X-Men ReLoad

X-Men ReLoad
Promotional art for the X-Men ReLoad event
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
Genre	Superhero
Publication date	May 2004
Main character(s)	X-Men
Creative team
Writer(s)	Chuck Austen Chris Claremont Joss Whedon
Artist(s)	John Cassaday Alan Davis Salvador Larroca

X-Men ReLoad was the name given by Marvel Comics to their May 2004 revamp of the X-Men titles with new looks for the characters and fresh plot points. The revamp was prompted by Grant Morrison's departure from New X-Men.

As a result of the revamp, Chris Claremont moved from writing X-Treme X-Men to writing Uncanny X-Men, with Alan Davis doing the art. Chuck Austen moved from writing Uncanny X-Men to New X-Men, which returned to its old name of simply X-Men, with Salvador Larroca, who had been working with him on Uncanny X-Men doing the art. Finally, Joss Whedon entered as the writer of the new title Astonishing X-Men, with John Cassaday as artist. X-Treme X-Men was cancelled. Also, the X-Men returned to more traditional (if not slightly revised) costumes, as opposed to the black leather uniforms from the movies.

In addition to this reshuffle of the main titles, many of the secondary X-Men books got new writers as well.

The "post-Morrison" period that was known as the ReLoad event began when Grant Morrison's run for writing New X-Men ended and X-Treme X-Men was canceled. Chris Claremont who was writing X-Treme at that time was then returned to writing Uncanny X-Men, the title that he was famous for penning throughout the majority of the 1970s and 1980s. After Grant Morrison stepped down from writing New X-Men, the title was changed back to just simply X-Men and continued with it's numbering instead of restarting as issue #1. The three main X-Men team books consisted of the aforementioned X-Men, Astonishing X-Men, and Uncanny X-Men with the three main teams being led by Havok, Cyclops, and Storm respectively. Many individual X-Men characters received their own solo series as part of this event, but few lasted beyond twelve issues and many of the solo titles were cancelled after only a few issues due to poor sales. Astonishing X-Men quickly proved to be the most popular and highest selling X-Men title at that time and received strong reviews from fans and critics alike for its artwork, pacing, and writing. Astonishing X-Men became so popular that it was the only X-book at that time to receive spin-off series like X-Men: Phoenix - Endsong and an origin series for Colossus.