The unfortunate truth is that after 36 years of publication, whether we like it or not, Uncanny X-Men is coming to an end.

Marvel, Relaunch-Holics

Unlike the majority of other big titles from Marvel, Uncanny X-Men hasn't been cancelled, rebooted and renumbered. At least, not yet. Marvel began a trend for relaunching & renumbering way back in 1996. Back then, the Avengers, Fantastic Four, Captain America & Iron Man were all victims of Heroes Reborn. Subsequently all titles were cancelled & relaunched yet again to "Return" the heroes back in the mainstream Marvel Universe. As the years went on, those relaunched titles were slowly renumbered as if they had never been cancelled. In the last year, many of those titles are began to fall once again.

The various Avengers titles were all cancelled at the end of Siege and relaunched from issue #1. Captain America has been relaunched from issue #1. The name "Man Without Fear" has been passed to the Black Panther, enabling Daredevil to be relaunched from issue #1. Following the death of the Human Torch, the Fantastic Four was cancelled and although it hasn't relaunched, it has been replaced by a new title called "FF" (the "Future Foundation" that rather unimaginatively shares the initials of the "Fantastic Four"). My money is on Amazing Spider-Man being the next target.

Although they haven't taken the axe to all their titles and relaunched a massive company-wide "reboot", Marvel established a precedent of starting from scrap over 15 years ago. Therefore it makes me wonder why the X-Men have been immune to this relaunching addition of Marvel's for so long?

What Are The X-Options?

So what will replace Uncanny X-Men?

It's pretty clear that something will replace it. Aside from the gradual relaunches that Marvel has been sneaking out lately, Uncanny X-Men is the "flagship" title of a whole franchise. One of, if not the largest comic book franchises to have been seen in the last 30 years! Therefore I remain confident that something certainly will fill the big, empty, clown-sized shoes left by Uncanny X-Men. So far we have very little information about what will happen to the rest of the X-Titles, but there is no doubt that all the other titles are peripheral to Uncanny X-Men. Aside from a period of 3 years, Uncanny X-Men has been the parent title of the whole X-Men franchise. It was only when the franchise was placed in the hands of Grant Morrison, that the main core focus of the X-Men shifted to New X-Men. With one notable exception, all the other titles are currently effected by events that happen in Uncanny X-Men; including (but not exclusive to) the New Mutants, Uncanny X-Force, X-Men, X-Men: Legacy & Astonishing X-Men.

Right now, we don't have a lot of information to go on. Due to promotional material from a few months ago, we do know that this is meant to be "MMXI: The Year Of The Mutant". Does this mean that all the other main titles are going to be cancelled, remodelled & relaunched like the Avengers titles were during the Heroic Age? Is it possible that one of the other titles is going to step up to fulfill the role of "flagship title", as New X-Men did in 2001? Will a brand spanking new title launch akin to FF? If so... what will it be called?

Uncanny Adjectives?

Despite calling themselves the "House of Ideas", Marvel is pretty unimaginative when it comes to naming new titles. The X-Men are no exception. For instance, there has been two separate titles called "New X-Men" (Grant Morrison's New X-Men & the "Academy X" New X-Men). Two different "X-Men Forever" (a 2001 in-continuity mini series called X-Men Forever & Chris Claremont's re-imagined alternate reality X-Men Forever), in fact there's three if you count X-Men Forever 2. Two Dark X-Men volumes came in quick succession due to the Dark Reign! Not to mention the three Astonishing X-Men titles (the first Astonishing X-Men being in the Age of Apocalypse, followed by a three-issue mini series called Astonishing X-Men in 1999 & of course the current ongoing title created by Joss Whedon, Astonishing X-Men). Strangely there hasn't been another X-Treme X-Men, but that might only be a matter of time...

It would almost seem that the "House Of Ideas" have grown a little too used to recycling ideas, especially when it comes to the X-Men. It's possible that we could have a whole new title launching in Uncanny X-Men's place (Strange X-Men? Mysterious X-Men? Secret X-Men? Fantastic X-Men? Mighty X-Men?), or we could see another "Amazing X-Men" replace Uncanny X-Men, instead.

Or perhaps they'll simply repackage the whole title and relaunch it as "Uncanny X-Men #1". After all, the're never been an Uncanny X-Men #1 as the very first issue way back in 1963 was simply called "X-Men".

The challenge was set, and 10 brave souls stepped up to meet it. Viners voted & declared that there could only be one winner.

CONGRATULATIONS TO nszerdy!!

Your blends of colours & textures just blew everyone away! The subtle gradients draw the eye in towards the characters, and the addition of splattering blood helps add danger and makes Wolverine pop out.

