Uncanny X-Men

Uncanny X-Men (launched as Giant-Size X-Men in 1975) is a comic book published by Marvel Comics.

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Issue 61

Angel: Take 'im, Iceman!!

Sauron: Do you hope to fool Sauron with your feeble tricks? There is nobody behind meeEEEEEEE

[Sauron gets his wing frozen by Iceman.]

Iceman: Just call me nobody, batwing! By the way, that's quite a pair of tenor tonsils you've got there!

Issue 98

Jean Grey: Isn't the snow beautiful, Ororo?

Storm: In it's way, Jean...But I can't help remembering that on the slopes of Kilimanjaro, the snow is...white.

---

[Jack Kirby and Stan Lee see Jean Grey and Cyclops kiss passionately.]

Jack Kirby: Hey, Stan, you know who they were? I tell ya, they never used to do that when we had the book.

Stan Lee: Ah, Jack, you know these young kids -- they got no respect.

Issue 101

[The birth of Phoenix.]

Phoenix: Hear me, X-Men! No longer am I the woman you knew! I am Fire and Life incarnate! Now and forever - I am PHOENIX!

Issue 111

Boy: Mom, look! One o' the big monkeys got loose.

Beast: Thanks, kid, my ego needed that. Don't you people know a super-hero when you see one?

Issue 136

Phoenix: Dark Phoenix knows nothing of love!

Cyclops: Oh? For love of the X-Men, you sacrificed your life. For love of me, you resurrected yourself. For love of the whole universe, you almost died a second time to save it. Know nothing of love?! Jean, you are love!

Issue 137

[The death of Phoenix.]

Phoenix:...If even one more person died at my hands... It's better this way. Quick. Clean. Final. I love you, Scott. A part of me will always be with you.

Cyclops: Jean, no. Don't! No!

[A ray gun emplacement fires, killing Phoenix.]

Phoenix: SCOTT!

Cyclops: JEAN!

Issue 141

• Kitty Pryde: We fought. We lost. We d-died. And now... seeing you all alive -- oh God, I didn't think it would hurt so much.

Issue 162

Wolverine: I'm the best there is at what I do. But what I do best isn't very nice.

[Often misquoted as "I'm the best at what I do, and what I do isn't very nice".]

---

Wolverine: I'm not an animal. I'm a man. An X-Man!

Issue 171

Storm: Professor, if Rogue stays, I go.

Nightcrawler: My apologies, Herr Professor, but we all go.

Professor X: I see. We pick and choose who we help, is that it? Some are worthy, others not?! Who was it, Ororo, told me Wolverine was an X-Man, not because of his "sterling" chacter (sic), but his potential for good. That to deny him-- though we abhor his violent nature-- would thereby deny our true reason for being, which is to help him achieve that potential. The same argument holds for Rogue, does it not? Of course, there's a risk in accepting her-- but consider the alternative. At least with us she has a chance for a better life, Deny her and we condemn her outright... and that I will never do-- to any mutant-- so long as breath remains within me.

Issue 175

Cyclops: Got the ring, Alex?

Alex Summers: What's it worth to you?

Cyclops: Want to die, Alex?

Issue 176

[Madelyne stops Cyclops from falling off a floating plane into the water.]

Cyclops: It's okay, Madelyne, I can swim.

[A shark is seen below him]

Madelyne Pryor: Great, dummy -- so can he!

Issue 270

Jean Grey and Storm spending quality time after Storm had been believed dead and was restored to a state of pre-adolescence. (NOTE: The coloring in the panel erroneously shows Storm's hand white and Jean's hand black; this error becomes apparent through the dialogue)

Jean Grey: Ain't we the pair-- me, with too many lives for one body, you with not enough body for your life.

Storm: Muddling through regardless.

Jean Grey: From one catastrophe to the next.

Storm: 'Til death do us part.

Jean Grey: That'll be the day.

