and the Blob. It's really a failed series pilot that was
repackaged for video sale. Notable for thin plot and poor voice
casting, it uses an Australian accent for Wolverine. It runs 30
minutes and is pretty bad.

* _X-Men_ (1992)(TV)
This is how it should be done. The cartoon cast includes Xavier,
Cyclops, Jean Grey, Rogue, Gambit, Wolverine, Jubilee, Storm,
Beast, and a whole host of villains along with Magneto. The voice
casting was very well done, the plots were generally stable, and
the series touched upon many other X-Men and Marvel characters in
its 5-year stint. While continuity wasn't always in line with the
comics (the most obvious examples being Morph's inclusion and the
not-quite-right attempt at the Phoenix Saga), the characterization
was great.

* _Generation X_ (1996)(TV)
The first live-action adaptation of the mutant franchise was this
TV-movie. The villain of this story is Russell Trask, played by
Matt Frewer (of _Max Headroom_ fame). Trask is a scientist out to
use mutants to advance his schemes. When he finds out that old
adversary Emma Frost is teaching a bunch of mutant teenagers, he
decides to kidnap her students to use in his attempts to control
the world by controlling everyone's dreams. Characters included
the familiar Emma Frost, Banshee, Jubilee, M, and Skin, a weird
version of Mondo, and new characters Buff and Refrax. It had a few
moments, but was generally miscast (a white girl as Jubilee?) and
poorly plotted. A sequel was planned in 1999 but never made it to
production.

* _X-Men: Evolution_ (2000)(TV)
This cartoon series features Cyclops, Jean Grey, Rogue,
Nightcrawler, Shadowcat, and Spyke as teenaged high school
students. Mystique is the principal of the school, which also
includes such students as Toad and Quicksilver.

------------------------------
Subject: HISTORY OF THIS FAQ

RACMX is the latest in a line of newsgroups dealing with the X-Men.
The prior incarnation was rec.arts.comics.xbooks, and its sage was
David R. Henry, who originated it. The original FAQ was broader, with
more information on more things, like netiquette, the video games,
neat X-Men resources, and all the publications about or involving the
X-Men. Much of this FAQ is still his work.

Kate the Short took out the resources and the netiquette, and made
two different FAQ's out of them which she maintains independently.

Jane Griffin did a whole pile of work after taking over for DRH,
adding several new questions (and answers), integrating issue numbers,
separating out the list of X-Men publications, and producing the first
official HTML version. She and Kate worked together to reorganize much
of the FAQ as it grew.

Marty Blase maintained the FAQ after Jane left.

After almost two years of dormancy, Kate decided to take on the darned
thing again. She's been the FAQ-keeper since summer 2000. Be nice and
help her out, okay?

------------------------------
Subject: CREDITS (+)

This FAQ could never have remained as up-to-date as it is without
the contributions of the following people:

Amethyst, Arbitrator, Ken Arromdee, Charlie Ball, Chris Barry,
Belascoamo, Cami Benham, Billy Bissette, BlakGard, blank blank,
David Bredenberg, D.A. Brooks, Daniel Butler, Brian Caffrey,
Chris Campbell, Eric T-Rex Chastain, CleV, Hilton Collins,
Russ Cullins, Judy Daniluk, Peter A. David, Keith R.A. DeCandido,
Nick Demmon, Brian Doyle, Steven Dumont, Mike Ellis,
Aaron Forever, Brian Fried, Marc-Oliver Frisch, Tom Galloway,
Eivind Gladheimstreng, Addison Godel, Robert Gruhn, David Goldfarb,
Thomas Heil, Joe Helfrich, Jeremy Henderson, Christian Henriksson,
Chris Holly, HooksX, Matt Hutchins, Andrew Ingle, ivan2000,
Rivka Jacobs, Marie Javins, jinx, Joey/HBWolf21, Rick Jones,
Joe Krug, Large n Incharge, Mike Lavin (aka "Greenstool"),
Carol Dawn Lee, Hosun Lee, Diane Levitan, Jacob Levy, Peter Lidkis,
Sean Lightner, Jim Longo, Johan Lundstrom, Peter Luzifer,
The Main Man, Douglas Mangum, William May, Jennifer J. McGee,
James McGhee, Sonja Mendoza, Pietro Meroni, Brucha Meyers,
Danny Miller, James Moar, Fabian Nicieza, Toby Nieboer,
Andrew Oakley, Paul O'Brien, Laura M. Parkinson, Al Patterson,
Pecadilo, Martin Phipps, Piercey, Lord Populous, Shane Potter,
Prosh, Joanne Puchalik, queenB, Deepak Ramani, Maryann Robbins,
Ryan Royce, Justin Samuels, Liisa Sarakontu, Chris Schumacher,
Amy Sheldon, Clara Showalter, Gail Simone, Louise Simonson,
Walter Simonson, Christian Smith, Sorted magAZine, Eric Stieglitz,
Tilman Stieve, The Stirge, Swpwarrior, Chris Sypal, Terrafamilia,
tphile, Jon Trouten, Jeremy Turner, UltimoV, uplink, Sean Walsh,
Alasdair Watson, Craig Welsh, Gregory Whittaker, Mitchell Wietz,
and James Willer.

Special thanks go to Jane Griffin, for keeping the FAQ in excellent
working order; Marty Blase, for helping keep the entire newsgroup
sane and enjoyable; and David R. Henry, without whom, I assure you,
this would not have been possible. And hugs to Aardy R. DeVarque!

*** The End! ***