Uncanny X-Men to End in October with #544

This morning, The Washington Post reports that (Did we get that right? The Washington P– okay, okay!) Jason Aaron's X-Men: Schism event will ultimately lead to the dissolution of the Uncanny -Men, and that includes the title itself. 

October's #544 by Kieron Gillen will be the last issue of Uncanny X-Men

Here's what Gillen had to say: 

"The X-Men has always been a book with ideology and ideas at its heart, and to be fair to them — to best present them — you have to be entirely true," Gillen said. "And if the story we're telling demands that you end the 'Uncanny X-Men,' you end the 'Uncanny X-Men.' No, it's not taken lightly — but it's taken if it's necessary to do it."

 

Sleep well now, Ron. Because when you wake up, the world will be different. 

Comments

  1. I reckon Dc and marvel should stop focusing on good stories and try a few gimicks this year

  2. And the Age of Apocalypse was the end to the X-Men.

  3. This is probably just a temporary thing born from Aaron’s story (a la the Age of Apocalypse break back in the day). It’ll give them a chance to refocus the line, and get a new art team on Uncanny (I like the Dodsons and don’t absolutely hate Greg Land, but its time for a change).

    Now, when the Schism is eventually healed, will Uncanny X-Men pick up at 545 or renumber back to 1?

    (for the record, I don’t care, as long as the stories are good!)

  4. As much as I’m a bit terrified about the thought of a world where I can’t buy ‘Uncanny X-Men’, this sounds quite exciting. I wonder if Magneto finding out about Uncanny X-Force will have anything to do with this, and which mutants will go which way…

    My fanboy imagination is running away with me now. Must get back to work. 

  5. Oh shit! I have to know what ron is going to say!

  6. Hmm maybe this is going to be a reboot akin to the DC news. As a long time x-fan, i may be a little more conflicted if they choose to go that route than i am with the DC reboot, but i’ll deal.

  7. Gillens doing a great job but ron was right the art needs to be fresher this strikes me as the time when that will hapen.

  8. Somebody needs to watch Ron. Just in case……

  9. RIP Cyclops.

  10. I sure hope the sky doesn’t fall on me today.

  11. I think this is an awesome idea.  You always roll your eyes when they say, “this will change such n’ such forever” and then everything goes back to normal after the event is over or after a year or so (this of course is assuming Uncanny doesn’t return in said ‘year or so’). This gives more weight to what Aaron said when ifanboy interviewed him earlier this year.

  12. That’s an odd way to ride the momentum of X-men: First Class.  (Assuming there was any momentum to ride.)

  13. Dammit! And just when Kieron was getting started on his run. First Snyder can’t reach 900 on Detective Comics, now Gillen’s run is gonna be cut short. I hope that he does write an X-Men relted title, whatever titles will come out of Schism & hopefully be able to continue his overall story arc from Uncanny.

  14. The real contest here is which company gets more angry reactions from the internets.

  15. wouldn’t it be cool if the story that ended Uncanny X-Men was in Uncanny X-Men?

  16. if this is legit, I say fire up the Uncanny X-Men retrospectives and let’s give this title the send off it deserves.  if this is another attempt to re-shuffle and re-number, I’m going to be quite put out.  the X-Men aren’t going to disappear, obviously, but losing Uncanny from the title line is like trying to watch the Bulls without Michael Jordan in the 90s.  just doesn’t feel right.

  17. This is all Matt Fractions fault!

  18. As a rational adult, I know this is only temporary and of course a new #1 will follow as a marketing ploy, but with that said, the 9 year old in me who’s been collecting Uncanny for 20 years and just this past October completed my collection from Giant Size #1 to the present this is heartbreaking.

    It’s been my favorite book my whole comic reading life and I was proud that it was the only marvel title that hadn’t been renumbered time and time again. Part of me knew that this would eventually happen, but it still kinda bums me out.

    Hopefully we “Schism” does what “disassembled” did for Avengers. I’m interested to hear more.

  19. Hasn’t Ron made various dire predictions about what happens when they renumber Uncanny?

    Still, they haven’t said they will renumber, so maybe this is like Fantastic Four “ending” & “FF” starting up. You get the best of both worlds, a new number 1, and go back to old numbering when people stop being excited about a “new” book.

  20. Ron’s wrath will know no bounds

  21. Idon’t know if the dc reboot or the uncanny end makes me more sick….
    Is Generation Hope be still on?thats will be the last gasp.
    I miss Matt Fraction

  22. I trust in Gillen and Aaron.  Les do it!

  23. @dani

    Why does this make you sick? Do you feel that strong of a connection to the numbering of a series? I realize the headlines are designed to elicit these kinds of reactions, but come on, even if “Uncanny X-Men” is not continuing under that name, these characters are not going anywhere.