Storm: (proposing toast) To the X-Men, then! Who do not die the old fashioned way.

Jean Grey: And no matter how hard we try...

Storm: ...none of us die forever.

Issue 275

Magneto: The New Mutants were left in my charge and they suffered for it-- because I tried to pattern myself after Charles Xavier. I am not Charles Xavier. I will never be Charles Xavier. I was a fool to try. (...) As he was, for believing I could succeed. [Magneto kills Zaladane]

Issue 281

Sentinel: Termination accomplished. Target Marvel Girl is dead.

Fitzroy: A condition with which I understand she is quite familiar. This time, however, she will find it more permanent!

Issue 287

(A video from the future is shown to the X-Men by Bishop. Due to improper storage, it has corroded)

Jean Grey: Alex?! - Cable... Anyone?! - - Don't even know - transmission being received? -- taken total - taken totally unaware! Both teams - and - decimated! Mansion security was deactivated - activated... activated... deactivated from within! -- Betrayed by one of our own! Professor Xavier - was the first to die. One one left... power's negated. Our own fault, really - should never have trusted -- We knew so little about - YOU?! - may have killed the X-men... but the dream will never...

[Bright light.]

Voice off-panel: Die?

Issue 295

Jubilee: Yer nothin' but a whining bunch o' head-padded, hyper-thyroided, pig-headed, spoiled brat, poorly dressed, overly accessorized, delusionally disadvantaged X-Men WANNABES in major need of a total 'tude adjustment!

(Jubilee commenting on X-Force)

Issue 330

Magneto: I don't want to do this Charles, rather I have to. I must be strong, because you and your X-Men are too weak to do that which must be done! ....For no matter what happens to you and me, the welfare of the children is paramount. Whether they be the innocent like Illyana, Doug and Anya before them, the lost such as my Acolytes, or the misguided like the fools you count among the X-Men; they need to be protected! They need to be awakened from the dream in which you've lulled them! Whether you admit it or not, they need...MAGNETO!

Issue 337

Wolverine: Things change. People change. You. Me. Everyone o' us..... everyday of our lives. The day ya stop changin' --is the day ya die.

Issue 341

Rogue: Not the most discreet use o' your magnetic powers. Ya realize Cyclops would have both our heads for this?

Joseph: Then it is a good thing he's not here.

Coachman: Um...I'm going to go out on a limb here...

(View shifts, they are riding a horse-drawn cab several stories above the streets of Manhattan)

Coachman: ...mutants, right?

Rogue: That obvious? We're sorry, sir. We'll put you down and --

Coachman: You'll do no such thing, ma'am. I've read the papers...I've seen the television reports about mutants. What's more, I've come to my own conclusions. I think you're all trying your best to lead your own lives...A lot of times going out of your way to make sure us normal folk can live ours. What I'm saying is, it's an honor to have you in my cab. I mean, Christmas is a time for miracles, right..? I'd like to enjoy this one. Just as soon as I get get my fingernails off of my kneecaps, that is.

Rogue: Why... thank you, sir. That means a a lot.

Joseph: If you could drop us off at the World Trade Center--that would be perfect.

(View shifts again, to a man in an office. He is unnamed, but we are led to understand, through visual cues, that he is Bob Harras, editor of the comic)

Bob: I would love for me to be home too, Anne -- but I have books three days from shipping -- And Scott and Joe haven't even started the next issue! Give the boys a kiss goodnight for me and...

(Rogue and Joseph's coach hovers past his window, leaving him speechless)

Bob: ...Um. Uh. Mm. Maybe you're right. I have been working too hard. I'll, uh... be home soon. Love you.

Issue 349

Grovel: Gambit, what's your funk? You like the girl... she likes you... Whatever the problem is, just tell her. No-one in my species likes to see a person with a sad-on.

Gambit: Real simple, old man: I tell her, I lose her.

Grovel: Yeah? Even simpler, kid: you don't tell her, you never really had her to lose.

