X-Men

Between 1977 and 1981 writer Chris Claremont and writer/artist John Byrne transformed The X-Men from a second-tier title to the top-selling comic book on the market. As the lineup of the X-Men continued to evolve, the story lines became increasingly intricate and absorbing. There was something about the series for most fans to enjoy. The interplay among the distinctive characters was exceptionally well-developed and believable by comic-book standards. Wolverine's ethos of righteous morality backed up by violence made him one of the most popular superheroes of the Reagan/Rambo era. Strong and complex female characters like Storm, Phoenix, and Rogue helped to make the X-Men one of the few superhero titles to win a significant following among teenage girls.

The X-Men's fantastic commercial success predictably spawned a host of comic-book crossovers, spin-offs, and rip-offs. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, they multiplied. There were titles devoted to adult mutants (Excalibur, X-Factor), adolescent mutants (The New Mutants, Generation-X), and even pre-pubescent mutants (Power Pack). The concept of the 1980s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles originated in part as a satire of the X-Men's overexposure (before graduating itself to overexposure). The first issue of a new X-Men title launched in 1991 set an industry record by selling more than eight million copies. An array of licensed products highlighted by the Fox network's successful X-Men animated series broadened the X-Men's market even further. The consequences of this "X-treme" mutant proliferation became a matter of some controversy among comic-book fans. While many fans welcomed the varieties of X-Men spinoffs and crossovers, others criticized them for being poorly conceived and confusing, and some fan critics charged Marvel with exploiting brand loyalty at the expense of good storytelling. To a large extent, the overexposure of the X-Men epitomized the problem of a saturated and shrinking market that plagued the comic-book industry as a whole in the mid-1990s.

Still, the X-Men remain at or near the top of the best-selling comic-book titles. Among the more fully realized comic-book expressions of modern adolescent fantasies, Marvel's team of misunderstood mutants fully deserve their status as the preferred superheroes of Generation X.