    I was 13 when Age of Apocalypse went down, and I’m now realizing that it was a great lesson to learn about How Comics Work. At first I was really upset that everything was ending, then I loved the alternate reality stories, and when we came back to reality I was a bigger X-Men fan than ever!

    This will be fine.

  24. Somehow I don’t think Ron’s going to be asleep. The moment that was voiced allowed, he felt the disturbance in The Force.

  25. R.I.P. Marvel’s longest continuously published series.

  26. @dani  ‘I miss Matt Fraction’.  Oh, so you’re the one.

  27. man, X-Events are always such fucking downers. Don’t they realize that everybody just wants a book where everyone looks pretty playing baseball at the Mansion? Forever? 

  28. So is Schism the Mutant “Civil War”.  Just curious

  29. @vadamowens Hah!

  30. If you had told me a year ago that Fantastic Four, Uncanny X-Men, Detective Comics, and Action Comics were all ending, I would have thought this was a very dark year for the industry indeed…

  31. I should have known laughing at the DC reboot would came back to haunt me.

  32. and just as i was getting into the Xmen

  33. I feel my biggest problem with this is that Greg land is drawing the last issue

  34. I have faith in Gillen and Aaron and i’m sure the story will be good, but is this really necessary? 

    @greenbillblue  Yea seriously. With Uncanny, Detective and Action all starting from #1 does this make Amazing Spider-Man the highest numbered book now?

  35. A desperate reaction to the DC reboot and an attempt to get some press? Somehow i get the feeling Amazing Spiderman is next.

    Kinda funny how the Washington Post is breaking this story. Very random.  

  36. Avatar photo Arrrggghhh (@Arrrggghhh) says:

    Wow . . . can’t believe people are believing this.
    This is just another Marvel reboot to sell #1 issues which they will eventually change back to in the future to make sure to sell issue Uncanny X-men #600 (with yet another rediculous numbering system for collectors to love.)

  37. @wallythegreenmonster – I saw it this morning on Yahoo! as an AP story. 

    @bgaving – Spider-Man doesn’t count.  They renumbered in the late 90’s/early 2000’s.  Uncanny was going to be the only book between DC and Marvel not to have renumbered.  I think someone mentioned Spawn as the new title holder. 

    Now, whose to say Uncanny still won’t be with a hiatus, but after DC’s announcement and its reaction I have to think Marvel would start Uncanny X-Men at #1 if they re-launch it. 

  38. I think that the silliest thing about this is the quote. No, it’s not a marketing trick. We’re doing it because the story demands it! Honest! As if the X-Men wouldn’t just boot Cyclops and Wolverine and carry on with a new leader. It pisses me off because of the self importance it professes. The title hasn’t needed to be ended for more than 500 issues. But this silly rehash of all the fights Cyclops and Wolverine have had over the years is the story that deserves to end the title. There is nothing interesting with this direction and as an X-Men fan I have been voting with my money for the last 3-4 years and haven’t been getting this. I hope more people find this a convenient point to drop off.

  39. guys ron just found out

  40. @Arrrggghhh Hit the nail on the head.

    The title and/or original numbering will come back in about a year. Or at the very least come back when it’s close to a big milestone (like 600). Why are people falling for this yet again?

    Although if it means new artists other then Dodson and Land then it’ll be worth it.

  41. @wallythegreenmonster  I hope you’re wrong about that, not that i care about numbering but if that were to happen there would have to be a month where ASM wasn’t published and i’ve been buying ASM since i was old enough to know that comics came out every month. I can’t imagine a world where ASM doesn’t exist and i can imagine quite a lot.

  42. @Evangelion11  Same here picked up Uncanny when Gillen came on board and now this.

  43. @TheNextChampion  re: Dodson and Land. I totally agree.  I’m tired of both of them.

  44. @BC1  Wow. Spawn?  That is a shame! 

  45. @nick7913  Wow. I hadn’t looked at it that way. The book has had many incarnations without Cyclops or Xavier as leader.

    My personal thought is we are going to see two new titles: Wolverine & The X-Men and Cyclops & The X-Men. They will probably look and feel a heck of a lot like the blue-team/gold-team of the 90s and probably be written by Gillen for Cyclops and Rick Remender for Wolverine.

    If this were really “THE END” then we would see a line-wide cancellation initiative.

    The mutants haven’t been “The X-Men” in forever. For me, the name’s on the cover for branding purposes. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the fact that it’s about the community of mutants and not an elite strike force of brainwashed youngsters. This seems like a “back to basics” way of dividing a cast that’s already spread out over Uncanny, Uncanny, Adjectiveless & Legacy.

    We shall see. 

  46. amazing that people even feel the need to point out that they know it will come back. This is a conversation that happens at least 3 times a week among comic fans about either books or characters, YET IT NEVER FAILS. Someone always thinks they are the only ones to see through the madness and find the truth! 