Commiserations & much thanks go out to everyone who entered. I can't tell you how much I loved seeing your different styles & interpretations! The official run down is as follows:

1. nszerdy
2. Duo_forbidden
3. SC
4. MuadDiab
5. Warpath Storm
6. gravitypress & mau009
7. Hawkeye446
8. Donovan Montgomery
9. Black Lantern Mar-vell

With a wonderful wide variety of bold or muted colours, experimental lighting techniques, variant coloured costumes, different medium and a fabulously citrus-coloured Hulk it's not surprising that every entry received votes!

Congratulations once again to nzerdy. I apologise for not giving you a personalised video to show off your winning entry, but I'm afraid I've not been a healthy mutant mod and wouldn't want to scare you off with my impersonation of a grumpy panda ;)

The Entries

10 people entered the contest, therefore we have 10 pictures to choose from. To see each item in it's full glory you can find them in the gallery. So here they are on parade, in alphabetical order of colourist.

The Voting

To vote, please list the top three entries in order of preference. For example:

1. Agent_Prince
2. Liberty
3. Red LAMP

Use the name of the Viner who entered. Number 1 being your favourite entry, number 2 being the second best, and three being the third best.

The voting deadline is tomorrow, Wednesday 01 June 2011 at 21:00 (9pm) BST (please check your local Time Zone).

I'm blatantly stealing/carrying on the tradition of cbishop's "Would U Buy It" Blogs.   

The Poet asked me if I knew where an obscure character from Rogue's background appeared.  I couldn't rmember, but it turned out that it was from Classic X-Men.   

I'd forgotten all about the reprint series from the 1980's.  At the time it seemed like a cheeky way to make money by selling reprinted stories that were only a few years old, while tacking on a back-up story.  20+ years later, we've all read the genesis of the All-New, All-Different X-Men in Giant-Size X-Men & the original Dark Phoenix Saga to death... but what about those back-up stories?   

Each issue of Classic X-Men came with an all-new, all-original, self-contained back-up story.  Usually they were connected in some way to the story that was being reprinted in the first half of the issue.  Also, the back covers were one-off pin-ups.  However, as far as I know these little gems have never been collated & reprinted, which is absolutely criminal!  Sure, story-telling, art & printing techniques have improved over the years.  That's no excuse to over-look these old stories.   

Am alone in this?  Or would anyone else also like to see these stories & pin-ups reprinted in a volume that doesn't also reprint the original post-Giant Sized issues?

Technically, Legacy is Rogue.  Even Rogue talks about Legacy as if she as a different person.  However, I liked the role that Legacy (or 'Reaper') played in the Age of X.  I liked her outfit too.  The flashes of green where more impressive than the current green with white X's all over. 

It's not that I don't like Rogue... I do!  I like Rogue, but it's the little things that made me like Legacy just that little bit more.

Am I alone in this crazy belief?  Would anyone like to see Rogue archive the memories of dying heroes to keep their Legacy alive?  Perhaps change her outfit?  The gloves were exceptionally handy (no pun intended) even if she does have control over her powers now. 

I know it's not going to happen, but I would have liked a little more of Legacy to remain after the Age of X had finished.

This has been touched upon in other forums, but not in a topic of it's own.  I'm surprised at the fairly quiet response it's received so far.

Following on from the Age of X, it transpired that he being known as Revenant was in fact the consciousness of Rachel Summers who had been trying to telepathically reach someone back on Utopia at the moment that 'Moira'/X struck.  In an effort to reunite Rachel's disembodied psyche with her body, we're finally going to see the return of the three missing X-Men: Havok, Polaris & Marvel Girl.

The three space displaced X-Men have been mising for years, with the occasional appearance during cosmic cross-overs.  However, fans have been demanding their return ever since they were stranded in space, and it looks like Marvel has finally decided to respond.

How will they be saved?  Where are they at the moment?  How will they react to a relatively quiet existence back on Earth?  Will they make it back to Earth?  Will Magneto & Polaris be able to co-exist with the knowledge that Magneto chose to save Kitty Pryde, but not bother searching for his own daughter?  Will they remain with Rogue's new ensembled team?  Will Havok & Polaris remain a couple... or will he fall for another PiS-created stripper/nurse?

We don't know the exact details yet, but here's a popular taster that's been flying around the internet:

Here's the image I couldn't wait to colour in.  My favourite Fan Art I'd made of Boom-Boom!  It was while colouring this little lady in that I decided that this would be a fun theme for  xerox-kitty's Comic Give Away: Ultimate Team-Up #1.

I thought I'd have a go at colouring in my old an Art's when I saw JoeyF's topic  Heyyyyy, what's your art doing in my video!?  I remembered the basics from old 'manga coloring tutorials' on Live Journal, but it still took me a long time to get around to finishing this.

Colouring-In Conetst

Here's the image you have to colour in...

For a larger image, go to the image's page & click on the magnifying glass logo in the centre of the picture ;)

The Rules

The Prize

Deadline

Thank you everyone who participated and helped to make this a successful contest!   

Here's the Winning Entry