The X-Men are coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and there are some great stories from the comic books that could help influence the team in the future. The X-Men were created in 1963 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby as a team of superheroes who were born with their powers, making them different from other heroes around them. Over the years, several creative teams used this fact to make them an allegory for racial tensions in America as well as a stand-in for the civil rights movement and the entire idea that people will hate someone for how they were born, with Chris Claremont on the front lines of those attempts.
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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.
5) The Mutant Massacre
Years before Cassandra Nova killed millions of mutants on Genosha, the worst slaughter of mutants happened in the terrifyingly titled “Mutant Massacre.” In this case, it was Mister Sinister sending his Marauders to kill the mostly peaceful living Morlocks, mutants who lived underground because their appearance wouldn’t allow them to live in public.
This played out in the pages of X-Men and X-Factor and saw almost the entire Morlock population decimated. This was also the event that saw later repercussions, such as the amputation of Angel’s wings, Colossus briefly paralyzed, Nightcrawler comatose, and an event that proved how dangerous it was to be born a mutant in the Marvel Universe.
4) Dark Phoenix Saga
The first great storyline for the X-Men remains one of its most well-known and beloved to this day. The Dark Phoenix Saga began when the Hellfire Club abducted Jean Grey and used their powers of illusion to drive her over the edge. This unlocked the dormant Dark Phoenix in her, and she flew to a far star and destroyed it, killing millions on a nearby planet.
The Shi’ar then arrived and put her on trial for the genocide, and the X-Men arrived to protect her. Jean Grey has died more times than almost anyone in Marvel Comics, but when she sacrificed herself to end this story, it was her first time and a shocking moment. This X-Men storyline changed everything about the Marvel Universe.
3) Days of Future Past
No one in the Marvel Universe has more alternate multiverse storylines than the X-Men. It all started with Days of Future Past, and this set the template that Marvel has followed for decades since it was published. It seems almost shocking that this was only a two-issue storyline because of how much it changed about the X-Men’s world.
The story took place on an alternate Earth where the government commissioned Sentinels to control the mutant population, but they went rogue, killed most superheroes, mutant or not, and took over the United States. The survivors sent Kitty back in time to try to stop the inciting incident that caused this apocalyptic future. This has been the main basic plotline for most X-Men multiverse stories since, but only one has eclipsed Days of Future Past.
2) Age of Apocalypse
The best X-Men storyline to ever deal with a multiversal alternate future was Age of Apocalypse, and nothing has ever come close. This alternate storyline began when Legion decided to use time travel to kill all the enemies of his father, Charles Xavier. However, when he went back to kill a younger Magneto, Charles saved his friend and died instead. This caused Legion to cease to exist in this timeline, and then everything changed.
With no Professor X, Apocalypse was able to conquer the planet, and the surviving mutant heroes had to band together to fight in a terrible apocalyptic future. This storyline was at times terrifying and horrific, and it also helped introduce ideas that the main X-Men comics only hinted at. While Days of Future Past introduced these ideas of alternate futures, it was Age of Apocalypse that mastered them.
1) God Loves, Man Kills
The best X-Men story of all time isn’t a story of an alternate timeline and the X-Men trying to save their world. It isn’t the story of a giant massacre or a battle with evil mutant forces. The best X-Men storyline ever created was “God Loves, Man Kills,” which was told in Marvel Graphic Novel #5. This is the storyline that introduced William Stryker, a preacher who had built a rising force protesting the existence of mutants.
Chris Claremont and Brent Anderson went a long way in introducing the idea of humans who hated mutants simply because they were different, and how one man claiming to represent God could turn an entire group of people against another. This was a horrific story, with Stryker and his group of Purifiers as completely evil beings, but believing they are fighting for a righteous cause, making them the most dangerous X-Men villains of them all.
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