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 Following the death of the Human Torch, the Fantastic Four was cancelled and although it hasn't relaunched, it has been replaced by a new title called "FF" (the "Future Foundation" that rather unimaginatively shares the initials of the "Fantastic Four").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".