X-Men #1 (1991)

A second X-Men book, five ways

By 1991 the X-Men had been Marvel's most reliable franchise for more than a decade, and Marvel decided the team could carry two monthly titles. A second series, simply called X-Men, launched alongside the still-running Uncanny X-Men. The new book split the mutants into two color-coded teams with different responsibilities; the issue introduced the Blue Team of Cyclops, Wolverine, Beast, Gambit, Psylocke and Rogue, while the Gold Team appeared in Uncanny X-Men #281.

Marvel then made the launch a collectible event. X-Men #1 was issued in five editions with the same story inside. Four carried different covers and interior pin-ups and sold for $1.50 each; laid side by side, the four covers form one continuous image. The fifth, the Special Collectors Edition known to collectors as Cover E, cost $3.95, ran on better paper with no ads, and gathered all the material from the four standard versions plus more.

Cover E's front is a fold-out: open it and Jim Lee's full lineup of thirteen characters stretches across a single wraparound gatefold. It is the version that shows the whole picture the four standard covers were cut from.

Claremont's last stand, Lee's breakout

Chris Claremont, born in London on November 25, 1950, had written Uncanny X-Men since issue #94 in May 1975, a 16-year run longer than any other writer on the title. He co-created Rogue, Psylocke, Kitty Pryde, Mystique, Emma Frost and Gambit, among many others, and turned a struggling series into one of Marvel's most popular.

Jim Lee, born in Seoul on August 11, 1964, studied psychology at Princeton with plans to become a doctor before turning to comics. He started at Marvel in 1987 on Alpha Flight and The Punisher War Journal and moved to Uncanny X-Men in 1989, where he worked with Claremont and co-created Gambit. On X-Men #1 Lee co-plotted as well as penciled, with Scott Williams inking.

The partnership ended almost immediately. Claremont left after only three issues because of clashes with editor Bob Harras, and his long-term plans for the team were dropped; John Byrne followed him on the book. Lee was gone before issue #12, leaving Marvel with other star artists to co-found Image Comics in 1992.

Magneto's asteroid

The 37-page story, credited to Claremont and Lee as co-plotters, sets Magneto up as a villain again. He gathers a new band of followers, the Acolytes, and proclaims his orbiting base Asteroid M a haven for mutants everywhere; the rest of the world does not see it that way. Moira MacTaggert appears, and Professor X is back with the team.

The Acolytes made their first appearance here, the only true first appearance in the issue. The story has been reprinted several times, including in the 1995 collection X-Men: Mutant Genesis and in a remastered and recolored 2012 edition, X-Men: Mutant Genesis 2.0.

The peak of the speculator boom

X-Men #1 arrived at the height of what collectors call the speculator boom, when more buyers were storing and preserving comics as investments than reading them. Publishers knew many collectors were completists and answered with variant covers; Marvel's five versions of the same issue pushed buyers to own every one.

Retailers pre-ordered more than 8.1 million copies, bringing in nearly $7 million. Guinness World Records lists X-Men #1 as the best-selling single edition of a comic book, and at San Diego Comic-Con in July 2010 it presented the certificate to Claremont and Lee. One 2021 analysis noted that retailers probably sold closer to three million copies to readers at the time, with the rest left in stock.

The strategy later turned on Marvel. When the market collapsed around 1997, the company was left with stacks of variant and collectible issues that no longer had buyers. The huge print run is also why high-grade copies remain common today: a 2021 report counted 3,537 copies graded CGC 9.8 and 11 higher in the July 2021 census, without saying whether that figure covered every cover or just one.

What a 9.8 gatefold sells for

Because so many were printed and saved, a Cover E in CGC 9.8 is among the most attainable key-issue slabs in comics. In September 2026 standard-label 9.8 copies of the Special Collectors Edition changed hands online for roughly $55 to $90 each, with custom-label slabs sometimes higher.

To identify Cover E, look for the fold-out front cover and the Special Collectors Edition designation; the $3.95 price and the ad-free interior also set it apart from the $1.50 single-cover editions A through D.

The look that went to television

The issue's success helped lead to the X-Men animated series, which based its team on Jim Lee's look and costume designs from these comics. The second X-Men series itself ran for years, becoming New X-Men in 2001 and X-Men: Legacy with issue #208 in 2008.

Lee went on to build WildStorm Productions at Image, sold it to DC Comics in 1998, and rose through DC's leadership: co-publisher in February 2010, chief creative officer in June 2018, sole publisher in February 2020 and president in May 2023.

The numbers

Copies sold

8.1 million (Guinness World Records)

Editions

5: Covers A-D at $1.50, Special Collectors Edition gatefold at $3.95

Census

3,537 copies in CGC 9.8 and 11 higher, July 2021 (cover breakdown not stated)

Lead story

37 pages

Timeline

1. May 1975

   Chris Claremont begins writing Uncanny X-Men with issue #94.

2. 1987

   Jim Lee starts at Marvel on Alpha Flight and The Punisher War Journal.

3. 1989

   Lee begins drawing Uncanny X-Men with Claremont.

4. Sep 10, 1991

   X-Men #1 goes on sale in five editions; the Special Collectors Edition gatefold sells for $3.95.

5. 1991

   Claremont leaves the new series after three issues following clashes with editor Bob Harras.

6. 1992

   Lee leaves Marvel and co-founds Image Comics.

7. 1995

   The story is collected in X-Men: Mutant Genesis.

8. 1997

   The speculator market collapses, leaving Marvel with unsold variant stock.

9. 1998

   Lee sells WildStorm to DC Comics.

10. 2001

    The series is renamed New X-Men.

11. 2008

    The series becomes X-Men: Legacy with issue #208.

12. Jul 2010

    Guinness World Records presents Claremont and Lee with the best-selling comic certificate at San Diego Comic-Con.

13. 2012

    A remastered, recolored reprint appears in X-Men: Mutant Genesis 2.0.

14. May 2023

    Jim Lee is named president of DC.

The world in 1991

• Jan 16, 1991

  Operation Desert Storm begins with air strikes on Iraq.

• Feb 27, 1991

  President Bush declares victory in the Gulf War and orders a ceasefire.

• Apr 17, 1991

  The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 3,000 for the first time.

• Aug 1991

  The World Wide Web is publicly announced, with the first website at info.cern.ch.

• Aug 19, 1991

  A coup attempt in the Soviet Union fails within three days, speeding the country's breakup.

• Sep 1991

  Nirvana releases Nevermind.

• Dec 1991

  The Soviet Union formally dissolves.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, X-Men #1 (1991) is number 99 of 100 in the comics entries of the FLOAT 100. 92 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (82 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• The four standard covers of X-Men #1 form one continuous image when placed side by side; the gatefold prints that image in one piece.
• Retailers ordered more than 8.1 million copies, but one estimate puts actual sales to readers at the time closer to three million.
• Chris Claremont, who had written the X-Men for 16 years, left the new series after three issues.
• Jim Lee studied psychology at Princeton and planned to go into medicine before he drew comics.
• The X-Men animated series that followed used Jim Lee's costume designs from these issues.
• The comic was printed in Canada.