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At this point in time, the X-Men are a generational affair. That is, there are multiple generations of X-Men fans with their specific comic book touchstones. Baby Boomer X-Men fans may remember reading the mutants' earliest adventures by Jack Kirby. Gen X readers may have fond memories of reading the Inferno storyline and the aptly-titled Generation X series. Meanwhile, scores of millennial X-Men fans (like yours truly) were forged in the fires of Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's New X-Men. The X-Men have been interpreted time and time again, so what makes a quintessential X-Men story?

This was the question posed to Tom Brevoort and Louise Simonson at Baltimore Comic Con. Breevort is a longtime editor at Marvel Comics and is currently the purveyor of the X-Men line. Simonson has been both a writer and an editor at Marvel, writing books such as Power Pack and New Mutants. She co-created perhaps the most beloved X-Men character of the 1990s, Cable.  

Brevoort began by saying, "I think 'feared and hated by a world they are sworn to protect,' -  that kind of sums it up," before detailing that, "Individual characters may be different, have different outlooks and different life experiences, they come from as wide as possible array of backgrounds and orientations and what have you, but the underlying thing is: these characters that are ugly in shape or form, the underdogs, they have to fight for a life in a hostile world."

"Which nobody here can relate to at all," the editor joked.

Brevoort also addressed the recent Krakoa era of X-Men comics: "Even in the Krakoa period, where mutant kind was more ascendant, that was still thematically the problem that they were dealing with every month and every issue of every story. They were just dealing with it from a slightly different position on the board."

Simonson noted the importance of family within X-Men comics: "I think that, because the X-Men was a smaller group back [when Simonson was an editor], another essential for us was the feeling of family, of chosen family. That’s what the X-Men had. There was always a certain warmth to the characters and their interactions; they really cared about each other and I think that still holds true. For X-Men fans to love them, I think they need to love each other." 

Both Brevoort and Simonson have contributed immensely to X-Men lore, and their responses reflect the core values of the group as they have grown over the years. X-Men fans of all generations can probably think of a few stories that illustrate what Brevoort and Simonson spoke about. 

Join Popverse in our own little X-Mansion as we cover just about everything you need to know about the X-Men. Learn how Marvel's mighty mutants are classified by power, or why the Krakoan Age of comics is coming to an end. And once you're done with those, keep up with the characters' big screen outings via Popverse's X-men movie watch order.