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The X-Men are a superhero team in the Marvel Universe. They were created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, and first appeared in The X-Men #1 (September 1963).
Under a cloud of increasing anti-mutant sentiment, Professor Xavier creates a haven at his Westchester mansion to train young mutants to use their powers for the benefit of humanity, as well as to prove mutants can be heroes. Xavier recruited Cyclops, Iceman, Angel, Beast and Jean Grey, calling them "X-Men" because they possessed X-tra power due to their possession of the "X-Gene", a gene which normal humans lack and which gives mutants their abilities. Though the X-Men started off with just five members, as the years went on, many characters joined the team. Just as many left, and some returned.
Early issues introduced the team's archenemy, Magneto and his Brotherhood of Mutants, who would battle the X-Men for years. Although the original team was composed entirely of WASPs, the All-New, All-Different team of 1975 was incredibly diverse, and subsequent team makeups have kept this aspect.
The X-Men comics have been adapted in other media, including animated television series, video games, and a successful series of films.
Due to a massive spike in popularity in the late 80s, now covers a whole franchise of different titles. These are some of the various spin-offs to be found here on TV tropes.
Comic book titles linked to the X-men include:
...and too many more to name. Every major character has had at least one miniseries, usually several. See what The Other Wiki has to say about it.
In addition to the comic series, they have also been adapted to television.
The X-men comics contain examples of:
- Academy Of Adventure: The Charles Xavier School For Gifted Youngsters.
- All Of The Other Reindeer: Many of the X-men are ostracized for their gifts.
- Amusing Alien: Lockheed the dragon.
- An Ice Person: Founding member Iceman is one of these.
- Apocalypse Maiden: Jean Grey as the Phoenix.
- Colossus in the Breakworld Arc.
- Magik in Inferno
- Anti Hero: Wolverine is the archetypal example, but many more have joined
- At present count, these X-men characters are Anti Heroes: Archangel, Cyclops, Emma Frost, Magik, Psylocke, Rogue, Sunspot, Wolverine, Warpath, X-23. Really, it's starting to look like there's more anti-heroes than there are heroes. It can't just be Mass Character Derailment due to the need to be Darker And Edgier, right?
- Arc Fatigue: Numerous storylines went too long, in many fans' opinions.
- Author Catchphrase: Especially during Chris Claremont's run.
- Back From The Dead: Professor X was the first major character, but later on Jean Grey remains one of the first superheroines to be brought back from the dead. But if you think she was Killed Off For Real even a fraction as many times as Magneto, you haven't done your homework.
- It has become something of a joke at how many characters have died and returned. But trying to avert this not only fools nobody, it comes across as writers using averting this to get rid of characters they don't like.
- Badass Family: The Summers.
- Bad Future: "Days of Futures Past" is a major one, where Sentinels have taken over the world.
- Apocalypse also takes over the world 2,000 years in the future and is equally awful.
- Barrier Warrior: The Blob and Unus the Untouchable are examples of these. Subverted in that they're both obnoxious Jerkasses who use their powers to bully others.
- Bat Family Crossover: Very common; at times, the X-Books have almost seemed like an entirely separate universe. Inferno and Onslaught averted this, however, as did Maximum Security.
- One of the major complaints of the franchise is that Marvel rarely acknowledges the oddity of mutants getting so much more flack than other superpowered beings.
- Big Bad: The major evils of the X-Men universe are Magneto and Apocalypse.
- Black And Gray Morality: This gradually creeped in ever since the late 80s Mutant Massacre, but got blatant by derailment the past few years.
- Blessed With Suck: Apparently, evolution isn't too good at telling when a mutation totally sucks.
- There are several examples (Cyclops, Blob, Rogue; the list goes on and on) but the Gold Medal would have to go to Wither, who literally has the power to suck out life-force... which is uncontrollable, and activates at any and all skin-to-skin contact. Blessed With Suck figuratively and literally.
- At least Rogue's damage is temporary if she's careful, whereas Wither tends to irreversibly cripple or horribly kill anyone he touches. After M-Day, he thinks he can finally hold the hand of the girl he's in love with... and promptly maims her. Poor kid.
