TheX-Menhave been a flagship superhero team for decades, with their continued popularity in Marvel Comics ensuring they always have a book on shelves for fans to enjoy. But in the ‘70s,X-Menwas almost canceled due to the delay of an important piece of informationthat ultimately ended up saving the title from being scrapped for good.
Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1963,the original X-Menconsisted of five mutants — Scott “Slim” Summers aka Cyclops, Jean Grey aka Marvel Girl, Hank McCoy aka Beast, Warren Worthington aka Angel, and last but not least, Bobby Drake aka Iceman — all of whom went on to become staple members of the team in the years following.
Selling less than Marvel’s other titles, such asThe Amazing Spider-Man,Fantastic Four, and evenTales of Suspense— a book that split stories between Iron Man and Captain America for a time —X-Menwas initially canceled due to middling sales only for the title to be pseudo-revivedafter Marvel realized the figures were actually inching up rather than down!
The X-Men Survived on Reprinted Stories for Five Years Before Getting New Content
X-Men’s Low Sales Were a Contributing Factor
Written by Roy Thomas and drawn by Neal Adams, these creators did their best tokeep the X-Men franchise aliveas Marvel headed into the ‘70s, with the handful of issues theyhadproduced in the lead-up to the book’s cancellation selling more units than what the title had seen in a while, largely thanks to Adams’ iconic illustrations.
Unable to save the book at that specific moment,Cyclops and his team’s adventures were officially cut short afterX-Men #66was released. However, it wasn’t until Marvel received a delayed sales report that they realized the numbers for X-Men were actually on the rise at the time of its cancellation, prompting the company to take an unconventional step forward.
Acting as publisher of Marvel Comics,Martin Goodman decided that he needed to capitalize on this growing interest in the X-Men, but didn’t want to use the resources to create all-new, all-different stories, instead landing on the next best thing: reprinting old issues with sequential numbering to getMarvel’s Merry Band of Mutantsback in the public eye.
Marvel relaunched the X-Men once again with 1991’s X-Men #1.
Between 1970 and 1975, Marvel published older X-Men stories instead of new ones, withX-Men #67reprinting 1965’sX-Men #12,X-Men #68retellingX-Men #13, and so on, until the release of 1975’sX-Men #93, when a shift in X-Men stories ushered in a golden age for the team, ensuring they would never be threatened with cancellation again.
The X-Men Returned With Brand New Comic Stories in Giant-Size X-Men #1
Released in May 1975,Giant-Size X-Men #1, by Len Wein and Dave Cockrum, instantly revitalized the X-Men for a new generationand set in motion events thatX-Men #94, released later that same year, could capitalize and expand upon — something fans were ecstatic over as it had been five years since the last new X-Men story.
Introducing the newly created mutants of Storm, Nightcrawler, Colossus, and Thunderbird, and evenadding Wolverine into the mix,Giant-Size X-Men #1eventually paved the way for legendary X-Men writer Chris Claremont to make his presence known, as he quickly became the main writer on the continuation ofX-Men, redefining the team in ways that are still felt today.
Luckily for fans,the X-Men were still somewhat active in the Marvel Universe during those years despite them having no true ongoing title, withmany of the mutants featured inX-Men, such as Havoc, Polaris, Beast, and more, crossing over and being featured in other Marvel books, likeMarvel Team-Up,Incredible Hulk,Amazing Adventures, andAvengers, to name a few.
While many fans still have strong feelings about the abrupt end ofthe X-Men’s Krakoan Ageand the way Marvel has treated the team’s recent “From the Ashes” relaunch,there are no shortages of X-Men solo books and team titles on store shelves at the moment, proving (hopefully) that theX-Menwill never come close to being canceled again.
