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The team’s original incarnation failed to find a large audience. However, after a 1975 reformation, the X-Men grew to become one of the most hugely popular franchises in the comic book industry, producing dozens of spin-off series and turning many of the writers and artists involved in the series into industry stars.
Since the early 1990s, the X-Men have been adapted into many other media, most notably two animated television series and a string of blockbuster Hollywood movies.
The X-Men are mutants, human beings who, due to a quantum leap in evolution, are born with superhuman abilities. Mutants are often hated by regular humans both because of ordinary bigotry and because humans fear that mutants are destined to replace them. This fact is worsened by a number of mutants, most notably the team's arch-nemesis Magneto who use their powers to try to disrupt and dominate human society. The X-Men were gathered by the benevolent Professor X to protect a world that hates and fears them from Magneto and other threats.
Herein lies the sociopolitical undercurrent of the franchise. Mutants are often seen as a metaphorThere are broad categories of figurative language which are classified as metaphorical (see Literal and figurative language). The more common meaning of metaphor is a figure of speech that is used to paint one concept with the attributes normally associat for racial, religious and other minorities that face oppression. Professor X has been compared to African-American civil rightsCivil rights or positive rights are those legal rights retained by citizens and protected by the government. Examples include the right to vote and anti- discrimination laws. Civil rights movements usually want equal protection of the laws for minorities, leader Martin Luther King Jr. and Magneto to the more militant Malcolm XMalcolm X (pronounced Malcolm Exx May 19, 1925 February 21, 1965 also: Malcolm Little El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz and Omowale was a spokesperson for the Nation of Islam, and founder of both the Muslim Mosque, Inc. and the Organization of Afro-American Unity..
In the early 1960sCenturies: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s Years: 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 Events and trends The 1960s was a turbulent decade of change around, Marvel Comics editor/writer Stan Lee, artist Jack Kirby and several other illustrators produced a number of superhero titles which stressed character personalities and personal conflict as much as action and adventure, including The Fantastic Four, The Incredible HulkThe Incredible Hulk is a comic book superhero in the Marvel Comics universe. He is the alter ego of Dr. Robert Bruce Banner, and manifests as a large, superhumanly strong, (usually) green creature of pure rage. History The Hulk was inspired by the story o and Spider-ManNew York City. Spider-Man (Peter Benjamin Parker, usually simply Peter Parker is a comic book superhero in the Marvel Comics universe. He was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, and first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15 ( 1962). Spider-Man is the quintes. X-Men was one of the last titles of this Silver Age renaissance, appearing in September 1963.
In the comic book series, the X-Men were founded by the paraplegic telepath Charles Xavier, a.k.a. Professor X. Xavier gathered the X-Men under the cover of a "School for Gifted Youngsters" at an large country estate in Westchester County, New York.
Cover-billed as "the strangest heroes of all", the original X-Men consisted of five teenagers still learning to control their powers:
A precursor to the concept of a school for feared genetic mutants appeared in the 1953 science fiction novel Children of the Atom by Wilmar Shiras , which has been credited — though never officially confirmed — with inspiring the X-Men. The title characters of the novel were also mutants, the results of an unintended experiment in genetic mutation. The term "Children of the Atom" has also been used at times during the X-Men franchise's history, often as a subtitle for various X-Men publications and video games.
Despite the philosophical concepts which appeared in X-Men, Lee has said he invented genetic "mutants" to find a way to create a number of super-powered characters without having to come up with a separate and interesting origin for each one.
X-Men #1 also introduced the team's arch-nemesis, Magneto, who controlled magnetism and who felt that mutants should rule over normal humans. Magneto's character would later be fleshed out to reveal that he once shared a friendship with Professor X and that his decree that mutants must conquer or be conquered grew from his experiences as a Holocaust survivor. X-Men #4 introduced Magneto’s team, the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.
While a few other important villains debuted during the 1960s — such as Professor X's superhumanly strong stepbrother the Juggernaut and the mutant-hunting robot Sentinels — the X-Men often fought easily-forgotten mutant criminals, alien invaders and brutish monsters. As a result, this era is largely regarded as unremarkable and X-Men became one of the less successful Marvel series during the 1960s.
Lee and Kirby departed the series in 1966, handing the reins over to Roy Thomas and Werner Roth. In the late 1960s, Thomas was joined by well-known artists Jim Steranko and Neal Adams in an effort to save the series from sagging sales. These issues are more highly regarded by fans and introduced two more X-Men:
Though sales did improve while Adams illustrated the book, it was too little and too late, and Marvel stopped producing new issues of X-Men in 1969. The series continued by reprinting old issues and the X-Men appeared in other Marvel comics, but faded to near-obscurity.