If you compare the current X-Men stories to ones of the past, you will notice that a lot has changed -- the stories of today are very different than those of yesterday. At the height of their popularity, the X-Men struggled against discrimination and prejudice. They were an ostracized race that humanity saw as a threat.

Today, Mutants are not only up against the prejudices of humankind; they are up against one another. Ever since the Scarlet Witch uttered those three little words, "no more mutants," everything has changed. The rift caused by the events leading up to SCHISM have left the X-Men very weak, and as they prepare to go up against the Avengers in the upcoming AVENGERS Vs. X-MEN story arc, things are looking even more grim for our heroes. As more problems have piled on, old problems continue to exist, so where should their focus really be?

The events that followed HOUSE OF M and DECIMATION led to the greater disintegration of the X-Men as both a team and as a family, and SCHISM served to solidify that collapse. Now, with very little money and resources; Wolverine has taken the young mutant generation and opened a school in Westchester, New York while Cyclops continues to lead the remaining team on the West Coast. The two leaders are not only separated by a continent; they are divided by their personal ideals. "No more mutants" meant no more mutant births, and the number of de-powered mutants continues to be overwhelming. However, aside from all of these more recent conflicts, the X-Men continue to be plagued by those who feel they should cease to exist.

The mutant race has always been threatened by external forces, but the most prominent has been the prejudice against them by humans. This idea was really introduced in Chris Claremont's run during his 17-year long career on the X-Men books. During that time Christ Claremont challenged comic readers. His run which spanned from 1975 to the early 1990's developed the X-men cast of characters, making them more intricate and interesting.

Influenced by the socio-political atmosphere in the United States; Claremont took the events he witnessed in this country and turned them into literary concepts -- applying the events sentiments to the experiences of his characters; giving them depth and making them multi-faceted. The racism, discrimination and prejudice he saw in American society is something he used and applied to his X-Men. These mutants who were different suddenly became relatable when Claremont witnessed the rift caused by prejudice and racial discrimination and used those concepts to build massively interesting story lines.

One of the early stories to deal with this idea of Mutant discrimination can be seen in GOD LOVES, MAN KILLS. Claremont's graphic novel delved into the struggle of the mutants. In this story, Reverend Stryker took it upon himself to isolate the mutants and call for a "genocide in the name of God." The story was very raw and very real, and was likely influenced by reality. Although this story took place years ago, the issues it addressed are still very real and continue to plague the mutant race in more recent story lines.

Recently the Purifiers have come to the forefront of several comic series. First in X-Factor where a de-powered Rictor joined the organization to spy on them for the X-Men, and also in the three part mini-series FEAR ITSELF: UNCANNY X-FORCE. The Purifiers may not presently be in any major ongoing story, but it is clear that the organization continues to strive for the genocide of the mutant race. The threat of the Purifiers exists and therefore the mutants continue to be a threat to parts of "humanity."

Very soon the X-Men will be going up against the Avengers in the AVENGERS VS X-MEN which launches this April and according to the minds behind this upcoming story arc not everyone will make it out alive. Combine that with the fact that some of the X-Men will be fighting against their own, (Wolverine and Beast will be up against the X-Men in some of the promotional art), the X-Men will ultimately grow even weaker.

Looking at the bigger picture, this is pretty bad news for the X-Men. The rift that was caused by SCHISM is still present and doesn't appear to be resolving any time soon, so going up against the AVENGERS when so many mutants have been de-powered is about one of the worst things that could happen to the mutant race. Weakened, and with a plethora of external forces that want to see their demise, the X-Men are in a bad position. Now more than ever the mutants need to come to terms with their differences and resolve them for the sake of their own survival.

What do you think? What do you think is the biggest threat to the X-Men? Do you think they should overlook their differences and come together once again, or do you think that Scarlet Witch's "no more mutants" was a self fulfilling prophecy?

no because marvel will never want to see the end of there money

lol but yea the x men should put aside there differences there aren't that many mutants they should stick together. & really if you think about it cyclops and wolverine have always had fights there was that time when wolverine was mad at cyclops during the whole x force incedent & beat cyclops to the ground & cyc was like... so you done yet? lol

there better together but each could learn from the each other

wolverine needs to stop treating Grown/teenaged mutants as children you cant be a kid in a world thats trying to kill you every 5 seconds take that whole incident with the leper queen for example if some of the younger x men were more adult like they wouldnt have gotten captured so easily & almost killed they need to be lethal to survive the world that hates them play time & going to school are for people who aren't constant walking targets

cyclops needs to stop manipulating his x men to do things there solders yes but at the same time your family you dont easily let one of your family members die for ''the sake of the mission'' ESPECIALLY when there aint that many of them to begin with

wolvie is like the mother too soft on his team

cyc is like the father too hard on his team

but together they win

I never liked the X-men...