  47. So tired of gimmicks… so, so tired.  This kind of bums me out, as I got into comics throught the X-titles of the late 80’s including Uncanny.  Still, if it gets them off that damn island and refocuses things, I’m all for it.  Just wish they didn’t have to cancel titles, etc.  They could have used Uncanny for one group and either X-Men or X-Force for the other.  And that leads to my next question, what does happen to adjectiveless X-Men and X-Force?  Will those end too?  Or will they continue with X-Men being kind of doing its own thing and possible X-Force as well, although it makes sence for X-Force to be Wolverine’s X-men team book.

  48. @TheNextChampion  and others: I think the issue here is that Uncanny has been completely impervious to the whole renumbering phenomenon until now. In the scheme of things, it’s not that big a deal, but the huge Uncanny devotees like myself see this as more of a symbolic corruption of the title. Things like AoA are not a big deal since they actually didn’t affect the numbering. They took a 4 month hiatus (which is less time than the delays on certain titles) then resumed at #321. I mean, they went 544 issues straight! I think this is just stupid and unnecessary.

  49. What number is Spawn on? Because Hellblazer is at 279.

  50. This makes carreys legacy the longest x title now

  51. I remember that Ron agreed on a bet that one day Uncanny X-Men got a new number one will stop reading x-men books

  52. @MikeFarley  Spawn is at 208 which will make Hellblazer the highest numbered ongoing book in comics. Cool.

  53. Someone take Ron’s belt and shoe laces away from him – NOW!

  54. @KenOchalek  Maybe not sick, depressed. its the age, lets say when i was 13 Catwoman and Batgirl fought for Batmans heart, i want in september to buy issue #715 not #1.For me continuity is very important.

    For Matt Fraction haters: very few writes comics as well as Matt Fraction in my opinion.

  55. The new series will be written and drawn by Greg Land.

  56. I just hope it comes back as 545 not 1 idc about renumbering but I felt like it was the one book immune to renumbering even when it got canceled and went into reprints or when it came back after giant size 1 it managed to keep it’s original numbering I’ll be sad if they start a volume 2 even though we all know it’s be temporary until they get to 600 but still

  57. Honestly, I have complete trust in the X team of writers right now. Aaron, Gillen, and Remender are kicking ass and taking names. High odds that these stories will be awesome.

  58. Also uncanny should only be up to about issue 300 something, it started as The X-Men and then for like 5 or 6 years was just reprints of old stories. It’s not like it’s 544 issues of pristine “Uncanny X-Men”.

  59. um like what was it called before it was the Uncanny X-Men? UM the X-Men … a la 1963 …

    More marketing gimmicks …

  60. @ActualButt yeah but I’m a huge fan of Batman and Spider-man. It wouldnt bother me though if ASM is renumbered and it didn’t bother me with Batman and ‘Tec Comics being renumbered.

  61. @ResurrectionFlan  Bravo and well played. Still gives me an excuse to jump ship unless they have something incredible in the pipeline. Like a new Wolverine costume.

  62. @Evangelion11 Me too! I just started reading Uncanny two months ago. I’m dissapointed too, but I really don’t want to to know how angry Ron is gonna be.

  63. Can someone check on Ron every hour? 🙂

  64. I’m sure Ron is fine.

    I think when the renumbering thing comes up, some people like to believe that there exists such a thing as “Marketing-free Mainstream Comics” like these comics will automatically sell at profitable levels if only the marketing department got out of the way and stopped trying to change things.

    Let’s face it, comics are kind of a hard sell these days, and a good chunk of the readership is pretty jaded and set in their ways. I think this stunt marketing has become necessary when they’re trying to energize and gain the attention of the several hundred thousand comic buyers out there.

    That said, I think they have been pretty good about putting the stories before the marketing. With the creative talent they have involved with this, you’d have to be pretty cynical (and maybe insane) to believe that they’re ONLY doing this to make long time readers upset. And if you really are that cynical, why are you reading comics? Comics are for people who like fun stories that stretch the imagination! Don’t you like fun?

    Sorry to rant, it’s just the hyperbolic reactions that bug me (I know, it’s the internet, but I can be hopeful, right?)

  65. Aaaand the last of the legitimately-numbered books by the Big Two ends. 

  66. Well… at least I can focus solely on filling in the back issues now. 

    Because even with that CD-ROM and Omnibuses and hardcovers and trades, having longboxes with 544 issues in conditions ranging from poor to mint that I don’t actually read is a dream. 

    An obsessive-compulsive nostalgia-fueled dream, but a dream, nonetheless.

    Trades and digital aside, this is the one complete collection of issues that I want and will keep.

  67. If I were sitting in the highchairs at DC or Marvel I wouldn’t bother with all this #1 and Final Issue hooey. Here’s what I’d do (in case you’re wondering):

    Downplay numeration of the books.
    Accentuate the numeration (parts) of storylines.

