Uncanny X-Men...final issue?

In June, Marvel announced that issue #544 of their long running comic 'Uncanny X-Men' (out October 19th) would conclude the series after Adam Kubert's five part 'X-men: Schism' would tear the X-Men apart. But now it appears that Marvel will be 'regenerating' the title and introduces two new series: 'Wolverine and the X-Men' and an alternative version of 'Uncanny X-Men' (lead by Emma Frost), splitting the original series in two.

Above: cover for the last issue of the original run. Artwork by Greg Land and script by Kieron Gillen. While the current artists of the original series will continue working on the new 'Uncanny X-men #1' (out in November), writer of 'X-Men Schism' Jason Aaron will team up for the 'Wolverine and the X-men' series with artist Chris Bachalo. The first issue will be out October 26th. As you can see from the artwork for both covers beneath, the members of both teams are still cloaked. Marvel will also publish a 'X-Men: Regenesis' one-shot, penned by Gillen with artwork by Billy Tan.

While the original 'X-Men' comic book series was created by the legendary Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1963, the series changed into the 'Uncanny X-Men' in November 1980 with issue #139 with the numbering continued. Although hugely popular now, the series initially failed to succeed and was even cancelled between 1970 and 1975.

Below left: Cover for Stan Lee's first issue from September 1963 with artwork by Jack Kirby with inks by Paul Reinman. Right: The Uncanny X-Men #139 from November 1980 carried the story 'Something wicked this way comes' by Chris Claremont and John Byrnes.

The real succes for the X-Men came when Chris Claremont took on the job of writer and introduced all kinds of new characters and stories, which he continued to do for 17 years, from 1975 until 1991! A spin-off series was introduced in 1991, which was just titled 'X-Men' again. Claremont also scripted it's first issue (with artwork by Jim Lee), which is still the best-selling comic book of all time! Below: Artwork by Jim Lee (pencils) and Scott Williams (inks) for the four variant covers of 'X-Men' #1 from 1991.