Marvel's Stan Lee Originally Had A Different Name For The X-Men

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The Marvel universe as we know it wouldn't exist without Stan Lee. Alongside legendary artists like Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, Lee co-created so many of the superheroes that have made Marvel a force to be reckoned with in pop culture. The impressive list includes the likes of "Spider-Man," "The Fantastic Four," and "X-Men." The "X-Men" remains one of Lee's biggest gifts to the world of comics, but if Lee had it his way, the beloved group of mutants would have gone by a different name.

In a featurette originally attached to the 2003 DVD release of "X2: X-Men United," entitled "The Secret Origin of X-Men," Lee discussed the group's origins when they debuted in 1963. The movie "X2" itself is based on the comic "God Loves, Man Kills," which was published much later, for what it's worth. But long before that, Lee dreamed of calling his team "The Mutants." Here's what he had to say about it:

"In the beginning I was gonna call them 'The Mutants.' That was the original name I had. But my then-publisher didn't like the name. I said, 'Why?' He said, 'Stan, nobody is gonna know what mutants are.' So I said okay, I went back and thought, and I figured Professor Xavier, extra power. So I went back and I said, 'Let's call them the X-Men.' He said, 'Okay, that's fine.' And to this day, I can't understand why he felt if people won't know what mutants are, they would know what an X-man is."

The group made their debut in "The X-Men" #1, but it was "Giant Size X-Men" #1, one of the best "X-Men" comics ever, that revived the dying book and ensured they would become staples of the Marvel Comics universe for decades to come.

Naming the book wasn't the only challenge that Stan Lee encountered while putting the project together. When it came to figuring out how to give the "X-Men" their superpowers, by his own admission, Lee took the lazy route. As he explained in the featurette:

"My biggest problem was, how did they get their superpowers? I couldn't have everybody bit by radioactive spiders or hit by gamma rays like the Hulk, or whatever. I took the lazy way out. It suddenly occurred to me, if I could say that people are mutants, I need no further explanation."

Whether or not the book would have been successful under the title "The Mutants" is unknowable, but either way, a simple name change paved the way for comic book history as we know it. A lot of Hollywood history also stems from this book, as the superhero movie boom we experienced in the 2000s might not have happened without Cyclops and the gang.

In the aftermath of the success of "X-Men: The Animated Series," Fox got serious about turning the comic into a live-action movie. The result was 2000's "X-Men," arguably the most important box office hit in Marvel's history. It proved that Marvel could be at the forefront of a true mainstream success, which in turn paved the way for 2002's "Spider-Man" and everything else that followed.

Looking ahead, Marvel Studios is currently prepping a live-action "X-Men" reboot directed by Jake Schreier, of "Thunderbolts" fame. The studio is also in production on "X-Men '97" season 2, which is due to debut on Disney+ sometime in 2026.

You can grab the "X-Men" 10-movie collection on Blu-ray from Amazon.