Wolverine and beast are on the wrong side D: I'm not liking their allegiance to the avengers

"Please, by all means say something racist."

I love Fantomex so much.

I definitely wouldn't want to see an end to the X-men, nor do I think that Marvel would end them, but I would love to see things go back to basics. Maybe a simple core team, an X-Force for behind the scenes work and the other team books that sell well. Just me though, I'm not a big fan of too many of the mutants besides Angel and Cyclops. Only Marvel will tell.

Seeing as they are popular I doubt it, which is good because I like the X-men.

@InnerVenom123 said:

"Please, by all means say something racist."

I love Fantomex so much.

Indeed.

@DATNIGGA said:

no because marvel will never want to see the end of there money

This.

@DATNIGGA said:

no because marvel will never want to see the end of there money

Yup. No matter what in story reasons exist for massive change to a company's landscape real world economics will always trump them, folk.

IF Marvel was to ever "End" the X-Men i would be pissed but i do agree they need to back to basics, keep stories simple yet good/compelling.

The X-Men will not disappear until their sales die.

Maybe some big event is coming maybe something bad is gonna happen, but it won't be the end. Until the day Marvel as a company crumbles to dust there will be X-men

X-men Franchise is to Marvel Comics as Batman Franchise is to DC Comics.

These Franchises represent largest category of books published by either company. Batman is 11. X-men is I think 10.

So in short no since most of the production is X-Books. Although Marvel pumps out more X-Books technically due to double shipping.

@Daveyo520 said:

The X-Men will not disappear until their sales die.

I agree!

i think i really like the direction the X-men have taken. I like the idea of Cyclops and the soldiers and Wolverine and the students. Its an obvious back to basics approach (Xavier and Magneto represented by Wolverine and Cyclops). I think the way Claremont integrated present day politics into the plot is what truly makes X-men stand the test of time.

I hope to see more stories that make readers look at the book and see a reflection of the world, so hopefully we will all desire a peaceful co-existence.

The X-Men will never die out because they are some of the most liked characters in Marvel and the comics industry period. However they will defiantly go through rough times as they have always been the characters made to struggle but in all honesty after the success of Wolverine and the X-Men I believe that the X-men may finally have a brighter future.

@DATNIGGA said:

wolverine needs to stop treating Grown/teenaged mutants as children you cant be a kid in a world thats trying to kill you every 5 seconds you have to be a solider so future generations of mutants can be kids

cyclops needs to stop manipulating his x men to do things there solders yes but at the same time your family you dont easily let one of your family members die for ''the sake of the misson'' ESPECIALLY when there aint that many of them to begin with

wolvie is like the mother too soft on his team

cyc is like the father too hard on his team

but together they win

I'm not 100 on how Wolverine's acting but I agree with the comment about Cyclops it's a wonder to me why any X-Men still follow him at all

When I started reading comics, X-Tinction Agenda looked like it might be the end of the X-Men. A few years later, Age of Apocalypse wiped reality clean of the X-Men (and everything else). After they came back from that, we had Onslaught, and Operation: Zero Tolerance, and on, and on...

The point: the X-Men are reality's punching bags, yes. Some may die. But they're never gone. Forgive the pun, but they are made to rise from the ashes of whatever trial by fire they are put through. This kind of storytelling is what makes the property, the characters, and the stories themselves, great.

@haydenclaireheroes said:

@Daveyo520 said:

The X-Men will not disappear until their sales die.

I agree!

This...

Also shouldn't this be under the "Off My Mind" banner. I'm not saying this is a bad article but it really seems like one of those.

I suspect the mutant population may explode a bit over the next few years.

Disappointing. I really do like the X-men. If anything in Marvel needs rebooting it is X-Men, it is starting to get wayyyyy to confusing and they are barely a team any more. Thats why i am reading Ultimate X-Men and I am tempted to drop that. I think I will stick with my First Class comics and Uncanny (the old stuff.)

If Wanda were to repeat those three infamous words the 100+ mutants that are endangered species would cease to exist... So I think that the X-Men should be very careful during AvX because if the Scarlet Witch gets mad again we could be seeing the end of the X-Men.

