In 2015, Marvel released a plethora of tie-in comics to accompany Jonathan Hickman’s version of Secret Wars. These supplemental stories used the multiversal chaos of Secret Wars to both put alternate reality spins on classic story arcs from older titles and to introduce entirely new characters and worlds. There aren’t going to be nearly as many comics directly tying in to Avengers: Doomsday, which kicks off the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s two-part adaptation of Hickman’s grand arc, but a few special issues will unsurprisingly be released to coincide with the blockbuster film. Incursions is a series of one-shot issues focusing on the titular collisions between different universes, which will be used to pit some of the comics’ most famous alternate realities against one another and one of these crossovers will be the first ever meeting between two iconic versions of the X-Men.
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The influence of X-Men: The Animated Series continues to be felt throughout Marvel and the larger superhero genre, especially with its sequel series, X-Men ’97, being a reliable hit for Disney+. X-Men ’92 was one of the aforementioned Secret Wars tie-in comics, taking place in a portion of Doctor Doom’s patchwork Battleworld that replicated the distinctive era of X-Men history immortalized by TAS, with a few key changes. The mini-series was such a success that it led to additional stories set in recreations of the ‘90s world after Secret Wars ended, emphasizing the passion fans continue to have for the era and foreshadowing future nostalgic projects like X-Men ’97. This all makes it unsurprising that the new Incursions series will include a return to the world of ’92, but X-Men ’92: Incursions will stand out by pitting the titular throwback team against the cast of TAS’ underrated successor, X-Men: Evolution.
X-Men: The Animated Series and X-Men: Evolution Are Finally Crossing Over
X-Men: Evolution premiered on Kids’ WB in 2000, running for four seasons and a total of 52 episodes. The series set itself apart from TAS by portraying most of its main mutant superheroes, including leading X-Men Scott Summers/Cyclops (Kirby Morrow) and Jean Grey (Venus Terzo,) as teenagers, as they were in the earliest X-Men comics. The only adult X-Men who were part of the main cast were Logan/Wolverine (Scott McNeil), Ororo Munroe/Storm (Kirsten Williamson), and Henry “Hank” McCoy/Beast (Michael Kopsa,) who were closer to Charles Xavier (David Kaye) in age and served as teachers at his school for mutants. In the first two seasons, Scott, Jean, and the other students also attend regular public high school, keeping their identities as mutants secret. This premise created different dynamics between many of the characters than fans of TAS and recent comics were used to.
Although Evolution never became as widely famous or celebrated as TAS it received positive reviews and has influenced the franchise’s future in several important ways. Along with contemporary projects like the earliest X-Men movies and Grant Morrison’s New X-Men, Evolution popularized the idea of portraying Xavier’s institute as more of a functioning school for mutants, with many non-X-men students shown living and studying there, which has become the norm in modern comics. The series’ most famous addition to the larger mythology is the character of Laura Kinney/X-23 (Andrea Libman and Britt Irvin,) the cloned daughter of Wolverine, who debuted in a Season 3 episode before being brought into comics and other media. Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost, the writers who created Laura, went on to write her earliest comic appearances and various other X-Men titles and contribute to many other Marvel projects and adaptations, including the MCU’s first three Thor movies. The pair wrote the X-Men ’92: Incursions one-shot and have noted their excitement at returning to the Evolution cast in particular.
The MCU’s X-Men Reboot Could Be Influenced by X-Men: Evolution
Fans of both series have imagined crossovers between X-Men: TAS and Evolution since the latter debuted and the fact that Marvel is finally delivering such a story, especially in a project tied, however tangentially, to Doomsday, could be telling. Many of the projects in the MCU’s Multiverse Saga that have featured mutants, and especially returning characters and actors from the Fox films, have frequently appealed to nostalgia for the X-Men’s ‘90s heyday, such as by having characters like Logan (Hugh Jackman) and Gambit (Channing Tatum) wear costumes identical to the ones used in TAS and many ‘90s comics, and promotional materials for Doomsday confirm that it will do the same with some of its own mutant cast members. Portions of TAS’ iconic theme song have even been used during scenes focusing on mutants.
But it’s also been confirmed that most of the other new X-Men featured in the 2028 reboot film coming after the MCU’s Secret Wars adaptation will be close in age to Sadie Sink’s teenage Jean, who was introduced in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. While this again echoes the original comics, it also suggests that the rebooted MCU X-Men stories may be influenced more heavily by Evolution and similar projects than TAS, in which most of the main team members are adults. Evolution being brought back into prominence with the Incursions comic shortly after Doomsday‘s release supports this idea.
X-Men ’92: Incursions #1 will be released by Marvel Comics on January 6, 2027.
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