Mutantkind needs the X-Men more than ever. It’s going to take something extraordinary to save them.
Extraordinary X-Men is a comic book series born out of Marvel Comics' All-New, All-Different Marvel 2015 brand-relaunching. The series is written by Jeff Lemire (of Animal Man fame) and penciled by Humberto Ramos. The series replaces Uncanny X-Men as the "main" title during All-New All-Different Marvel, and depicts the new status quo for the X-Men.
After Secret Wars ends, the entire Marvel Universe does a Time Skip to eight months later. During that time period, something happens between the X-Men and The Inhumans (later revealed in Death of X) which leads to mutantkind being more endangered than before; namely the terrigen cloud drifting across Earth waking up latent Inhumans' powers having a terrible effect on mutants. Some of the X-Men have left the team and leader Cyclops is nowhere to be found. During this trying time, Storm assembles a team consisting of Colossus, Nightcrawler, Iceman, Jean Grey (the teenage Jean Grey displaced from the past), Magik, and Old Man Logan who's been displaced from his universe.
Also see Uncanny X-Men, the previous "main" title going under a Darker and Edgier direction for volume 4. See also All-New X-Men, the series teenage Jean Grey is from, and Old Man Logan (2016), where Logan's solo adventures continue.
The series ended in April 2017 and was replaced by two flagship team books: X-Men: Gold and X-Men: Blue.
Tropes Include:
- All Love Is Unrequited: Storm shows that she's a bit bitter about the fact that Jean managed to convince Logan to join while she herself couldn't. This is also in Old Man Logan, when she again reaches out to him only for him to turn away. In Old Man Logan's timeline (which branched off from the main one a bit after Civil War), he and Storm were never a couple and Logan was married.
- Badass and Child Duo: Naturally Old Man Logan forms one of this, this time with teen Jean Grey.
- Catchphrase:
- Storm starts using Professor X and Cyclops' old one "To me, my X-Men".
- For Logan, it seems that his has become "I'm tool old for this #@*!".
- Despair Event Horizon: Nightcrawler seems to have crossed it after rescuing young mutants from mass execution and seeing a mass grave of previous victims.
- Right after returning to school in Limbo, Storm is so confused and try to pull herself together and wonder if they really should go to war with the Inhumans. However, Storm don't get the chance of fifteen minutes rest as she learn of a dying young girl, who looked up to her as her number one hero and want to meet her. When Storm sees the girl at her death bed the girl ask if she can join the X-Men under the codename Lucid, Storm accept the girl as an X-Man much to her happiness, but a moment later. Storm is so affected by this that she unconsciouslly caused a lightning and rain that kept falling till the end of the issue. Also, when Storm come out from the tent and tell the others that the girl is dead and she tell them that the moment Lucid died while they held hands she admitted to herself that there is no safe haven nor a cure for the terrigen poison. After that Storm declared that they are going for war with the Inhumans.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Anti-mutant prejudice is at an all time high. Back in his home country of Germany, Nightcrawler rescues young mutants from group execution and comes across a mass grave of dead mutants.
- Failure Is the Only Option: Mutants are back to being endangered and are more hated and feared than before. This is despite the strides made since the Avengers vs. X-Men event where mutants were brought Back from the Brink, and both All-New X-Men and Uncanny X-Men showed the hate towards them has cooled to a reastic level.
- Fantastic Racism: In issue 2, Jean rescues a victim of anti-mutant violence. It gets her dumped by her prospective boyfriend for being a mutant in the process. And then it turns out the man she saved was an Inhuman all along. Who promptly freaks out and tells Jean to get away from him.
- The Ghost: Cyclops. He's mentioned in past tense as doing something to make Mutants largely untrusted once more and is nowhere to be found.
- Put on a Bus: Beast is now with the The Inhumans; and Cyclops is missing entirely. Issue 2 reveals he's been declared dead, after trying to kill the Inhumans.
- Retcon: The Terrigen Mists sterilizing mutants is a new plot point. Previously, terrigen crystals sort-of damaged ex-mutants who used it, but that's about it. In Uncanny X-Men, a team of mutants walk through the same t-cloud rolling around Earth with no ill effects.
- Retool: This book is the new "main" X-Men title reflecting the new status quo, replacing Uncanny X-Men. Whether or not this was because Marvel wanted the Inhumans to have the "Uncanny" adjective due to the Inhumans being the Marvel Cinematic Universe's stand-in for mutants is a matter of opinion.
- Seeking Sanctuary: Storm provides sanctuary for mutants from the terrigen mists, but it turns out that sanctuary is actually Limbo, the demon-filled Hell-like dimension.
- Shipper on Deck: Jean supports the Logan and Storm ship apparently
◊. - Shut Up, Hannibal!: Issue 14 has Apocalypse trying to tempt Forge into freeing him with promises of power. Forge's response is to duct-tape his mouth shut.
- Sterility Plague: The terrigen cloud that exploded over Earth during Infinity is not just harmful to mutants, it also sterilizes them.
- Strong Empire, Shriveled Emperor: In the future where Apocalypse has taken control over the remains of the world, he has been reduced to a shadow of his former self. He now relies on his horsemen entirely as his enforcers while he sits as the literal heart holding these world's together.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Doctor Strange describes a mutant's power as being an instant understanding of any language they've been exposed to, to the point of being able to understand magic because magic is itself a language. Has Cypher returned? Nope! Meet newly-manifested mutant Sapna!
- Time Skip: The series begins 8 months after the events of Secret Wars, in which the Inhumans and mutantkind clash.
- Villain Decay: Mr. Sinister during the first arc. He's gone from one of the X-Men's most dangerous foes to, well... Colossus effortlessly snaps his spine, and while he does bounce back from that, he's decapitated and defeated almost offhandedly by Magik.
- Yo Yo Plot Point: Mutantkind is danger of becoming extinct! Again!