I don't know, the Scarlet Witch has said in children's crusade that she wants to fix M-day so maybe AvX might lead to a small mutant boom of either re-powering former mutants or giving random humans the X-gene. of course this is from an optimist's perspective.

No, we're not.

But I wouldn't cry if we were.

'No More Mutants' was the laziest writing I'd ever seen. It makes no sense and was done to make way for Civil War. People were still asking 'what happened to all the mutants' and the answer was 'they aren't mutants anymore, they are regular people' Then the next question was 'No, what happened? Was there a plaque?"

There's no explanation with No More Mutants or House of M. It's just 'It's magic'.

I don't why they just couldn't love the fact that the X-Men books were still on top (if I'm not mistaken). If anyone hated mutants that much, it was the editorial people at Marvel when they did that stuff.

Compare to Fall of the Mutants which was one of the early big Marvel crossovers. X-Factor gets a spaceship after fighting Apocalypse who has made Angel one of his Four Horsemen. The New Mutants fight the Animator and lose Doug Ramsey in a classic comic book death. The X-Men (with Cyclops wife) sacrifice themselves to fight the Adversary in Dallas before its magically undone by Nova Roma and they are essentially invisble to the world and believed dead for a while.

Now, that's magic I can deal with. It's n ot company wide and actually is relevant to the plot and not a cheat of years of continuity.

Just making a comparison.

It's a bitter irony that tomorrow is the anniversary of the Egyptian's protests, because I think what needs to be done in order to fix the X-men is for Cyclops to step down and have either Storm or Wolverine in charge.

Other than that, there's no way that X-Men would shut down. Not after 40- odd years.

- Of course the X-Men will not end, maybe evolve (no pun intended) Marvel is not into assured economic suicide

- The focus of the X-Men changed the day they came out of hiding and announced to the world where and who they are. To the general public they were urban legends you sometimes saw on CNN or in the Daily Bugle if their exploits were somewhere it could be recorded. They could no longer hide and pick and choose when to involve themselves, and have been shown to be completely unprepared to deal with this new status in the world by all involved.

- At nearly the same time Professor X was shown to be a previously unknown bastard manipulator and had the school taken from him by Scott and Emma. The man who inspired each and every person ever to wear the X was disgraced and with their faith shaken to the core were taken in a new and controversial direction with Cyclops at the helm.

- X-Factor left quickly, Wolverine and his followers later, considering how much of a departure the current status is from the norm the majority of them grew up in and had become accustomed to is not very surprising regardless of who is right or wrong. They had not been a family for some time due to the expansion in the numbers of mutants and teams under the banner and many do not feel as tied to the core as when it was one team in one building.

- Cyclops is trying to force humanity to accept them as well as give mutants the place in the world he feels they deserve. The creation of Utopia and the Extinction Team are for noble reasons, he really wants whats best for mutantkind, but they are also so obviously destined for failure it just shows how unprepared he is for his new role. He is a field general trying to be a politician and no one is willing to stand up to him and tell him he cannot do everything that needs to be done alone, his skill set does not include everything needed.

- Wolverine is making a knee jerk decision based on his concerns and personal guilt to split off and create what he thinks is a safe haven to train young mutants, which is delusional based on how it was done. All he has done is is make them a slightly smaller target, but nowhere near the direction needed to really do what is intended. The only thing different from the new school and the old one with 50 graves out back is the name.

- Regardless of what side they are on, none of them have the depth of faith in Scott or Logan as they did in Xavier, and until that situation above all else is resolved the fracturing will continue. A leadership structure that is unified and not written making constantly terrible decisions will be the only thing to fix all that ails them.

I wouldn't put it past Marvel to wipe out the entire mutant race... it would be an interesting story for all the X-Men to be wiped out and disappear from the face of the Marvel Universe... then Marvel can build up their return several months later! What bugs me about the Marvel Universe... is that the 'Human' population are afraid of the mutants yet they are more acceptable of the rest of the meta-human community... i.e. Captain America, Fantastic Four, Red Hulk, Spider-Man... most of these characters a quick to say that they are not mutants, so the public goes 'okay, you have powers but your not a mutant... I'm okay with that.' It seems like a major plot hole to me but thats just my opinion... damn I've been rambling on...

I don't think the X-men will be gone after AvX, i do hope they are going to be in deep trouble.

