Lemire, Ramos Take on Marvel's Mutants in New 'X-Men' Title

In what must be one of the last official announcements to come out of Marvel ahead of Wednesday's reveal of the full All-New, All-Different line-up, Marvel has unveiled the new flagship X-Men roster from the creative team of writer Jeff Lemire and artist Humberto Ramos, with colors by Edgar Delgado. Extraordinary X-Men introduces yet another adjective to the X-Men's arsenal, and brings together a team of Storm, Nightcrawler, Colossus, and Magik, plus the present version of Iceman, a past version of Jean Grey, and a future version of Wolverine.

Yes, it's a little confusing. But the good news is, this announcement puts to rest many readers' long-term fears that the X-Men would disappear, or be removed from Earth, or even removed from the Marvel Universe, in the post-Secret Wars status quo. Marvel has been assuring its readers that it won't boot the mutants despite claims that Fox's licensing rights to Marvel mutants makes them less profitable to Marvel in non-comics channels. Now we know for sure that the X-Men aren't going away.

Not that there won't be changes. The new Marvel status quo takes place after an eight month time jump, and in announcing the new title, Lemire told ComicBookResources that something has transpired between the X-Men and the Inhumans that will have serious repercussions. Also, Cyclops is now missing, so there's an up-side. (Bye Felicia.)

As Lemire notes, this is a fairly old school and familial line-up, reuniting Storm, Nightcrawler, Colossus, and a version of Wolverine --- Old Man Logan, from the grimdark future --- with teen Jean effectively fulfilling the Kitty Pryde role from the early 80s Claremont team. Cyclops was also on that roster, but... who cares? And Iceman and Magik will enhance the family dynamic, given the strength of their bonds with their teammates. (Still, doesn't it really, really, really feel like Kitty should be on this team? I mean, really?)

One of the most interesting details of the team, at least for me, is that it includes the adult Iceman, who I pray will eventually be revealed as gay to keep him consistent with his younger self, and a bearded Colossus. The demise of the Ultimate Universe probably takes with it the gay version of that character, which is a significant loss, but maybe the door is open for this version of Colossus to come out as gay or bisexual, and embark on a relationship with his fellow newly-out teammate. (Self-discovery would help account for Piotr's very handsome and bearish new beard. Hey Pete.)

Rumor has it this will not be the only X-Men team in the new line-up. We'll have the complete rundown on Wednesday when the line-up is confirmed by Marvel.