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There’s really no way to beat the X-Men, when it comes to story quality, for any Marvel team. They weren’t a success out of the gate, but they’ve built into something very special over the decades. These ten X-Men stories are why the team is the greatest of all time, and their best story is one that will never be rivaled.
10) Avengers/X-Men: Utopia
The X-Men and Avengers have quite a history, but one of their meetings stands far above the rest. “Avengers/X-Men: Utopia”. by Matt Fraction, Marc Silvestri, Mike Deodato Jr., Terry Dodson, and Luke Ross, brought the two groups together during the “Dark Reign”, when Norman Osborn and his Dark Avengers were in charge of the superhero community. After anti-mutant protests get out of hand in the team’s new home of San Francisco, the two teams clash, with the newly minted Dark X-Men getting into the mix. However, Cyclops has a plan, one that shows just how great a leader and tactician he truly is. It’s a story that doesn’t really get the praise it deserves, and it’s a modern classic.
9) “Here Comes Tomorrow”
Grant Morrison’s run on New X-Men is amazing, and easily one of the best runs of all time. For 40 issues, the Scottish scribe took everything about the team and used it in new ways, including the dystopian future trope. “Here Comes Tomorrow”, by Morrison and Marc Silvestri, took place a hundred years after the death of Jean Grey, in a world where the X-Men of the future are battling the Beast of the Apocalypse, a war that has devastated the Earth. Both sides end up going after the Phoenix Egg, leading to a battle that will doom the universe or save it. This is dystopian future X-Men done right, and it’s an underrated classic.
8) Astonishing X-Men (Vol. 1) #1-4
“Age of Apocalypse” is an X-Men legend, but not all of that is amazing, despite what the fans say. Astonishing X-Men (Vol. 1) #1-4, by Scott Lobdell and Joe Madureira, saw Rogue’s team of X-Men — Blink, Iceman, Sunfire, Morph, Sabretooth, and Wild Child — battling against Holocaust, the son of Apocalypse, in one of his human culls, as Magneto hatches a plan to save the world. This is high octane alternate universe X-action, with gorgeous art from Madureira. The character work is great, as well; it made fans love Blink and look at Sabretooth in an entirely different way. This is peak ’90s X-Men, and one of the finest moments of a legendary story.
7) “Days of Future Past”
“Days of Future Past” changed comics forever. Chris Claremont and John Byrne’s classic story popularized the dystopian future for the X-Men, and introduced readers to the one that is basically canon at this point. In a dark future where Sentinels have taken over the world, the last X-Men try to stop their future from happening by sending Kate Pryde back in time, all while preparing for a final battle against the mechanized monsters. Claremont and Byrne are amazing together in this two-issue story, and it’s become one of the most beloved X-stories ever. Since it dropped, creators have copied it numerous times, showing just how important it is to the history of superhero stories.
6) “Mutant Massacre”
“Mutant Massacre” was one of the first major X-Men crossovers, running through Uncanny X-Men, X-Factor, New Mutants, Daredevil, Power Pack, and The Mighty Thor. This 1986 classic saw the Marauders attack the Morlocks, the Manhattan-dwelling sewer mutants, with the mutant teams and the heroes of New York City. An argument can be made that this was the first majorly depressing X-story, something fans would get really tired over in the last 40 years, but it’s an amazing story from one of the best times in Marvel history. Readers got major moments like the first Wolverine/Sabretooth fight and Angel losing his wings, two huge milestones in X-history. It was also the first, but not the last, time the X-Men would helm a major Marvel summer crossover, proving that they were the epicenter of the House of Ideas.
