The X-Men live and die by the rosters of the team. Now, obviously this can be literally true of every superhero team — a team with weak, untested members is going to get taken down hard. However, with the X-Men, it’s all about the character dynamics. The X-Men got better as the characters got better, and most importantly, the X-Men became more popular. The X-Men have had some amazing rosters over the years, groups that combined the most powerful, skilled, and, most importantly, interesting mutants in Marvel history.
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The X-Men have been around for over 60 years now, and have fielded some of the best teams in comic history. Not only have they been able to defeat godlike enemies, and powerful adaptive technological weapons made by enemies who have studied mutants in general and the X-Men personally in particular, but they’ve also sold more comics than nearly every other team out there. These ten rosters are the best groups of X-Men of all time, giving readers some amazing groups of heroes.
10) Warren Ellis’s Astonishing Team
A lot of people love the Whedon/Cassaday team, but I’ve always found this group to be extremely overrated. It’s basically a classic Claremont team with Emma and the Beast and I’m kind of over it. However, things got better in Astonishing X-Men once Warren Ellis took over the book. Colossus was gone, replaced by Armor, and Storm came in to take Kitty Pryde’s place. It’s a near perfect X-Men team — has two of the X-Men’s best leaders, the team’s best fighter, the smartest member who can act as acrobatic muscle, a nearly indestructible member, the third best telepath (who can also be near indestructible when she need to be), and the powerhouse. It’s a smart team full of members who will do what needs to get done. Just look at their mission against bio-Setinels in the beginning of “Exogenetic;” the team was able to operate as a potent fighting force and rescue team. On top of that, the combination of personalities was extremely entertaining. It’s one of the coolest X-Men teams ever, and it doesn’t get nearly enough credit.
9) Wolverine and the X-Men Team
Wolverine first became a team leader with X-Force, and would eventually start his own mutant school, where he assembled a team of powerful mutants to teach the next generation of mutant students. Wolverine brought together Kitty Pryde, Iceman, Beast, Rachel Grey (I think she was Marvel Girl back then and not Prestige yet), Husk, Doop, Lockheed, and students Quentin Quire, Oya, Warbird, Broo, Kid Gladiator, along with multiple members of the fan-favorite New X-Men team (the training team from the House of M era). The team had power and experience, as well as members that played well off each other. Wolverine and the X-Men was one of the most entertaining books of the Schism era, and that was all because of the mix of personalities on the team. It wasn’t the most powerful team, but they were skilled enough to win the day against powerful foes.
8) Rogue’s Rapid Response Team
Rogue is one of the X-Men’s most underrated leaders, first becoming an X-Men leader in the year 2000, when Chris Claremont came back for a run that most people dislike but I love (his Uncanny team of this time period — Gambit, Phoenix, Storm, Beast, and Cable — almost made this list because that’s a super cool little team). After House of M, Cyclops charged Rogue with putting together a small team that could quickly destroy any threat to the mutant race. Rogue put together Mystique, Sabretooth, Iceman, Cannonball, Cable, Lady Mastermind, and Omega Sentinel. Now, obviously, this team was powerful and skilled, but it had several very disruptive elements. Rogue made some bad choices for the team — Mystique AND Sabretooth (both known for betraying the X-Men) was a choice — but that’s one of the things that made this team so exciting to read about. You never knew when they were going to explode, and when they finally did, it was kind of awesome. This team is more entertaining than powerful, but that’s just how the X-Men roll sometimes.
7) Giant-Size Team
Giant-Size X-Men #1 made the X-Men popular again, and a big reason for that was how awesome the roster was. Cyclops, Storm, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Banshee, Sunfire, and Thunderbird was an excellent group. The team was a good mixture of experience and power, and would prove to be massively entertaining. Thunderbird’s death shook the team to its core, and Banshee and Sunfire would eventually leave as well, but it honestly worked for the team, as the remainder were great enough to enthrall fans. The Cyclops/Wolverine/Storm/Colossus/Nightcrawler mix was money, as they got to know each other and squabbled constantly, all while becoming a more efficient, cohesive unit. This team wasn’t together for long — it a was a total of seven issues (Giant-Size X-Men #1 and X-Men #94-100 before Jean Grey joined the team and changed the dynamic as the Phoenix) — but it made a huge impression on the fandom.
