If you have been watching television, movies, or reading much of anything on the internet lately, you are likely aware that the latest comic book movie, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, opens today.  It is appropriate, then, for us to look back at the origins of the Marvel Ultimate Alliance franchise.  This series has all the hallmarks of a good Co-Op Casual Friday game: high kid appeal, local multiplayer, and simple gameplay.  The one that started it all for this excellent series of games was X-Men Legends. X-Men Legends came out almost five years ago.  In 2004, the predecessors to the trio of modern consoles were in their heyday, and X-Men Legends was released for each of those systems:Xbox, PS2, and Gamecube .  The X-Men movie franchise had not yet been sullied by the third film (I'm still bitter, even years later).  X-Men Evolution, a successful cartoon series, had ended a good run the year before.  The time was ripe for a good X-Men video game, and X-Men Legends delivered.