History Trivia / UncannyXMen

** Issue #400 shows the story behind the Church of Humanity, the religious influenced enemies introduced in Joe Casey's run in the title, at the same period at Morrison's ''New X-Men''.

** Issue #200 shows Magneto's trial in Paris before an international court, the departure of Xavier to espace and his nominating Magnus as his successor.

** Len Wein was intended to be the main writer of the book in the 1975, but chose to focus on writing for the ''Comicbook/IncredibleHulk''. He had his own plans for the X-Men. "I was going to bring characters in and out of the book, to keep you on your toes. Professor X was going to erase knowledge of the X-Men from the rest of the world, any record of Colossus and Nightcrawler. The people in charge of those records would wander into the room one day and put them in the paper shredder and burn away the files and never notice they weren't there anymore. I was going to have Professor X solve the problems of this international group by eliminating evidence. And then eventually someone was going to stumble over something and go. There was going to be a big conflict. He'd erased the evidence of their existence from the rest of the world, and other people would discover that these characters had been elsewhere first."

** Nightcrawler almost became a [[Characters/DCComics DC Comics Character]]. Dave Cockrum tried to sell him as a member of the {{ComicBook/Legion of Super-Heroes}}. When that did not work out, Cockrum worked on the idea of a spin-off of the Legion that would be called "The Outsiders" and would include Nightcrawler. The editor considered the character too funny looking and rejected him.

** Nightcrawler almost became a [[DCComicsCharacters DC Comics Character]]. Dave Cockrum tried to sell him as a member of the {{ComicBook/Legion of Super-Heroes}}. When that did not work out, Cockrum worked on the idea of a spin-off of the Legion that would be called "The Outsiders" and would include Nightcrawler. The editor considered the character too funny looking and rejected him.

** Creator/JohnByrne (the artist on the ''Dark Phoenix Saga'' and ''Days of Future Past'') had a definite affinity for ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}, leading to Logan getting a great deal of attention during his run. It could be argued that this was one of the primary reasons for Wolverine exploding in popularity and become the poster boy for WolverinePublicity as Byrne’s highlighting of him during some of ''the'' most iconic X-Men runs placed him at the forefront of readers’ minds.

* ScheduleSlip: ''Uncanny X-Men'' #600, which was months late, and as a result, delayed the entire X-Men line of the ''ComicBook/AllNewAllDifferentMarvel'' relaunch.

** ''X-Men'' #138 (the aftermath of ''ComicBook/TheDarkPhoenixSaga'') featuring Scott leaving the X-Men with a bag over his shoulder is used -- much ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #50 -- whenever a writer needs to show a member leaving the team.

** 'Giant-Size X-Men #1' featuring the new team bursting through the cover is practically a lock to be referenced by any "new team" in X-Men or any other superhero comic.
** Issue #137 (the finale of ''ComicBook/TheDarkPhoenixSaga'') featuring Scott and Jean desperately battling on the Moon is also quite popular.
** Issue #138 (the aftermath of ''ComicBook/TheDarkPhoenixSaga'') featuring Scott leaving the X-Men with a bag over his shoulder is used -- much ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #50 -- whenever a writer needs to show a member leaving the team.
** Issue #141 (part one of ''ComicBook/DaysOfFuturePast'') featuring Logan and Kate Pryde standing in front of a wall of mutant mugshots featuring the words "slain" or "captured" has been referenced so many times it's practically its own genre of comic book covers.

** This isn’t to say that writers didn’t have their favorites either. Claremont clearly favored Storm to his other creations, elevating her to team leader status and ensuring her place as the heart-and-soul of the X-Men for decades to come. After his return to the title in the early 00s, he also favoured Kitty. Not that folk are necessarily ''complaining'' on these counts...

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: The title ''X-Men'' was not the first one that came up to Creator/StanLee. "I originally wanted to call the book ''The Mutants'', but Martin Goodman, who was my publisher at the time, didn't like that name. He said our readers wouldn't know what a mutant was. So, okay, since their leader was Professor Xavier, and they each had an "X-tra" power, I decided to call them the X-Men. So I said to Martin, "How about X-Men?" He said the title sounded good so we went with it."
** Stan Lee toyed with the idea of making Professor X and ComicBook/{{Magneto}} brothers. "I always wanted Magneto to turn out to be Professor X's brother. If I had stayed with the book, that's what I would have done. (...) I figured that I could come up with an explanation when I needed it: I always did. But I thought it would be fun if Professor Xavier and Magneto were brothers."

** Creator/ChrisClaremont intended for Siryn to restore the lost powers of Banshee and somehow upgrade them. That never happened. "So my way around it [Banshee's limitations] is to take them [his powers] all away (in X-Men #119, 1979), and my plan is then, through Siryn we give him back his powers. The rough idea I have now is that she uses her own abilities to knit his vocal chords back together by sonic surgery - he will then have these enhanced abilities that his daughter has."

** Banshee was PutOnABus in issue #129 (January, 1980), having lost his powers and deciding to stay in Scotland. According to Creator/JohnByrne there were reasons for this decision. But it was not the original plan to make his absence lengthy -- Byrne and Creator/ChrisClaremont kind of forgot about him. "Banshee, I always thought, didn't really belong which is why I did what I could to get rid of him and finally succeeded in getting rid of him. He was the older, wiser head who was unnecessary because there was Xavier. His power was a long-distance zap, which is unnecessary because of Cyclops. His costume lost any outstanding points it had as soon as we had Phoenix, because he was the redhead with the green-and-yellow costume. So I liked Banshee a lot in terms of his personality but I could never really think of him as belonging in the group and I remember after we wrote him out with X-Men #129 (1980) - the issue that introduced Comicbook/KittyPryde - some five or six issues later, I realized he hadn't been in the book for five or six issues and that I hadn't missed him."

