X-Men Comicverse: An Overview

[poilass.livejournal.com]

Okay, this is embarassingly long, but there's just so many of them. And this is the short version.

ETA: The images are finally working!



THE BASICS

This overview covers the main comics, not the movies (or the cartoons). I can't actually recommend that anyone wanting to go to the source material read any recent issues, because they suck in all new, all different, ways. However! The Essential X-Men volumes are cheap, black and white reprints, 20 or so issues per volume, starting from Giant Sized X-Men #1 (the introduction of the Second Team), and contain much very cool, old school, superheroics.

MUTANTS

Mutants are people with an X-Factor, a gene that gives them special powers. Most mutants manifest their abilities at puberty, or under great emotional/physical stress. Not all mutations are useful: many mutants just look funny, or can do something daft like turn celery into string (see also MORLOCKS). Useful mutations include: psionic powers (telepathy, telekinesis, etc), change-forms (turning into something else – an animal, a really hard metal, etc), 'blow-stuff-up' powers (making things go 'boom'), shape-shifting, teleporting, elemental powers (manipulation of things like magnetism, temperature, the weather, etc), super-strength, flying.



THE X-MEN

The X-Men were formed by Charles Xavier in order to a) teach mutants how to use their abilities, b) protect humans from evil mutants, c) protect mutants from evil humans. In practice, they mostly end up just doing b), protecting a world that fears and hates them. They are based out of the frequently destroyed Xavier Mansion, Graymalkin Lane, Salem Centre, Westchester, New York, though for a while they lived in Australia, which has a surprising large supervillain population.

The X-Men started off as just five mutant teenagers (Cyclops, Marvel Girl (later Phoenix), Beast, Iceman, Angel), and grew. And then grew some more. There are now about six hundred X-Men and associates, so I won't be mentioning them all.



MAIN CHARACTERS

X-MEN

PROFESSOR X (Professor Charles Xavier): He's rich, bald, in a wheelchair, and one of the most powerful telepaths in the world. His ethics can sometimes be a little questionable, and some fans write him as. well. evil. (ETA: only not so much anymore). But he is devoted to his students and to his 'Dream' of peaceful co-existence between humans and mutants, even if forming a paramilitary group of mutant outlaws isn't the way most people would go about achieving that.

CYCLOPS (Scott Summers): The first X-Man, and team leader. He has a 'blow-stuff-up' power -- force beams come out his eyes. Due to being dropped on his head as a child (out of a plane) he can't control these 'optic blasts' without the aid of ruby quartz, and must always wear sunglasses or a visor made of this to keep from obliterating everything in his line of sight. He grew up in an orphanage and was then forced to use his powers to steal before being rescued by Xavier, to whom he is very loyal. He has a brother, Alex (codenamed Havok), intermittently also an X-Man when he isn't brainwashed, studying geology or lost in alternate dimensions. Alex was adopted and Scott wasn't, so they didn't grow up together and have a sometimes tense relationship. Their father Christopher, thinking they were dead, renamed himself Corsair and became a space pirate. As is common in grief-stricken parents.

MARVEL GIRL/PHOENIX (Jean Grey-Summers): Scott's wife (after about thirty years of will they/won't they/oh no she's dead) is an extremely powerful telepath and telekinetic. She started off with just the telekinesis, Xavier having repressed her telepathy so she wouldn't go insane. She was once replaced by a celestial entity called the Phoenix Force, who went evil, and then died on the moon, and then Jean was found in a cocoon on the bottom of the sea –- it's a little complicated. She's 'died' a lot, but she always comes back, and that's really all you need to know.

ANGEL/ARCHANGEL (Warren Worthington III): He's rich. He's blond. He has beautiful white wings. If only he hadn't lost those wings and been brainwashed and recruited as the Angel of DEATH by APOCALYPSE and had his beautiful angel wings replaced by evil metal ones and his girlfriend Candy murdered by his former best friend -- well, he'd probably be a happy, easy going guy, instead of all broody and angst-ridden. He can be a little judgmental and hostile towards 'outsiders' too, but he's very loyal to the people he loves. He has his old wings back now.

BEAST (Dr Henry (Hank) McCoy): The oldest of the original team, and largely angst-free. He's very big, super-strong and super-agile, with outsized hands and feet. For awhile it came and went, but he's had lovely blue fur for a long time now. Also claws and sharp teeth, hence the name, but really he's a genius and a sweetie. Hank is a medical doctor, a geneticist, a published author, a former Avenger and a rocket scientist. He's the Buckeroo Banzai of the X-Men, except there's little evidence that he can sing. We love Hank.

ICEMAN (Robert (Bobby) Drake): The youngest of the original team, which unfortunately gets him de-aged into a student in every alternate canon (the movies, ULTIMATE X-MEN, the X-Men: Evolution cartoon...) He has a change-form made of ice, travels really fast by making 'iceslides', and can manipulate ice and temperature. He's extremely powerful, but a bit of slacker when it comes to developing his gifts. The team clown for a long time, but smarter than he generally acts. He is also a qualified accountant, which comes in useful for a superhero about as often as you'd expect. He isn't actually canonically gay, though you can't tell from the fanfic. Best friends with BEAST.

STORM (Ororo Monroe): Ororo was orphaned when a plane fell on her house, also leaving her claustrophobic. She was a pickpocket on the streets of Cairo for a few years, and then she went to Africa to become a Goddess. As you do. She is ethnically African, but has blue eyes and white hair as part of her mutation. She's the co-leader of the X-Men, a powerful weather manipulator, and a dignified and intelligent woman, though not without a sense of humour. She tends to change her hair a lot and, personally, I still feel the mohawk was her best look. She's quite maternal towards SHADOWCAT, and is especially good friends with GAMBIT. Her movie counterpart is inexplicably dull, and can't even fly. A mohawk might help.

WOLVERINE ((ETA:James?) Logan): Logan is short, hairy and old. And Canadian. Fortunately, he has more than enough personal cool to counter all those disadvantages. Logan has a powerful healing factor, heightened senses (except touch), and an unbreakable, adamantium skeleton (with three, foot long claws on each hand). All of this makes him virtually indestructible, which he likes to prove by getting himself flambéed/eviscerated/blown up on a regular basis. Years ago he was a victim of the Weapon X project, who experimented on him, fucked with his memory, bonded the adamantium (the hardest substance in the world!) to his bones, and were then mostly sliced and diced when he escaped. He remembers little of his past, and what he does remember, he can't trust, although we know he was an adult during WWII (ETA: a recent Limited Series revealed his past, but I haven't read it). Sometimes he goes a bit feral, and wanders around naked, hunting things. He has a catchphrase, 'I'm the best there is at what I do', and what he does isn't very nice (except when it's wandering around naked).
He knows the wrong sort of people, has a hundred thousand enemies, and kicks every kind of ass. In the movies he's taller, prettier, less tormented, and more a brawler than a martial artist. But he's played by Hugh Jackman, so no-one's complaining.

