X-Men (film series) films and plot points that are conveniently ignored in later films. He also criticized 20th Century Fox for not mapping out the series from the beginning. Richard George of IGN stated that the success of the first "X-Men" film paved the way for comic-book film adaptations such as the "Spider-Man" series, "Fantastic Four" (2005), "V for Vendetta" and Singer's "Superman Returns". Chris Hewitt of "Empire" magazine called the first "X-Men" film as the "catalyst" for films based on Marvel Comics characters, stating "Singer's 2000 film is the catalyst for everything that's come since, good and bad. Without it, there's no
X-Men: Legacy the parent title "Uncanny X-Men", with co-writers Chris Claremont and Jim Lee, previously the penciler on "Uncanny", moving over to "X-Men", while studio mate Whilce Portacio took over penciling duties on "Uncanny". "X-Men" #1 is still the bestselling comic book of all time, with pre-order sales of over 8.1 million copies, according to Guinness Book of World Records, which presented honors to Claremont at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con It is estimated that somewhere between 3–4 million copies were actually sold. The sales figures were generated in part by publishing the issue with five different variant covers, four of which