Revolution (comics)

"Revolution" was the title given to the May 2000 revamp of Marvel Comics' X-Men-related comic books, timed to coincide with the publication of X-Men vol. 2 #100.

Publication history
In each series, the "Revolution" issue represented a jump of six months after the previous issue's events. In most cases, "Revolution" also marked an attempt to send each title in a new creative direction, and to this end new creative teams were assigned to the titles. Many characters' costumes were redesigned, and a "Revolution" logo was printed along the right-hand side of each issue.

The most publicized of the changes was the return of writer Chris Claremont to the flagship titles X-Men vol. 2 and Uncanny X-Men, after nearly a decade's absence.

The event also included nods to early-1990s marketing strategies such as printing variant covers and including trading cards.

The excitement of the event was dampened by Marvel Comics' timing, as most of the series involved had launched with all or part of their new creative teams a month before the event, even though the "Revolution" logo was still printed on the May issues, and Uncanny X-Men did not join the "Revolution" event until its June 2000 issue. Furthermore, Claremont stated in later interviews that he had ghostwritten several issues of various X-Men titles before the event.

Counter-X
Furthermore, three of the titles involved in the event, (X-Man, X-Force, and Generation X), were rebranded to Counter-X. Writer Warren Ellis plotted the general direction for each of the Counter-X books, and co-wrote each title with Steven Grant on X-Man, Ian Edginton on X-Force, and Brian Wood on Generation X.

Aftermath
The "Revolution" event was poorly received by fans and critics, leading to Claremont leaving X-Men and Uncanny X-Men after nine months. The X-Men line of books were revamped again in July 2001 with Grant Morrison writing New X-Men, Joe Casey writing Uncanny X-Men, and Claremont writing the new title X-Treme X-Men.

Collected editions
The Counter-X run has been collected as trade paperbacks:


 * Counter-X:
 * Volume 1: X-Force (collects X-Force #102-109, 192 pages, July 2008, ISBN 0-7851-3304-6)
 * Volume 2: Generation X (collects Generation X #63-70, 192 pages, October 2008, ISBN 0-7851-3305-4)
 * Volume 3: X-Man (collects X-Man #63-70, 192 pages, December 2008, ISBN 0-7851-3306-2)
 * Volume 4: X-Force (collects X-Force #110-115, 102; Rough Cut, 176 pages, August 2012, ISBN 0-7851-5973-8)
 * Volume 5: Generation X - Four Days (collects Generation X #71-74, February 26, 2013, ISBN 0785167307)
 * Volume 6: X-Man: Fearful Symmetry (collects X-Man 71-75, material from X-Men Unlimited (1993) 31, 152 pages, April 23, 2013, ISBN 0785167315)