6) Extinction Team
After Wolverine took half the reduced mutant race back to Westchester, Cyclops got serious about protecting Utopia and the remains of his people. He put together an absurdly powerful team of X-Men known as the Extinction Team — Cyclops, Magneto, Emma Frost, Storm, Magik, Hope Summers, Danger, Namor, and the Juggernaut-ified Colossus. This team was just insane. There was pretty much nothing they couldn’t handle, and they could trounce basically anyone that was thrown at them. They have a little bit of everything — world-shaking power from Magneto and Storm, Magik for transport and, well, magic, insane muscle from Namor and Juggerlossus, Danger for the brainy/technicaly stuff, Emma for telepathy, a redundancy player who can use any of their powers Hope Summers, and Cyclops in the lead. That’s an Avengers-level team right there, and they worked beautifully together. Powerful and efficient, this was an amazing roster.
5) Outback Era Team
The Outback Era injected some life into the X-Men as Chris Claremont’s first run ran down and it was the best of the best. Led by Storm, it had Wolverine as second-in-command, Colossus, Rogue, Psylocke, Dazzler, Longshot, Havok, Polaris, and Gateway, with Madelyne Pryor hanging out with them for a time and Jubilee showing up. This is a very balance team — powerful but not ridiculously so and extremely skilled. It was also just a very entertaining group in general. The Outback Era gave readers some brilliant stories, and had an amazing dynamic as a team. They were a seasoned team that could tackle very powerful threats through a combination of power and skill, and were so much fun to read about. The Outback Era is way better in general than most younger fans realize, and this team gave readers the last truly great segment of Claremont’s run on Uncanny X-Men.
4) Storm’s First Team
The years after “The Dark Phoenix Saga” tried the X-Men, having lost one of the team’s most important members. Storm, without her powers, challenged Cyclops for leadership of the team and was able to beat him. She took over the X-Men, with a roster consisting of Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Rogue, Phoenix II, and Kitty Pryde, with Magneto sometimes helping out when he wasn’t helping train the New Mutants. Storm’s first team is another group that does a great job of combining powerful members with camaraderie, allowing the group to punch way above its weight class. This team showed that Storm was an amazing X-Men leader, and also the growth of the X-Men as the ’80s went on. This is an excellent team in battle and to read about.
3) X-Men Blue Team
For an entire generation of fans, the X-Men’s Blue Team are the team that got them into the X-Men (my generation, by the by). The ’90s were a complicated time for comics, but in 1991, fans were ecstatic about this new roster of the X-Men. By the end of Claremont’s 17-year run, there was a huge group of X-Men at the X-Mansion after X-Factor and the Outback Team came back. The X-Men were split into two teams, the Blue and the Gold. The Gold was cool, but they didn’t have anything on the Blue Team — Cyclops, Wolverine, Beast, Rogue, Psylocke, Gambit, and Jubilee. This is actually, comparatively, the weaker of the two teams (the Gold Team has Storm, Jean Grey, Iceman, Colossus, Archangel, Forge, and Bishop), but it was easily the more entertaining group, with all of the most popular X-Men together in one place. What they lacked in world-shaking power, they made up for with skill. This team has been working together for years, and, despite the ribbing they often gave each other, were able to work together perfectly. It also helped that Jim Lee drew this group, giving readers the coolest team with the best art.
2) Morrison’s New X-Men
Grant Morrison’s New X-Men is an amazing X-Men run, and a big reason for that is the team itself. New X-Men is the perfect example of a team that is both extremely powerful and skilled, but also just so much fun to read as a group. The roster included Cyclops, Professor X, Jean Grey, Wolverine, Beast, Emma Frost, Xorn, Beak, Angel Salvadore, and Fantomex (you could also include the Stepford Cuckoos if you want). This team was the epitome of what an X-Men team could be. There was power, there was drama, there were cool young mutants, there was a hidden enemy ready to destroy them all. Morrison was able to use Claremont-style soap opera shenanigans to make this team shine in every story they were in. This is honestly the greatest X-Men roster of the 21st century, and would be the best roster if not for one legendary X-Men team that also had someone with the Phoenix Force on the roster.
1) The Phoenix Era Team
Phoenix joined the X-Men in X-Men #101, and this created the best X-Men team of all time. Cyclops, Phoenix, Wolverine, Colossus, Storm, Nightcrawler, Professor X, and later Kitty Pryde, with Banshee and some other classic X-Men showing up, made the X-Men into the Marvel superhero team of the 1980s, and their saga came to a head in Marvel best story “The Dark Phoenix Saga”. It’s really hard to argue with this team as the best X-Men team. The team had started to gel better, and they gained the greatest powerhouse in the history of the X-Men to help them out in their battles. It really doesn’t get any better than this (and it definitely helps that it’s Claremont, Cockrum, and Byrne on the book), and this team is one of the most iconic teams in comic history.
What’s your favorite X-Men roster? Sound off in the comments below.
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