UNCANNY X-FACTS

When the site first started to take shape back in the summer of 2000, I wanted to have something dynamic on the site, something that made you think "hey, there’s something new on this site for me to look at." While the originial plan was to use quotes from the X-Men comics, many other X-Men fan sites of the time featured pages of quotes so I figured I needed to take a different route. Upon opening up a copy of the Wizard X-Men special from the mid-nineties (complete with holographic gatefold cover and free trading card) I noticed that they had dotted bite-size X-Men related facts throughout the magazine and I knew I'd found that 'something' for the site, all that was needed was a name…

Now this may seem odd because "X-Fact" seems to be really simple name to come up with, I mean it’s a fact and it’s the X-Men, merge the two and hey, presto, there it is but it didn't start like that. The initial names that were thought of but thrown to one side included "snippets", "X-Info", "Uncanny Facts" and "X-FACTor(s)". This last option actually appeared on the website while I was still building the first design of the site. As a fan of X-Factor I really liked the idea of using that title as inspiration, but in the end it didn’t look right on the page and it was shortened to "X-Fact". The Initial batch of 25 that appeared on the site were made up from a combination of the facts featured in that Wizard X-Men Special and a few more based on first appearances of characters.

When the site went through its first major redesign (from predominantly yellow and blue to a white background), Peter Luzifer checked over the existing facts and came up with additional entries to make 50. Apart from the site's third event month, the Age of Apocalypse, which featured its own mini set of 25 facts, these 50 X-Facts remained on the site unchained until 2005.

In 2005, we ran an X-Fact submission form allowing visitors to submit there own suggestions for the next batch of X-Facts. While almost 250 ideas were submitted, we whittled them down to a carefully selected 50, which, with some minor modifications, have appeared on the site for over 9 years until today, where they have been updated by a new batch of x-facts created by current forum members and contributors to the site. Below is a full list of X-Facts that appeared during that time and where posible the name of the person that submitted it.

