The X-Statix reunion you've been waiting two years for is coming soon as The X-Cellent

X-Cellent #1
(Image credit: Marvel Comics)

Michael Allred, Peter Milligan, and Laura Allred's X-Statix return, X-Cellent, finally has a release date: February 2022. Originally announced in 2019 for a 2020 debut, X-Cellent was sidetracked by the COVID-19 pandemic but never fully counted out from eventual publication.

"The ol' gang is back together again! Working with Peter Milligan is always a party," Michael Allred says in the announcement. "The future is looking brighter for 2022 as we get to show the world how we've been playing with our X-Statix Marvel mutants and their new adversaries, The X-Cellent! Love these characters! Everyone come play with us!"

The X-Cellent is an antagonist superhero team introduced in the trio's 2019 one-shot Giant-Size X-Statix #1 - the same issue where the X-Cellent ongoing series was announced.

(Image credit: Marvel Comics)

Picking up from their early '00s revamp of X-Force and into its own name with X-Statix, X-Cellent continues what has been a long and strange story for this group of off-beat celebrity mutant superheroes. And while the X-Statix were celebrities in their day inside Marvel Comics, they've been succeeded by a new celebrity team: the aforementioned X-Cellent.

You might think this is a story where the good guys (X-Statix) somehow beat the new kids on the block (X-Cellent) and are triumphantly back in the spotlight, but you have to stop and think: this new series is called X-Cellent, not X-Statix. So it seems X-Cellent will be sticking around for awhile.

"I'm thoroughly X-Statix to be working with Mike and Laura Allred again," Milligan said. "And it's been truly x-cellent to discover that we've lost none of our alchemical fizz in conjuring up this new comic, this new title, this new beginning: The X-Cellent!"

X-Cellent #1 goes on sale in February 2022.

Keep track of this and all the new X-Men comics, graphic novels, and collections in 2021 and beyond.

Chris Arrant

Chris Arrant covered comic book news for Newsarama from 2003 to 2022 (and as editor/senior editor from 2015 to 2022) and has also written for USA Today, Life, Entertainment Weekly, Publisher's Weekly, Marvel Entertainment, TOKYOPOP, AdHouse Books, Cartoon Brew, Bleeding Cool, Comic Shop News, and CBR. He is the author of the book Modern: Masters Cliff Chiang, co-authored Art of Spider-Man Classic, and contributed to Dark Horse/Bedside Press' anthology Pros and (Comic) Cons. He has acted as a judge for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, the Harvey Awards, and the Stan Lee Awards. Chris is a member of the American Library Association's Graphic Novel & Comics Round Table. (He/him)