X-Men: Legacy

X-Men: Legacy
Cover art for X-Men: Legacy #208. Art by David Finch.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
Schedule	Monthly
Format	Ongoing
Publication date	X-Men October 1991 - June 2001 Issues #1 to #113 New X-Men July 2001 - June 2004 Issues #114 to #156 X-Men July 2004 - January 2008 Issues #157 to #207 X-Men: Legacy, vol. 1 February 2008 - October 2012 Issues #208 to #275 X-Men: Legacy, vol. 2 November 2012 - March 2014 Issues #1 - #24, #300
Number of issues	Total: 300 as X-Men: 164 as New X-Men: 43 as X-Men: Legacy, 93
Main character(s)	X-Men Charles Xavier Rogue Legion
Creative team
Writer(s)	Chris Claremont Grant Morrison Mike Carey Simon Spurrier
Penciller(s)	Jim Lee Adam Kubert Carlos Pacheco Ethan Van Sciver Phil Jimenez Salvador Larroca Scot Eaton Leinil Yu Clay Mann
Inker(s)	Scott Williams Danny Miki
Creator(s)	Chris Claremont Jim Lee

X-Men: Legacy is a comic book series published by Marvel Comics featuring the mutant superhero team, the X-Men.

The title began its publication in October 1991 as X-Men. From 2001 until 2004 it was published as New X-Men. It had reverted in issue #157 to its original title, but changed again from issue #208 to X-Men: Legacy. Prior to the name change, the series is usually referred to as X-Men, vol. 2 because the first series, currently Uncanny X-Men, was titled The X-Men prior to 1981. In addition, a new unrelated ongoing series titled X-Men was later released starting in 2010, and is generally referred to as X-Men, vol. 3.

X-Men: Legacy was relaunched in 2012 as part of Marvel NOW! with a new issue #1. The new volume, written by Simon Spurrier, focuses on Legion, son of the recently deceased Professor X, and his mission to preemptively help mutantkind while attempting to get his many personalities under control. The volume ended its run after 25 issues in March 2014, but not before reverting to its original numbering with the final issue, X-Men: Legacy #300.

In 1991, Marvel launched X-Men, vol. 2 as a spinoff of the parent title Uncanny X-Men, with co-writers Chris Claremont and Jim Lee, previously the penciler on Uncanny, moving over to X-Men, while studio mate Whilce Portacio took over penciling duties on Uncanny. X-Men #1 is still the bestselling comic book of all time, with pre-order sales of over 8.1 million copies, according to Guinness Book of World Records, which presented honors to Claremont at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con It is estimated that somewhere between 3-4 million copies were actually sold. The sales figures were generated in part by publishing the issue with five different variant covers, four of which showed different characters from the book that combined into a tetraptych image, and a fifth, gatefold cover that combined these four, large numbers of which were purchased by retailers, who anticipated fans and speculators who would buy multiple copies in order to acquire a complete collection of the covers. Chris Claremont, left after three issues due to creative differences with editor Bob Harras. Writers John Byrne and Scott Lobdell handled dialogue after Claremont's departure, and Lee himself left the title after issue #11 to form a new company, Image Comics with several other Marvel artists.