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This opened up the mutants for a lot of socially conscious storylines over the years, with many later creative teams reaching back to what Claremont perfected to create some of the best X-Men stories in Marvel Comics history.
10) The Brood Saga
There was a period of time in the 1980s when Chris Claremont took the X-Men in a very different direction. Instead of fighting evil mutants or dealing with persecution from a public that hates mutants for simply existing, Claremont took his mutants into space. He brought in the Shi’ar Empire, he added a lot of sci-fi elements to the story, and then he introduced a new villain who bears a strong similarity to the Xenomorphs in the Alien franchise.
Running from Uncanny X-Men #154-167, the X-Men, Starjammers, and Shi’ar battled these alien beings in a scary and often surprising body horror story. Moving the action to deep space, the Brood are led by their Queen and can impregnate living beings and then take control of them, which they do with several mutants and their alien allies. This might be Wolverine’s best moment, as he realizes he has to save or kill his friends if they are infected, and it really changed his character for the better. This was also the X-Men storyline that introduced the New Mutants to the Marvel Universe.
9) Schism
X-Men: Schism is a storyline that shattered the mutant team and splintered them into two separate units. It was amazing to see how the roles had changed over the years, as the once hot-headed Wolverine was now working to protect the young mutants and keep them out of dangerous situations, and the born-leader Cyclops was now growing more militant and was ordering his teenage mutant heroes to murder their enemies.
By the time they finished fighting each other, the X-Men were destroyed, Cyclops took his team to San Francisco, and it took years for the fracture to heal. This was a fantastic X-Men storyline because it proved that the mutants faced intense pressure from regular society, but they couldn’t even get on the same page within their own ranks.
8) Fatal Attractions
“Fatal Attractions” is an X-Men storyline from 1993 and spanned the entire line of mutant comics, from the main X-Men titles to X-Factor, X-Force, Excalibur, and Magneto’s own solo series. This saw Magneto back as a villain with his team of the Acolytes led by Fabian Cortez. Magneto left Earth to live on Asteroid M, but that wasn’t enough for anyone, especially when Colossus chose to leave the X-Men and joined forces with Magneto.
When the UN Security Council decided Magneto was a threat, even off Earth, they tried to shut him down, and he reacted with an attack that shut down electrical systems, leading to several deaths. This was a massive storyline that saw two of the most important things happen to the X-Men. Magneto ripped out Wolverine’s skeleton, eventually causing him to go feral, and Professor X shut down Magneto’s mind, which eventually led to Onslaught’s creation.
7) E Is for Extinction
If there is any storyline that shows how much the mutants have suffered over the years, it is the X-Men storyline E Is for Extinction. This was a 2001 storyline that ran from X-Men #114-116. This was a shock and awe storyline, as Cassandra Nova made her debut and wanted revenge for, at the time, unknown reasons. It turned out that she was Professor X’s twin sister, whom her brother tried to kill in the womb.
Of course, this led her to kill more mutants than anyone else in history (at least on Earth-616). Cassandra Nova worked with Donald Trask and sent Wild Sentinels to Genosha, where the unexpected attack led to the death of the entire population, which totaled over 16 million victims. This was one of the most tragic moments in X-Men history, and on a side note, also introduced Emma Frost’s secondary mutation (her diamond form) for the first time.
6) House of X
House of X was an X-Men storyline that changed everything, and it made the mutants fresh for the first time in years. The entire idea was that Professor X found a way to create a mutant paradise away from the hatred and bigotry of humans, living on the sentient island of Krakoa. This allowed some highly creative storylines and a structure that had never been seen before as the mutants started their own nation.
The X-Men created their own government, a new resurrection protocol, and a change to all the mutants, good and bad, that helped elevate the X-Men back to the top of Marvel Comics once again. The storyline had its ups and downs, mostly because Jonathan Hickman left the series, but overall, it was a genuine masterpiece for Marvel.