    For example it wouldn’t be Fantastic Four #589 (Future Foundation), it would be Fantastic Four: Future Foundation #1 (Fantastic Four #589).

    The number #589 could still appear on the cover (perhaps crafitly drawn in by the cover artist) but the parts of the story would be prominent.

    By accentuating the start and finish of storylines you potentially have more jumping on points per year, per title, than you have with reboots & final issues, etc.

    These companies should show a little more pride in the legacy of what they’ve published. Kill and resurrect as many characters as you want but these numbers reflect the collective efforts of everyone from writers to artists to editors to marketing to printing.

  68. I just noticed the ‘THE FINAL ISSUE’ part on the cover shown here.

    Boy that sure won’t look stupid if Marvel brings the book back right? 

  69. The race between Uncanny, Action, and Detective begins now! Who returns to it’s orginal numbering first?! I’m guessing it’s whoever hits a milestone issue next.

    It’s sad that Marvel & DC feel the need to rely on the mainstream media to get free press. And that the only way they know how to accomplish getting it is by doing BIG, shocking things to their books and characters. As fans, all we want is the stories to take precedent over stunts and gimmicks. Oh well.

    @TheNextChampion – After the success of FF, I wouldn’t be surprised if Uncanny didn’t initially relaunch as “Uncanny X-Men” right away. Marvel sold us on “the final issue of the Fantastic Four”, and it seems they are doing the same with Uncanny now. And just as FF doesn’t mean “Fantastic Four” won’t return at some point with a new #1, so will Uncanny make a grand return somewhere down the road. In each case it allows Marvel to do two big relaunches for each book. Who knows how long they choose to run the new books. But I’m fairly certain that whenever Uncanny returns, the “Final Issue” cover will be long enough out of people’s minds that it won’t be any more stupid than any other comic book gimmick.

  70. @sunhero- *virtual high five

  71. Sounds like a gimmick to me.

    I’m not one of the Land haters. I actually really like his work except for the fact that all his ladies give at least one cheesy Glamor Shots pose per issue. Just praying they aren’t planning a new X book with Bachalo manning the art. That will be my signal to say good-bye.

  72. Ron, have some self respect. Just walk away

  73. @keith7198  Bachelo’s run after Madureria was pretty awesome on Uncanny.

  74. This brings back memories to 2004 when the Avengers ended and then everything turned out okay

  75. I just reached the Brubaker run..  i guess ill never catch up to the current issues

  76. @verticaljack Why not? Have they ceased to exist in any way?

    I’m genuinely curious because I can read your post as indicating your answer might be “because there’s no point if the series is ending.” and that would just be sad. There have been about four years worth of pretty decent X-men stories since Brubaker wrote the book. And marketing techniques aside, there’s sure to be plenty more where that came from, whether there’s an obscure adjective at the beginning of the title or not.

    Read things because you think you will enjoy them. That seems to be the whole iFanboy ethos if you ask me.

  77. @KenOchalek  Most x-fans that I’ve spoken to either loved or hated the Matt Fraction run.  I couldn’t stand it.  I was ok with Ed, but honestly I’m having a love affair with Kieron Gillen.  This is the most fun I’ve had with X-men since I started reading.  So I don’t suggest anything post- Brubaker with the exception of the events just so they’ll understand the inevitble references in the current books.

  78. What’s with Marvel and DC lately? They hire chimps for editorial staff to save a buck? X-Men’s civil war, I hope it doesn’t suck like the previous civil war…

  79. What’s next? Spidey?

  80. uh, Civil War was a huge hit for Marvel (relative to the market). In editorial terms, it was a huge success. Aaron is a far better writer than Millar. If I was an editor, I’d sign off on this concept: depressing as it is, it’s certainly marketable.

  81. @TheNextChampion  Various other comics have had “Final Issue” on them, and eventually came back. This is no different.

  82. I’m a long time X-Men fan. Got in back in the 90s when the tv series blew my mind; and I try to keep up with the mutant section of the Marvel comics. Even though I rarely pick up the books anymore; other than trades at the library. Honestly? I’m loving this. The conflicts that started in Giant Size X-Men #1 are over. The mutants won. Won beyond anything I think readers really would have imagined. When we see Magneto vowing to die fighting beside the X-Men, defending a sovereign nation by and for mutant-kind, its done.

    And now, like all victorious revolutions, this ones’ members will have to hash out what to do with the victory. Which, real world historically speaking, tends to be complicated, messy, and bloody. Basing the conflict around sides led by two traditionally antagonistic power players just keeps everything simple and iconic. Canceling the title that started it all is the best statement I can think of that this brave new world is the one their characters now permanently reside in. Its nice to see that, every once in a while, Marvel comics remembers that its the real world groundedness of its characters and their conflicts are the companies’ real selling point.