X-Men: The Return

Marvel Pocket Books Novels

by Chris Roberson

When an alien race arrives to claim ownership of Earth, the X-Men must find a way to repel them in this thrilling adventure novel.
The Kh'thon descend upon Earth not as invaders, but as the planet's rightful owners. They claim to have left millennia ago, and their evidence is not only are their ships manned by Homo sapiens, but their will is enforced by specially augmented humans with phenomenal powers—and each one is a match for any of the X-Men.
According to the Kh'thon, they are the original creators of the X-Gene, which allowed them to breed their servants with whatever abilities they required. The Kh'thon believe that Earth belongs to them, as well as every being living on it—human and mutant.
Now it's up to Wolverine, Kitty Pryde, Nightcrawler, and the rest of the X-Men—together with Scott Summers, now a member of X-Force—to defeat the Kh'thon before they are enslaved by these would-be alien masters. . . .

Genres: Marvel, Fiction, X Men, Comics, Superheroes, Science Fiction, Fantasy

277 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 25, 2025

About the author

Chris Roberson is the co-creator with artist Michael Allred of iZombie, the basis of the hit CW television series, and the writer of several New York Times best-selling Cinderella miniseries set in the world of Bill Willingham’s Fables. He is also the co-creator of Edison Rex with artist Dennis Culver, and the co-writer of Hellboy and the B.P.R.D, Witchfinder, Rise of the Black Flame, and other titles set in the world of Mike Mignola’s Hellboy. In addition to his numerous comics projects, Roberson has written more than a dozen novels and three dozen short stories. He lives with a teenager, two cats, and far too many books in Portland, Oregon.

Reviews

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun audioread, and certainly the X-Men-iest (in the Claremont sense) of prose books I've consumed in a long while. Great to see old side characters like Dr. Peter Corbeau and Lee Forrester show up, as well as helpful insights into the interior lives of characters like Colossus and Cypher.

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this on a whim, I've never read a non-graphic text-only superhero novel before and wanted to really broaden my horizons. The author is well-versed in the lore created by Chris Claremont and wisely sets his book in the mid-80's era. The sweet cast begins with Cyclops, Wolverine, and Kitty Pryde, who are soon joined by Nightcrawler, Colossus, Rogue, Beast (pre-blue fur), Psylocke (pre-ninja body transfer), and Doug Ramsey (pre-death). (Storm was powerless at this time and I think Professor X was in outer space.) Cameos were made by other allies such as Alpha Flight, the New Mutants, the Hellions, etc. which I thought was cool, sticking in stuff just for the real nerds. The plot itself involves a group of ancient aliens returning to the Earth that they had populated(?) with humans years ago, sending their "Exemplars" (who of course, have mutant-like powers) to reclaim the planet. Our heroes split into three groups to attempt a series of missions to thwart these dastardly bastards. The point-of-view switches around to most of the characters, which I also thought was cool. All-in-all, I give it four stars and that is my book report on "X-Men: The Return." Can I go to recess now?

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a dandy X-novel, set in the Claremont heyday between the original couple of teams and the great million-mutant X-pansion of the '90s. There's an(other) alien invasion afoot, and while it's very nicely presented it took a back seat for me compared to the interaction of our heroes. Kitty had the best lines, as is usual and fitting, but I thought Roberson had a good grip on all of the main characters. X-Men meets space-opera: how can you go wrong?

[Katya Starling · Rating 1 out of 5]

The author tries hard, perhaps too hard, in trying to convince readers he truly knows the X-Men. Doug Ramsey and Psylocke never had a thing, but I could have gotten pass that. I could have also endured his typos, which never should have made it into publication and were clearly not caught simply because all it seems he did was run the book through a spellchecker. I've read fan fiction many times with far more thought and skill.

The ultimate failure, however, was in his attempt to say that Kitty Pryde views Logan and Scott with the same measure of respect. N-O. Logan means even more to Kitty than Professor Xavier. Scott certainly isn't her father figure or her role model, and probably doesn't even make the girl's list of top ten X-Men.

Try again, buster, and honestly, if you're going to write and publish X-Men books, you should become far more familiar with the characters. This could have passed as an AU, but never as the real thing. Anyone who's actually read comics from ALL the decades they've been published knows better.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a lot of fun. The pacing was great and I rarely wanted to put it down. I loved getting to see Doug as a main character with some major impact to the story. However, I wasn't the biggest fan of the writing. There were a lot of things that were either over explained from the get-go or they were explained more than once so there were a few parts I skimmed because of that issue. I also found that there were some things that weren't developed, which was very strange.

[Colin N. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Found it pretty boring, actually. I think there were too many characters and no characterization whatsoever. Some people enjoy reading a book with a slew of characters and more furthering of the plot than characterization, I’m just not one of those people. I’d rather read something with an okay plot and more character focus.

[Jonathan DeForest · Rating 2 out of 5]

So, WHERE were the Avengers in all this? Even being mentioned a few times (Iron Man and Captain America even by name), they just decided something like, "Nah, the X-Men got this particular alien invasion handled." I like the X-Men, but this book is yet another reason why they need to have a superhero universe of their own separate from the rest of the Marvel characters.

[Derrick · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm playing Marvel Snap right now and am enjoying seeing the characters that I have no idea who they are in the series, but outside of that. Not sure I'm a super fan of this stuff.

[Lori S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highly enjoyable listen, improved by a favorite narrator: Thom Rivera.

[Greg Hatcher]

Enjoyed this quite a bit. Full disclosure -- I know Chris a little bit, he reads my column and we have corresponded so the main reason I picked this up was to support him-- but I liked the book a great deal. It's old-school X-Men from when I was in high school or thereabouts.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

A perfect super-hero novel. Well done.