History of X-Men Comics

     To understand the X-Men, it's important to understand what was going on in the real world that influence their stories as well as what came before them. So, I'm going to give you a history of comic books.

     Around the 32nd century, the Egyptians came up with hieroglyphics as a way of giving messages through images. Even during medieval times in ancient Europe, pictures were used to tell all kinds of stories in different ways. Soon, art was taken to a new level with the introduction of paper and books, which was brought over to America from Europe. Then the first comic strip came in the form of "The Yellow Kid", after which more and more comic strips were created. In 1933, comic strips soon were made in book format and were mostly based on comedy and animal comedy, which inspired Mickey Mouse and Disney.

     Then, from 1938 to 1950, comics became wildly popular with the birth of the superhero genre, This era was known as the Golden Age of comics, you had superheroes such as Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, the Flash, Green Lantern, Robin, Doctor Fate, Aquaman, Green Arrow, and Captain Marvel (Shazam). Based on the Greek gods of legend, these heroes became extremely popular in the world of DC comics, and are even popular today with the release of movies about them.

     You also had publications under Timely comics that created famous heroes such as the Human Torch (Jim Hammond), The Sub-Mariner (Namor), Captain America and his sidekick Bucky Barnes, and Miss America. These superheroes, especially Captain America, soon became symbols of America's struggle during World War Ⅱ.

     But after World War Ⅱ ended in 1945, readers lost interest in superhero comics and eventually, the superhero genre was forgotten for five years. Readers preferred to read comic books based on romance, animal comedy, western adventures, suspense, mystery, and horror. This era ended when a psychiatrist named Fredrich Wertham wrote a book called "Seduction of the Innocent", which said that children who were reading these mystery and horror comics would be influenced and corrupted by these stories. So parents did what parents do. They freaked out and caused a huge ruckus by burning all of their children's horror and mystery comics in a huge bonfire. I'm not joking with you, it was on the news and in the newspapers.

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     Because of this, an organization called "The Comics Code Authority (CCA)", had to be put together with a code that told writers and artists what they can and cannot do or draw in comic books. Because of this, the comics company was extremely limited in what they could write and so they went back to doing superhero comics because they couldn't keep doing what they had been doing.

     This then gave rise to the Silver Age of comics, which started with DC reviving their character the Flash with his new and very iconic outfit. Meanwhile, Timely comics then becomes Atlas comics, which then gets renamed Marvel comics, named after the first Timely publication title. It's started by "the kings of comics": writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby. They created the Fantastic Four, Spiderman, Thor, Hulk, Iron Man, Doctor Strange, Black Panther, Ant-Man (Hank Pym), the Wasp (Janet Van Dyne), and they even brought back Captain America. By 1963, They had created two new superhero teams. They had the Avengers, which were composed of all the characters they had previously made (minus Spiderman, who became their bestseller). The second team was the X-Men, who were made up of new, never-before-seen characters. The things that make the X-Men so unique, and also why I love them so much, is the fact that they're mostly made up of teenagers, and also the fact that they got their powers naturally through their genetics, which was a new concept.

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     Stan Lee states that when he created the X-Men, he didn't want to have to explain how they got their powers like he did with all the other previous superheroes. So, he simply said that they were mutants. Stan Lee had also wanted to name them "The Mutants", but the editor at the time said that readers wouldn't know what a mutant was, so they named them the X-Men. They are sometimes said to be named after Professor X, but in the comics, Professor X says that he names the X-Men because they have an "ex-tra" power in their genes.

     The X-Men are led by Professor X, a powerful mutant telepath who believes in peaceful coexistence between humans and mutants, In the first issue, the X-Men have their first encounter with their first and greatest villain, Magneto, who has the mutants power to control all aspects of magnetism. Magneto believes that humans will oppress them and that humans (homo sapiens) and mutants (homo superior) will never be able to peacefully coexist and that the mutants should just take over. This sets up the theme and conflicts that the X-Men face throughout the comics to this very day: How should mutants, the next stage in human evolution, use their unique powers in a world that hates and fears them.

     Lots of things that happen in the world of the X-Men have direct parallels to things going on in the real world at the time. This included LGBTQIA+, blacks and women fighting for equal rights and President John F. Kennedy being assassinated in public. For example, the X-Men were created six months after Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I have a Dream" speech for equal rights for blacks. This was a big moment in history that everyone in America was aware of, including Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, who placed his ideologies in the character of Professor X, who believes in peaceful coexistence between man and mutants. But you also have Malcolm X, who unlike MLK Jr., believed that blacks and whites could never be able to peacefully coexist with one another and he also allowed people to use violence to defend themselves. His ideologies were placed into Magneto, who believes that mankind and mutantkind will never be able to peacefully coexist and is willing to kill people to achieve his goal. These are just some of the things going on in the 1960s that had direct connections to the X-Men.

     Unfortunately, despite all this and more, the X-Men ended up being one of Marvel's biggest failing titles and it was eventually cancelled in 1970. But, in 1975, after five years of reprints, during the Bronze Age of comics, a whole new comic was created called Giant-Size X-Men #1. Created by Len Wein and Dave Cockrum, This new issue introduced a whole new roster of X-Men, who would soon become some of the most iconic X-Men of all time. After which new writer Chris Claremont, who is considered the definitive writer of the X-Men, comes onboard and brought the X-Men to another level entirely for 17 years straight, such that they had become the greatest and best-selling comic book of all time, and remain to this day, on of Marvel's top selling comic book ever!