Introduction
Over the course of the X-Men’s 55 years of publication, the group has grown from a mere 6 members at its inception to the 100+ we know today. Some members have come and gone within a blink of an eye but others have stood the test of time and became mainstays on the team, fighting alongside their teammates through thick and thin. At the start, the team was relatively simple, with only a couple of mutants joining and leaving over the first few years. As time went on and the numbers grew, splinter teams appeared to accommodate the numbers. Whilst some would leave to form entirely different teams such as X-Factor and the New Mutants, the main X-Men team always boasted the superior numbers.
This article is designed to try to chart the comings and goings of the various members of the main X-Men team and identify the various rosters that were present.