7 Best X-Men Events, Ranked by Importance

The X-Men are one of Marvel’s flagship franchises. The heroic mutants have longsince charged ahead to protect the world from all kinds of threats, and they show absolutely no signs of stopping anytime soon. Given their insane popularity and unmatched roster of dozens of beloved characters, it’s no surprise that the various X-teams have headlined numerous giant events and storylines. The X-Men have always been bastions of character drama, genocidal threats, and terrible oncoming futures like nobody else, and their best events stand as some of the greatest stories Marvel has ever told. Today, we’re giving the X-Men their due by looking at seven of their best events and ranking them by their importance.

Before we dive into it, let’s take a moment to define what we mean by importance. We’re going to tackle these stories from two angles: their impact on the X-Men brand, and their impact on the X-Men’s mythos. Some stories left a major mark on the X-Men, forcing them down a new road that completely changed their status quo for years to come, or became so important to future stories that removing them would make the entire timeline fall apart. Others were so incredible or popular that they permanently changed how audiences look at the X-Men and lifted them to a whole new level, which set the stage for future events. Both are equally important, but with all that said, let’s rank some X-events.

7) Fatal Attractions

This was the big X-Men event of the early 1990s, and set the stage for major upheavals to the team. The United Nations activated the Magneto Protocols, which were satellites that would prevent the villain from using his powers. In response, Magneto unleashed an EMP that shut down electronics across the world, throwing it into chaos. It ended when Charles Xavier, spiritually broken by Magneto ripping the adamantium out of Wolverine, shut down Magneto’s brain. Not only did this event change everything for the X-Men, but it also gave us some of the most iconic moments in their career.

The X-Men were shattered after this, with Wolverine and Colossus leaving the team, Magneto disappeared for years, and set up the arrival of Onslaught. This storyline was also called “The Death of a Dream,” which referenced how even Professor X lost his faith in total world peace due to Magneto. Beyond that, the feats of shutting down the world and ripping out Wolverine’s adamantium are still some of the most iconic moments the X-Men have ever had, and this story gave us all of that and more.

6) House of X / Powers of X

The 2010s were a bad time for the X-Men. They spent most of the decade floundering, constantly on the back foot as they lost more and more of their identity and fought amongst each other. They constantly regrouped, only to fight each other and fall apart, all while they became more radicalized in the strangest ways. In no small part due to movie synergy, the X-Men were pushed to the back burner to prop up the Inhumans. The team that once stood as Marvel’s biggest cashcow not named Spider-Man was a sad shadow of its former self. They desperately needed a new direction, or at least a central thread to connect them and put them back on the right track. The start of the Krakoan Age was exactly that.

House of X and Powers of X were the exact kind of reinvention that the X-Men needed. It united all the disparate mutant clans, friends and foes alike, under a single idea: a mutant nation. There had been attempts at mutant nations before, but Krakoa was different. Nearly every mutant alive put their heart, soul, and deaths into Krakoa’s founding, creating a veritable utopia, although dark shadows moved within. It introduced one of the smartest retcons of all time, and operated at an impossible-to-imagine scale. Even though the Krakoan Age fizzled out, its impact will be sure to define the X-Men for years to come. It all started here, with one of the best opening events of all, reviving a nearly dead franchise like a phoenix from the ashes.

5) The Messiah Trilogy

Composed of Messiah Complex, Messiah War, and Second Coming, the Messiah Trilogy tells the origin of Hope Summers, the Mutant Messiah. In the conclusion to House of M, the Scarlet Witch was driven insane and used her reality-warping powers to wipe mutants away. Her words left only 198 powered mutants remaining. With the species closer to extinction than ever, the first mutant born post M-Day was a target for everyone and anyone. Messiah Complex was a worldwide brawl to control Hope, Messiah War was Cable trying to raise his new daughter in a dark future, and Second Coming was about Hope’s return to the present to save the world.

These three storylines not only serve as one of the greatest and most underrated X-Men arcs of all time, but also establish what the future looked like. Hope became one of the most important X-Men of all time, even when she wasn’t given the spotlight. She undid the effects of M-Day and was essential to both the Resurrection Protocols on Krakoa and restoring the Phoenix during the fall of Krakoa. Hope ushered in a new era for the X-Men, and it all began with her light flicking on.

