Popverse's top stories

• More people tuned into the Stranger Things season 5 release date announcement than the Stranger Things season 4 debut on Netflix
• MEMBERS ONLY: What do Aggretsuko and Chainsaw Man have in common? They're both about how much capitalism sucks [Popverse Jump]
• I have a hunch why Mike Flanagan worked so much Back to the Future into The Life of Chuck

Almost 25 years ago, Marvel Comics published a radical reinvention of its line - reimagining its top heroes as something different, something new, but also something old. You might be thinking of the Ultimate Marvel line, but Marvel did it two times in the early '00s - the other being the Marvel Mangaverse.

"Back in late 1999, I did a cold submission to then-editor Joe Quesada, not expecting any response, but lo and behold, he emailed me and wanted it as a 5th week event," Dunn writes on Facebook. (For those who don't remember, "fifth week events" were a temporary thing in the comic book industry where months that featured five Wednesdays would see special comics released on that fifth week.)

Dunn, a Taiwanese-American, says his idea for the Marvel Mangaverse was to imagine if Marvel wasn't created in the 1960s in New York City... but instead the 2000s, in Japan. His pitch included manga-inspired revamp of most of Marvel's core titles. While Dunn wrote and drew the original Marvel Mangaverse event in 2002, he had pitches for several other titles that were rejected by Marvel - including one that reinvented the X-Men. 

"In this version of the X-Men, I envisioned it as a teen comedy much in the vein of Ninja High School," Dunn says, referring to his long-running comic. "In this world, Professor X was a scientist working on a serum to cure a disease that was afflicting the world and unleashed what was known as the 'X-Virus.' A virus that would affect only teenagers with a certain genetic make-up and give them unique powers based on their individual attributes and demeanor."

That could be the reason Marvel said 'no' to the pitch, as he hoped to make it so that being a mutant wasn't a new species but a disease to be eradicated, with Professor X leading the charge.

"The powers would dissipate once they reached adulthood," Dunn continues. "Governments, corporations and secret societies would covet these teenagers and try to find them using robots called Sentinels that could detect the X-Virus."

Dunn's never-published version of the X-Men included Cyclops, Jean Grey, Wolverine (who looked like a werewolf!), Storm, Colossus, Iceman, and a gender-swapped Angel.

Marvel did eventually publish a Mangaverse version of the X-Men, written by then-associate editor (and now editor-in-chief!) C.B. Cebulski and drawn by Jeff Matsuda. Their version focused on two brothers - Cyclops and Wolverine - who assembled the X-Men, while also vying for the affections of their teammate Jean Grey.

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.