X-Men Outback Marvel Retro Series Steve Orlando

The X-Men are heading back Down Under and this time, the secrets of the Outback are finally coming to light.

What’s Happening:

This June, Marvel Comics revisits one of the most beloved chapters in mutant history with X-MEN: OUTBACK, a five-issue retro limited series from writer Steve Orlando and artist Stephen Segovia. Set during the legendary Australian era of Uncanny X-Men, the new saga promises to explore untold stories, buried tensions, and fresh threats lurking in the shadows of the Outback.

In the late 1980s, visionary writer Chris Claremont and superstar artist Marc Silvestri reshaped mutant lore by relocating Marvel’s Merry Mutants to the Australian Outback. The bold creative shift marked a darker, more experimental chapter for the team.
At the time, the world believed the X-Men were dead. Operating from a hidden base in the Australian desert, the team, including Storm, Wolverine, Rogue, Colossus, Dazzler, Havok, Psylocke, and Longshot, protected humanity from the shadows. They were outlaws in every sense of the word, stripped of public recognition but not of purpose.
The Outback Era burned bright and fast, intertwining with major storylines like Inferno and cementing itself as a fan-favorite period. Yet for many readers, it always felt like there were stories left untold.
Now, writer Steve Orlando and artist Stephen Segovia are stepping into that rich era to expand its mythology.
X-MEN: OUTBACK will dig deeper into lingering questions: Why did the team truly choose the Outback as their home base?, What fractures threatened to tear the group apart?, And which longtime enemies came dangerously close to exposing their secret survival?
Orlando, whose previous work includes X-Men Unlimited and Sorcerer Supreme, described the opportunity as deeply personal. Growing up discovering X-Men comics on spinner racks and at flea markets, the Outback Era marked his first introduction to the team.
That sense of bold reinvention, explosive personalities clashing in unfamiliar terrain, is something Orlando says the new series aims not only to honor but elevate. Readers can expect familiar faces, yes, but also new threats, surprising connections, and long-buried secrets coming to the surface.
Adding to the excitement, acclaimed X-Men artist Russell Dauterman will provide covers for the series, delivering dynamic visuals that capture the grit and grandeur of the era.
The project continues Marvel’s recent wave of retro-inspired limited series, following titles like Psylocke: Ninja and Emma Frost: The White Queen, which revisit definitive chapters of mutant history with fresh storytelling.
With five issues set to unfold, X-MEN: OUTBACK offers longtime fans a nostalgic return to one of the franchise’s most daring periods, and invites new readers to discover why this desert chapter remains so iconic.
The mutants may have been presumed dead… but their legacy in the Outback is very much alive.
X-MEN: OUTBACK hits comic shops this June.

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"X-MEN: OUTBACK" Returns to the Iconic Australian Era of Uncanny X-Men

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