About
The X-Men are a team of Marvel Comics superheroes, all of which are mutants, people born with the “X-Gene” which activates in mutants during their adolescents and gives them superpowers. Mutants are often persecuted and the X-Men stand for equality between humans and mutants and often deal with villains who seek human or mutant superiority.
The X-Men are usually used to reflect social issues like Racism, LGBT issues, Antisemitism, Diversity, The Red Scare and Religion. In general the X-Men represent social outcasts or misfits.
History
Comics
The X-Men were first a comic that was created in 1963 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. The original team consisted of 5 teenage mutants, the leader was Cyclops, whose mutant ability was that he shoots lasers out his eyes whenever he opens them and his team members Iceman a mutant whose body is made out of ice and can create ice from his body, Angel the mutant with wings, Marvel Girl who was a telepath and Beast who had ape like strength and agility, as well as oversized hands and feet (who later grew grey/blue fur when experimenting).
Eventually in the 70’s the X-Men had start to fall out of popularity, and the writer Len Wein along with artist Dave Cockrum revived the series with “Giant Size X-Men #1” (1795) and brought a new more diverse team consisting of Colossus, Storm, Nightcrawler, Sunfire, Banshee, Thunderbird as well former Hulk enemy Wolverine, who would become a breakout character and the most popular X-Man.
The popularity of the X-Men increased with the new team, which was constantly adding more mutants and X-Men like Shadowcat, Psylocke and Rogue and eventually new teams such as Alpha Flight, X-Factor, X-Force, The New Mutants and Excalibur. Wolverine also got his own solo series.
The X-Men had many events like “Age of Apocalypse” or “E for Extinction” and appeared in universe wide events too with “House of M” and “Avengers vs X-Men”. The X-Men are considered a main staple and a big part of the Marvel Universe.
Films
The first X-Men film was released in 2000 making it the second ever big budget Marvel superhero film (first being Blade). The rights were sold to 20th Century FOX due to financial issues with Marvel. The first X-Men film, simply titled “X-Men” which featured different team members than the comics was a big commercial and critical success, and so was the sequel “X2” (2003). However the last of the original trilogy “X-Men: The Last Stand” (2006) and the spin off “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” (2009) received mixed/negative reviews. Later a new trilogy was released starting with “X-Men: First Class” (2011) and then “X-Men: Days of Future Past” (2014).
There are currently more planned films, “X-Men: Apocalypse”, “Deadpool” and “Gambit” are all set for 2016 as well as a third Wolverine film is planned for 2017.
Related Memes
Peace Was Never an Option
Peace Was Never an Option Is a quote from Magneto in the film X-Men: First Class that is often used to reference the character and his aggressive nature.
Magneto Was Right
Magneto Was Right is a meme that describes how the X-Men villain Magneto more violent approach/methods in how he deals with humanity.
Wolverine Crush
Wolverine Crush is an exploitable from the 90’s X-Men cartoon in which Wolverine stares at a picture frame. It is often edited to put someone or something else in the frame to elicit a humorous response.
