Comic Book Questions Answered – where I answer whatever questions you folks might have about comic books (feel free to e-mail questions to me at brianc@cbr.com).

Recently, I did a column about when Excalibur found out that the X-Men were not actually dead after their apparent death in Dallas during "Fall of the Mutants."

My pal Avash I. wanted to know why the X-Men kept their survival a secret from their friends and family. The answer, really, comes down to an inherent misunderstanding of the Mutant Massacre by the X-Men. I have a column called "How Can I Explain?" about comic book plots that just don't make sense, but in this instance, it is not that the plot did not make sense, but rather that the X-Men did not understand what was going on, so they came up with a plan that they didn't know actually didn't make any sense. From their perspective, though, they did not realize how senseless their plan was.

The X-Men had been attacked during the event called the "Mutant Massacre" by a team of villains called the Marauders. The X-Men survived the initial battle, but lost Nightcrawler and Kitty Pryde to severe injuries (and temporarily lost Colossus to injuries, as well). The Marauders then continued to hunt the X-Men even as the team went on the run, leaving Xavier's School behind.

In New Mutants #51 (by Chris Claremont and Kevin Nowlan), Storm convinced Magneto that Magneto has to join the Hellfire Club to help protect the X-Men. She also mentions "Plan Omega"...

In Uncanny X-Men #219 (by Chris Claremont, Marc Silvestri and Dan Green), Storm reveals that since the Marauders are devoted to killing the X-Men, the only way to stop them is to convince them that the X-Men ARE dead...

Havok overhears their plan and since they are so devoted to their "make everyone think we're dead" idea, they don't know what to do with Havok. They even consider killing him to keep their secret...

The problem that the X-Men don't know is that the Marauders AREN'T stuck just hunting down the X-Men. In that very same issue, they hunt down the former X-Man, Polaris, while her boyfriend, Havok, is checking into the X-Men...

So their whole plan was based on a misunderstanding of the Marauders' main goal. The Marauders didn't just want to kill the X-Men, they wanted to kill all mutants. So faking their deaths won't change anything.

In any event, while they were debating faking their deaths, they instead died for real, sacrificing their souls to stop the villainous Adversary in Uncanny X-Men #227...

The magical being known as Roma brought them back to life and allowed the X-Men to keep up their faked deaths if they wanted to. They decided to go that path, but they were once again convinced that the Marauders would leave their friends and family alone if the bad guys believed the X-Men to be dead. This isn't actually based on any real proof, but that's why the X-Men kept their survival a secret from even their closest friends and family...

Thanks for the question, Avash!

If anyone else has a question about comics, feel free to drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!