X-Men

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The X-Men are one of the largest sub-universes of Marvel Comics, built around the concept of a nascent offshoot of human civilization, the mutants, and their struggles in the face of human fear and prejudice.

An X-Gene Primer

Mutants, also known as "Homo Sapiens Superior" to baseline humanity being "Homo Sapiens Sapiens", are an offshoot of humanity distinguished by the presence of the mysterious X-Gene, a special strand of DNA that usually activates during puberty. However, for a minority of mutants, the X-Gene either activates earlier, sometimes at birth, or else it doesn't activate until full adulthood.

The effects of an X-Gene are random, and not helped by various contradictory statements by clashing writers. Typically, a mutant develops either a superpower with a psionic or biological basis (admittedly stretching the definition of "biological" pretty far), a physical deformity, or both. Mutants from the same family line often develop similar powers, and sometimes even have a natural resistance to each other - an iconic example of this are the Summers Brothers, Scott "Cyclops" and Alexander "Havoc ", both of whom can shoot energy blasts and yet are completely unaffected by each others' powers. Usually, a mutant only has a small selection of powers, and many only have a single one; when multiple powers are present, they usually form a kind of "theme", such as a mutant who can transform into a body made of inorganic material gaining superhuman strength and durability in that form. Complicating matters further is the phenomena of "secondary mutations", where a mutant may, at random, experience a further mutation of their X-Gene and develop one or more completely new powers, which may have nothing in common with their original powerset. The postergirl for this is Emma Frost, whose original power was telepathy, but who gained the ability to shapeshift into a nigh invulnerable, psi-immune form made of living diamond.

Meta-History

The story goes that Stan Lee invented the X-Men in the 60s when he decided that, if Marvel Comics was going to focus on supers, it'd be handy to have a one-size-fits-all origin story for heroes, villains and side-characters. After all, how many aliens, mad scientists and lucky survivors of freak accidents could there really be? Thus, the concept of mutants was born.

The X-Men debuted in the 60s and, frankly, didn't do too well. With a comparatively dark and negative view of the future in an age where the Silver Age "science explorer" Fantastic Four were still king, the X-Men just didn't really gel with the market. It didn't help that DC Comics had come up with their own take on the idea of a team of super-freaks protecting a world that hated, feared and misunderstood them in the form of the Doom Patrol.

Then came the Bronze Age of Comics... in the 70s, the civil rights movement took off, and the sexual minorities were hot on its heels. Marvel saw an opportunity; after all, mutants had already been characterized as a minority race within humanity in their own right, and now the fact that mutants spontaneously arose at random could be tied in to the growing idea that non-heterosexuality was not a choice nor a perversion, but simply a quirk of genetics. Thus they brought the X-Men back with a new team, emphasizing the diverseness by expanding the roster beyond the original 4 WASP boys and 1 WASP girl. Whilst the "mutants stand in for minorities" angle has always been contentious (after all, it's not reasonable to be scared of the gay guy down the street, but it is reasonable to be scared of the teenage girl next door who can pop your head like a zit if she thinks about it), it worked. Combined with the decision to turn the X-Men into Marvel's own Superhero Soap Opera, as soaps were a cultural phenomena taking America by storm in the 70s, and the X-Men soared to popularity, growing to become arguably Marvel's biggest superhero team in pop culture, even their answer to the Justice League.

Mutant Rollcall

We could be at this for hours... even Stan Lee was known to joke about just how massive the mutant population grew after he introduced them to Marvel.

/tg/ Relevance

Whilst there haven't technically been straight X-Men RPGs, they've always received their own dedicated splatbooks for Marvel's licensed RPGs. They also offer DMs a lot of inspiration on what to do (and what not to do) when designing supers or even Urban Fantasy campaigns. Even beyond that, the X-Men have been to an incredible array of alien worlds and other dimensions over the decades, with plenty to be inspired by or outright steal from, such as the bodysnatching Brood or the mad TV-god Mojo.