The X-Men were long the bestselling Marvel team, but the ’00s would see them replaced by the Avengers. The ’10s would begin the long marginalization of the team because Marvel didn’t own their film rights, but all of that changed when Disney bought 20th Century Fox. The team’s blockbuster Krakoa Era premiered in 2019, and lasted until 2024, with the books becoming some of the most beloved comics of recent years. However, an argument can be made, rather successfully mind you, that the X-books started to fall off in 2021, after Head of X Jonathan Hickman left the X-office. The last five years have been quite a time for X-fans, as the quality of the books have yo yo-ed, especially since Krakoa ended.
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However, that doesn’t mean there were no great stories from 2021-2026. While there are definitely some stinkers in the bunch, there are also some rather great X-stories. These are the five best X-Men stories of the last five years, tales that have become favorites of X-fans.
10) Rise of the Powers of X
“Fall of X” was the end of the Krakoa Era, and let’s be real: it was mostly bad. Sure, there were some good books (Immortal X-Men, X-Men Red, Wolverine, Children of the Vault), but most of it was middling at best, and that’s before we get to Fall of the House of X, which was legitimately terrible. However, Rise of the Powers of X, by Kieron Gillen and R.B. Silva, was fantastic. The story felt like a true ending to some of the plots that Hickman set up at the beginning, and Gillen did a great job of salvaging the end of the Krakoa Era. It has the coolest scenes and ideas, as well as killer art from Silva.
9) “The Hellfire Gala”
“The Hellfire Gala” ran through every X-book of 2021, and was a very interesting idea. The 12-part story focused on the biggest party of the year, as the mutants of Krakoa met the rest of the world and hijinks ensued. It ended with the tremendously important Planet-Size X-Men #1, and did an amazing job of building towards the surprise that closed the whole thing out. It doesn’t really have any overarching story between issues, with each part usually just being a cool little look at the books’ various casts and their reactions to the party. It was a rare fun moment in the Krakoa Era and is cooler than it gets credit for.
8) Inferno
Jonathan Hickman’s last major X-story before leaving the team is amazing and doesn’t really get the love it deserves. Inferno, by Hickman, Valerio Schiti, R.B. Silva, and Stefano Caselli, introduced major changes and plot points to the X-books, and was full of the big idea sci-fi and political intrigue and drama that made people love Hickman’s work with the team. An argument can be made that it led to some of the problems that would be become endemic of the worsts parts of “Destiny of X” and “Fall of X”, but taken as its own, it’s an amazing page-turner of a story that will make you wish Hickman got to tell his original story with the X-Men.
7) X-Men (Vol. 5) #18-19
Hickman’s X-Men (Vol. 5) wasn’t always great, but it had some high points. The highest of these came from X-Men (Vol. 5) #18-19, by Hickman and Mahmud Asrar. This story picked up on a plot line established in X-Men (Vol. 5) #7, following Wolverine II, Synch, and Darwin into the Vault, a place where time runs differently and the Children of the Vault, posthumans created to destroy mutants, evolved into ever more dangerous forms. This is Hickman’s sweet spot: great sci-fi with some cool character moments. It’s one of the best Krakoa Era stories, and it need to be praised more than it is.
6) X-Men: The Hellfire Gala (2023) #1
So, the first Hellfire Gala story was great, and the second one, a one-shot meant to set up plot points for the Gerry Duggan-written books of the line, was completely skippable. However, the third one was amazing. X-Men: The Hellfire Gala (2023) #1 was written by Duggan, with art from an army of the best pencilers Marvel had at the time, and was the kick-off to “Fall of X”. This is one of the darkest X-Men stories ever, a violent, shocking book that even people who didn’t like Duggan’s X-Men stories loved. If there’s any problem with this comic, it’s that it set the bar for “Fall of X” much too high, but the book itself will always be a great read in a vacuum.
5) X-Men Red (Vol. 2) #1-7
So, this one is technically two stories, but I’m counting them because they’re amazing. X-Men Red (Vol. 2) is one of the best series in the entire Krakoa Era, an amazing book that focused on Arakko. It followed Storm, Magneto, and Sunspot as they formed a new Brotherhood of Mutants with the Arakkii the Fisher King. Al Ewing and Stefano Caselli’s first four issues saw them trying to cement their power base as Orchis mole in the Krakoan space agency SWORD Abigail Brand tries to take control of the planet and its nascent government, and the last three issues dealt with the war between mutants and the Eternals, as the Arakkii face off against the most dangerous Eternal, Uranos. This is everything you could want from an X-book in seven issues.
4) Immortal X-Men (Vol. 1) #1-3
Immortal X-Men is considered by many fans to be the best ongoing series of the Krakoa Era, and it all kicked off with this amazing three-issue story, by Kieron Gillen and Lucas Werneck. With Magneto out of the Quiet Council, the group meets to recruit a new member, and get pulled into a whole can of worms when they spurn the wrong mutant. Gillen and Werneck were on fire here, kicking off ideas that would play a huge role in the future of the Krakoa Era. At the time this book came out, the flagship book of the X-books was the mediocre Duggan-written X-Men (Vol. 6) and this book was a breath of fresh air compared to that one.
3) A.X.E. Judgment Day
Marvel has put out great events, but the best of them of the last decade is easily A.X.E. Judgment Day, by Kieron Gillen and Valerio Schiti. It built out of Gillen’s Eternals, and told the story of the immortal powerhouses attacking Krakoa because mutants and Deviants were genetically similar (Deviants being the ancient enemies of the Eternals), with the Avengers stepping in to try to end the conflict. Their solution changes the story completely, taking readers a wilder ride than they bargained for. This could have been yet another very bad hero vs hero event book, but Gillen and Schiti don’t go in the directions you expect. The story is awesome from start to finish, and has some of the best tie-ins of any Marvel event of the last 40 years.
2) “Dark Artery”
Uncanny X-Men is the best part of “From the Ashes”, the middling status quo that took over for Krakoa in 2024. Gail Simone and David Marquez, as well as the various fill-in artists, have been doing a brilliant job of using old school team storytelling techniques to give readers some great stories and the best of them is “Dark Artery”. This story digs into the secrets of Haven House, the New Orleans X-Men’s base, dragging in the Outliers, the new mutant students, and the team. This isn’t a common X-story, and that makes it work so well. Gorgeous art, great characterization, and some great moments buoy this amazing ride of a story.
1) “Sins of Sinister”
For years, Marvel has been trying to recapture the success of “Age of Apocalypse”, and has failed basically every time, including with the recent “Age of Revelation”. However, the Krakoa Era saw the X-writers succeed at a great alternate universe story with “Sins of Sinister”, a story built over the run of Immortal X-Men. The story was bookended with Sins of Sinister #1 and Sins of Sinister: Dominion #1, with three three-issue miniseries, Immoral X-Men, Nightcrawlers, and Storm and the Brotherhood of Mutants. The story took readers to a world ruled by Sinister-influenced mutants for a thousand years, and was fantastic. Masterminded by Gillen, Ewing, and Simon Spurrier, it was the best written story of the later Krakoa Era.
What’s your favorite X-story of the last five years? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!
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