4) Inferno

Christ Claremont’s run on Uncanny X-Men (1963) and the various spinoff titles were nothing short of foundational. While he worked on X-Men for years before and still did for a few more years after, Inferno can be said to be his final magnum opus. The story ignited when Madelyne Pryor made a deal with the demon N’astirh to recover her son from Mister Sinister. N’astirh and fellow demon S’ym used Pryor and Magik to tear open a portal to Earth from Limbo and invade New York with a demon army, using an army of mutant children to keep the portal open. In the midst of the chaos, Mister Sinister and his marauders launched a final assault on the X-Men.

This massive event connected all five ongoing X-titles, serving as the final payoff to years of buildup and plot threads. Madelyne Pryor transformed into the Goblin Queen, and her origin as Jean Grey’s clone was revealed. Magik fully surrendered to her demonic side and became Darkchylde. Mister Sinister destroyed Xavier’s School, and Cyclops learned how the monster had manipulated his entire life. This story’s fallout is still felt today, with every character change it introduced still relevant and essential. It was Claremont’s final big event, and undoubtedly one of his greatest.

3) “Mutant Massacre”

Nowadays, the X-Men are overly used to genocides and mountains of death, but that didn’t always used to be the case. The X-Men comics used to be far lighter and more optimistic, or at least featured a whole lot fewer corpses. “Mutant Massacre” is the storyline that changed all of that, pushing the X-titles farther than they’d ever been before, and crossing lines that paved the way for other horrific mutilations like “E Is For Extinction.” This story saw the Maurauders murder hundreds of the Morlocks, a colony of mutants who lived underground. They were systemically genocided, and while the X-Men, X-Factor, and Thor managed to save some, the death toll was countless.

Major plot points and changes spun out of this event. Colossus, Nightcrawler, and Kitty Pryde were so injured that they had to leave the X-Men, and the latter two would not return for a decade. Angel lost his wings, leading him to join Apocalypse as his herald. Psylocke was welcomed into the X-Men, while Gambit was banished from them. Nothing was the same after this event. Not just in the teams, but in the stories that followed. This story was darker than any the X-Men had ever had before, and from here on out, massacres and genocides were on the table. This was the death of the last of the X-Men’s innocence, and they would never truly get it back.

2) Age of Apocalypse

Love him or hate him, Professor Xavier is the single most important mutant alive. That was proven in every way when his insane son, Legion, traveled back in time and accidentally murdered him. In this new timeline, Apocalypse attacked a decade earlier, and without Charles’s X-Men to stop him, he took over North America and instituted his monstrous rule. This new timeline introduced a whole different look for all our favorite characters, along with introducing new mainstays, like Nate Grey, X-Man. 

To this day, Age of Apocalypse remains the biggest X-Men event. It took over the entire Marvel line, replacing all eight ongoing X-titles to explore this massive, sprawling world. While the timeline was eventually corrected, the impact this event had on the X-Men brand can still be felt today. It was the biggest swing the X-books had ever taken, and they knocked it out of the park in every regard. Every event since has been chasing the high of Age of Apocalypse, and you can see the way they attempt to recreate some of the magic that made it successful. It was the ultimate encapsulation of ‘90s Marvel, and showed that even without Claremont at the head, the X-Men could still shake up the comic book world.

1) “The Dark Phoenix Saga”

This is the X-Men story. “The Dark Phoenix Saga” was the culmination of years of setup and development, all leading to Jean Grey’s loss of control to her immeasurable powers. She finally gave in to the darkness and strength she’d been suppressing, and touted herself as a goddess. In her hunger and zest for power, Dark Phoenix absorbed the star of a distant solar system, killing all five billion inhabitants of D’bari IV. Cyclops and Professor X helped Jean regain control, only for the Shi’ar Empire to arrive and demand that the Phoenix be destroyed. In the end, Jean sacrificed herself to ensure the Dark Phoenix would never return.

Without “The Dark Phoenix Saga,” the X-Men as we know them would not exist. Countless crucial developments occurred here, from the introduction of the Shi’ar Empire to Jean Grey’s death and the birth of the Dark Phoenix. What’s even more important is that this story elevated the X-Men from a respected team to the beloved juggernaut that they became. This story put them on the map and showed everyone that if you weren’t reading X-Men, you were missing out. This storyline is easily the most responsible for turning the X-Men into the comic book powerhouse they are today, setting the stage for every event that followed. This is one of the most important X-Men stories of all time, period.

Which X-Men event is your favorite? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!

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