- Rogue also does not drain life-force, she drains powers and memories. This was briefly changed to an instantly killing touch, but then switched back again, and with the addition that she now has full control of the process and can touch people regularly, so she's not part of this category anymore.
- Cyclops is a special case actually: His powers ought to be as controllable as any other energy blaster, but he suffered a concussion in his youth (his parents had pushed him out of a plane when they attacked by the Shi'ar), which somehow lead to his inability to shut off his powers after they emerged.
- Blown Across The Room: Cyclops' eye beams knock bad guys back, but not Cyclops himself. It's one of the ways he's immune to his own power.
- Broken Aesop: Many.
- Marvel recently got a ruling saying mutants weren't people for purposes of merchandising. See here.
- Also, after decades of using mutants as a metaphor for an oppressed minority that we should love and respect, Joe Quesada mandates the Decimation event, in which a vast majority of the Marvel universe's mutants are depowered and there are in the low three digits of mutants left.
- Bury Me Not On The Lone Prairie: Destiny gives Mystique a precise request on where and when to scatter her ashes because she knows the future. (As it turns out, Destiny has quite the sense of humor.)
- Canon Sue: Wolverine literally cannot die, and basically has the whole of the world revolving around him.
- Character Derailment:
- Madelyne Pryor gets transformed from a Badass Normal (apparently) member of the X-gang into the villainous Goblyn Queen. It's primarily remembered as a bad attempt to get rid of what was viewed as a major impediment to Jean and Scott's relationship.
- Grant Morrison's portrayal of Magneto actually got retconned into being someone else due to the outcry.
- Morrison also derailed Emma Frost. She was not a Spoiled Brat who manipulated just to be mean. She was manipulative as a villain because of her ambition, and when she turned into the leader of Generation X, she was a surprisingly caring and polite woman.
- Scott's Jerk Ass state after Messiah Complex, and Jean doesn't mind staying in the white hot room, because all she wants is for "Scott to live", compared to when one of the first things she wanted to do upon awakening from her cocoon was to help mutants again.
- Xavier's violation of his ethics, usually an attempt to add depth to him, more often come across as this.
- Juggernaut. He goes through a lengthy period where he re-examines his villainous life and comes to join his step-brother Xavier's team. He even grows close to a young mutant and bond over a shared background of abusive fathers. Then, in an attempt to save his brother from an enraged Hulk, he taps into his evil source of power again.
- Claustrophobia: Storm.
- Cloning Blues: Jean Grey and Madelyne Pryor. Cable and Stryfe. Wolverine and X-23.
- Clothes Make The Legend: Averted for most characters, with all the costume changes. Magneto is one of the few who's kept the same general costume.
- Comic Book Fantasy Casting: John Byrne based the original designs for all the Hellfire Club characters on famous actors.
- Complete Monster: X-men goes back and forth on this. Magneto and Mystique both have been shown to have redeeming qualities amongst other villains. Villains who are total scum and deserve nothing more than to be put down like rabid animals include Apocalypse, Cassandra Nova, Dark Beast, Donald Pierce, Selene, The Marauders, Mister Sinister, The Sentinels, Sabretooth, Sebastian Shaw, Shadow King, and Reverend Stryker.
- Continuity Snarl: Everything from the pasts of many characters to the origin of mutants.
- Critical Research Failure: The Church of Humanity attempts to make Nightcrawler Pope, kill Catholics with skin-melting communion wafers, thus faking the Rapture (which Catholics don't believe in) and revealing Nightcrawler as a Demon and cause a worldwide loss of faith in Catholicism.
- There have been quite a few goofs over the years. One from the Byrne-Claremont run showed Colossus using an iron bar as a lever to move the Blob, but by using the shorter end, which would make it proportionately heavier... There are also all of those instances of supposedly regular people punching out monsters who just took an uzi barrage to the face, but that's part of the charm.
- Crapsack World: The Marvel Universe verges on this for mutants. Let's face it, they've actually been hunted by lynch mobs in Boston of all places.
