Referenced By / X-Men

"There's nothing too short that I can't cameo!"

The X-Men are one of the most notable Marvel Comics teams and has been referenced in other media.

Examples:

Anime and Manga

• My Hero Academia:
  • There is a silhouette of Wolverine in the first chapter of the manga.
  • There are two characters in My Hero Academia: Vigilantes that resemble Wolverine and Cyclops. Apparently they don't get along either.

Comic Books

• In Adventures of Supergirl, the titular heroine and her sister Alex are ambushed by a villain called Rampage. Rampage knocks Supergirl out and throws Alex into a drainage channel, picks Supergirl and leaves, assuming Alex has drowned. However, Alex emerges out of the sewer waters as snarling furiously "My turn", right like Wolverine did in The Dark Phoenix Saga.
• The Simpsons Futurama Crossover Crisis: Wolverine makes a Lawyer-Friendly Cameo alongside other superheroes from Marvel and DC in the final issue.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Mirage): In issue #15, an X-Men comic is among the comics displayed at the comic book shop that Michelangelo, Raphael, and Casey Jones go to.

Films — Live-Action

• The Internship: The interns try to sidetrack Billy and Nick by having them look for Professor Charles Xavier.
• In My Science Project, Vince reads an X-Men comic book whose back cover is disguised as a notebook in class.
• Sonic the Hedgehog 2: While at the snowy mountain, Sonic mocks Robotnik's new look as "Professor X meets the Monopoly man."
• Spider-Man: In a deleted scene, Stan Lee asks Peter Parker if his glasses are similar to the X-Men.

Literature

• The Dresden Files: In Ghost Story Harry defines all of his neat abilities as a ghost in terms of which Marvel Comics mutant has those powers: Nightcrawler and Shadowcat being most prominent. He's a bit annoyed when he can't think of one that could see in the dark. Harry suspects Colossus would've been more fun.
• InCryptid: Antimony, Artie, and Sarah, being the resident comic book geeks, frequently reference X-Men.
  • Sarah modeled her rules of telepathic conduct on X-Men and Babylon 5. Later, when she becomes an Unstable Powered Woman, she's compared to Jean Grey as Phoenix.
  • In one short story, Antimony says being on the field cheerleading "felt like I was going to pull a Jean Grey and ignite from within". Hilarious in Hindsight when we learn she has pyrokinetic powers in the later books. She also reads Astonishing X-Men in the next scene.
• Kiara from Rogue relates very strongly to the titular X-Men character. She thinks about the X-Men a lot, often comparing her own situation to things that happened in the comics.
• In You Look Different in Real Life, Felix remembers sending Nate a break-up letter on X-Men stationery.
• In Things I Should Have Known, Ethan infodumps to Ivy about the X-Men movies.
• In The Pants Project, bullies call Liv a mutant. Liv thinks that they clearly haven't read or watched X-Men, because mutants are awesome.

Live-Action TV

• The Amanda Show: In a "Blockblister" sketch, a disgrunted customer rents a homemade video called F-Men, starring Blini, Biscotti, and Gnocchi in the respective roles of Wolverine, Cyclops, and a villain. The customer is so outraged with the movie that he tears his arm off and pays the Blokeys with it.
• The Big Bang Theory: In "The Pants Alternative", the gang offer to use their unique skills to help Sheldon prepare for a speech, comparing themselves to the X-Men. Sheldon notes that since the X-Men were named after Professor Xavier, they should be named after his last name Cooper — the C-Men.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer: In the episode Bewitched Bothered and Bewildered an X-Men 2099 poster is seen on the wall next to Xander's bed above his nightstand. Joss Whedon is an avowed X-Men fan, citing Kitty Pryde as inspiration for the Buffy character, as well as writing a 24-issue run for Astonishing X-Men in 2008.
• There are a lot of similarities between Will Graham from Hannibal and the younger Professor X in X-Men: First Class and X-Men: Days of Future Past. Will's "pure empathy" is not unlike Charles' mind-reading power (and since Will's brain contains an abnormally high number of mirror neurons, this would make him a genetic mutant), their Blessed with Suck "gift" can cause them a tremendous amount of agony, and they're both tormented by a love-hate, emotionally intimate, homoerotic friendship with a violent man of equal intelligence who has physically harmed them (Lecter for Graham, Magneto for Xavier). Both characters are dedicated to saving the lives of others, but occasionally their actions are morally questionable. In terms of their altruism, Will takes care of numerous stray dogs, while Professor X provides shelter and education to runaway mutants. As a bonus, Hugh Dancy looks somewhat like James McAvoy (both actors are brown-and-wavy-haired, blue-eyed and possess Pretty Boy-like features), so after Hannibal's debut, Dancy became a very popular fan casting choice for Brian Xavier should the film series ever decide to show Charles' father in a flashback.
• MacGyver: In the episode "Bear Trap + Mob Boss", Jack Dalton tells MacGyver, "You're practically Professor X as it is." Lucas Till, who stars as the titular character, had portrayed Havok in the X-Men films; like MacGyver, Xavier uses his smarts to solve problems, plus he was a Pretty Boy when he was younger.
• Stranger Things: When Will wins one of Dustin's comics in Episode 1, he asks for "X-Men 134". This issue features Jean Grey using her telekinetic powers to unleash Dark Phoenix for the first time.
• Visually, Supergirl's incarnation of Indigo takes inspiration from Mystique's appearance in the movie franchise.

Video Games

• Coffee Crisis has an alien mook who cosplays Professor Charles Xavier by riding on a wheelchair (with an "X" on it's spokes cover) and using his mental powers to blast your characters with beam attacks.
• The Fairly Odd Parents Breakin Da Rules: Wanda does an impression of Wolverine in the comic book level.
• Spider-Man 2 – Enter: Electro: Beast, Charles Xavier and Rogue appear in levels of the game.

Web Comics

• Hark! A Vagrant: "It's In His Nature" has Storm and Cyclops annoyed with Wolverine for scratching the furniture.

Web Video

• The Angry Video Game Nerd has reviewed various X-Men video games for the Nintendo Entertainment System and Sega Genesis.
• Console Wars:
  • In one episode, Greg and Dan see whether the SNES or the Sega Genesis had the better Licensed Game based on the franchise; Mutant Apocalypse or Clone Wars.
  • In another episode, Pat and Dan see whether the SNES or the Genesis had the better version of Spider-Man and the X-Men in Arcade's Revenge.

Western Animation

• Action League NOW!: In "Voice of Treason", as the Action League spend the day cleaning up Action Headquarters while the Chief goes out on errands, Stinky Diver asks "You think the X-Men have to swab the decks? In a pig's eye!"
• Codename: Kids Next Door: Christmas Episode "Operation: N.A.U.G.H.T.Y." features Christmas Elves parodies of the X-Men, including a Wolverine Captain Ersatz with candy cane claws.
• The Simpsons:
  • In the episode ""A Totally Fun Thing That Bart Will Never Do Again"", two kids stage a play, with one portraying Professor X (complete with bald cap, wheelchair and suit) and the other is dressed in a makeshift Magneto costume; they speak their lines with faux British accents.
    Kid playing Professor X: Erik, we must work with the humans!
    Kid playing Magneto: You're so naïve, Charles! We must rule them as conquerors!
  • In "The Caper Chase", the Couch Gag has the family dress up as the X-Men and Stan Lee arrives.

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