ROGUE (?): Rogue's real name has never been revealed and at this stage would likely be a terrible disappointment (in the movies it's 'Marie', but really it's probably something like Ernestine or Sue-Ann). She was raised by MYSTIQUE, and started off as a bad guy. She absorbs the power, memories and life-force of anyone she touches. This makes sex a problem and was the cause of endless (boring) angst during her relationship with GAMBIT ('get a body stocking and use condoms!' the fans would scream. 'a power inhibitor! therapy!'). After touching a superhero, Carol Danvers (Ms Marvel), for too long, she permanently absorbed Carol's powers of flight, super-strength, and invulnerability. Also, she had Carol in her head for ages, which was no fun for anyone. She came to Xavier for help with Carol and her powers and stayed, until most people have forgotten she was ever a bad guy at all. She's Southern, which means that she is incapable of saying "I" instead of "Ah".

GAMBIT (Remy LeBeau): He's a cocky Master Thief with designer stubble and A Terrible Past. He was thrown out of the Thieves Guild for killing his brother-in-law on his wedding day and exiled from New Orleans, which is apparently a much worse punishment than it sounds. His Terrible Past was revealed in the dreadful Uncanny X-Men #350, which sparked hundreds of tedious 'fix-it' stories about how It Wasn't His Fault And The X-Men Are All Hypocritical Bastards, Especially Rogue and Angel, Even The Ones That Weren't Even There.
He has a blow-stuff-up power -- typically, he blows stuff up by 'charging' playing cards with energy and throwing them. He's very acrobatic, and intermittently has some kind of empathy/'charm' power. He hits on every pretty woman he meets, often with success, and is therefore slashed more than any other character (The 'clearly, he'd sleep with anything' School of Slash). Plus, his costume has pink in it, so. He's Cajun, which means he is incapable of saying "the" instead of "de". See also MORLOCKS.

JUBILEE (Jubilation Lee): Orphaned Chinese-American SoCal teenager. She makes fireworks, but it's a blow-stuff-up power when she puts some oomph behind it. Semi-adopted by WOLVERINE. Rogue in the movies is really much more like comics canon Jubilee or SHADOWCAT than comics Rogue.

NIGHTCRAWLER (Kurt Wagner): He's blue! He's furry! He has a tail! He used to be in the circus! Also, he's German, and was brought up by gypsies. Circus gypsies. No, wait -- magic circus gypsies. Part of the second team of X-Men (with Wolverine, Storm, Shadowcat, Colossus, Banshee et al), and eventually the leader of EXCALIBUR. He's freakishly acrobatic, can teleport shortish distances (a mile or so at most) and has a deep admiration for Errol Flynn. Generally a cheerful and optimistic guy, he is also very religious, and has decided to become a Catholic priest (for about the third time). Previously, he had relationships with a Shi'ar alien, Cerise, and a witch, Amanda Sefton. He and Amanda were brought up as brother and sister, but somehow their relationship managed not to be creepy. In the movie he has weird tattoos, and is more goofy than debonair, but still cool.

CABLE (Nathan Christopher Charles Dayspring Summers): Um. Okay. He's the son of Scott, and Jean's EVIL TWIN Maddie, who grew up in the far future, where he was seen as a Saviour by a semi-religious caste of female mutant warriors called Askani (founded by his time travelling sister, Rachel) and was at war with APOCALYPSE. He's a very powerful telekinetic/telepath. He has an understandably complicated relationship with his parents given that, due to time travel, he's now about twice their age. For ages he had trouble controlling his powers due to a techno-organic virus (it's metal. but it's alive!) On/off relationship with a kickass merc called Domino. Inexplicably popular with a number of talented and otherwise sensible writers.

SHADOWCAT (Katherine (Kitty) Pryde): Youngest of the second team of X-Men, at 13 1/2. Eventually a founding member of EXCALIBUR. She can phase (go intangible), and was taught all kinds of martial arts by WOLVERINE. Also a genius, especially with computers. She has a pet dragon, Lockheed, which she picked up in outer space.

PSYLOCKE (Elisabeth (Betsy) Braddock): Telepath. She has a psychic knife, which is 'the focused totality of her psychic powers'. What this means is that when she stabs people in the head with it, their brains go boom. She grew up in a rich, upper class English family. Then she ended up in the body of a purple haired Asian ninja assassin (see EVIL TWINS). After she was almost killed by SABRETOOTH, ANGEL and WOLVERINE saved her life by exposing her to the Crimson Dawn, a big pool of weird which gave her freaky new powers and changed her personality. Currently dead.

BISHOP (Bishop): Absorbs energy, and blows stuff up with it. He's a time-travelling soldier from the future, and apparently the future really sucks. He has a big gun, and that's about the extent of his personality.

COLOSSUS (Piotr/Peter Rasputin): Piotr was a member of the Second Team. He's Russian, and has a super-strong change-form of organic steel. Had a younger sister, Illyana, who died of the LEGACY VIRUS, and an older brother, Mikhail, who was a cosmonaut. Mikhail was thought to have died on a mission, but turned out to be living in an alternate dimension and Completely. Barking. Mad. In fact, the entire family tended to emotional instability. Piotr is artistic, which is probably why they made him gay in the ULTIMATE X-MEN – he was otherwise the most heterosexual man on the team, and possibly the planet. He once beat PETE WISDOM almost to death for kissing SHADOWCAT, even though he'd dumped Kitty years earlier (although, see MARVEL TIME). He committed suicide in order to disseminate a cure for Legacy.

PETE WISDOM: Formerly an operative for evil secret agency of the British Government, Black Air, Wisdom is a rude, chain smoking, hard drinking, bad tempered man. Only reluctantly a superhero, he joined Excalibur after falling for SHADOWCAT, and doesn't have a codename. Nor does he have a costume, just a wardrobe full of cheap white shirts and black suits. His blow-stuff-up power is 'hot knives' that come out his fingers.

