Editing X-Statix (section)

==Publication history==
In 2001, the [[X-Men]] family of titles were being revamped by the newly appointed [[Marvel Comics]] editor-in-chief [[Joe Quesada]]. The aim was to make the titles more critically and commercially successful. Former [[Vertigo Comics|Vertigo]] editor [[Axel Alonso]] hired writer [[Peter Milligan]], best known for his [[Surrealism|surreal]], [[postmodernism|post-modernist]] comics such as ''[[Rogan Gosh (comics)|Rogan Gosh]]'' and ''[[Shade, the Changing Man]]'', and ''[[Madman (Mike Allred character)|Madman]]'' artist [[Mike Allred]], as the new creative team for ''[[X-Force]]'', starting with issue #116. Prior to Milligan and Allred's first issue, ''X-Force'' sold well,<ref>[http://www.cbgxtra.com/Default.aspx?tabid=695 CBGXtra.com – Comics Sales Charts] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071027110315/http://www.cbgxtra.com/Default.aspx?tabid=695 |date=October 27, 2007 }}</ref> but had not been the critical success Quesada wanted.{{Citation needed|date=April 2009}}

Milligan and Allred completely revamped the series, designing a team more akin to [[celebrity|popstars]] or [[reality TV]] contestants than the gritty, violent paramilitary group originally portrayed in the series. The title was laced with Milligan's [[satire|satirical]] take on the superhero team as well as general [[Cynicism (contemporary)|cynicism]] toward the entire genre. Milligan wrote that he saw the characters' [[Superpower (ability)|super powers]] as "vehicles for exploring our celebrity and fame-obsessed society."<ref name=Guardian/>

"My mutants all have agents, negotiate fees for image rights, open megastores and live the dream. People die in my comic. We even have a character called Dead Girl."<ref name=Guardian/>

Milligan and Allred would regularly play with killing off the title characters: In their first issue, they wiped out the entire team, with only two exceptions. This dramatic revision of the series was not universally accepted. Many readers wanted "their" X-Force back, a complaint Milligan later [[parody|parodied]] in the pages of the title.<ref name="lamar20100915">{{cite web|last=Lamar|first=Cyriaque|title=5 weird examples of superheroic identity swapping|work=io9 |date=September 16, 2010 |url=http://io9.com/5639243/5-weird-examples-of-superheroic-identity-swapping|access-date=12 December 2019}}</ref> Alonso described the series as "a hostile takeover of the X-Men paradigm."<ref name="Newsarama">{{cite news |last1=Ching |first1=Albert |title=Looking Back on X-FORCE and X-STATIX with Mike Allred |url=https://www.newsarama.com/8959-looking-back-on-x-force-and-x-statix-with-mike-allred.html |access-date=12 December 2019 |work=Newsarama |date=18 January 2012}}</ref> However, the title was receiving mainstream media coverage in titles like ''[[Rolling Stone]]''.{{Citation needed|date=April 2009}}

''X-Force'' #116 was the first Marvel Comics title since ''[[The Amazing Spider-Man (comic)|The Amazing Spider-Man]]'' #96–98 in 1971 to not have the [[Comics Code Authority]] (CCA) approval seal, due to the violence depicted in the issue. The CCA, which governed the content of American comic books, rejected the issue, requiring that changes be made. Instead, Marvel simply stopped submitting comics to the CCA.<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Darowski |editor-first=Joseph J. |last1=Capitanio |first1=Adam |title=The Ages of the X-Men: Essays on the Children of the Atom in Changing Times |chapter=Race and Violence from the "Clear Line School": Bodies and the Celebrity Satire of ''X-Statix'' |date=13 August 2014 |publisher=McFarland & Company |location=Jefferson, North Carolina |isbn=9780786472192 |page=158 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yKHyAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA158}}</ref><ref name="Newsarama"/>

''X-Force'' was canceled with issue #129 in 2002 and renamed ''X-Statix''; it restarted with a new issue #1. ''X-Statix'' carried on the same themes as ''X-Force'', but with an increasingly satirical tone. Milligan planned to deploy [[Diana, Princess of Wales|Princess Diana]] as a character in a story-arc beginning in ''X-Statix'' #13: she was slated to return from the dead as a mutant superhero. However, when news of this leaked out to the media, a series of objections followed, most notably from the British [[Tabloid (newspaper format)|tabloid newspaper]] ''[[Daily Mail|The Daily Mail]]''.<ref name=Guardian>{{cite web |first=Peter |last=Milligan |author-link=Peter Milligan |url=https://www.theguardian.com/monarchy/story/0,2763,984675,00.html |title=Princess Diana, superhero |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=June 25, 2003 }}</ref><ref>{{Marvunapp|http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix2/henriettahunter.htm#comments|Henrietta Hunter (X-Statix leader/charity worker/pop star)}} Retrieved September 3, 2009.</ref> A spokesperson for the [[British royal family]] called the planned story "appalling."<ref name=Guardian/><ref name="E News">{{cite news |last1=Haberman |first1=Lia |title=Princess Di Comic Scuttled |url=https://www.eonline.com/news/45486/princess-di-comic-scuttled |access-date=11 December 2019 |work=E! News |date=11 July 2003}}</ref> Milligan responded to the controversy, writing in the British daily newspaper ''[[The Guardian]]'' that Diana fit in well with X-Statix as someone "famous for being famous" and that he would like to write a story where [[David Beckham]] joined the team, if he could convince Marvel to let him.<ref name=Guardian/> On July 10, 2003, Marvel announced that they would remove Princess Diana from the story, replacing her with a fictional pop star named Henrietta Hunter.<ref name="E News"/>

Although sales of the title during this time were moderate, they soon began to decline drastically. After a story-arc that pitted X-Statix against The [[Avengers (comics)|Avengers]], low sales prompted the title's cancellation with issue #26, published in 2004. In the last issue Milligan and Allred killed off the entire team, serving up one last parody of the superhero genre, while tying up the remaining plot threads.

In 2006, Marvel Comics published the five-issue miniseries ''X-Statix Presents: Dead Girl'', which featured Dead Girl teaming up with [[Doctor Strange]] to combat a group of villains who have returned from the dead. The series is written by Milligan, with covers by Allred. The storyline (which features the returns of the Anarchist, the Orphan, and U-Go Girl) parodies the manner in which creators in the industry handle death in comic books, with popular characters often brought back from the dead.

In 2019, ''Giant Sized X-Statix'' was published and written by Peter Milligan and Mike Allred the original creators of X-Statix. The title showcased a new version of the team consisting of the new U Go-Girl, Doop, Vivisector, Mister Sensitive, The A, and Phatty as well as a new team the X-Cellent with its members being Zeitgeist, Hurt John, Mirror Girl, and Uno and alumni/former members of [[X-Force]] like Plazm, the Anarchist, La Nuit, Battering Ram, and Gin Genie. In 2020, ''The X-Cellent'' was announced as a successor to ''X-Statix''.