NOTE: These questions pertain to the movie and cartoon versions of the 
X-Men, not to their actual comic-book incarnations.  


--- How is _X-Men: The Movie_ different from the comics?

There are many, many ways that the movie is different from the actual 
mainstream continuity of the comics. For one, the school has far more
mutants in it than the casts of Uncanny, X-Men, Generation X, and the 
Hellions/New Mutants/X-Force kids combined.  

The team in _XM:TM_ consists of Cyclops, Jean Grey, and Storm, all led 
by Xavier. In movie continuity, Cyke and Jean are not yet married 
(though they share a room in the mansion), and Jean is a doctor. 
Wolverine and Rogue first meet in Canada, instead of meeting when Rogue 
runs away from the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and comes knocking at 
Xavier's door.  A few other things must be noted about Rogue. First of 
all, in the regular comics Rogue has the powers of flight and 
invulnerability, which she gained from Ms. Marvel in the classic 
Avengers Annual #10. She's also had her distinctive white stripe from 
the get-go. Furthermore, the Rogue of the comics has *never* revealed 
her real name on-panel, and it's strongly believed that if anyone knows 
it other than Rogue's original parents, it would be Mystique (Rogue's 
foster mother) or Destiny (Mystique's long-time companion).

The villains and supporting cast also have changed. Toad probably 
received the most changes to his character, and all are improvements. 
The Toad of the comics was always an Igor-like hunchback to Magneto, and 
usually did little more than jump around uttering annoying lines. The 
Toad of _XM:TM_, however, can climb walls much more efficiently, has a 
strong tongue that can grasp items, and a rather nasty ooze.


--- What cameos are there in _X-Men: The Movie_? (+)

Quite a few cameos of (and homages to) familiar characters appear in 
_XM:TM_. They are:

   * Bobby: Bobby Drake is Iceman, an American adult who can create ice 
     and snow from the moisture in the air, and travel on created ice-
     slides. (He has lines.)

   * Kitty: Kitty Pryde is Shadowcat, a Jewish-American teenager who can 
     phase through walls and short-ciruit any electronics she passes 
     through. (She has lines.)

   * John: St. John Allerdyce is Pyro, an Australian adult villain who 
     can control, but *not* generate, any fire or flame. (He has lines.)

   * Jubilee: Jubilation Lee is Jubilee, a Chinese-American teenager who 
     can make colorful fireworks and small explosions. (She has no lines 
     but can be seen in the same two classroom scenes as Kitty.)

   * Dani: Danielle Moonstar is a Native American teenager who can make 
     your dreams or nightmares materialize in front of you. (She has no 
     lines but can be seen in the same two classroom scenes as Kitty.)

   * Colossus: Piotr Rasputin is Colossus, a Russian adult who can turn
     his entire body into organic steel. He's an artist, and is 
     currently an X-Man. (He has no lines but can be seen in the 
     opening mansion scenes sketching near the lily pond and basketball 
     court.)


--- What's new in _X-Men 2_? (+)

Loads of familiar friends and new characters show up in _X2_. The plot 
is relatively simple: Colonel Stryker is using a drug created from his 
mutant son's body in order to control mutants (specifically, Nightcrawler 
and Deathstrike) as assassins. Stryker also raids the mansion and is able 
to capture several students. The X-Men discover this plot and work for a 
brief time with Magneto and Mystique (she having broken him out of jail)
in order to rescue their students. They also need to rescue Xavier, who 
has also been kidnapped and is being brainwashed into killing all of the 
mutants on earth via his Cerebro machine. At the end of the film, Pyro 
goes off with Magneto and Mystique, Wolverine leaves Stryker to drown, 
and Jean gives her life to allow the X-jet to take off. In the final 
scene, Rogue, Bobby, and Kurt all appear in uniform with the X-Men team.

Cameo-wise, there are a few goodies. Colossus armors up and helps the 
students escape from the mansion when Stryker attacks. Kitty is seen 
phasing through a wall, while Siryn is seen giving off her trademark 
scream. Jubilee is among the kidnapped students held at Stryker's base. 
Hank McCoy and Sebastian Shaw are seen in a televised talk show debate 
that is playing when Mystique seduces Magneto's prison guard in a bar.
A student with a forked tongue by the name of Artie doesn't remotely 
match any characteristics of the character found in the comics, and 
there doesn't seem to be a match for another young boy who can change 
TV channels just by blinking. There are also *many* X-Men and Marvel 
characters and organizations listed as file folders when Mystique, as 
Deathstrike, breaks into Stryker's computer system to download the 
plans of his hidden base.


--- What other movies or cartoons are there?

There have been quite a few attempts to cash in on the X-Men craze in 
other media. A quick rundown:

   * _Pryde of the X-Men_ (1989)(TV)
     _Pryde_ was the first attempt to make an X-Men cartoon. Characters 
     include Cyclops, Wolverine, Colossus, Xavier, Emma Frost, Toad, 
     and the Blob. It's really a failed series pilot that was 
     repackaged for video sale. Notable for thin plot and poor voice 
     casting, it uses an Australian accent for Wolverine. It runs 30 
     minutes and is pretty bad. 

   * _X-Men_ (1992)(TV)
     This is how it should be done. The cartoon cast includes Xavier,
     Cyclops, Jean Grey, Rogue, Gambit, Wolverine, Jubilee, Storm, 
     Beast, and a whole host of villains along with Magneto. The voice 
     casting was very well done, the plots were generally stable, and 
     the series touched upon many other X-Men and Marvel characters in 
     its 5-year stint. While continuity wasn't always in line with the 
     comics (the most obvious examples being Morph's inclusion and the 
     not-quite-right attempt at the Phoenix Saga), the characterization 
     was great.

   * _Generation X_ (1996)(TV)
     The first live-action adaptation of the mutant franchise was this
     TV-movie. The villain of this story is Russell Trask, played by 
     Matt Frewer (of _Max Headroom_ fame). Trask is a scientist out to 
     use mutants to advance his schemes. When he finds out that old 
     adversary Emma Frost is teaching a bunch of mutant teenagers, he 
     decides to kidnap her students to use in his attempts to control 
     the world by controlling everyone's dreams. Characters included 
     the familiar Emma Frost, Banshee, Jubilee, M, and Skin, a weird 
     version of Mondo, and new characters Buff and Refrax. It had a few 
     moments, but was generally miscast (a white girl as Jubilee?) and 
     poorly plotted. A sequel was planned in 1999 but never made it to 
     production.

   * _X-Men: Evolution_ (2000)(TV)
     This cartoon series features Cyclops, Jean Grey, Rogue, 
     Nightcrawler, Shadowcat, and Spyke as teenaged high school 
     students. Mystique is the principal of the school, which also
     includes such students as Toad and Quicksilver.