X-Men Questions — Part 2: X-Teams
This is part of a series on X-Men questions posed by my buddy Rene. See part 1 here.
—
Marvel has always had a whole bunch of X-Men titles out there. Many of them have had puns involving the letter X. That’s kind of a fun trope at this point. Hell, we even had a character called X-Man at one point and he was so perfect/on-the-nose that he wished himself out of existence (kind of). It’s a whole ordeal.
Rene’s question this week was about the “split” in the X-Men:
Why are there two X-teams? Is it like Schism?
In 2017, Marvel launched their ResurrXion “event” kicking off a whole new generation of X-Men books. In the fallout of the Inhuman War (that’s a whole different article…), X-Men fans were greeted with a whole new slew of X-Men books all started at #1.
Over time, X-Men team books have been good, bad, very bad, misunderstood, bad, kind of okay, and then all right. The good is in all of them, but it’s been very murky. I don’t know where I’m going with this, but what I’m getting at is that there’s been a lot of X-Men team books and the latest generation of books is mostly on the upswing.
Today’s question is all about those team books and the divide. So let’s dive in.
Note: I’m going to answer these questions to the best of my ability and opinion with the help of Google, UncannyXMen.net, Wikipedia, and a few other sites.
Before we start, I want to warn you: There will be full spoilers for all X-Men titles as of August 13, 2017.
The split of the X-Men teams
Not to be the “um, actually” guy, but um, actually, there are… five X-Teams out there. For some context, Marvel is currently publishing 10 X-books:
- All-New Wolverine
- Astonishing X-Men 👪
- Cable
- Generation X 👪
- Iceman
- Jean Grey
- Old Man Logan
- Weapon X 👪
- X-Men Blue 👪
- X-Men Gold 👪
Of those books, five are team books (noted with a 👪 because emojis are a thing and used one, I guess). But to answer your question, which is likely regarding X-Men Blue and X-Men Gold…
X-Men Gold
X-Men Gold is the “classic” X-Men story. It’s “back to basics” starring your favorite X-Men characters:
- Kitty Pryde
- Colossus
- Rachel Grey (now going by Prestige)
- Nightcrawler
- Storm
- Old Man Logan
This book is pretty much the best entry point for X-Men right now. I’d recommend it to anyone who’s looking to get back into X-Men or even anyone who’s maybe seen the movies or a cartoon and wants some X-Men stories in their life. Marc Guggenheim is kicking butt writing this book.
X-Men Blue
X-Men Blue is the young X-Men-from-the-1960s-in-the-present story. Lots of backstory here that can be found in All-New X-Men (2013–2015) but, essentially, the team from the past finds that they can’t go home, so they need to figure out how to be heroes in the present.
This team is made up of the classic X-Men:
- Jean Grey
- Cyclops
- Beast
- Iceman
- Angel
There’s all sorts of teen drama and a few fun twists on the characters. I really like this book, but it requires some reading. I mean, you could probably survive reading the X-Men Prime one-shot that, in my opinion, did a solid job summing up the last 4–5 years of X-Men (including Inhumans v. X-Men) in preparation for both X-Men Gold and X-Men Blue, while also pre-prepping you for the other 8 books.
But why are there two teams?
I think the answer to this is because Marvel wants to do a lot with the X-Men and they need to try out a few angles. So, there’s five teams:
Weapon X is for action-packed stores.
X-Men Blue is for deep-X-Men nerds who want a twist on a classic.
X-Men Gold is for approachable, classic X-Men stories.
Generation X is for teen drama and high school antics.
Astonishing X-Men is (from one issue) for huge character ensembles that dabble in classic villains and character development (also likely to be the book that triggers X-Men crossover events).
What about Schism?
Schism (2011) was one of my favorite, most easily-dismissable cross-over-ish stories in the last few years.
The Cyclops v. Wolverine drama was at its peak. Truly. It’s always been there. It’s always been about Jean Grey (😫) or some other BS about leadership¹.
Schism, ultimately, was about two dudes who couldn’t compromise when a bad thing happened. The bad thing? New Sentinels trying to kill the X-Men (created by the new Hellfire Club made up of tweens…) and also every human they can find. Cyclops and Wolverine have very, very different thoughts on how to deal with this problem, ultimately causing the “Schism.”
After 4 issues of yelling and screaming, Cyclops pushing for all X-Men (young and old) to fight, and Wolverine trying to protect the children, the final issue ends with the X-Men winning. But the cost is this: Wolverine and Cyclops have some serious beef over “using kids as soldiers.”
Wolverine leaves Utopia (whole other story there), taking anyone who wants to just be a student… which is a lot of folks.
I say I loved this story, but not for the bro-ness of it. The fallout of this “event” created one of the most ridiculous X-Men runs in a long time — Wolverine and the X-Men. While Cyclops and Emma Frost and Magik were recruiting “soldiers” and it was harsh yet funny, Wolverine and the X-Men was 100% insanity and goofiness — art problems aside.
Mike, get back to the point
So, is the split in the current teams of the X-Men like Schism? Ultimately, no. X-Men Blue and X-Men Gold are separate books but not by any ideological differences on how schools should be run or between leaders.
X-Men Blue is about kids coming to terms with being heroes in a new world and learning to cope with change (ie. Magneto is their mentor).
X-Men Gold is about the politics of the X-Men and managing the ever-changing landscape of being a hero in “the real world.” (Real being the Marvel universe)
Generation X is about being a teenager who is unsure of themselves.
Weapon X is about kicking the asses of those who hunt you.
Astonishing X-Men is about being a hero on an epic scale.
If you ask me², there’s an X-book for just about everyone
1 — Side Personal Note: Wolverine is always depicted as a loner until he buts heads with Cyclops and then suddenly he’s a leader?
2 — Don’t ask me. I’m incredibly biased.
For more of my thoughts on the X-Men and comic books in general, make sure to checkout the I Read Comic Books podcast where almost every week I find a way to bring up the X-Men on the show.
