Essential X-Men Essential X-Men Essential X-Men is a 76-page comic book published by Panini Comics UK, as part of their Collectors' Edition range. Beginning in 1995, the title reprints Marvel US's range of X-Men comics; three per issue. The comic is produced on higher quality paper than the US originals, and the covers are composed of card, which helps to preserve the comic. Also unlike the US originals, advertisements are kept to a minimum, with most simply promoting the other comics in the Collectors' Edition range or Marvel DVDs or video games. The comics it reprints are generally about two years behind
Dark X-Men of Charles Xavier's X-Men, to which they had no official connection (much like Osborn's Avengers team was pretending to be the real Avengers). At the 2009 Emerald City ComiCon, writer Matt Fraction confirmed that the Dark X-Men would not be featured in a title of their own, but would rather be featured in "Uncanny X-Men" during the crossover with "Dark Avengers". In an April 16 interview with Comic Book Resources, Fraction explained the whole idea behind the Dark X-Men was to create three teams; Norman Osborn's Dark Avengers, Scott Summers's X-Men, and Emma Frost's new "Dark" X-Men. Comic book writer