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Whilce Portacio's comic careers helped define the 90s. Along with several other Marvel Comics creators, Portacio left the tried-and-tested offices of Spider-Man and the X-Men to found a new kind of creator-owned comics company, known today as Image Comics. But Portacio's story doesn't end there. After his iconic X-Men run (which introduced mutant Bishop), Portacio was sought after by the House of Ideas for a return, and even agreed to do so.

And then a health crisis hit.

The untold (until now) story came up on Rob Liefeld's YouTube channel, on which Portacio was a guest January 19. Liefeld, who helped found Image along with the Legion of Night artist, asked his peer for any stories regarding the early days at the company.

"There was that moment," began Portacio, "Which was, I guess, a little bit controversial where where we all went back [to Marvel] a little bit, right?" Portacio clarified that that process "was already started back in the '90s, internally with the editors and upper management"

"I come back," he said, "and they they they put me on X-Force because again I dictate that I have to go back to the original team. And so I go back there [...] right before I go into a coma and the whole office blows up."

Wait, what?

"I went into a diabetic coma for a week," expands Portacio "Bob [Harris, then X-editor] gets me approved on a new book, and then when I wake up and get well enough to talk to Bob again. The office is gone and the book is off the books." Shocked that this was the first time he was hearing this, Liefeld offered Portacio his condolences.

"Nobody except Bob's office knew about this," responded the Bishop creator, "It seemed [Marvel was] trying to really pull us back there, but for me physically, it didn't happen. But also, I don't know if I wanted to be in that atmosphere."

So let's recap - a legendary X-Men artist is offered a chance to return to the comic line that he helped make wildly successful, but just before he begins, he goes into a literal coma. Between that moment and his coming out of it, Portacio says, the whole X-Men office went into a tailspin.

"For, like, two weeks," he recounted, "I was talking to the [X-Men] assistant editor who was told he wouldn't get axed [...] he would be able to stay and he was going to be my editor on the book. And lo and behold, the third week, he gets axed. So now, nobody knows about this book."

In case you haven't followed Portacio's career - the artist did get a chance to return to X-Men in 2022, with the Bishop-starring X-Men Legends. Thankfully, the iconic Mutant artist was able to come back to this one with no major health crises.

To me, my X-Men fans. Want more about Marvel's mutants? You don't need Cerebro to find what you should read next... we made a list!

• The best X-Men comics
• Every Omega-Level X-Men mutant ranked by power
• Why the Krakoan Age of X-Men was ended by Marvel
• How to watch the X-Men movies in order