NORTHSTAR (Jean Paul Beaubier): One of the only canonically gay characters in the Marvel universe. Flight, speed, and sometimes light powers. Has a twin sister, Aurora, who has some mental problems. Originally a member of Canadian superhero group Alpha Flight, and only joined the X-Men recently. He currently has a little crush on Iceman (go for it, Jean Paul!) His personality can be a little abrasive, but hey! He's canonically gay!

VILLAINS

MAGNETO (Erik Magnus Lehnsherr): Has the power of magnetism, which means manipulating metal and magnetic fields. Magneto is Jewish, and was in a concentration camp during WWII. His daughter Anya was killed in a fire a few years later, due to stupid humans kicking up a fuss about him having super powers, then his wife Magda left him. He and Xavier met in Israel in their youth and were once very good friends. Over the years, Magneto has been variously depicted in canon as MWAHAHAHAHAHA! I WILL DESTROY THE WORLD!Evil, Honourable But Tragically Misguided, and Decent Deep Down. Mostly he's been a bad guy, but every now and then he gives being Good a try. He formed The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, back in the day, and probably wasn't being ironic. He has two mutant children, Pietro (Quicksilver) and Wanda (Scarlet Witch) Maximoff, who can't stand him. At least partly because he recruited them to The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Other associates include MYSTIQUE, SABRETOOTH, The Blob, Toad, The Acolytes. Died in GENOSHA, but he'll be back. (ETA: okay, apparently he's back already.)

MYSTIQUE (Raven Darkholme. Possibly not her real name, because, c'mon. Raven Darkholme?): Shapeshifter. She had a female lover, Destiny (Irene Adler) who was precognitive, and is now dead. She's Rogue's foster mother, and Nightcrawler's real mother, though she threw him over a cliff right after he was born, so they aren't close. She's also the mother of GRAYDON CREED. She was briefly drafted into X-FACTOR, but mostly she's been a villain, though she's really more in it for the money than world domination. (ETA: But she's now working for Xavier). Unlike her movie counterpart, she usually wears clothes.

SABRETOOTH (Victor Creed): Sabretooth is also a product of Weapon X, and has much the same powers as WOLVERINE, except for the adamantium and claws. For a while, he had Logan convinced that he was his Dad. Their family reunions were very touching and usually involved a lot of blood loss. Sabretooth's hobbies are killing people and fighting with Wolverine. He also has some history with GAMBIT (dropped one of his girlfriends off the side of a building).

MISTER SINISTER (Dr Nathaniel Essex?): Okay, quit laughing. That's his name. People call him that. He's very intimidating. He's a Mad Scientist, with a fixation on the Summers family in particular and mutant genetics in general. His lackeys are called the Marauders, and whenever they get killed (pretty much every time they leave the lab) he clones new ones. His numerous powers include shapeshifting, teleportation and telepathy, plus when someone blows a hole in him it just closes right back up. He (like APOCALYPSE) is one of these villains who pretends everything that ever happens is according to his Cunning Master Plan, even when the stuff that happens is clearly to his detriment. See also MORLOCKS.

APOCALPYSE (En Sabur Nur): He's several thousand years old. In the future he rules the world. Has a thing about 'survival of the fittest' and 'only the strong will survive'. I've never worked out what his powers actually are, but he has access to a lot of powerful, alien technology. CABLE's mortal enemy. ANGEL isn't very fond of him either.

THE HELLFIRE CLUB: A bunch of rich mutants who dress up in sado-masochist underwear and try to take over the world. Codenamed like chess pieces.

WHITE QUEEN (Emma Frost): Originally the White Queen of the HELLFIRE CLUB. A telepath. After her mutant students, the Hellions, were killed, she turned Good(ish). Became the headmistress of the GENERATION X school, and is currently on the main team. She recently developed a dumbass secondary power -- she can turn into a big diamond. Woohoo.

GRAYDON CREED: The son of evil mutants MYSTIQUE and SABRETOOTH is not only not a mutant, but runs an anti-mutant organisation called The Friends of Humanity. Ran for President on a MUTANTS SUCK platform. He had ICEMAN's dad beaten up once, and even though Bobby's dad is kind of a jerk, everyone was pretty glad when Creed was assassinated.

SENTINELS: Mutant hunting robots sanctioned by the government. Prime Sentinels are ordinary humans transformed with nanotech into killer cyborgs (usually against their will). See also OPERATION ZERO TOLERANCE.






OTHER INFORMATION

AGE OF APOCALYPSE (AOA): A while back, Charles was accidentally killed in the past by his crazy, time travelling son Legion, shunting the whole universe into an alternative time line ruled by APOCALYPSE for about six issues. Some people were evil, some people were crazy -- it was a whole thing. Then the world blew up and they all died.

DALLAS: So, this one team of X-Men died in Dallas, Texas, to save the world. It was a big tragedy, and televised all over the world. Then they were brought back to life and went to live in Australia.

You don't usually get deathfic warnings in this fandom, it's just kind of redundant.

ALIENS: This is not a comprehensive list.
The Brood -- evil parasitic aliens, much like the aliens from Alien. They plant eggs in people and turn them into Brood.
The Phalanx -- evil techno-organic aliens, sort of like the Borg. They want to assimilate the universe.
The Shi'ar -- avian humanoids, who look much like humans, but feathers for hair. And lay eggs. Whenever this huge, powerful, technologically advanced Empire has some problem they can't deal with, they send for the X-Men to fix it. This happens quite often (ETA:but not so much lately). They did give the X-Men some cool technology though.
The Skrull -- evil shapeshifting aliens.
The Z'Nox -- plain old evil aliens. They came to take over the Earth, but Xavier did this thing where he gathered up all the happy thoughts in the world and broadcast them to the Z'Nox, and they were like, " it's the planet of the carebears! run away! run away!"

EVIL TWINS: Enough X-Men have evil twins that I thought I should cover them separately.

BEAST'S evil twin is an escapee from the AGE OF APOCALYPSE. He bricked Hank up in a wall and took over his place in the X-Men for a while. No-one noticed, but they were kind of busy with other stuff.

CABLE has not one, but TWO evil twins. The first is called Stryfe. He was cloned by the Askani when Cable was a baby, so they had a spare in case Cable died. The Askani are kind of whacked. He wears a spiky silver helmet and is a raving lunatic on account of being brought up by APOCALYPSE.
The second, Nate Grey, is another leftover from the AOA. He was made by the AOA Mr Sinister from Scott and Jean's DNA. He isn't evil, just ridiculously powerful. Apparently he's some kind of world shaman now.

