X-Men

The X-Men is a team of comic book superheroes in the Marvel Comics universe. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, they debuted in The X-Men #1, published in September 1963. more...

The X-men universe has branched into film and television, including one of the most successful Saturday morning programs, X-Men: The Animated Series. The year 2000 saw the debut of the long-awaited X-Men movie directed by Bryan Singer. Its sequel X2 was released in 2003 and became the sixth highest grossing film of the year. The third X-Men movie, X-Men: The Last Stand, was released May 26, 2006.

Background

The X-Men are mutants, who through a sudden leap in evolution, are born with latent superhuman abilities which generally manifest themselves at puberty. Ordinary humans, Homo sapiens, often hate mutants, who are dubbed Homo sapiens superior. Many humans fear that mutants will replace them, or that they will use their power to conquer humanity.

One problem that exacerbates tensions between mutants and the rest of humanity is the fact that hundreds of mutants have used their powers in criminal or violent acts. A number of archnemeses of the X-Men, such as Magneto and Apocalypse, have been mutants who have tried to dominate human society. The X-Men were gathered by the benevolent Professor Charles Xavier, a.k.a. Professor X, a wealthy mutant who founded an academy to train young mutants to protect themselves and the world from Magneto and other mutant threats.

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