Hunted for what they are so they need to go underground again like in their australian days. Utopia bombed to the ground, the school threatened once again. This is when the X-books are at their best imo.

You know what I think? I think the majority of the X-Men stories today completely and utterly STINK. I want my X-Men UNITED, not divided. This shouldn't have happened. Whoever made the decision to "weaken" the X-Men should've been laid off.

"No more mutants" very well likely was a statement of things to come for the X-Men as you are implying. At the very least I think it will show that mutants, and the X-Men especially, are gonna have some rough times ahead. After all, it used to be just simple lines drawn between friend and foe. Mutant vs. human. X-Men vs. Brotherhood. Etc. etc. But now, if they are fighting each other and fighting hard hitter teams like the Avengers, what kind of real good future can be anticipated ahead for the team? Nevertheless, I agree with many here, I don't think we will see an end of the X-Men in the pages of Marvel anytime soon. That would be akin to Marvel slashing its own juggular wide open. We'll just see more new and difficult obstacles for the X-Men to face.

Marvel getting rid of the X men is like Dc getting rid of Batman, it's not going to happen.

@Darkmount1 said:

You know what I think? I think the majority of the X-Men stories today completely and utterly STINK. I want my X-Men UNITED, not divided. This shouldn't have happened. Whoever made the decision to "weaken" the X-Men should've been laid off.

- I really have no issue with the divide, just in how badly it has been done

- As the number of people involved in any group grows, so does the dissension on how best to run it

- Its only a matter of time before the upcoming event where Marvel unites them all again anyways

Nope.

I love the X-Men and I am quite sad that there is a division between them. Saying this I still want the Avengers to beat them, because this may be what reunites the Mutant Race.

@thecomicscove said:

When I started reading comics, X-Tinction Agenda looked like it might be the end of the X-Men. A few years later, Age of Apocalypse wiped reality clean of the X-Men (and everything else). After they came back from that, we had Onslaught, and Operation: Zero Tolerance, and on, and on...

The point: the X-Men are reality's punching bags, yes. Some may die. But they're never gone. Forgive the pun, but they are made to rise from the ashes of whatever trial by fire they are put through. This kind of storytelling is what makes the property, the characters, and the stories themselves, great.

I'd say the X-Men, Spider-Man, and the Hulk are all Marvel's punching bag. They love pushing those guys down, and making them struggle through life so much

The 'No More Mutants' event was a cheap way for Marvel to reduce the number of mutants so the so called 'Heroes' would would not have to be burdened with the millions of mutants in the world and the hate and prejudice they were subjected to all the time. With there only being 200 or so now they are an easily managable amount that an be conviently be shunted out of most peoples attention or notice. Of course this only made they a bigger target for the mutant haters to try to wipe them out while the numbers are small.

@WarMachineMarkV:

Look at the way the Justice League in Justice League Unlimited was run--they managed to pull it off with a massive roster just fine. Same with GI Joe in the comics: the right squads for the right missions.

@WarMachineMarkV said:

- Of course the X-Men will not end, maybe evolve (no pun intended) Marvel is not into assured economic suicide

- The focus of the X-Men changed the day they came out of hiding and announced to the world where and who they are. To the general public they were urban legends you sometimes saw on CNN or in the Daily Bugle if their exploits were somewhere it could be recorded. They could no longer hide and pick and choose when to involve themselves, and have been shown to be completely unprepared to deal with this new status in the world by all involved.

- At nearly the same time Professor X was shown to be a previously unknown bastard manipulator and had the school taken from him by Scott and Emma. The man who inspired each and every person ever to wear the X was disgraced and with their faith shaken to the core were taken in a new and controversial direction with Cyclops at the helm.

- X-Factor left quickly, Wolverine and his followers later, considering how much of a departure the current status is from the norm the majority of them grew up in and had become accustomed to is not very surprising regardless of who is right or wrong. They had not been a family for some time due to the expansion in the numbers of mutants and teams under the banner and many do not feel as tied to the core as when it was one team in one building.

- Cyclops is trying to force humanity to accept them as well as give mutants the place in the world he feels they deserve. The creation of Utopia and the Extinction Team are for noble reasons, he really wants whats best for mutantkind, but they are also so obviously destined for failure it just shows how unprepared he is for his new role. He is a field general trying to be a politician and no one is willing to stand up to him and tell him he cannot do everything that needs to be done alone, his skill set does not include everything needed.