MAGNETO'S evil twin was actually a 'good' twin, Joseph. Everyone though that he was a de-aged, amnesiac Magneto, but he turned out to be a clone or something. Magneto killed him.(ETA:No, he didn't. Joseph died saving the world. Probably. See comments for details.)

PHOENIX'S evil twin was a clone made by SINISTER called Madelyne Pryor. After Jean died (the first time) a grieving Scott met an amnesiac Madelyne, and eventually they married and had a baby (Nathan Christopher, AKA CABLE). Then Jean came back. Scott, rather uncharacteristically, abandoned his family to go to her, something which Scott fans just sort of pretend didn't happen. He put off telling Jean about Maddie for about 300 years, and then Maddie 'died' in DALLAS. Eventually Maddie went evil and tried to sacrifice her baby to open a portal to a hell dimension. As you do.

PSYLOCKE'S evil sort-of-twin was called Kwannon/Revanche. They ended up in each other's bodies. Although they looked absolutely nothing alike, they apparently smelled just the same (yeah, thanks, Logan). She's dead.

XAVIER'S evil twin was a woman, Cassandra Nova. It was the stupidest evil twin story ever and, as you can probably tell from the above, that's really saying something. (ETA: Alright, already, and his other evil twin was ONSLAUGHT, okay?)

GENOSHA: Island nation off the coast of East Africa. Genosha 'genegineered' its large population of latent mutants into 'Mutates' and turned them into brainwashed slaves. When the Mutates were freed by the X-Men, their economy collapsed and it's been one civil war after another ever since. The Mutates turned out to be especially susceptible to the LEGACY VIRUS, and many died. Eventually Magneto took over as dictator and put the mutants in charge. Recently the lousy current writers decided a spot of genocide would be fun and interesting, and turned the entire country into a wasteland.

LEGACY VIRUS: A disease deliberately engineered (by CABLE'S EVIL TWIN Stryfe, I think) to kill mutants. It was A Terrifying And Deadly Epidemic that killed a bunch of Genoshan Mutates and a handful of minor characters, before finally being cured by Dr Moira MacTaggert, BEAST and the death of COLOSSUS.

MARVEL TIME: The X-Men have been going about 40 years, however, the characters have only aged 8-15 years (different characters age at different rates). This is because of Marvel Time. None of the original team are older than late twenties/early thirties despite decades of experience, and that WWII was over sixty years ago has had no impact on Magneto's virility (well. except that he's currently dead. (ETA:and he was deaged. oh, and he's not dead anymore. so. never mind.)). The younger characters, such as JUBILEE, may stay at 13 for decades on end, before abruptly being old enough for the main team. There is no point counting Christmases, they usually have one once a (normal time) year. Marvel Time is like an Escher drawing -- don't try to make it make sense.

MORLOCKS: The Morlocks are mutants with unattractive powers/physical appearances who can't make it in human society. They live in the tunnels under New York (there are tunnels under almost every major city in the Marvel Universe -- I understand the ones under New Orleans are particularly unlikely -- and they usually contain disaffected mutants, parasitic aliens or mad scientists. Sometimes all three.) They were almost all killed by the Marauders on the orders of MR SINISTER, in some twisted attempt to cleanse the mutant genepool. ANGEL lost his original wings during the Massacre. GAMBIT'S Terrible Past eventually turned out to be a dumb retcon that he'd helped the Marauders get to the Morlocks, though he didn't know what they were going to do (it's never really been explained what he thought a group of heavily armed evil mutants might otherwise be doing). He managed to save one cute little girl, Sarah -- then she grew up to be a vicious anti-human terrorist and killed lots of people in really disgusting ways. Oops.

ONSLAUGHT: Sort of Xavier's Evil Psychic Twin, with a dash of Magneto. Ended up killing the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and many other heroes. But it turned out they weren't really dead, just living in an alternate universe inside a kid's ball.

OPERATION ZERO TOLERANCE (OZT): Government sponsored operation that loosed Prime Sentinels on America to round up/kill mutants. Led by Bastion, who turned out to be a robot/cyborg himself.

OTHER TEAMS:
X-FACTOR: The 'First Five' X-Men formed another team, on the dumb premise of helping mutants while pretending to hunt them down for the government. Naturally, mutants who saw them coming just ran away. The second team (led by Havok) worked for the government, but in a good way, until it All Went Horribly Wrong. Now defunct.

EXCALIBUR: European superhero team, based in Britain. Generally notably less angsty than any other X-team. Now defunct.

NEW MUTANTS: A generation of younger mutants recruited after the first few teams of X-Men grew up. Became X-FORCE, which was led by CABLE. Included Cannonball (Sam Guthrie, flier) who later led X-Force and briefly joined the X-Men. Now defunct, and possibly dead. (ETA:apparently, not dead. And the New Mutants have their own book again)

GENERATION X: The generation after the New Mutants went to school in Massachusetts. Students included JUBILEE; Husk (Paige Guthrie) who has the power to rip off her skin, revealing various other substances (metal, wood, rubber, etc) underneath; Chamber (Jono Starsmore) who has a, um. psionic bio-nuclear furnace ... thing ... in his chest cavity; and Skin (Angelo Espinosa) who has really tough, stretchy skin. And a bunch of others. Teachers were WHITE QUEEN and Banshee (Sean Cassidy, sonic scream). Now defunct. I think they graduated.

ULTIMATE X-MEN: The Ultimate line of books (which include Spiderman, the Avengers, etc) are an alternate universe in which Marvel's most popular and long established characters are mutilated 're-invented'. Ult-X is basically the X-Men started over, all slick and modern. New origins (Wolverine starts off with Magneto, Colossus with the Russian Mafia), new costumes, new line-up. The characters in Ult-X are all terribly cool, gratuitously violent, and mind-numbingly stupid, as well as having almost nothing in common with their mainstream counterparts. There is some excellent Ult-X fic, perhaps as a desperate attempt to counter the horrific banality of the canon.



CANON PAIRINGS

Actually, there aren't that many canon pairings. At least, not for very long. They break up, they die, they get blown into alternate universes, you know how it is. These are some of the more long-lived relationships.

Cyclops/Phoenix
Jean and Scott are in love across the multiverse. In a thousand different alternate universes, their love is deep and pure and true (apart from the occasional death, insanity, death, possession, death, marriage to other people, death, etc), traumatic, but eternal. Consequently, hardly anyone writes about them as a couple, as there is little one can do to them that canon hasn't already done. Twice.