** Banshee was PutOnABus in issue #129 (January, 1980), having lost his powers and deciding to stay in Scotland. According to Creator/JohnByrne there were reasons for this decision. But it was not the original plan to make his absence lengthy, Byrne and Creator/ChrisClaremont kind of forgot about him. "Banshee, I always thought, didn't really belong which is why I did what I could to get rid of him and finally succeeded in getting rid of him. He was the older, wiser head who was unnecessary because there was Xavier. His power was a long-distance zap, which is unnecessary because of Cyclops. His costume lost any outstanding points it had as soon as we had Phoenix, because he was the redhead with the green-and-yellow costume. So I liked Banshee a lot in terms of his personality but I could never really think of him as belonging in the group and I remember after we wrote him out with X-Men #129 (1980) - the issue that introduced Comicbook/KittyPryde - some five or six issues later, I realized he hadn't been in the book for five or six issues and that I hadn't missed him."

** The countries of origin for the new international X-Men were supposed to be determined based on where did Creator/MarvelComics reprints sell well. Something to attract international readership, as envisioned by Al Landau, Marvel Entertainment Group's president. According to Roy Thomas: "Al suggested Marvel do a group of foreign superheroes... characters from countries in which Marvel sold a lot of comics. Stan [Lee] and I liked the idea. Al Landau had his own company called Transworld, which at that time was reselling Marvel's work overseas by the page. He knew that if we, for example, had big markets in three or four countries and we had a team that had three or four characters in it, one from each country, we'd have a terrific hit on our hands overseas." The idea never materialized. According to Thomas: They completely lost sight of the idea of selling the book in a lot of different countries. I dont know why Al Landau let that whole part of the idea be ignored, but at least it was there long enough to have been an impetus to get the new concept going, and then somehow everybody lost the road map. I'm sure I mentioned that to Mike [Friedrich] or Dave [Cockrum] originally, but somehow or other, by the time Len [Wein] was writing the book, the whole idea of having the new heroes be from countries where Marvel sold a lot of comics got lost." According to Dave Cockrum: "The principal idea was that if we had all of these foreign characters, we could export the books to their respective countries. Then we went and picked a bunch of nationalities whose countries weren't likely to take the books to market, places like Russia and Africa."

** Dave Cockrum conceived Nightcrawler before being employed by Marvel, during his service [[UsefulNotes/YanksWithTanks United States Navy]]. The character concept came to him while he was stationed in Guam. And Nightcrawler was supposed to be an actual [[OurDemonsAreDifferent Demon]] from {{Hell}}. "There was a terrible storm going on overhead, we had no lights, it was noisy and loud and raining like hell with thunder and lightning. To keep ourselves occupied and keeping ourselves from being scared to death, we sat around making up characters. We made up this duo, a guy I called the Intruder (a cross between the [[ComicBook/ThePunisher Punisher]] and Franchise/{{Batman}}, with a chrome skull and black jumpsuit) and his demon sidekick, Nightcrawler. The original concept was a lot different in that Nightcrawler would howl at the moon, run up the sides of buildings and do all kinds of weird shit. He really was a demon who had screwed up on a mission from hell and, rather than go back and face punishment, he hung around up here with this do-gooder.“

** Stan Lee toyed with the idea of making Professor X and SelfDemonstrating/{{Magneto}} brothers. "I always wanted Magneto to turn out to be Professor X's brother. If I had stayed with the book, that's what I would have done. (...) I figured that I could come up with an explanation when I needed it: I always did. But I thought it would be fun if Professor Xavier and Magneto were brothers."

** The series spend the years from 1970 to 1975 only featuring reprints. Then it started featuring new material again. But the original plan was for it to keep being a mere reprint series. According to Dave Cockrum all new adventures of the X-Men were intended for the ''Giant Size X-Men'' series. Which, had this idea worked out, would continue indefinitely.

** A storyline in ''ComicBook/SpiderWoman'' #37-38 (April-June, 1981) introduced Siryn, Banshee's daughter. The new character was [[LukeYouAreMyFather introduced to her father]] in issue #148 (August, 1981). Her Creator/ChrisClaremont intended for her to move to Ireland, but he never got around to mention it in a story. "Siryn will stay in Ireland. What I plan to do is have a core group of X-Men and then have a number of characters on the periphery - Polaris, Banshee, Beast, etcetera - who can come in. It will be a ''Series/MissionImpossible'' format: As the story requires, we will use what members we need, and run it like that."

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: The title ''X-Men'' was not the first one that came up to Creator/StanLee. "I originally wanted to call the book ''The Mutants'', but Martin Goodman, who was my publisher at the time, didn't like that name. He said [[ViewersAreMorons our readers wouldn't know what a mutant was]]. So, okay, since their leader was Professor Xavier, and they each had an "X-tra" power, I decided to call them the X-Men. So I said to Martin, "How about X-Men?" He said the title sounded good so we went with it."

** Creator/ChrisClaremont had ideas about Banshee's powers that were never used. "(A) thing that always bothered me about Banshee was that I was never able to exploit his powers to the fullest extent, in the same way I did with Siryn. All he could do was scream, and the scream would burn through things, or cut through things, and he could stun people, and he could fly and that was it. I was thinking, first of all, you could use the sound as a hypnotic agent, you could use the sound to affect the chemical balance of the brain, you could use ultra-low frequency sound for disintegration or stunning. You could create sonic holograms, or use ultra-high frequency to transmit messages. The potential is limitless, but because Banshee is an established character with established powers, to change any of that would have given him "new powers", and that was considered verboten."