• It was Xavier's first encounter with the Shadow King - in the guise of Amahl Farouk - that convinced the professor of the need to fight against evil mutants and prompted him to eventually form the X-Men. [Uncanny X-Men #117] - Submitted by Aaron Heath
• Cannonball once defeated Shi'Ar Imperial Guardsman Gladiator who is known to be as strong as Thor and the Hulk. [Uncanny X-Men #341] - Submitted by Anthony (shadowcat94)
• Marrow was originally supposed to have the codename "Sheathe" but the editors nixed it because they thought it had a too heavy sexual overtone. - Submitted by Binaryan
• Nocturne, alternate reality daughter of Nightcrawler and the Scarlet Witch, has a prehensile tail much like her fathers, only hers retracts! [Exiles #42] - Submitted by Callan Brunsdon
• During the Fatal Attractions crossover, X-Factor discovered a top-secret program named Project: Wideawake, created by the government to produce mass quantities of mutant hunting sentinels. [X-Factor (1st series) #93] - Submitted by Charade007
• X-23, the female Wolverine clone, first appeared on the children's television show X-Men: Evolution. Her first comic book appearance was NYX #3. - Submitted by Cycolossus
• Dr. Karl Lykos named himself Sauron because he is a J.R.R. Tolkien fan. [Uncanny X-Men #60] - Submitted by Evil Monkey Pope
• Stan Lee's original name for the X-Men was simply "The Mutants". His editor turned down the title name, asking "How will anyone know what a mutant is?" Two decades later, though, the title was used for a spin-off book, "The New Mutants". - Submitted by Frankie Muniz III
• Jean Grey's father, John, teaches history at Bard College, which is writer Chris Claremont's real-life alma mater. - Submitted by James McGhee
• The Beast is often one of the more publicly accepted X-Men, mostly because of his prolongued memberships in the Avengers and the Defenders. - Submitted by JCScarlet
• Apocalypse once saved Professor Xaiver's life by curing him of a techno-organic virus that Stryfe had infected him with. [X-Factor (1st series) #86] - Submitted by KBread
• Cloak & Dagger were asked by Professor X to join the School and The New Mutants several times, but they never accepted the offer. [New Mutants (1st series) #25] - Submitted by Patoliver
• The Linkin Park song "H! Vltg3" makes direct references to Cyclops and Shadowcat, and also hints at several other X-Men with terms like telepathy/TK (Phoenix), time travelers (Cable), and holographic technology (Shi'ar/Danger Room). - Submitted by FPsyknight44
• In Uncanny X-Men #126, there's a reference to the musical "Little Shop of Horrors". On the way to Muir Island, where they would encounter Proteus for the first time, the X-Men's Blackbird nearly capsized a boat named "Audrey II". - Submitted by Quicksilver
• Jean Grey roomed up with Marvel's foxy lady, Misty Knight, after she had left the X-Men's Mansion for New York. [Uncanny X-Men #94, 102] - Submitted by Zoose
• The true M aka Monet St.Croix was introduced to Marvel comics as Penance, while her twin sisters, Nicole and Claudette, joined Generation X while in M's guise. [Generation X #40] - Submitted by Boomer
• While working as an agent for the C.I.A, Wolverine once saved Spider-Man's parents from Hydra. [Untold Tales of Spider-Man #-1] - Submitted by Captain Emopants
• Colossus has a son named Peter in the Savage Land, but he has no idea that the boy is actually his, despite strong hints from the child's mother Nereel. [Uncanny X-Men Annual #12] - Submitted by CJ
• Carol Danvers, formerly Ms. Marvel, helped the X-Men break into a government facility and erase any computer information the feds had about them at the time. [Uncanny X-men #158] - Submitted by Djinnmastr
• Former X-Treme X-Man Sage was once a rebel fighter in Afghanistan, where she found a crippled Professor Xavier right after his battle with the alien Lucifer. [X-Treme X-Men #44] - Submitted by Elias Bogan
• Magneto avoids travelling by boat because he gets seasick. [New Mutants (1st series) #23]
• Xavier's second crippling was not a crushed leg problem, but a broken spine. He's a paraplegic. [Uncanny X-Men #280] - Submitted by Ann Nichols
• Early on, Lorna tried out the code name 'Magnetrix' but quickly discarded it. [X-Men Hidden Years #3, 6] - Submitted by Daniel Martin
• Sabertooth and Mystique have a son named Graydon Creed: Despite both his parents being mutants he is a baseline human. After learning of his heritage, he sought a life of hatred for mutants in general. - Submitted by elaw
• Squirrel Girl never considered joining the X-Men because she was ashamed of being a mutant, instead she opted to work with Iron Man, who turned her down. [Marvel Super-Heroes (3rd series) #8] - Submitted by Jacob Rubin!!
• The "X" in Weapon X is not the letter X, but actually refers to the Roman Number Ten. It's because the Weapon X project was the tenth branch of the Weapon Plus program. [New X-men #129] - Submitted by Lawrence Wong
• X-23 is named due to her being the 23rd attempt to clone Wolverine and the intact X chromosome that was duplicated to replace the damaged Y one, which resulted in her being female. She is the only successful cloning attempt of Wolverine. [X-23#1] - Submitted by Liam Johnson
• In the age of "We Are the World" and "Live Aid", the X-Men, led by Magneto, once fought hunger as an entity in itself. The X-Men barely survived the encounter, and hunger remained. [X-Men: Heroes for Hope] - Submitted by Steve Cronen
• Wolverine accidentally killed his first love, Rose, although he doesn't even remember it, his memory having "healed" over the unpleasant experience. [Origin #6] - Submitted by Liam Johnson
• Magneto initially funded his operations with hidden Nazi Gold he and Charles Xavier "liberated" from Baron von Strucker's Hydra organization. [Uncanny X-Men #161] - Submitted by Quiksilver
• Galactus briefly powered up Dazzler to cosmic scale and temporarily turned her into his herald to hunt down Terrax, the former occupant of the position, as he had abused his powers. [Dazzler #10-11] - Submitted by Tetragene
• Storm can not only control air currents, but she discovered that she can control both solar wind and ocean currents, although it's much more straining for her than manipulating regular weather patterns. [Uncanny X-Men #99, X-Men Unlimited (2nd series) # 6] - Submitted by Greg Lichodolik
• When the X-Men were turned into toddlers by Mojo, the New Mutants took up the role of the X-Men, dressing up with their intended graduation costumes. [Uncanny X-Men Annual #10]