Rogue/Gambit
Star cross'd lovers Remy and Rogue had one of those on/off relationships. As in, on, off, on, off, please, somebody just fucking shoot them before they get back on again. "If only Ah could touch!" "If only I wasn't married -- damn, didn't I mention that?" "If only Ah hadn't put you in a coma!" and so on. Currently they seem fairly comprehensively broken up, but for a while they were wildly popular, and there is a lot of fic about them.

Angel/Psylocke
Pretty standard X-Men couple -- they were happy, they broke up, she died. There's a fair bit of fic about them.



Rogue/Magneto
She had a fling with him in the Savage Land (the tropical land full of dinosaurs that is hidden in Antarctica. you know the one). Then he killed someone and she dumped him. They were married in the AGE OF APOCALYPSE and had a son. Also, there were some vibes between her and his EVIL TWIN Joseph, at least in so far as Joseph could create vibes with anyone without the aid of special equipment.

Shadowcat/Pete Wisdom
Pryde & Wisdom got together in EXCALIBUR. There was hate at first sight, snarky banter, and actual sex. They were the coolest canon couple ever. They broke up for no good reason, and currently he's dead (I think), but no-one pays much attention to that. There's a lot of fic.

Other relationships occasionally mentioned in fic include: Cable/Domino (she could do better), Havok/Polaris (Lorna Dane, currently insane but usually pretty cool), Iceman/Polaris (she dumped him for Havok), Beast/Trish Tilby (human reporter), Iceman/a series of dreadful girlfriends, Wolverine/Mariko, Angel/Charlotte Jones (human cop), Xavier/Lilandra Neramani (Empress of the Shi'ar), Xavier/Moira MacTaggert (Nobel Prize winning scientist, died of Legacy), Xavier/Amelia Voght (former nurse, then worked for Magneto), Xavier/Gabrielle Haller (mother of his son David/Legion), Shadowcat/Colossus, Colossus/Callisto (leader of the Morlocks), Storm/Forge (mutant inventor), Moira/Banshee.

NON-CANON PAIRINGS

They're all beautiful, and they've all known each for years. Just about any pairing can and does go. These are just the ones that came to mind when I was writing this.

Xavier/Magneto
Many people feel that this is actually a canon pairing, and they do indeed sometimes behave like people who are enemies because they had a really bad break up ("Charles! Give me back my Bee Gees albums or I shall DESTROY THE WORLD!"). I don't often read this pairing, but it has a few talented writers.

Phoenix/Wolverine
There's a big old attraction, but they've never really done anything. It is canon in ULTIMATE X-MEN though.

Iceman/Gambit
One of the most popular slash pairings. They're young, pretty, unattached and rarely interact in canon. They're perfect for each other!

Northstar/Anyone Pretty
He's canonically gay! They're male! They're perfect for each other!

Cyclops/Wolverine
Rivalry, mutual dislike, grudging respect. They're perfect for each other!

Sabretooth/Wolverine
They hate each other with the passion of a thousand fiery suns. Also, Sabretooth may have killed Logan's wife ('may have', as in, we're not sure if a) he killed her, b) she's dead, c) she was really Logan's wife, d) she ever actually existed). They're perfect for each other!


Other pairings include: Gambit/Storm, Gambit/Wolverine, Gambit/Cyclops, Gambit/Anyone with genitalia, Wolverine/Storm, Richter/Shatterstar (both of X-Force), Beast/Iceman, Wolverine/Jubilee (yick), Phoenix/Angel, Iceman/White Queen.



ARCHIVES

The fandom currently has no central archive. There are many, many smaller archives.

Fonts of Wisdom -- the best large archive still being regularly updated. Has pages for several specific characters and couples too.
X-Archive -- slash archive, but not picky about content, and not updated in years. I don't know of any up to date x-slash archive. Anyone? Bueller?
Comicfic.net -- formerly the Itty Bitty Archives. Separate archives focusing on Scott, Logan and femmeslash, as well as a general X-Men one. Mostly gen.
Scott & Logan -- Scott & Logan together, comics & movieverse. Mostly slash.
X-Men Hero Cyclops -- Scott, gen, het, slash, recs. The main page has info and pictures as well, I think.
Alykat's archives -- Down Home Charm (Rogue), Stars and Garters (Beast) and (un)frozen (Iceman). All mostly, though not exclusively, gen (Iceman is slashed more often). Not recently updated.
The Wolverine and Jubilee Page -- d'oh. Stories featuring them together, separately, and with other characters.
Mooksville, Earth -- happy, sappy stories. Mostly slash.
Alara's archives -- fairly comprehensive pages for Magneto, Xavier, Mystique, and others.
The LeBeau Library -- Gambit, gen, het and slash. Regularly updated.
Alternate Timelines -- mostly Cable, Domino & X-Force.
Peeing in the Jean Pool -- Stryfe, Havok, and the best darn name for a page ever.
Minisinoo has an excellent page of links to her favourite Scott and/or Jean stories.
Ebonbird's archive -- mostly gen. Quite a lot of Storm stories.
Lateo's X-Men Links -- what it sounds like.

I know I left things out -- please let me know if you think I missed anything vital, or screwed something up.

Comments

Yay!

[kimberlyfdr.livejournal.com]

As someone who read the X-Men comics growing up and is a big fan of the various incarnations of the universe, I want to applaud you for this overview. Yay! X-Men!

[ratcreature]

I've only read a couple of X-Men comics (and some of them sucky new ones that I tried after watching the X2 movie, but well, they really sucked) but this overview is very cool. I'm still a bit fuzzy on this whole Genosha thing, but it already makes more sense than before. Also apparently the X-Men comics canon is far more confusing and convoluted than even the (Batverse) DC comics canon, and I thought that one was a challenge.

Re: X-Men Comicverse: An Overview

[poilass.livejournal.com]

I've only read a couple of X-Men comics (and some of them sucky new ones that I tried after watching the X2 movie, but well, they really sucked)

Yes, they really, really do. I'm not reading them anymore, I just couldn't take the pain.

I'm still a bit fuzzy on this whole Genosha thing,

Genosha's like Bosnia, but with mutants. Let me know what you're fuzzy on, and I'll try to clear it up.

[anenko.livejournal.com]

Wonderfully snarky, and amazingly, you hit a lot of stuff.

Reading this overview reinforced my nostaliga for the comics, but the Ultimate X-Men bit confuses me--did it replace UncannyXM and XM, is it an alternate universe, etc?