Issue 350

First words of narration: What is it that pulls a man apart... yet at the same time, holds him together?

---

Narration: Once, long ago, what held this man together - the young Charles Xavier, a genius telepath with the simple dream of helping mutant by providing a school for them to learn how to control their powers - was his original group of students. And later, though he still cared about his school - and his all-new, all-different students - what held this man together was his love for a beautiful princess from another world. Recently, as adjectives became inadequate to describe the many souls in his school - what held this man together seemed to fall away...

---

Gambit: I'm sorry, Rogue. I know I wasn't straight with you... but I promise you I will change that when we get home.

Rogue: Home? You ain't got a home. Not with me, not with the X-Men.

Gambit: Fine. Fine. I deserve that. But can you at least drop me somewhere inhabited -

Rogue: Remy, it's too much. I can't take what you did. Whatever comes, whatever the cost to other people, I'm sure you'll survive, you seem to have done that very admirably in the past.

Gambit: But I... I love you.

Rogue: (throwing him the card he gave her symbolizing their relationship)You're honest with the people you love, Remy. Otherwise... it's a gamble.

(Rogue flies away, leaving Gambit to his fate)

Final words of narration: What is it that pulls a man apart, yet at the same time holds him together? It is his soul. And whether good... or evil... or some combination of the two... no man can escape the dictates of his soul.

Issue 403

Iceman: Bring it on, Blob. I've been kicking your mealy ass since I was thirteen.

Issue 434

Nightcrawler: Azazel may have provided the genetic material that made me what I am, physically... but my "father" has always been here whenever I needed him, Professor Xavier... with food, money, support, family... and most importantly... with love, understanding, and kindness. "The foolish notion of the angels." Thank you Professor, for being a true father to me all these years.

Issue 443

Quicksilver & Scarlet Witch have just learnt that Polaris is ruler of Genosha, as their father Magneto named her as his heir

Quicksilver: He named her as his heir? What about us?

Scarlet Witch: Don't be so quick temepered, Pietro. Do you really want to be his heir after what he just did to New York?

Quicksilver: Oh. Good point.

Issue 485

The X-Men and Starjammers are watching the wedding of Deathbird and Vulcan on monitor.

Warpath: It's like they're Charles and Lady Di out here or something.

Mam'selle Hepzibah: Lady Death, I think you mean to say.

Warpath: Yeah, Hepzibah... I guess that about fits.

About Uncanny X-Men

• When I took over with issue #94, the presumption was that the industry was dying, the X-Men would not last. Based on its history as a series, it did not have much impact on the audience… unless you’re using Roy Thomas and Neal Adams, which changes all the game parameters.

Our attitude was: ‘If we’ve only got a year or two, let’s have fun! Let’s throw everything at the wall and see what sticks!’” And, it turns out, quite a lot of it stuck. “So we start out with the team coming together; we throw in a trauma with Storm and a demon; we throw in planes blowing up at Kennedy airport; and then we’re up to issue #100 right off the bat – so let’s bring back the Sentinels! And suddenly we have the transition of Jean into Phoenix and that was the second gamechanger.

• Chris Claremont An Interview With Chris Claremont, Them0vieblog.com

• The actual story line was that Xavier would die in issue #200...and that Magneto would become head of the school [pause] permanently.....But the idea, that goal was built from the death of Phoenix. The hope was to show that this is ... their lives as X-Men have a real risk. This isn't superhero games. This is reality. In reality good guys sometimes do not win and people die. And that has to be part of their lives otherwise it just becomes a video game ... life isn't like that. . And I always thought, my thought was the stories we tell in comics shouldn't be like that either. If there is risk for the reader, then the victory is that much sweeter. And you can, something can happen that can catch you by surprise and can have that much power and heart.
  • Chris Claremont Ages of the X-Men” Essays on the Children of the Atom in Changing Times Freakytown p.101