UNCANNY BITES THE DUST

Marvel's last consistently published book is about to come to an end.

Started in 1963 under simply X-Men, it became Uncanny with 1978's #114, and has been retroactively known as it since. Although it was technically cancelled with #66, the series ran reprints until #93, when the all-new X-Men took over in #94 from Giant-Size X-Men #1. The only time the book ceased publication was for the four months it became Astonishing X-Men for the Age of Apocalypse event. And that's what sets it apart from the rest of the Marvel line.

Spider-Man's books were reduced and rebooted once before combining into just one title under its original numbering. Captain America is currently on his 5th volume and about to go into a 6th. Fantastic Four had three volumes before becoming FF. Avengers had just begun its 4th volume after having been broken up into two titles for several years. Hulk had an initial 6-issue run before taking over Tales to Astonish, losing his Incredible adjective, then regaining it before returning to his original numbering.

As you can see, the realm of reboots is a confusing mess.


Hot on the heels of the latest X-Men event, Schism, the X-Men will be shaken up as never before as Cyclops and Wolverine go to war for leadership of the team. Writer equates it to the X-Men's version of Civil War.

On CBR, Tom Brevoort was quoted as saying:

"Uncanny' is the only book with an unbroken run...I would not assume that it's safe. Maybe that makes it a little less likely because it's the one title we've got that maintains continuity all the way back to the '60s. But again, in terms of publishing today in 2011, 2012, 2013 -- the need of right now is probably going to outweigh the need of 'it's nice that we have this thing that goes back to the '60s.' If there's a benefit to there being an 'Uncanny X-Men' #1 because we're building something in a substantial way and we want to give people that entry point, maybe we'd hesitate a fraction of a second longer, but I think it'd be only a fraction."

 More than likely, an Uncanny #1 will be on the way shortly after the original book ends. The current mentality is that people are put off by large run numbers and feel a #1 is a good place to jump onto a book. However, in truth, what attracts new readers is good stories within the pages first and foremost. Publishers are so concerned about the packaging that they forget the actual product.

So, where does this leave X-Men? Find out in October.