X-Man is a Marvel Comics series created by Jeph Loeb and Steve Skroce. The series was originally planned as a four-issue miniseries that was part of the Age of Apocalypse crossover, but was later promoted to an ongoing series thanks to Popularity Power. Initially written by Jeph Loeb, it changed several writers before Terry Kavanagh came aboard; he wrote the book for most of its run. The series lasted for 75 issues (March, 1995- May, 2001).
The book followed Nate Grey, an alternate version of Cable hailing from the Age of Apocalypse reality, and his exploits at finding his own place in the world after being transported from his reality to the the main Marvel Universe, as well as dealing with various villains trying to manipulate him for his vast superpowers.
In 2000, it was heavily Retooled as part of the Counter-X initiative but, a year later, cancelled because Joe Quesada thought that there were too many X-Books.
Nate was killed off in the last issue and stayed "dead" until a point during Dark Reign where he under went a Unexplained Recovery and went up against Norman Osborn and his team of Dark X-Men before being captured.
Storylines with their own pages:
- X-Man (Counter-X) (#63-75)
X-Man provides examples of:
- Aborted Arc: Something was building up with the Hellfire Club between issues #7-29: Black Queen Selene was grooming Madelyne Pryor as her Black Rook; Trevor Fitzroy was back and uninvolved with Bishop; Madelyne Pryor was seducing Sebastian Shaw, and lastly Selene, after losing control over her "pet" Madelyne, telepathically warned Tessa (Shaw's secretary) and Fitzroy their dalliance would bring them dire consequences. This plot was never explored further.
- A God I Am Not: Nate spends a very long time throughout the series being quite firm on this, despite his stint as a kind of faith healer in Washington Square leading to him being referred to as a "Street Messiah". This gets him into trouble with the Crusader, a fundamentalist Christian and Knight Templar (right down to the imagery) with a superpowered split personality, who saw the news and went berserk.
- The Aloner: After he lands on the main reality, he has trouble finding people to trust and connect with, for fear they want to use him for their own ends. Sometimes he is right, sometimes he isn't.
- Barefoot Loon: Nate was often a bit odd, but plunged into this territory towards the end of his solo series when he became a 'Shaman' following a Mind Meld with a Crazy Sane alternate counterpart, gaining a strange and rather detached view of the world, seeing himself as its multiversal protector (which also meant he would punish those from Earth-616 who committed crimes against other worlds), and veering straight into Crazy Sane territory (he once responded to a You're Insane! with one word: "Probably"). The barefoot part just cements him (along with his messiah complex and Reality Warper powers) as being rather disturbing.
- Bullying a Dragon: This happens to him fairly often in his solo series, as his extremely high power level combined with his unassuming appearance and inexperience makes him a dragon very few see coming. The bullies range from people who know full well what they're getting into (Holocaust, Dark Beast—though as Nate gets older and more controlled, Dark Beast wisely becomes absolutely terrified of him) to the more traditional jerks who just come along with no idea of the power they're messing with (the Purple Man and Mysterio being among the jerkiest).
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: None of the members of Nate's supporting cast were ever seen or mentioned again after the series ended, save for the very thin exception of Threnody who was given a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo as a potential recruit in Avengers: The Initiative, before finally popping up again in 2018 in an issue of Deadpool as part of the New Orleans Assassins Guild. And of course, Madelyne Pryor appeared again, but she was also an established character long before Nate himself arrived on the scene.
- Depending on the Artist: How old Nate actually looks. He's meant to be about 17, and later, his late teens/early twenties. However, some artists draw him built along Cable's lines (while their counterparts, Cable's had a lifetime of extensive physical training to bulk him up, while Nate's still a kid, and even if Sinister designed him to be in peak physical shape, you'd expect some disparity) and looking closer to his late twenties, while others draw him more slender and looking more like his actual age, and others still draw him looking about 15, at most. However, some degree of athletic build is a constant, with his frequently being referred to as 'Muscles' or similar.
- Destructive Saviour: Due to his take-no-prisoners fighting style, and the power levels of his enemies, Nate's fights tend to have a high collateral damage quotient—for instance, he once practically levelled the city of Dublin.
- Good Is Not Soft: Early in the series, Nate is a hero through and through, but he can also be bullheaded and abrasive to the people around him. And when it comes to combat, he does not hold back, expressly rejecting the traditional Thou Shalt Not Kill philosophy of the X-Men due to coming of age in a much more hard and brutal world than the one they know. Later, he gets more polite and more morally ambiguous.
- Horrible Honeymoon: In issues #15-17, Holocaust attacks Nate and Threnody in Greece, and the battle results in casualties. Threnody uses a dying man's "death energies" to power up herself, and Nate rescues the man's wife and other beachgoers. The woman complains to Nate her husband died on their honeymoon, and blames the mutants for this.
- The Needless: By the end of the series, Nate doesn't actually need to eat, drink, sleep, or breathe (to the point where he doesn't even notice that he's in a cell full of raw nitrogen), and does human things mostly to reassure humans and mutants alike.
- Rogues' Gallery Transplant: Morbius, the Living Vampire, and Mysterio, villains from the Spider-Man corner of the Marvel Universe, crossed paths with him on occasion.
- Triang Relations: Just like its parent series, Nate Grey is also caught in a mutant love triangle: he develops a connection and falls in love with Madelyne Pryor, who also reciprocates his feelings (Queen Jean reveal notwithstanding), but, when Madelyne departs with Selene of the Hellfire Club, he meets Threnody and both become lovers for a time.
- Tulpa: When Nate appeared in the main reality of the Marvel Universe in issue #5, somehow he recreated Madelyne Pryor (who had died way back in X-Factor #38). Fast forward to issue #25, Nate tries to reabsorb the energies he used to create Madelyne, but she has taken a life of her own and turns the energies back at Nate.