- The Days of Future Past reality and Age of Apocalypse are more straightforward examples.
- The Crown: Storm, who is now Queen of Wakanda.
- Dark Lord: Apocalypse does this in Cable's future and during the Age of Apocalypse.
- Dark Skinned Blond: Storm.
- Demonic Possession: The Shadow King is a recurring X-Men villain with the psychic powers, who does not have a physical form (whether or not his is a mutant is debatable). To compensate he possesses the bodies of others.
- Depending On The Writer: Many of the characters, since there are a lot of them and have been a lot of writers.
- Designated Hero: Scott and Logan trade the Douchebag Ball back and forth, though it looks like Scott's going to be hanging onto it for a while now.
- Did Not Do The Research: If you have a detailed understanding of animal behavior, Wolverine seems less like an animal but more like a very violent human while in berserker mode. (Which, of course, he is.)
- Die For Our Ship: Every corner of the Emma Frost/Scott Summers/Jean Grey/Logan love quadrangle has its shippers and detractors. Same for Rogue/Gambit and just about every relationship here.
- Does This Remind You Of Anything: "Mutant = black" was a major theme in The Seventies and The Eighties, now more-or-less abandoned for "mutant = gay".
- Which brings us to Have You Tried Not Being A Monster. X-Men is one of the Trope Namers. Mutant = being gay but with snazzy superpowers, and no marriage controversy, but giant robots want to kill you.
- Unless you're a gay mutant. Poor, poor Northstar, who is both of those things, and French-Canadian on top.
- Additionally: In the book Who Needs a Superhero?, H. Michael Brewer uses the X-Men (and mutants in general) as an illustration of how Christians are to be "in the world, but not of the world." He discusses the four basic ways mutants deal with being hated by humans (peacefully coexisting [Xavier], attacking back [Magneto], compromising to fit in (Nightcrawler's holographic disguise), or withdrawing entirely [the Morlocks]) and how each fails to capture the entirety of the Christian's duties. (Better solution, says Brewer: a cross-over.)
- Just as the "mutant equals gay" thing has a few problems as an analogy, so does "mutant equals Christian". Such as no ability to evangelize — you can't bring normal humans "into the fold" as it were. (Though see the first movie.)
- Elemental Baggage: For Storm and Iceman's powers sources of water and ice, respectively.
- Ensemble Darkhorse: Wolverine, Psylocke, Nightcrawler, Shadowcat.
- Evil Costume Switch: Dark Phoenix
- Evilutionary Biologist: Mr. Sinister; Dark Beast; Apocalypse;
- Evolutionary Levels: Mutants as "homo superior".
- Somewhat justified in that Magneto coined the term as basically propaganda.
- Face Heel Turn: Gambit, Bishop.
- Gambit, especially has turned this into a revolving door.
- Family Unfriendly Aesop: Frequently, Rogue gets forced into keeping her powers despite how mind-numbingly horrible they are.
- Fantastic Racism: One of the main points of the comics. They protect a world that fears and hates them.
- Fight Off The Kryptonite: Usually, with telepathy.
- Fire Forged Friends: Wolverine and Rogue are particularly notable.
- Five Man Band: The original team founded by Xavier: Cyclops (The Hero), Beast (The Smart Guy and The Big Guy), Angel and Iceman (taking turns being The Lancer) and Marvel Girl (The Chick). Professor X was The Mentor and Mimic eventually joined as The Sixth Ranger (and arguably took over as The Lancer too ... but then, stealing other people's abilities was kinda his thing.)
- From A Single Cell: Wolverine, occasionally, though it isn't usually well received.
- Gang Of Hats: The Hellfire Club (the mutant mafia, essentially) all dress themselves as 18th Century British aristocrats and take on the titles of chess pieces.
- Genre Savvy: Anole. When Elixir tells him that he has to learn human anatomy to make his powers more effective, Anole just points out that the X-Men always have knowledge like that dumped into their heads telepathically. Also, when interrogated by SHIELD to reveal the location of his friends, he simply goes over a list of all the unlikely places the X-Men and New Mutants have gone.
