The X-Men were the bestselling team of the ’80s and ’90s, and had to share that spot in the ’00s with Spider-Man, the Avengers, and various DC books. Marvel started concentrating creators that in previous decades would have ended up on X-books elsewhere in the line, and in 2008, things would change forever with Iron Man hitting theaters. The House of Ideas started to marginalize the mutants (honestly, this began in ’05 with House of M; Marvel had to have known they were creating a cinematic universe by this point, so it’s certainly related) and that would come to a head in the 2010s.
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There are some great X-Men stories from the ’10s, but it’s not looked at as a good decade for the team and their mutant allies. Far from it, honestly, as it’s gone down as one of the worst decades of the group, if not the worst. These seven mistakes almost ruined the X-Men, all because Marvel didn’t own their film rights.
7) The Cyclops Slander
Cyclops is the X-Man, and had been leading mutants since before House of M. The ’10s saw him becoming more militant than ever, and after Secret Wars‘ end in 2016, readers were shocked to find he was dead. Not only that, but apparently he had died doing something terrible to the Inhumans. He was heavily slandered all across the line and we wouldn’t find out why until Death of X. We learned that Cyclops died of M-Pox caused by the Terrigen Mist clouds and Emma Frost used a psychic construct of him to destroy one of these mutant death clouds. It was ridiculous; the clouds were a danger to mutants and he was protecting his people. Fans hated it back then and they still do now.
6) Printing X-Men Gold #1 with Anti-Semitic Artwork
The Inhumans push ended in 2017 and the X-Men got a relaunch that was mostly bad. However, the worst part of it wasn’t how bad the books were (and most of them were), it was racist art. X-Men Gold #1 was drawn by Ardian Sayif, and he put anti-Semitic messages in the comic. They weren’t even all that well-hidden. Editors missed them completely and published the issue, and fans would notice immediately. Sayif got fired, but the damage was already done. It wasn’t the first or last time this sort of thing would happen, but the fact that it happened in an X-Men book will always make it that little bit worse.
5) Astonishing X-Men (Vol. 4) #1-12
Astonishing X-Men was a beloved X-Men title through its first three volumes. However, 2017 would give us Astonishing X-Men (Vol. 4) #1-12, and it is one of the worst X-Men series ever. It was written by Charles Soule, with each issue drawn by a different A-list artist. The book looked great most of the time, but the writing was so bad. It resurrected Xavier, but other than that nothing good came from it. It sullied the name of a classic. While the book’s last story arc after Soule left was good, the damage had been done to the legacy of a book that fans used to get excited for.
4) “Age of X-Man”
2019 was the year that the X-Men finally got back on track, but that was just the end of the year. In late 2018, Uncanny X-Men was relaunched with “X-Men Disassembled”, a mediocre story that led to an even worse story: “Age of X-Man”. This story was Marvel going back to the “Age of Apocalypse” wel, except this time X-Man created a new universe for the mutant race. There were no A-list creators involved with the various books and nothing memorable happened. It was a disaster, a place holder for House of X and Powers of X, and fans have done their best to memory hole it.
3) Death of Wolverine
Return of Wolverine was atrocious, but killing Wolverine in general was a massive mistake. Marvel in the mid ’10s was replacing all of its A-listers, so on the one hand, doing that with Logan showed that he was one of the big names. However, it happened on the eve of the Inhumans push in 2014, and Death of Wolverine, by Charles Soule and Steve McNiven, feels like yet another way to hurt the X-Men. As much as X-Men fans like to pretend otherwise, Wolverine is the main reason the team is as popular as they are. Doing away with him was a way to take eyes away from the team.
2) Bringing the Original Five X-Men to the Present
Cyclops became the Dark Phoenix at the end of Avengers vs. X-Men after years of becoming more militant. Brian Michael Bendis was given control of the X-books after that story and in All-New X-Men #1 had Beast go back in time and bring the original five X-Men to the present to use them to try to convince ‘Clops to come back to being a hero. Then the O5 decided to stay in the present and it went from an okay idea to a bad one. Then it kept going on and became terrible. The O5 were around for five years, with their only good story being Extermination, when they went home.
1) The Inhumans Push
The Inhumans push began in 2013 with Inhumanity, which spun out of Infinity and New Avengers (Vol. 3). However, it didn’t really catch on and after Secret Wars in 2016, the next phase began. It was revealed that the Terrigen Mist clouds, released in 2013, were deadly to mutants. The X-Men were pushed into their own corner of the Marvel Universe, while the Inhumans took all of the stories that mutants usually got. Charles Soule was the main writer of the Inhumans and he just couldn’t tell a compelling story with the characters. Marvel released a bunch of Inhumans books that no one wanted, and fans hated the whole thing. It ended with the terrible Inhumans vs. X-Men, a story that managed to make the potential victims of genocide because of the Inhumans look like the villains. The Inhumans push was a massive mistake, and it led to a dark time in X-history.
What were the worst parts of ’10s X-Men? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!
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