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Marvel’s merry mutants have had some of the best time travel stories, but they’ve also had some of the worst. Their best time travel stories are some of the most amazing in comic history, and their worst are legendary stinkers. Here are ten of the most notable X-Men time travel stories, ranked from worst to best, a collection of stories that fans love and hate.
10) “Age of Revelation”
2024 marked the end of the Krakoa Era (which could probably be on this list, because of how important timey-wimey stuff is to it), with a new group of editors taking over. 2025 was the 30-year anniversary of “Age of Apocalypse”, so readers got “Age of Revelation”. This story saw Cyclops and Beast sent to a terrible future ruled by Revelation, the heir of Apocalypse, and fans just didn’t connect it whatsoever. “Age of Revelation” failed in numerous ways, although the aftermath might turn out well, so that’s a plus.
9) “Battle of the Atom”
After the unfairly maligned Avengers vs. X-Men, the original five X-Men were brought to the present, which led to “Battle of the Atom”. This story ran through Wolverine and the X-Men, All-New X-Men, Uncanny X-Men, andX-Men, as well as two bookend issues. It saw a group of the X-Men from the future come back to the present to convince the team to send the O5 back to the past, but the whole thing gets really complicated, really fast. This story had a fine structure and wasn’t all that confusing, but it just never came together. This is what happens when four very different creative teams have to tell a story. It’s not a terrible story, but it’s also not a great one.
8) “Days of Future Present”
“Days of Future Past” is the most important X-time travel story ever, and has had a huge effect on the comic industry. Since the story dropped, its future has become almost canon, with more of the events being fleshed out because of characters like Rachel Summers. In 1990, Marvel decided to put out “Days of Future Present”, which revolved around Franklin Richards, both in the present and the future, as Ahab comes to the present to attack the members of the X-Men, New Mutants, and the Fantastic Four. This story was taking place in the transitional period where writers Chris Claremont and Louise Simonson were being pushed out, and it’s very much an all style, no substance type of story.
7) X-Factor (Vol. 1) #65-68
Apocalypse was first introduced as the big bad of X-Factor (Vol. 1), with the villain and the team clashing numerous times. Their final battle took place in X-Factor (Vol. 1) #65-68, by Chris Claremont, Jim Lee, and Whilce Potracio. A mysterious figure from the future comes to the present just as Apocalypse kidnaps Nathan Summers, leading to Apocalypse’s first (and coolest) death. Nathan is sent to the future, infected by a techno-organic virus by En Sabah Nur, to save his life. This story is very much ’90s cheese, so it’s not exactly great, but the art is good, and it has some awesome moments. It doesn’t really stand up in 2026, but it’s still pretty okay.
6) The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix
The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix, by Scott Lobdell and Gene Ha, was a sequel of sorts to X-Factor (Vol. 1) #65-68. Published in the wake of X-Men (Vol. 2) #30, the wedding of Cyclops and Jean Grey, it followed the two heroes after they are pulled into the future by Mother Askani (their “DoFP” daughter Rachel who came back to become Phoenix II and eventually went into the future) to help raise and protect Nathan Summers, the future Cable, from the forces of Apocalypse. This story is pretty average. Lobdell can be both a great and terrible writer, and this story is basically in the middle of the quality scale. Ha’s art is cool, but he wasn’t as good as he would be in the future. All in all, it’s a story that you’ll enjoy reading, but it’s not all that memorable.