- Giant Space Flea From Nowhere: Though their mission statement is to fight against human racists and mutant terrorists, at least a third of Chris Claremont's run had them fighting against random evil aliens. To be fair, audiences would have grown bored if the storylines were solely about human racists and mutant terrorists.
- Greater Need Than Mine: When Rogue first joined the team, and was mortally injured, Wolverine forced her to absorb his powers, despite his own injuries.
- Guile Hero: Xavier loves sneaking around and setting up long-term schemes, going back to the first time he faked his death in the Silver Age.
- Have You Tried Not Being A Monster: See Does This Remind You Of Anything.
- Heel Face Turn: Gambit, Magneto during his "headmaster" phase, Emma Frost, Juggernaut, Rogue.
- Emma Frost is the only one with which it actually seems to have stuck (but not without massive derailment in other ways).
- Forgetting about Rogue are we?
- Heroes Gone Fishing: Mutant baseball.
- Heroes Want Redheads: It's gotten less frequent since Joe Quesada became editor-in-chief, though.
- Hollywood Tactics: Frequently in the older comics and in the movies.
- I Just Want To Be Normal: A number of mutants, thanks to the aforementioned Fantastic Racism and other issues. Rogue is the poster child for it.
- I Just Want To Be Special: The U-Men are a bunch of humans who want to be Mutants.
- Donald Pierce turned himself into a cyborg because he hated being weak compared to Mutants.
- Implacable Man: Nothing can stop the Juggernaut!
- Joker Jury: Factor 3.
- The Juggernaut: Arguably the Trope Namer.
- Killer Robot: The Sentinels
- Kudzu Plot: Claremont's uncannily long stint on Uncanny X-men
- Lesbian Mouse Babies: One proposed origin of Nightcrawler, as Destiny and a temporarily male-morphed Mystique's son.
- Leotard Of Power: Storm and Psylocke traditionally wear these, though there are several others.
- Load Bearing Hero: Colossus.
- Loads And Loads Of Characters: And loads and loads...
- Loves The Sound Of Screaming: Sabretooth. In spades.
- Manipulative Bastard: Mr. Sinister, resident Evilutionary Biologist.
- Sebastian Shaw and Emma Frost also qualify.
- Meta Origin: The X-Gene causes all sorts of different physical changes.
- More Hero Than Thou: Wolverine and Scott Summers used to get into this all the time.
- Mutants: Of course.
- Never Live It Down: Jean doesn't actually come Back From The Dead that much. It only truly happened once (other times were fakeouts or resurrecting instantly, which applies to half the other characters as well). She was known for lots of crazy things happening to her, but it got recently morphed into solely coming back from the dead, when that isn't true.
- It's probably due to the "like a Phoenix from the ashes" idea.
- Scott Summers had his squeaky clean image tarnished by his shabby treatment of Madelyne Pryor, although he was called out for it (and even worked to atone for), but now those Running The Asylum have morphed him into a total dick (and pretended he just dismissed Madelyne, which wasn't the case; he tried to come back to her more than once, but she had already ran away).
- Never Hurt An Innocent: Magneto, Depending On The Writer.
- No Fourth Wall: (Deadpool Just follow the link and notice how he shows up in the fourth panel.
- Painting The Fourth Wall: Deadpool is perhaps one of the shining stars of this trope, due to his Medium Awareness for his being in a comic book, to the point of answering his own letters column.
- Painted On Pants: Nearly every female X-Man wears these at least once (but all the costume changes mean none have worn them constantly).
- Phlegmings: Often exhibited by Wolverine, the Brood, and many others.
- Playing With Fire: Longstanding villain Pyro was one of these, although he couldn't actually create fire. Other villains like Fever Pitch also exemplified this trope.
- Playing With Syringes: The Weapon-X project.
- The President's Daughter: Layla in House of M
- Pretty In Mink: Some of the more well off ladies will wear fur at some points.
- Professor X Likes Watching Teenagers Sweat
- Psychic Powers: Professor X, Jean Grey (and all of her time-traveling offspring), Psylocke, Emma Frost... the list goes on.