- Wolverine is making a knee jerk decision based on his concerns and personal guilt to split off and create what he thinks is a safe haven to train young mutants, which is delusional based on how it was done. All he has done is is make them a slightly smaller target, but nowhere near the direction needed to really do what is intended. The only thing different from the new school and the old one with 50 graves out back is the name.

- Regardless of what side they are on, none of them have the depth of faith in Scott or Logan as they did in Xavier, and until that situation above all else is resolved the fracturing will continue. A leadership structure that is unified and not written making constantly terrible decisions will be the only thing to fix all that ails them

Marvel would have to be insane to kill off the xmen.i have always been an xfan and that won't change anytime soon.i am hoping that marvel is finally going to let the xmen officially be the top dog of marvel which is long over due.there is no team no concept no storyline that have been dogged more than the x-men.yes spiderman had it rough from the begining but like the xmen that turned into his strength but he's widely accepted whereas the xmen are hated and feared.i'm hoping the phoenix force is coming to breathe life back into the marvel universe because life without or limited mutants is just barely life.

.

The only X-Men comic I read is Uncanny X-Force. and Fantomex is awesome

I think more they're trying to return them to something that resembles what mutants were formally and were the held more glory. That being separate teams mostly actually being separate factions, and many independent mutants running about as well, as opposed to everyone and every team being unified under one, or even two as it's come to now. This is pretty much the pattern with Marvel, which I'll dub "folding and unfolding " where they take what they have, spin it around and introduce an All New All Different version of what it is in order to shock readers and make things fresh, then, undo what they have and work it back to something that resembles what it was, where readers are now excited to see things working how they did classically, after becoming tired of the neo version over time not resembling " the way things were ".

I love the on going Uncanny X-men and have confidence that Cyke's team will be viewed as the heroes they should be after this arc has run its course. I believe Wolverine and his squad will side with their mutant family and help them fight the avengers to a stand still (no concrete victors here). I'm curious to see what role the dark avengers play in this mess, and Wanda Maximoff. All in all, I'm excited to see where this goes...

@CATPANEXE said:

I think more they're trying to return them to something that resembles what mutants were formally and were the held more glory. That being separate teams mostly actually being separate factions, and many independent mutants running about as well, as opposed to everyone and every team being unified under one, or even two as it's come to now. This is pretty much the pattern with Marvel, which I'll dub "folding and unfolding " where they take what they have, spin it around and introduce an All New All Different version of what it is in order to shock readers and make things fresh, then, undo what they have and work it back to something that resembles what it was, where readers are now excited to see things working how they did classically, after becoming tired of the neo version over time not resembling " the way things were ".

I love Marvel, truly I do. But this, she is true.

I doubt they would end X-Men like that... they just like to make X-Men suffer too much.

I always say it and it is no different here... Humanity is it's own worst enemy... I can't think of anything ( in reality or comics) that caused more destruction than human race. We see something ''different'' and we act aggressively to it. That is the main idea behind the X-men. The reckless and dark nature of humans against everything that does not fit to their '' system ''

Sometimes I feel like X-men is better off defeated so their suffering can end but they are too valuable for that. Lets face it, even in the worst case scenario... there would be some miracle ( like Hope Summers ) to prevent X-men's destruction.

One of these days, X-men needs to see some brighter days... because the only message or vibe I keep getting lately from the stories are '' Being different is bad ! People will want to hurt you ! '' ... Or maybe I am reading to much into it.

Articles like this are kind of maddening... Of course it's not the end of the X-men. They make too much money. There are movies coming!!! Sometimes the editors on this site write as though they are totally new to comics. I wish they wrote more articles about the industry. The people behind the stories. Not about "should villains wear costumes?"

Man I miss Wizard magazine....

I don't think that we will ever see more then 200 mutants give or take a few ever again and honestly I like that. It condenses the heroes and villains in to a manageable size, allows writers/artists to get more out of the core characters, it makes every mutant life (good or evil) valuable, and it makes new members to the race more special and worthy of being found.

Its heading for that Dark Future where Scott works for Sinister and its the early adventures of Old Man Logan.

I think its great! The future of the X-men has always been one of DOOM. The number of Mutants in all futures has been low and the life of a mutant as been horrible.

Its getting to the point where the present will meet a vision of the future we've read.

Bring it on!

they never have luck

The X-Men have been dead a long time. Well, since #500. 

I wish they would die. It would really change my views on Marvel.

It could be very interessting.

It woule make a big hole for new title.