X-Statix, a mutant superhero team that’s more like a reality TV show cast than a paramilitary unit, will return to Marvel Comics in July, courtesy of its original creative team.
Giant-Sized X-Statix #1 was announced Thursday from writer Peter Milligan, artist Michael Allred, colorist Laura Allred, and letterer Nate Piekos. Allred officially tipped it himself on social media, noting it “had the longest gestation and longest held secret” of any comics project that he’s done. For days (if not weeks), Allred has been noting on Twitter that he’s about to announce two projects that are years in the making, along with a new creator-owned comic.
No word on the other two as of yet, but Giant-Sized X-Statix #1 is apparently the first of these. Allred also shared work-in-progress from the series, which you can find below:

X-Statix as a team and a concept originally began in the X-Force comic way back in 2001. The book soon changed its name to X-Statix, embarking on a run that spanned 26 issues. Milligan and the Allreds were the creators back then too, taking over X-Force and killing off all existing members of that group, with the exception of U-Go Girl, Anarchist, and Doop. What set the team apart from the rest of the mutant/superhero teams was that it was more of a satire on celebrity and media culture, casting its protagonists as something closer to reality stars than real superheroes.
Marvel Comics has been throwing a lot of comics out there as of late, occasionally earning it criticism from fans and retailers, but hey, every once in a while that approach can yield something truly excellent, like this. I for one can’t wait to see which characters die and comeback and maybe die again in this first issue.

9 COMMENTS

  1. So… is this another one-shot like Hulk by David and Keown, or Wolverine by Claremont, Hama and Kieth? Or is this a whole miniseries or even ongoing?

  2. “taking over X-Force and killing off all existing members of that group, with the exception of U-Go Girl, Anarchist, and Doop.”
    That’s not really accurate.
    While the first Milligan/Allred issue of X-Force did end in everyone on the team dying except those three characters, the characters who died were not “existing members of that group”; they were all new characters who had just appeared for the first time in that issue. The previous members of X-Force were entirely absent (though a few of them showed up in a later issue, furious that a new team had taken their name).
    Details aside, this is great news. It’s probably not possible for a new X-Statix series to be as shocking and revolutionary as the original (which, among other things, helped kill the Comics Code), but I’m still looking forward to seeing the band back together.

  3. XSTATIX did not help kill the Comics Code… the aging of the customers for American comics did. Anything that is still marketed to kids is still subject to lots of self-regulation.
    Self-regulation hasn’t disappeared from comics. Today, secular people from academia have taken the place of Christian groups in suggesting should be allowed in comics. You won’t see the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund challenging a comic a few activists on Twitter are calling to be censored because it allegedly depicts xxxxxxxxxx unfavorably.
    “Details aside, this is great news. … looking forward to seeing the band back together.”
    It is great news if you’re someone who thinks Peter will somehow be able to capture lightning in a bottle again and make X-statix interesting when his approach to superheroes has been copied, poorly, by other writers. It’s normal to see a superhero comic with social/political commentary. I’m not sure if seeing it done well is a draw at this point . Someone aside from Alonso, at Marvel, likes Peter’s work, but Peter has never made Marvel much money . This special will most likely be lost among the sea of other Marvel comics with social/political commentary.
    This is the second time Peter’s returned to his Xstatix characters.

  4. I think it’s interesting that Marvel is trying to redo many of its greatest hits. That Peter David written Spider-Man looks like a Web Of cover from the 80s, and it was about that time David was writing Spectacular as well. Liefeld, Larsen, etc., etc. I don’t mind. Looks like these creators are given slightly a little room.

  5. Erik Larsen Spider-Man covers featured several times in Into the Spiderverse. Evidence of still beloved, then

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