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This X-Men trivia quiz has 50 free questions with answers and runs the whole 60-year history of Marvel's mutants. It starts with Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's 1963 original five, moves through the 1975 relaunch in Giant-Size X-Men #1, Chris Claremont's sixteen-year run, the Dark Phoenix Saga, Days of Future Past and the record-breaking X-Men #1 of 1991, then on to House of M, Genosha and the Krakoa era. The characters get their own questions - Wolverine, Magneto, Professor X, Storm, Rogue, Gambit, Nightcrawler, Beast, Jubilee, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Apocalypse and Mister Sinister - and so do the screen versions: the 1992 Fox Kids cartoon and X-Men '97, the Fox film series from the 2000 original through First Class, Days of Future Past and Logan, and the Deadpool films up to Deadpool & Wolverine. Roughly a third are warm-ups any casual fan can get; the rest climb toward the detail only a longbox owner would know. Every answer has been checked against Wikipedia and the primary sources it cites, and each explanation adds one more thing worth knowing.
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Q 01Which artist co-created the X-Men with writer-editor Stan Lee in 1963?
Jack Kirby
The team debuted in The X-Men #1, cover-dated September 1963, the same year Marvel launched the Avengers and Doctor Strange.
Q 02Stan Lee wanted to call the team 'The Mutants'. Which Marvel publisher rejected the name?
Martin Goodman
The objection was that young readers would not know what a mutant was, so the 'X' for extra power was used instead.
Q 03Which winged hero was one of the original five X-Men introduced in 1963?
Angel
Warren Worthington III joined Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast and Bobby Drake in the first class; the other three names all arrived years later.
Q 04Roughly how many years passed without new X-Men stories after issue #66 in 1970?
5
Issues #67-93 were reprints of older comics; the drought ended with Giant-Size X-Men #1 in 1975.
Q 05What was the title of the story in Giant-Size X-Men #1 (1975)?
Second Genesis
The 68-page issue was cover-dated May 1975 but actually reached newsstands in February that year.
Q 06Who wrote Giant-Size X-Men #1, the issue that relaunched the team with an international roster?
Len Wein
The relaunch was an explicit attempt to attract readers outside the United States by moving beyond the all-white American cast.
Q 07Which member of the 1975 relaunch team was a Native American of Apache descent?
Thunderbird
He was one of four brand-new characters in the issue, alongside three previously introduced mutants from Ireland, Japan and Canada.
Q 08Which scientist designed the mutant-hunting Sentinels introduced in X-Men #14-16 (1965-66)?
Bolivar Trask
A typical Sentinel stands three stories tall; his son Larry went on to build the Mark II models.
Q 09With which issue did the series title change to The Uncanny X-Men?
#114
That was October 1978, still under Claremont and John Byrne; the original numbering finally ended with #544 in 2011.
Q 10Which issue range of Uncanny X-Men contains the Dark Phoenix Saga (1980)?
#129-138
The story ran January to October 1980 and also introduced Dazzler and Emma Frost.
Q 11Which alien race lost a civilised planet when Dark Phoenix devoured the energy of its star?
D'Bari
The supernova wiped out the only inhabited world orbiting the star, which is why the Shi'ar demanded Phoenix be put on trial.
Q 12Which Marvel editor-in-chief refused to let Jean Grey survive the Dark Phoenix Saga?
Jim Shooter
The originally drawn ending had the Shi'ar permanently depower Jean and release her into the X-Men's custody.
Q 13Which 13-year-old who could walk through walls debuted in Uncanny X-Men #129 (1980)?
Kitty Pryde
She was born in Deerfield, Illinois, and later befriended an alien dragon called Lockheed.
Q 21Wolverine made his first appearance in which comic in 1974?
The Incredible Hulk #180
He began as a Canadian government-sanctioned hero, and his height is officially just 5 feet 3 inches.
Q 22What is Wolverine's real birth name?
James Howlett
He was born in Canada in the late 19th century, and his adamantium skeleton came later from the Weapon X programme.
Q 23Magneto's helmet was specially built to protect him from what?
Telepathic intrusion
It was designed with Charles Xavier and other high-level telepaths in mind; he is also a Holocaust survivor in his fleshed-out origin.
Q 14In the 1981 comic 'Days of Future Past', in which future year do Sentinels rule the US?
2013
The two-issue story (#141-142) has an adult Kate Pryde send her mind back into her teenage self to stop an assassination.
Q 15Roughly how many pre-order copies of X-Men #1 (1991), the best-selling comic ever, were sold?
8 million
Guinness recognises the figure, though estimates suggest only three to four million copies actually sold through to readers.
Q 16How many different covers was X-Men #1 (1991) published with?
Five
Four showed different characters that combined into one image, and a gatefold cover joined all four together.
Q 17Which artist co-launched X-Men #1 in 1991 and left months later to help found Image Comics?
Jim Lee
The book initially split the team into a Blue squad led by Cyclops and a Gold squad led by Storm.
Q 18In House of M (2005), whose three words 'No more mutants' depower most of the world's mutants?
Scarlet Witch
Written by Brian Michael Bendis and drawn by Olivier Coipel, the story shrank the mutant population from millions to hundreds.
Q 19What is the capital city of the island nation of Genosha?
Hammer Bay
The island sits off the south-eastern African coast, north-east of Madagascar.
Q 20Which writer launched the Krakoa era in 2019 with the twin series House of X and Powers of X?
Jonathan Hickman
The era ran until X-Men #35 in June 2024, which doubled as legacy issue Uncanny X-Men #700.
Q 24What is the name of Magneto's orbital base of operations in space?
Asteroid M
Later stories reveal that two of his former Brotherhood members are actually his children.
Q 25Which actor was the physical inspiration for Professor Charles Xavier?
Yul Brynner
Fans often compare Xavier and Magneto to Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X respectively.
Q 26In the original comics, who paralysed Charles Xavier's legs by dropping a stone block on him?
Lucifer
Xavier also devised Cerebro to enhance psionic powers and track people carrying the mutant gene.
Q 27What is the address of the X-Mansion in Salem Center, New York?
1407 Graymalkin Lane
The mansion houses the Danger Room, Cerebro and a hangar under the basketball court, and it has been destroyed and rebuilt several times.
Q 28Which Marvel hero did Storm marry?
Black Panther
She has also been a member of the Avengers and the Fantastic Four as well as the X-Men.
Q 29What is Gambit's real name?
Remy LeBeau
As a child his red-on-black eyes earned him the nickname 'Le Diable Blanc'; he was raised in the Thieves' Guild.
Q 30Which shapeshifting villain is Nightcrawler's biological parent?
Mystique
A later retcon made Mystique's wife Destiny his other parent; her natural form has blue skin, red hair and yellow eyes.