Re: X-Men Comicverse: An Overview

[poilass.livejournal.com]

Ultimate X-Men is an alternate universe. I'll have to clear that up, sorry ;0. They basically 're-invented' the X-Men (and Spiderman, The Avengers, etc) starting over from the beginning, with a different lineup, different origin stories, etc.

[twigged.livejournal.com]

Hey, poi! After you reloaded this page the pics showed up (fabulous overview, btw) but now I'm not seeing them again. I'm not sure what the problem might be. :( Sorry!

Re: X-Men Comicverse: An Overview

[poilass.livejournal.com]

Damn it. Me neither. I think I'll have to put them somewhere else - they're at fortunecity at the moment. Does anyone know what other free space allows remote loading?

I'm at work right now, so it'll have to wait until tonight anyway. Sorry.

[pene.livejournal.com]

I adore this.

[eponymous.livejournal.com]

As somebody who's only vaguely familiar with the X-Men fandom, this was a wonderful introduction. Thank you!

[phantomas.livejournal.com]

I've only seen the films ( ireally like them) but I knew vaguely that there was a lot of canon. Thanks for this overview, is extensive enough and detailed enough to give a better idea!

[weird-one.livejournal.com]

Your overview cracked me up muchly! I just wish I could see the pics as well.

Do you think OnSlaught counts as an evil twin or was he just proof that Xavier has multiple personalities? :~)

Onslaught

[poilass.livejournal.com]

I just wish I could see the pics as well.

Oh, me too. {sigh}. Hopefully they'll be back up shortly.

Do you think OnSlaught counts as an evil twin or was he just proof that Xavier has multiple personalities? :~)

Heh ;P. I think there's some evidence to the latter, actually -- I'm sure there was quite an early issue when something similar happened, he had some sort of alter ego running around attacking people for one issue? I could be wrong though, that happens often.

As for him being Xavier's evil twin, no more than -- actually, I was going to say 'no more than Phoenix was Jean's' and then I realised I really should have put Phoenix in. Oops. But anyway. I don't think he counts, because if he did I'd have to change the damn overview again. So. No. ;P.

[poilass.livejournal.com]

the second X-Factor group led by Havok, which, while Peter David was writing it, was probably the best one of the bunch)

PADFactor! Yeah, baby! ;0.

Devo/Glam, who did (and continues to do) the best Northstar slash I've ever read, and Alicia McKenzie, who was the first person to slash Cable. I don't know the URL, but Jane St. Clare writes lovely angsty X-fic, including Cable slash and a lot of Northstar/Sasquatch (Walter Langowski) stories.

Read 'em all, but thanks!

But it required a suspension of disbelief to read the series,

Absolutely. And I love the X-Men, despite the snark - they were my first real fandom (if we don't count the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and I think it's best we don't). It's just, when you try to explain them to other people, you start to realise just how much of your disbelief you were suspending ;}. But they're still my favourites. Writing the overview made me want to get all my old comics out again.

[andraste]

A good and funny summary. Well done :-). However, there are a few things that are somewhat out of date; hardly surprising if you're not reading the comics of late. And, well, I have to nitpick. It's a compulsion.

His ethics can sometimes be a little questionable, and some fans write him as. well. evil.

Happens way, way less than it used to though. Not that this actually has anything to do with what I was going to say, but I had to say something about Charles ...

He remembers little of his past, and what he does remember, he can't trust, although we know he was an adult during WWII.

Logan's entire origin story was recently revealled in a special limited series. Turns out his name is really James. I don't know much about it beyond that, though.

He's very acrobatic, and is sometimes (fanonically) credited with empathy or a 'charm' power.

The charm powers aren't fanon. He had the charm powers in the very early issues after Claremont created him (back when he was meant to be Longshot after the Siege Perilous) but later writers ignored them. Then Claremont got him back for 'X-Treme X-Men' and he started showing signs of charm powers again. The power Gambit used to get most often in fanon was that 'spatial awareness' thing Valerie Jones invented ...

Nathan Christopher Dayspring Summers, and I think I left a couple of names out.

It's Nathan Christopher CHARLES Dayspring Summers, IIRC. After all of his 'grandfathers'. Not that it really matters *g*.

One of the only canonically gay characters in the Marvel universe.

See also: Destiny, Karma and various members of X-Statix.

He and Xavier met in Israel in their youth and were good friends before falling out over Magneto being evil (I'm guessing. I can't remember).

Well, kind of. The two of them rescued Charles's girlfriend from some Nazis (as you do) who happened to have a big pile of gold. Magneto killed the Nazis and took the gold, saying that he was going to use his powers to help mutants in the coming war. He wasn't really very evil at that point, though, just too violent to stay with Charles. As Charles's breakups go, it actually wasn't that bad ... although the rift grew over time.

Died in GENOSHA, but he'll be back.

Actually, Magneto *is* back, Or, rather, he never went away ...

Mostly she's been a villain, though she's really more in it for the money than world domination.

Mystique currently has her own series and is working for Charles as a special operative. No, really. It's actually cool.

The Shi'ar -- avian humanoids, who look much like humans except for their funny hair.

Feathers. They're bird people. They even lay eggs ... not that anyone wanted to know that *g*.

Whenever this huge, powerful, technologically advanced Empire has some problem they can't deal with, they send for the X-Men to fix it.

Not so much anymore, since Cassandra ... well, I won't get into that.

But you left out the explanation: Charles was dating their Majestrix Lilandra Neramani for years. They're soulmates, so she borrowed his superheroe team like most people borrow their boyfriend's car for the day.

The X'noxx

It's Z'Nox. Isn't it scary that I know these things without checking?

That WWII was over sixty years ago has had no impact on Magneto's virility.

That's because he got deaged/reaged at one point. He was a noticably older man in the original sixties comics.

Xavier went crazy and tried to take over the world, renaming himself Onslaught.

Um, not exactly. Onslaught was a separate energy being created from Xavier's 'dark side' (generally known as the Entity, possibly closely related to Cassandra Nova ...) and bits of Magneto he absorbed while wiping his mind. Kind of like an evil psychic twin.

Now defunct, and possibly dead.

Actually, there's a new New Mutant ongoing series uniting some of the original cast (Dani, Amara, Rahne and Karma so far) with some new characters from the next generation of Xavier's students.

[poilass.livejournal.com]

And, well, I have to nitpick. It's a compulsion.

Heh. No worries. I know I did really shorthand a few things, like Onslaught and Remy's charm power, I just couldn't work out how to go into detail without making it even longer. Because this was like, the highly edited version. (that, and I do have a tendency, if I think something is really stupid, to just pretend like it didn't happen. This is why there are no references to Emma & Scott, Hank's new look, the Neo, or Xavier's daft new students. But that is Bad and Wrong of me.)

