The Near-Death And ResurrXion Of The X-Men
It has been an interesting few years for X-Men fans. Once the flagship Marvel franchise, the X-Men [...]
The X-Men's comeback was solidified by the announcement of ResurrXion, a line-wide relaunch of the X-Men and Inhumans comic book lines. ResurrXion will follow the Inhumans vs. X-Men event, an event that many X-Men fans feared would finish off the X-Men as going concern.
It turns out the opposite is true. The status quo of ResurrXion sees mutants reemerging on Earth while the Inhumans leave the planet in search of a solution to their lack of Terrigen. The X-Men line will also grow during ResurrXion. The two ongoing Wolverine titles, All-New Wolverine and Old Man Logan, will continue, and be joined by solo series Cable, Jean Grey, and Iceman. Two new flagship X-Men team books, X-Men: Blue and X-Men: Gold, will launch in March, and two more team books, Weapon X and Generation X, fill out a revitalized X-Men line that is nearly double the size of the pre-IvX line.
What's more, the recently released May Marvel solicitations show that the X-Men are no longer being contained to their own little corner of the Marvel Universe. The X-Men are also embedded on other major Marvel superhero teams. Sunspot leads the USAvengers, which also includes his best friend from his New Mutants days, Cannonball. Young Cyclops is a member of the Champions, while Rogue leads the Avengers Unity Squad. The team's roster has also included Cable, though ti is unclear if he'll remain on the team once his solo series begins. Meanwhile, Storm is part of the new ongoing series Black Panther & The Crew.
Where they aren't a permanent fixture, there are many guest appearances across May's solicitations. Weapon Xi writer Greg Pak is wasting no time in introducing his mutant cast to The Totally Awesome Hulk. Quentin Quire is guest-starring in The Mighty Thor, which has prominently feature the Shi'ar Empire in recent issues. America #1 featured Prodigy, a former student at the Xavier school, and May's America #3 will see America Chavez teaming with Storm. Fans can also expect to meet X-Men from other Earths in May, as Spider-Gwen introduces the Earth-65 Wolverine and the next arc of Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows brings in the X-Men of Earth-18119.
Of course, in today's market, it is films that often drives success. That is, after all, what led Marvel to prioritize the Avengers over the X-Men in the first place. The good news there is that 20th Century Fox seems to have the franchise firing on all cylinders. X-Men: Days of Future Past hit a new high for the franchise. X-Men: Apocalypse may not have achieved that same level of quality, but it did introduce a new, young cast of key X-Men characters.
Deadpool proved to be a huge hit and is now set to be its own trilogy of films. Logan is garnering near-unanimous critical acclaim. The New Mutants will soon begin filming. Gambit is still in the works. And X-Force movie is being planned, and producer Simon Kinberg says they're considering more spinoff teams like Alpha Flight and Exiles for the film treatment.
The X-Men are about to be bigger in the Marvel Comics universe than they have been in years. They're coming to live-action television for the first time. The X-Men movies franchise is expanding into brand new territory, and X-Men fans can finally participate in the comic book collectibles boom.
Not everything is perfect. The X-Men are still being left out of Marvel's video game plans, as far as anyone knows, and while the new merchandise is nice it still doesn't match anything close to marketing push for the Marvel Studios properties, but things have definitely improved from what they were.
It's been a tough few years, but cheer up X-Men fans. Marvel's mutants are back.
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