Yesterday, Marvel Comics announced the return of Uncanny X-Men with a 10-part weekly series that promises to “disassemble” the X-Men.
Videos by ComicBook.com
The announcement came with a teaser featuring a large group of mutants, most of whom are currently members of an X-Men team and some who are not. Here, we’re going to break down who is who, add a few notes about any important recent happening with the characters, and point out a few glaring absences.
Let’s get started. First, he’s the teaser again:
In the upper quarter is, from left to right: Sunfire (Shiro Yoshida), Firestar (Angelica Jones), Iceman (Bobby Drake), Nightcrawler (Kurt Wagner), Banshee (Sean Cassidy, who only recently returned to action), Pixie (Megan Gwynn), and Archangel (Warren Worthington III).
In the left quarter, from top to bottom, left to right is: Prestige (Rachel Grey, formerly known as Phoenix and Marvel Girl), Glob Herman, Surge (Noriko Ashida), Prodigy (David Alleyne, who is still technically depowered from M-Day), Shatterstar (Gaveedra-Seven, who is about to get his first solo series), Shark Girl (Iara dos Santos), Armor (Hisako Ichiki), Husk (Paige Guthrie), Eye-Boy (Trevor Hawkins), Rockslide (Santo Vaccarro), Nature Girl (Lin Li), Wolfsbane (Rahne Sinclair), Bishop (Lucas Bishop), Multiple Man (Jamie Madrox, who only recently returned from the dead – sort of – in his own series), Gentle (Nezhno Abidemi), Domino (Neena Thurman), Beast (Hank McCoy, who hasn’t been on the best terms with the other X-Men as of late), Jubilee (Jubilation Lee, who was recently cured of vampirism and had her powers restored), Storm (Ororo Munroe), Trinary, X-23 (Laura Kinney), Gambit (Remy LeBeau), Rogue (Anna Marie, just married to Gambit), and Honey Badger (Gabby Kinney, X-23’s clone sister).
In the bottom quarter, from left to right is: Jean Grey (recently returned from the dead), and Kitty Pryde.
In the right quarter is, from top to bottom, left to right: Cannonball (Sam Guthrie, fresh off a stint with the Avengers), Polaris (Lorna Dane), Northstar (Jean-Paul Beaubier), Sunspot (Roberto da Costa, possibly now going by Citizen X after leading the Avengers for a while), Anole (Victor Burkowski), Idie Okonkwo, Mercury (Cessily Kincaid), Cypher (Doug Ramsey, who recently resurfaced in Hunt for Wolverine: Weapon Lost), Boom Boom (Tabitha Smith), Colossus (Piotr Rasputin, still getting over being left at the altar by Kitty Pryde), Magma (Amara Juliana Olivians Aquilla), Forge, Dust (Sooraya Qadir), Genesis (Evan Sabahnur, the child clone of Apocalypse), Hellion (Julian Keller), Warpath (James Proudstar), Havok (Alex Summers, only recently cured of his personality and morality inversion), Magik (Illyana Rasputin), Dazzler (Alison Blaire), and Psylocke (Betsy Braddock, now returned to her original body).
Lastly, there are some conspicuous absences from the group shot.
The time-displaced original X-Men aremissing, which seems to confirm that Extermination will be the end of their time in the present day.
Wolverine, despite being set for his big return, will apparently not participate in the Uncanny X-Men relaunch event, or at least not that Marvel wants anyone to know about upfront.
Likewise, Old Man Logan is absent. This is somewhat expected since his ongoing series is coming to a close and he’s expected to be sent home to the Wastelands to make room for regular Wolverine’s return and the resetting of the X-Men line.
Emma Frost, once an X-Man, will be the focus of one of the X-Men Black one-shots focusing on the X-Men’s greatest threats, seemingly returning her to full-time villain status
Magneto – like Emma, he’s been an X-Man for the past several years, but will receive an X-Men Black one-shot, likely returning him to villain status as part of the X-Men line’s reset
Cable had his own ongoing series at the start of the ResurrXionlaunch, but has fallen off the map since that series ended (unless you count his version of the Guardians of the Galaxy making their debut).
X, the mind of Professor X resurrected inside the body of Fantomex, is also absent from this teaser. Perhaps his involvement, or lack thereof, will be explained or teased in the upcoming Astonishing X-Men Annual, where he is to reunite with the four living members of his original five X-Men. He’s another character whose involvement Marvel may likely be keeping a secret for now.
Most of Weapon X-Force, with the exception of Domino, who is currently starring in her own ongoing series. The other members of the new team featured in Weapon X – Sabretooth, Omega Red, Lady Deathstrike, and Mystique – are all absent, suggesting they won’t be a part of the Disassembled story (also worth noting that Mystique will be the subject of an issue of X-Men Black)
Strong Guy, Rictor, Karma, and Warlock wouldn’t be notable on their own, but a few of the current New Mutants team members – Magik, Boom Boom, and Wolfsbane – are represented in the teaser, which makes the absence of Strong and Rictor more concerning than it otherwise would be. Karma, the team’s current benefactor, is also absent, as is Warlock, who returned in a so far unconnected secondary story in New Mutants: Dead Souls.
Finally, Cyclops. Some fans were hoping to see Cyclops alive and front and center as Uncanny X-Men returned but, let’s be honest, we don’t know if Cyclops will return, but there’s a good chance Marvel would keep it under wraps if he was coming back.
That’s everyone. Are there any big missing characters we missed? Let us know in the comments!
Uncanny X-Men #1 goes on sale on Nov. 14th.
