First appearing in 1963, The Uncanny X-Men had a rough start, lasting until 1970 when the comic book was canceled due to low sales. Following a relaunch in 1975, however, it found new popularity thanks to intricate scripting by Chris Claremont and the artwork of John Byrne. Within a few years, The Uncanny X-Men was one of Marvel Comics’ best-selling series and over the decades it became one of the most successful and popular franchises in comic book history. Spin-off titles, mini-series, multimedia adaptations, and a massively expanded cast of characters followed. One of the reasons for the success of X-Men is its powerful “mutant metaphor,” which enhances the stories with cultural significance and the exploration of themes such as societal prejudice and discrimination. In X-Men and the Mutant Metaphor: Race and Gender in the Comic Books, Joseph J. Darowski thoroughly analyzes The Uncanny X-Men, providing its historical background and dividing the long-running series into distinct eras. Each chapter examines the creators and general plot lines, followed by a closer analysis of the principal characters and key stories. The final chapter explores the literal use of race and gender rather than the metaphorical or thematic ways such issues have been addressed. This analysis includes insights gained from interviews with several comic book creators, and dozens of illustrations from the comic book series. Of particular significance are statistics that track the race and gender of every X-Men hero, villain, and supporting character. By delving into the historical background of the series and closely examining characters and stories, X-Men and the Mutant Metaphor illuminates an important popular culture phenomenon.

Life in the Caspian Republic has taught Agent Nikolai South two rules. Trust No One. And work just hard enough not to make enemies. Here, in the last sanctuary for the dying embers of the human race in a world run by artificial intelligence, if you stray from the path—your life is forfeit. But when a Party propagandist is killed—and is discovered as a “machine”—he’s given a new mission: chaperone the widow, Lily, who has arrived to claim her husband’s remains. But when South sees that she, the first “machine” ever allowed into the country, bears an uncanny resemblance to his late wife, he’s thrown into a maelstrom of betrayal, murder, and conspiracy that may bring down the Republic for good. WHEN THE SPARROW FALLS illuminates authoritarianism, complicity, and identity in the digital age, in a page turning, darkly-funny, frightening and touching story that recalls Philip K. Dick, John le Carré and Kurt Vonnegut in equal measure. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Collecting X-Men Red #1-5 and Annual #1. Jean Grey is back — and recruiting her own team of X-Men! Reborn into a world very different than she remembers, Jean gathers allies including Nightcrawler, Namor and the All-New Wolverine to combat a growing anti-mutant movement that threatens to tear down Xavier’s dream! Jean has a vision and a plan — but first her Red squad must infiltrate a top-secret compound to save a mysterious new mutant. Avoiding guards with high-tech weapons, protestors with burning hate and gigantic mutant-killing Sentinel robots is all in a day’s work for the X-Men! But Jean’s newest recruit will be the key to the whole team’s survival as battles break out across India! Gambit finds himself caught up in the intensifying global frenzy of mutant hate as well — but could one of Jean’s oldest friends become a deadly foe?

Winner of the 2022 Eisner Award for Best Comics-Related Book The first-ever full reckoning with Marvel Comics’ interconnected, half-million-page story, a revelatory guide to the “epic of epics”—and to the past sixty years of American culture—from a beloved authority on the subject who read all 27,000+ Marvel superhero comics and lived to tell the tale “Brilliant, eccentric, moving and wholly wonderful. . . . Wolk proves to be the perfect guide for this type of adventure: nimble, learned, funny and sincere. . . . All of the Marvels is magnificently marvelous. Wolk’s work will invite many more alliterative superlatives. It deserves them all.” —Junot Díaz, New York Times Book Review The superhero comic books that Marvel Comics has published since 1961 are, as Douglas Wolk notes, the longest continuous, self-contained work of fiction ever created: over half a million pages to date, and still growing. The Marvel story is a gigantic mountain smack in the middle of contemporary culture. Thousands of writers and artists have contributed to it. Everyone recognizes its protagonists: Spider-Man, the Avengers, the X-Men. Eighteen of the hundred highest-grossing movies of all time are based on parts of it. Yet not even the people telling the story have read the whole thing—nobody’s supposed to. So, of course, that’s what Wolk did: he read all 27,000+ comics that make up the Marvel Universe thus far, from Alpha Flight to Omega the Unknown. And then he made sense of it—seeing into the ever-expanding story, in its parts and as a whole, and seeing through it, as a prism through which to view the landscape of American culture. In Wolk’s hands, the mammoth Marvel narrative becomes a fun-house-mirror history of the past sixty years, from the atomic night terrors of the Cold War to the technocracy and political division of the present day—a boisterous, tragicomic, magnificently filigreed epic about power and ethics, set in a world transformed by wonders. As a work of cultural exegesis, this is sneakily significant, even a landmark; it’s also ludicrously fun. Wolk sees fascinating patterns—the rise and fall of particular cultural aspirations, and of the storytelling modes that conveyed them. He observes the Marvel story’s progressive visions and its painful stereotypes, its patches of woeful hackwork and stretches of luminous creativity, and the way it all feeds into a potent cosmology that echoes our deepest hopes and fears. This is a huge treat for Marvel fans, but it’s also a revelation for readers who don’t know Doctor Strange from Doctor Doom. Here, truly, are all of the marvels.

Collects Uncanny X-Men (2018) #11-16. Cyclops and Wolverine are together again — and they’re mutantkind’s only hope! After the devastating events of “X-Men Disassembled,” it falls to Scott Summers to rebuild the X-Men in the face of overwhelming hatred. Thankfully, he’s not the only X-Man to have just returned from oblivion. Drawing together a new team from the ashes, Cyclops and Wolverine turn their eyes to setting an all-new agenda. Cyclops has a list of matters the X-Men must address — but the Mutant Liberation Front has its own plans! Led by one of the X-Men’s own, the MLF is willing to do whatever it takes to stop the oppression of Homo superior — even if that means killing any mutant who stands in their way! Writer Matthew Rosenberg and returning superstar X-artist Salvador Larroca lead the X-Men into their darkest hour — and beyond!

Thess is all grown up, having taken up the mantle as the new Slayer! But with new responsibilities comes new enemies, and a mysterious clan will do anything to get to her, even if it means using her friends as bait. Fans won’t want to miss this brand new mini series from veteran Buffy scribe Casey Gilly, set after the events of Buffy The Last Vampire Slayer Special #1!

The biggest and best adventures of Marvel's mighty mutants - these are the X-Men Milestones! As Magneto's Acolytes amp up their attacks on Homo sapiens everywhere, the X-teams join forces to put an end to the villainous zealots' mad crusade once and for all. But has their leader, messianic madman Magneto, returned from the dead? And as a mysterious and fatal disease begins creeping through the mutant community, which X-Man will lose a loved one - and buckle under the strain? Tensions come to a head in the most shocking way possible, culminating in a devastating attack on Wolverine -and a showdown between Professor X and Magneto that must be seen to be believed! COLLECTING: UNCANNY X-MEN (1981) 298-300, 303-304, 315; X-FACTOR (1986) 92; X-FORCE (1991) 25; X-MEN UNLIMITED (1993) 2; X-MEN (1991) 25; WOLVERINE (1988) 75; EXCALIBUR (1988) 71