Happens way, way less than it used to though.

That's true, but there's still a fairly large body of stories with Evil!Xavier out there. I thought I should give the newbies a heads up. Plus, I just like calling Charles evil. Bald and Evil! Mwahaha!

Logan's entire origin story was recently revealled in a special limited series. Turns out his name is really James.

No shit? Geez. Next they'll be naming Rogue. It'll probably something really imaginative too. Like Marie.

The charm powers aren't fanon. He had the charm powers in the very early issues after Claremont created him

I did know he had some kind of 'talking people into things' power in his first appearance, but I couldn't remember ever seeing it again after that one issue. If he's using it again I'll have to change that. Even if it is kind of stupid.

It's Nathan Christopher CHARLES Dayspring Summers, IIRC.

That's it! Charles! I knew I forgot one. And Askani'son should probably be in there somewhere too ;0. Thanks!

See also: Destiny, Karma and various members of X-Statix.

I've never read X-Statix. Are they the weirdoes that took over X-Force? I remember a lot of fan speculation about Karma after an X-Force appearance, but I wasn't sure it was canon. And apart from Karma being in this new book, I think he remains the only gay main character in a mainstream book.

The two of them rescued Charles's girlfriend from some Nazis (as you do) who happened to have a big pile of gold.

I remember that now. Though I wasn't sure if that was the end of their friendship or if something else happened later.

Actually, Magneto *is* back

Well, that didn't take long. Hark at my amazing powers of precognition! ;-p

But you left out the explanation: Charles was dating their Majestrix Lilandra Neramani for years. They're soulmates, so she borrowed his superhero team like most people borrow their boyfriend's car for the day.

Heh. I thought they broke up though? Actually, I thought they broke up years ago, and then all of a sudden, with the Cassandra Nova garbage, Lil's back, and they're breaking up again.
I did have a whole section on Xavier's girlfriends, but it got cut for length.

The X'noxx

It's Z'Nox. Isn't it scary that I know these things without checking?

I was actually thinking it's embarrassing that I got it wrong ;}. Thanks.

Kind of like an evil psychic twin.

No! Don't say that! I'll have to add him to the Evil Twins!

Now defunct, and possibly dead.

Actually, there's a new New Mutant ongoing series uniting some of the original cast (Dani, Amara, Rahne and Karma so far) with some new characters from the next generation of Xavier's students.

Is it any good? Although I meant X-Force-- I thought they died, except for Sam. Or was that just a one issue thing?

can and does go

[alestar]

She's Southern, which means that she is incapable of saying "I" instead of "Ah".

. . . I can say "I". I simply choose not to.

[Bobby] isn't actually canonically gay

pah. skeptic.

also, my dear, you are really, really fantastic. spreadin' the gospel, girl. hoohah.

[vagabondsal.livejournal.com]

...Good gravy. I don't even want to imagine how long it must have taken to type all of that up.

*prostrates self on ground in humble adoration*

[netninny.livejournal.com]

Oh, the hilarity!

Thanks for putting so much time into this. :-)

*Ï

[ebonbird.livejournal.com]

This is phenonenal. Great Job. You made me laugh and the pictures are pretty.

Oh, and I've got some stories, archived long ago, at http://stoic-simplicity.net/ebonbird/fanfic.html .

Now I'm off to link to this guide.

Go you!

[poilass.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I've got some stories, archived long ago, at http://stoic-simplicity.net/ebonbird/fanfic.html .

I found that again just the other day, while trying to decide what to rec! You've got some great stories there.

Technically...

[alara-r.livejournal.com]

Magneto didn't kill Joseph, fixing Magneto's dumbassed mistake without Magneto's help killed Joseph. They were doing the magnetic equivalent of fighting in a burning building, thoroughly screwing the magnetosphere, because Joseph was being forced to attack Magneto by the person who created him, and then the X-Men came in and started fighting Magneto, and also drove off the person who was controlling Joseph, freeing him up to try to restore the magnetosphere. Except, if the X-Men had not been trying to kill Magneto, Magneto could have *helped* with this and maybe the effort wouldn't have killed Joseph. (Who might not be dead. He discorporated into the magnetosphere. Deader clones have been revived in the past. But probably he is dead because Marvel killed him off at all because they hated him.)

Re: Technically...

[poilass.livejournal.com]

Thanks Alara. I changed it, a bit ;]. And a few other things, but I figure anyone really interested will read down to the comments anyway, and they can get the scoop in detail. (Plus, it's starting to look like one of my school essays, things crossed out, comments in the margins ...)

So anyone who happens to want the Dark Phoenix Saga explained can do it themselves.

[skywaterblue.livejournal.com]

...it's sad that I own maybe two X-men comics, and I knew 80% of that. SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME.

[poilass.livejournal.com]

...it's sad that I own maybe two X-men comics, and I knew 80% of that. SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME.

I guess it's permeated the collective unconscious or something. Cool!

And uh. Sorry. I think it's too late.

Where Are They Now: Generation X

[wgsarah.livejournal.com]

Heyla Poi-

Everyone graduated except for Ev, he managed to get blown up by Emma's sister Adrienne and is deader than a doornail.

More recently added to the roster of fatalities is Angelo who (along with Jubilee who survived like the little fan favorite she is,) was crucified for reasons I can't even being to wrap my brain around without crying "WTF!" with much Summers-like angst, much less explain to others. However due to the fact that TPTB managed to screw up his name in the issue where he was buried, some of us a deeply in denial and expecting a Phoenix-like comeback.

In the 'Wishes She Were Dead' department we have Paige, who is currently on Uncanny and quasi-dating Warren (who incidentally is no longer blue.) Jono recently reappeared, pitching a fit over Paige and her sorta romance despite having a few extracurricular romances of his own, most notably with Britney Spears. Jono actually 'graduated' to the Uncanny team upon the cancellation of Gen X. Got a letter and everything.

Monet reappeared briefly for Banshee's ill-advised "I swear we're really mutant cops" storyline. She hasn't been seen since.

Jubes is currently back in her original position of mooching off one of the core X-Men teams.

I don't think anyone knows what happened to Artie and Leech.

Other notes, just minor: Betsy has a non-evil twin in Captain Britain, late of Excalibur. She's infinitely more interesting, even dead.

