For the third year in a row, the crew of the Uncanny Experience — Minnesota’s preeminent immersive X-Men fan convention — recently transformed the historic Minneapolis Club into the X-Mansion for a weekend. For the second time, I was able to attend (scheduling conflicts kept me away from last year’s show), with an added twist: This year, I also presented a panel of my own.
Building off a piece I originally wrote here, my panel “Fight The Power: How Chris Claremont Transformed the X-Men Into Anti-Establishment Figures” discussed the way Claremont shifted the X-Men away from the traditional superhero setup that defined the first 20 years of their existence into figures whose goals were no longer about upholding the existing status quo but rather establishing a new one that is better for mutants, and the way that work was carried forward by subsequent writers and creative directions like Grant Morrison, Brian Michael Bendis’ “Cyclops was right!” stories and the Krakoan era.
Speaking in the main lecture hall at noon on Saturday, I was the second panel in that space of the day. While I didn’t quite pack the hall — the largest speaking space in the building — I drew a crowd of about two dozen people, who all seemed engaged with the material, nodding along and — thankfully — laughing at the few jokes I tossed out along the way. Everyone was very excited about the custom trading card Adam Reck put together for me, and I had a fun conversation with one of the audience members after the panel about how consistently underrated the Bendis run is. All in all, it was positive experience, and most importantly, I had a blast.
One of the nice things about presenting early on the first day of the show was that once my presentation was done, I had plenty of time to check out the rest of the Experience’s offerings. These included traditional panels, featuring Uncanny X-Men writer Gail Simone and Hellverine and Deadpool/Wolverine writer Benjamin Percy, who, by the way, sounds exactly like you’d expect someone who writes Wolverine for a living would sound (Magik writer Ashley Allen also had a panel, but unfortunately, it was scheduled at the same time as mine, so I wasn’t able to check it out). One of the themes of this year’s show was the 25th anniversary of X-Men: Evolution, and a panel reunited producer/designer Steven E. Gordon with Maggie Blue O’Hara and Meghan Black (the voice actors of Kitty and Rogue, respectively).
There were also smaller, more “classroom-focused” events, including a book launch for Daryl Lawrence’s True North (check out my interview with him here). Chad Anderson of the Graymalkin Lane podcast hosted an interactive “mutant fashion review” with judges Alex Segura, Ashley Allen and Sara Century that engaged the audience in discussions of the looks for a host of characters drawn at least once by Rob Liefeld, including a fair number of New Mutants and members of the Mutant Liberation Front. There was also the annual costume contest celebrating the stunning cosplay of attendees (among my favorites: two different Nate Greys — one with a glowing eye and blue jacket, another in his Counter X form — a Mystique/Destiny couple with a baby Nightcrawler and alternate Sherlock Holmes/Irene Adler attire, a Bill Sienkiewicz-inspired Legion with massive eyebrows and impossibly tall hair, Champions-era Angel, and an impressively intricate Mister Sinister who took home the grand prize).
The “mutant market” featuring vendors (and tables to meet the celebrity guests and get signatures, which included Pryde of the X-Men director Larry Houston, X-Men: The Animated Series producers Eric and Julia Lewald, and Catherine Disher, voice of Jean Grey and Val Cooper) seemed improved this year compared to the first, with a greater balance between the guests, traditional comic convention-style dealers shilling back issues and action figures, and artisans selling X-Men-specific wares. Local comic shop Mind’s Eye Comics from Burnsville, Minnesota, got into the fun by selling “orientation guides” — small boxes containing a random assortment of “entry point” X-Men comics and other fun X-related stuff. Owner Eric Childs, who’s attended all three Uncanny Experiences, was excited to see how sales of the comics themselves had increased year over year. He attributed it to X-fans drawn to the show by non-comic book media finding themselves drawn to the source material. I got to meet CXF alum Karen Charm in person and pick up a couple of their fantastic Cerebro Files zines. I had Larry Houston sign my Pryde of the X-Men VHS, bought a three-inch-tall Lego Cyclops from 3D Infinity DC and even nabbed a few fun back issues (the X-Men’s guest appearance in ROM #18, a Marvels Epilogue variant, and a special Loot Crate reprinting of “Days of Future Past” in mini comic form).
The Uncanny Experience has already announced its fourth show, back in its original September calendar slot in 2026. After this year’s event, I asked producer Chandler Poling how this year’s show went. He admitted that the move to July (driven by the Minneapolis Club’s availability) resulted in a minimal drop in overall attendance (which had the added benefit of making moving about the club a tad easier), but he expected that to even out with the show back in the fall. He also said this was the smoothest event yet from a production standpoint thanks to a dedicated production team committed to making the whole thing a success.
And while Poling was understandably mum on Year 4 details this far out, when I asked him who his “white whale” guest would be, the one guest he’d love to bring to the show no matter how difficult or unlikely it might be, he quickly answered “Jim Lee,” adding, “I met with him last March and gave him the pitch with our immersive University Brochure, and he was very impressed and interested. So now we just need Mr. Lee to accept his invitation!”
Jim Lee sure seems like moonshot, given his role at DC Comics, but I’ve learned never to say never when it comes to Chandler and his team. Three years in, the Uncanny Experience is going as strong as ever, drawing crowds from all over the country while also growing into something of a local institution — the production team made appearances on local television ahead of this year’s show, and received nice write-ups in both the Pioneer Press and MPR.
I’m excited to see what comes next — and already brainstorming new panel ideas to pitch.
Austin Gorton also reviews older issues of X-Men at the Real Gentlemen of Leisure website, co-hosts the A Very Special episode podcast, and likes Star Wars. He lives outside Minneapolis, where sometimes, it is not cold. Follow him @austingorton.bsky.social.
