“All the best X-Men are women,” the T-shirt says, and it’s true. X-Men – at least since Chris Claremont – has been a franchise built on powerful, beautiful women, and the men who snikt, zark and bamf for them.
There are no Outback-era X-Men without Storm, Psylocke, Rogue and Dazzler.
There’s no Blue and Gold without Storm, Jean, Rogue, Betsy and Jubilee.
There are no New Mutants without Dani, Karma, Wolfsbane and Magik.
There is no Excalibur without Kitty, Rachel and Meggan.
There is no Generation X without Jubilee, Husk and M.
And so on and so on.
Karen S. Darboe’s variant cover to February’s X-Men #25 – featuring Psylocke, Magik, Temper and Animalia – is a good reminder of that.
AND YET, with the post-Krakoa era’s emphasis on solo titles, there’s surprise in seeing a group of X-women together, considering how many of the marquee ones have been peeled off to do their own thing. Could we get Jean, Storm, Rogue, Psylocke, Kitty, Magik, Laura, etc., in a room now? What would they talk about? Two of them are basically gods; how does that change the dynamic?
Questions for 2026, I suppose.
Check out Darboe’s cover for X-Men #25, out Feb. 11, and keep scrolling for the basic deets.
W: Jed MacKay | A/Main cover: Tony Daniel | Variant cover: Karen S. Darboe
SPECIAL ANNIVERSARY ISSUE! Against all odds, Cyclops returns from the Age of Revelation, and with a dire warning for all X-Men everywhere. But there’s trouble on more than one front – who is the mutant newly put in charge of O*N*E, and what danger does that spell for the X-Men?
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Buy X-Men #25 here. (Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, ComicsXF may earn from qualifying purchases.)
Dan Grote is the editor and publisher of ComicsXF, having won the site by ritual combat. By day, he’s a newspaper editor, and by night, he’s … also an editor. He co-hosts The ComicsXF Interview Podcast with Matt Lazorwitz. He lives in New Jersey with his wife, two kids and two miniature dachshunds, and his third, fictional son, Peter Paul Winston Wisdom. Follow him @danielpgrote.bsky.social.