Bobby was almost a Dad. Opal sent him a tearful missive that their child (that she was so sorry for not telling him about) had been abducted which sent the Bobster haring over to Japan to save him. Which he did, except the kid wasn't Bobby's and Opal took off with it before Bobby could figure out what was going on. Probably just as scarring as the first mini, but less psychadelic.

Oh, and don't forget about Scottopacalypse. I'm pretty sure that counts as dead. ;)

Re: Where Are They Now: Generation X

[ebonbird.livejournal.com]

Bobby was almost a Dad. Opal sent him a tearful missive that their child (that she was so sorry for not telling him about) had been abducted which sent the Bobster haring over to Japan to save him. Which he did, except the kid wasn't Bobby's and Opal took off with it before Bobby could figure out what was going on. Probably just as scarring as the first mini, but less psychadelic.

I did not know that Opal never actually told Bobby that the kidlet wasn't his. Opal is such an amazing bitch.

And they killed Angelo? The hell. Does anybody remotely interesting have to get offed? Shit. And why can't x-folk stay dead? If anyone deserves to rest in peace, it's them... but still, Angelo? I wanted to see him grow up some more...

[loreleif.livejournal.com]

Really hysterical write-up; thanks muchly! I think I pretty much knew it all already (that's sad, huh?), but I enjoyed your take on it.

Except you failed to mention my favourite pairing -- Kurt/Logan. Hey, at least they're best friends and have interacted for years! Why Logan keeps ending up with Remy, I will never understand.

The Nightcrawler Index (http://www22.brinkster.com/nightcrawler/) is a good reference and also features some pretty good fic of all stripes; I think it's moving shortly, but for now, that link should work.

[faemovana.livejournal.com]

Piotr is artistic, which is probably why they made him gay in the ULTIMATE X-MEN

They made him gay?? Seriously?? 'cause as someone who read the series for six straight years..I just so can't see that. :-D *shakes head* Marvel's weird!

[violin-road.livejournal.com]

yes. and in love with wolverine. it's actually quite cute ♥

and give credit where credit's due-- mark millar is weird. how the whole gay!pete thing is being handled by ultimate's current writer i couldn't tell you, since i don't think he's shown up yet in the current issues [although as i have not read them, i am not entirely certain. apparently it's mostly been spiderman and logan running around, though].

Jean Grey died on the moon

[(Anonymous)]

A very informative snark, excellent.
It is years ago that I have read X-men, I think stopped reading X-men a year after the dark phoenix saga, had been published in Denmark 1994, I can’t check the date because my kid brother, sold my comics (bastard). I tried a couple years ago to get updated on x-men. So I borrow a stack of relative new x-men comics, and wow there were not much I could recognize, from my old X-men. I will only comment to the said changes, that Jean Grey died on the moon, anything else is lie, or as an Danish politician said “if that is the fact, do I deny fact”.
Lakrids

[cynjen]

This is fantastic, really :) There's so much to cover! You've done a great job of condensing it.

::fangirls Poi::

And, for good measure I'm going to pimp Crimson Phrases, WGSarah's GenX fic site, 'cause, um, I can :)

[trishalynn.livejournal.com]

OMG, you're here! I can't believe there's actually a Poi! Does KayJay know you're here? She got sucked into Pirates fandom and is doing good things over there. You can find her at firesignwriter.

Anyway, I work now at Wizard which means I can check out all the trades and read them, but I just never had the inclination to. I do have the first Ult-X trade and am willing to send it to you if you need to scan in pics and whatnot. You can even have it for the cost of shipping!

[poilass.livejournal.com]

Does KayJay know you're here? She got sucked into Pirates fandom and is doing good things over there.

I just found her the other day! Hope to catch up on the pirates stories over the weekend. (Is anyone doing Pirates recs? -- hey, I should make KJ do it. Yes.)

I do have the first Ult-X trade and am willing to send it to you if you need to scan in pics and whatnot. You can even have it for the cost of shipping!

Thank you! If I didn't hate Ult-X with the burning passion of a thousand fiery suns, that would be very cool ;-}. But, you know. I'm really trying to pretend like the whole experience never happened. I never read it, I don't own those comics, these are not the X-Men you are looking for. (I thought I was quite negative about it, actually -- wait, were you being sarcastic? I can't tell.)

Also -- you must sign up to do x-men recs, Trisha! I don't think many (any?) people have, and that is a bad thing.

[ex-thissuga.livejournal.com]

*grins* Wow. Nice work.

also, erm. www.comicfic.net. Formerly the Itty Bitty archives, with all the stories that used to be there. If you were looking for us. and if you weren't, well, there you go anyway. Yet Another Archive. :)

[poilass.livejournal.com]

also, erm. www.comicfic.net. Formerly the Itty Bitty archives, with all the stories that used to be there. If you were looking for us.

I was! Desperately! Damn, I thought the IBAs had gone completely, and was quite disgruntled about it. Thanks Lise!

[kaydeefalls.livejournal.com]

From someone only vaguely acquainted with the comics/cartoons from childhood and now made fan again by the movies, THANK YOU. This rocks so very much.

Just one question. Pyro / St. John Allerdyce. I'm pretty sure he existed before the films. Where is he?

[leadensky.livejournal.com]

He did exist before the films.

He was Australian, possibly of the same age range as Iceman, but iirc they never appeared "on stage" together. Again iirc, he was with Mystique's lot in Dallas. (Making him a Marauder?) Later he got the Legacy Virus and (I think) died.

- hossgal

[ladyclio16.livejournal.com]

Heh! Funny write up. I think I've probably used similar ways of summing up storylines to friends. They can get long and tedious.

Just a few comments. I read the Wolverine Origins comics. His real name is James Howlett.

You forgot to mention that Graydon Creed was killed by his mother. Mystique shot him sniper style.

Scott Summers was thought dead for a while. He sacrificed himself to save Nate "X-Man" Grey. Apocaplypse was trying to take over Nate's body. Scott jumped in the way. Everyone thought him dead for a while. (I guess it was the whole "sort of his kid" thing that made him do it.)

Oh and from what I've heard Nate Grey is dead. Long story, but to sum it up he sacrificed himself to save an alternate earth. Or maybe it was more than one. Still, from what I hear he's dead. Not that that means anything. He's a Summers/Grey for goodness sakes. None of those people properly stay dead. Jean, Scott, Alex, Cable, Rachel, Corsair. No one can seem to kill a damn one of them permenantly. It's downright creepy. Pump a clip full of bullets into them and they'd probably just get right back up and kick your ass for your trouble.