The X-Men are an integral part of Marvel history. While the early years of the team couldn’t reach the heights of their Silver Age Marvel compatriots, 1974’s Giant-Size X-Men #1 would put them on the road to super stardom, a path they’re still on today. The X-Men have stayed on top for decades, and there are numerous reasons for that. Writers like Chris Claremont, Grant Morrison, Jonathan Hickman, and many more have given the team some amazing tales, but if we’re being real, art has always been a massively important part of what makes the X-Men so great. Artistically, the X-Men have always been a cut above everyone else, especially their covers.
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Covers are one of the most important aspects of a comic. It’s your first exposure to the story, and a great cover can convince anyone to buy a book. Over the years, the X-Men have had some amazing covers, ones that have gone down in history as some of the best ever. These seven X-Men covers made Marvel history, and are still the best of the best.
7) Uncanny X-Men #251
Wolverine is a Marvel great, and has been the focus of some of the best X-Men covers, but few of them are as iconic as Uncanny X-Men #251, from Marc Silvestri and Dan Green. The cover saw Wolverine crucified on an X in the rain. It’s the kind of cover that jumped off the stands at readers, selling the team’s bruiser in the worst circumstances imaginable. The issue itself is pretty great, but that cover is on another level, and we got to see a recreation of it in live action in Deadpool/Wolverine.
6) Uncanny X-Men #201
Uncanny X-Men #201 gave readers sone of the greatest fights in the team’s history, as Cyclops and Storm faced off for leadership of the group. The team was in the midst of a turning point at that time, as Xavier had left the Earth and put Magneto in charge of the Xavier Institute, and Storm wanted her chance on top. In order to hype that up, we got this amazing cover from Rick Leonardi and Whilce Potracio. This is the kind of cover that grabs you and makes you need to see what’s going on inside of the issue. It’s gorgeous, and has etched its place into Marvel history.
5) New X-Men #114
Grant Morrison’s New X-Men is monumental and the cover to New X-Men #114, from Frank Quitely and Tim Townsend, sold that. It featured the new roster — Beast, Jean Grey, Wolverine, Professor X, Cyclops, and Emma Frost — in their new costumes, in front of an orange and yellow starburst. their faces shadowed. There’s just something about this image that really grabs your attention; it has that cool walking away from an explosion vibe, and you can’t take you eyes off it. This is the cover that everyone thinks of when they think of Morrison’s time at Marvel, despite it being the 12th comic of their Marvel run. It’s gorgeous, and has been homaged several times, showing just how important of a cover it really is.
4) X-Men (Vol. 2) #1
X-Men (Vol. 2) #1 is the best-selling comic in the history of the industry, and made the ’90s the decade of the X-Men. Marvel went all out for the book, getting Jim Lee and Scott Williams to draw a huge image of the X-Men attacking Magneto. The resulting massive cover was then divided up on multiple covers, with all of them combined for an edition with a gatefold cover featuring the entire image. It’s an amazing cover that every X-fan can picture perfectly on command, and Image and DC Comics have both used its structure for their own characters. It made variant covers into a thing, for better and for worse.
3) Uncanny X-Men #135
“The Dark Phoenix Saga” is legendary, and there are numerous best of all time covers from the story. Two of them are going to be on this list (although, frankly, I could put all of them on the list and no one would complain because they’re that good), with the first being Uncanny X-Men #135, from John Byrne and Terry Austin. The cover saw Dark Phoenix standing above the fallen X-Men while reaching up and crushing the Uncanny X-Men logo. It’s an amazing visual unlike anything readers had seen before. It shows how large and powerful that Dark Phoenix is, and the crushing of the logo was such a unique visual element. This cover broke the mold in a lot of ways, and is still one of the coolest things you’ll ever see.
2) Uncanny X-Men #141
Yes, Byrne and Austin are going to get the top three spots of this list, because of course they are. They are one of the greatest art teams in the history of the comic medium and they gave readers some of the best covers ever while working on numerous Marvel books. Another of the their most memorable comes from Uncanny X-Men #141, the first chapter of “Days of Future Past”. It’s perfect. The older Wolverine and Kate Pryde, one grizzled and angry and one panicking, in front of the wanted poster with a spotlight on them is amazing, telling a story in one immaculately rendered image. It was the perfect way to get fans interested in this new story, enticing them into picking it up to see what it was all about. It’s amazing, has been copied a million times, and is an indisputable part of comic history.
1) Uncanny X-Men #136
Uncanny X-Men #137’s cover is iconic, the last stand of Jean Grey and Cyclops, a heartbreaker of an image. However, as great as it is, I still got to say that Uncanny X-Men #136 is better. Yet another Byrne/Austin masterpiece, it shows Cyclops holding a stricken Dark Phoenix, with the X-Men and her parents behind them looking on in shock. It’s based on the Pieta and part of the Sistine Chapel ceiling from Michaelangelo, which have been homaged on numerous comic covers. This is one of those covers that has joined the pantheon of the greats, and is a true work of art that begs you to see why everyone was so sad.
What are your favorite X-Men covers? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!
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