jean grey

Who are the greatest X-Men of all time? To mark the release of X-Men: Apocalypse, we came up with the ultimate list of the top 100 characters ever to wear the X as part of the extended family of Professor Charles Xavier's Westchester school. These are the very best heroes (and sometimes villains) in more than fifty years of stories about Marvel mutants fighting for a world that hates and fears them! The final list was determined by a combination of our expert panel's rankings and our readers' votes, and as you might expect, the results offer an amazing selection of icons, powerhouses, and gorgeous freaks --- not to mention a few unexpectedly popular weirdoes. But it wouldn't be the X-Men without embracing the appeal of the weird.

The original X-Men, co-created in 1963 by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee, featured only five young mutants. Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Beast, Angel, and Iceman made up Professor X's first class, and the world’s last line of defense against Magneto and his evil Brotherhood of Mutants. No matter which mutant hero is your favorite, each of these characters sees some representation among a devout fan base. In every form and in every evolution, these characters can be found throughout the convention circuit, and we've gathered some their appearances here just for you. Journey back to the atomic age as we look at the best original X-Men cosplay.

Since the dawn of the Silver Age, legacy characters have been a staple of superhero fiction, and having a new character step into a well loved roll can open up new opportunities for writers and artists to tell different kinds of stories. In The Replacements, we’ll look back at the notable and not-so-notable heroes and villains to assume some of the most iconic mantles in the superhero genre. This week, in honor of Mutant Week, we’re looking at the X-Men’s most storied legacy position. That’s right, we’re looking at the women, men, and clones who have at one time or another called themselves Phoenix.

X-Men: Apocalypse doesn't come out in the US until May 27, but we've known for a while that it takes place in the 1980s. In fact, that's what inspired all the recent '80s X-Men fan art. Now the marketing team for the movie has gone a similar direction themselves, posting five images to the official X-Men Movies Facebook Page that insert characters from the movie into some classic '80s record cover art.

Today we're voting on Charles Xavier's favorite student, his wicked step-brother, and one of his oldest collaborators. We also offer our assessment on one of the stranger presences from the Australia years, and yet another former villain turned Westchester student.

It's been just a shade over 25 years since the Dark Phoenix Saga changed the X-Men forever. Though Jean Grey isn't exactly a regular fixture in the X-comics these days... well, the Jean Grey that got Phoenix'd isn't around anyway. She went on to merge with the Phoenix Force and kind of exists on a higher plane or some such thing, but that young version from the original team is around because of time travel reasons. You know, typical X-manning. Regardless of which version of Jean is around, the Phoenix/Dark Phoenix version has long been a fan-favorite incarnation. It's hard to argue with that costume design. It was probably the first time Jean actually got an outfit that wasn't fairly ridiculous. While the current Jean might be kicking around trying to not live up to the legacy she will one day create back in the past (just thinking about this stuff gives me a headache), there's a reason original recipe Jean is the one getting a statue from Sideshow. It's because she rules.

You know how much we love cosplay at ComicsAlliance; we put a spotlight on it every week. Fans who create their own costumes and dress up as their favorite heroes are some of the most passionate and enthusiastic people in comics, and the level of talent and committment on display at conventions seems to get more impressive every year. If there isn't a Carol Corps cosplay meet-up or a whole dang Spider-Verse at a show, you'll probably go home disappointed. So it's great to see Marvel paying tribute to these fans with a selection of cosplay variant covers on several of its All-New All-Different launches this fall. The Marvel Cosplay variants place fans of Spider-Gwen, Daredevil, Doctor Strange, Thor (both versions) and more on the covers of the books they love. Cosplay connoisseurs will see some familiar faces among the cosplayers, including Birds of Play's Amanda Lynne Shafer, cosplay legend Yaya Han, and Marvel's own in-house cosplay blogger Judy Stephens as Captain Marvel.

Womenswear in superhero costumes hasn’t always been about skintight, sexy unitards. In the early Silver Age of comics, readers saw the inception of the mystically-inspired heroine; one imbued with passive or non-contact abilities such as invisibility, telepathy, or magic. Especially common at Marvel, these mystic or faux-mystic heroines offered a contrast to the superhero brute force of their male colleagues, but they also had something else in common; the headdress.

Although cosplay has been present for decades within the comics, anime, and sci-fi/fantasy fandoms, social media has played an integral role in the thriving communities of costuming that exist, such as Cosplay.com and the Superhero Costuming Forum. Over the years, the cosplay community has evolved into a creative outlet for many fans to establish and showcase some impressive feats of homemade disguise, craftsmanship, and sartorial superheroics at conventions. In honor of the caped crusaders of the convention scene, ComicsAlliance has created Best Cosplay Ever (This Week), an ongoing collection of some of the most impeccable, creative, and clever costumes that we’ve discovered and assembled into a super-showcase of pure fan-devoted talent.

The Advocate has published leaked pages from All-New X-Men #40, on sale tomorrow, which reveal that one of the characters is secretly gay. It's a big moment, and one that could potentially increase gay visibility in the Marvel Universe in a significant way, but there are complications to the story that make it hard to read as an unambiguous victory for LGBTQ representation. Read on if you don't mind having the issue spoiled.