X-Statix are a team of mutant superheroes appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The team was specifically designed to be media superstars. The team, created by Peter Milligan and Mike Allred, first appears in X-Force #116 and originally assumed the moniker X-Force, taking the name of the more traditional superhero team, who appear in #117 (June 2001) claiming to be "the real X-Force".

Publication history

In 2001, the X-Men family of titles were being revamped by the newly appointed Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Joe Quesada. The aim was to make the titles more critically and commercially successful. Former Vertigo editor Axel Alonso hired writer Peter Milligan, best known for his surreal, post-modernist comics such as Rogan Gosh and Shade, the Changing Man, and Madman artist Mike Allred, as the new creative team for X-Force, starting with issue #116. Prior to Milligan and Allred's first issue, X-Force sold well, but had not been the critical success Quesada wanted.

Milligan and Allred completely revamped the series, designing a team more akin to popstars or reality TV contestants than the gritty, violent paramilitary group originally portrayed in the series. The title was laced with Milligan's satirical take on the superhero team as well as general cynicism toward the entire genre. Milligan wrote that he saw the characters' super powers as "vehicles for exploring our celebrity and fame-obsessed society." Alonso described the series as "a hostile takeover of the X-Men paradigm." However, the title was receiving mainstream media coverage in titles like Rolling Stone.

X-Force #116 was the first Marvel Comics title since The Amazing Spider-Man #96–98 in 1971 to not have the Comics Code Authority (CCA) approval seal, due to the violence depicted in the issue. The CCA, which governed the content of American comic books, rejected the issue, requiring that changes be made. Instead, Marvel simply stopped submitting comics to the CCA. A spokesperson for the British royal family called the planned story "appalling." Milligan responded to the controversy, writing in the British daily newspaper The Guardian that Diana fit in well with X-Statix as someone "famous for being famous" and that he would like to write a story where David Beckham joined the team, if he could convince Marvel to let him.

  • Professor X, the mentor of the X-Men who assists X-Statix on some occasions. He constructs special suits to accommodate Orphan and Venus Dee Milo's mutations.
  • Wolverine, an old friend of Doop's who helps Orphan take down Coach and his back-up team.
  • O-Force, a mutant superhero team. Consisting of Overkill, Obituary, Ocean, Ocelot, Ooze and Orbit. Candidates include Ozone, Orchid, Optoman, Oink, Oracle and Orifice. Ocelot, Orbit, and Orifice would later join the Upstarts.

X-Force

In Milligan and Allred's first issue of X-Force, nearly the entire team is killed off in an incident called the Boyz R Us Massacre. This precursory team, of which only U-Go Girl, Doop, and Anarchist survive, also included:

  • Battering Ram, who has superhuman strength and durability as well as a thick skull which sported two ram-like horns and purple skin.
  • Gin Genie / Beckah Parker, who can direct seismic energy from her body if she had consumed alcohol.
  • La Nuit, a Frenchman who can generate a cloak of dark energy around him that disperses light and controls objects.
  • Plazm, a living, lighter-than-air, liquid man who can control metabolic functions upon contact with another or through a spray from his hands.
  • Sluk / Byron Spencer, who has a face composed of tentacles.
  • Zeitgeist / Axel Cluney, the team leader, who can vomit acidic ooze from his mouth. He conspires with Coach to have his teammates killed, but is caught in the crossfire and killed as well. He previously had a one-night stand with U-Go Girl.

X-Cellent

  • Rosa Lemper, East German mutant made of concrete.
  • Jenny Spiegel / The Mirror Girl, a blue skinned mutant.
  • Whoosh / Billy McMullen, teleporter but killed by Zeitgeist.
  • Fluff, capable of creating clouds of chest hair. Killed by Zeitgeist.
  • Hurt John, able to read people's worst fears.
  • Uno, giant eyeball capable of blasts.
  • Joe Bomb, an explosion-creating mutant, died by his own power. In naming X-Statix as one of "5 Marvel Properties That, Even After ‘Guardians of the Galaxy,’ Are Still Too Weird for the Big Screen", IndieWire wrote that X-Statix "viciously deconstructed every phony bit of comic-book artifice", put "fame-whoring media culture on trial", and confronted issues of race, class, and sexuality. IGN wrote that the frequency with which characters were killed off "lent the book an air of danger and unpredictability rare to mainstream superhero titles." Previously, in 2003, the magazine had given the series an A rating, calling it a "razor-sharp media critique with hyperbolic dialogue." Fumettologica praised the subtlety of the metatextuality in its satire, mentioning the character Anarchist's fear that people won't support adding a second African American to the team.

Other versions

  • Many members appear as baby versions as members of the Adorable X-Babies.
  • Dead Girl, Doop, Orphan, U-Go Girl (Edith Sawyer), and Vivisector all appear as members of Generation X in X-Men '92.

In other media

  • Phat appears in X-Men: The Last Stand, portrayed by Via Saleaumua in his "large mode" and Richard Yee in his "small mode". This version is a member of the Omegas, who join the Brotherhood of Mutants in opposing a mutant cure, only to be killed by Iceman. Furthermore, he is naturally large and has the ability to shrink in size.
  • Zeitgeist appears in Deadpool 2, portrayed by Bill Skarsgård. This version is a member of X-Force who is killed on his first mission after crosswinds blow him into a woodchipper.

References

  • X-Statix at Marvel.com
  • The X-Titles revamp as discussed in The Comics Journal No. 262