- Random Power Ranking: In the comic, they have Greek letters for a mutant's power level. Omegas, the highest, can manipulate matter on the atomic level.
- Ret Con: Absurdly common, especially with characters with mysterious pasts.
- Rogues Gallery: Magneto and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, Mister Sinister and the Marauders, the Friends of Humanity, the Sentinels, Gene Nation, Humanity's Last Stand, the Brood, the Phalanx, the Shadow King, Nimrod, the Juggernaut, Black Tom Cassidy, the Hellfire Club, Apocalypse and his Horsemen, the Acolytes of Magneto, Sublime, the Reavers, the Mutant Liberation Front and the Weapon X project (*whew!*) have all functioned as recurring enemies for the X-Men as a group.
- Rule Of Drama: Common. For example, Rogue and Gambit. Every time a writer tries to resolve the angst of their relationship, the next one will find a way to stir it up again. Ditto for Polaris and Havok; the writers have used actual black holes to keep them apart.
- Scary Dogmatic Aliens: The Brood exist to mutilate and enslave other races, transforming them into still more of their depraved kind. The Phalanx exist to convert all other entities in the universe into part of their race of living circuitry. Both have clashed with the X-Men.
- Shape Shifter Swan Song
- Slash Fic: Very common.
- Well with all the gay subtext, what do you expect?
- Point. And then there is Nightcrawler, another particularly flexible X-Man who's especially skilled with his tail. Yeah, he makes a frequent appearance in those fics too.
- Cable & Deadpool spawned a legion of Cable/Deadpool slash fic - though considering the content of the comic, one has to wonder if that was their intent.
- Spider Limbs
- Skunk Stripe: Rogue
- Space Pirates: The Starjammers
- Spotlight Stealing Squad: Wolverine is the poster boy.
- Emma frost is now the most prominent woman on the team, over all the others who've been there longer.
- Strangled By The Red String: Emma Frost and Scott Summers.
- Storm and the Black Panther is another major example.
- Stripperific: Dear God, this trope.
- The worst offenders in the X-men are probably Emma Frost and Psylocke. Emma Frost is so bad that a lingerie teddy was her original costume and it got worse from there. They've even Lampshaded it in one comic, where the students are glad she wears pants now. Psylocke is noted that its not so much that her comic is revealing as it is a thong and might as well be painted on.
- Well, she was part of a club which prided itself on "going back to a purer time where money ruled without sexual inhibitions".
- Storm, of course, used to go without her costume entirely.
- Even Rogue, whose inability to control her powers means that her official costumes tend to cover her completely from the neck down, gets in on this with her civvies, in what's either an intentional effort to keep people at arm's length or just a case of holding the Idiot Ball.
- Summers Family Tree: The Trope Namer
- Sunglasses At Night: Cyclops, to keep control over his powers.
- Super Empowering: Sage, but only for those with latent mutations.
- Super Registration Act
- Superhero School: Xavier Academy, especially right in the beginning and in recent years.
- Time Travel: Starting with "Days of Future Past".
- Use Your Head: The Juggernaut
- Wangst: Rogue could fix the side-effect of her involuntary Mega Manning ability quite easily by wearing a power-inhibiting collar or bracelet and turning it off in combat, but apparently that wouldn't be as interesting as seeing her whine about her condition for going on thirty years. At one point it was insinuated that she refused to wear the inhibitor tech because she'd been raped that way while imprisoned in Genosha, but that's been retconned. This has been lampshaded at least once.
- What Kind Of Lame Power Is Heart Anyway
- What Measure Is A Non Human: For those who think mutants aren't human.
- What Measure Is A Non Super: For Magneto and his bunch. The X-Men, naturally, oppose both sides.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Sometimes characters get called out on things they did, sometimes not.
- White Haired Pretty Girl: Storm.
- Wolverine Publicity: Trope Namer.
- You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Many characters, like Polaris and Psylocke; these usually show up as a side-effect of their mutation expressing itself.
- Psylocke actually dyed her hair, which was originally blonde, up until Spiral and the Body Shop got hold of her. After that all bets are off.
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