10 Best X-Men Stories of all Time

The X-Men spent decades at the top of the comic industry. Starting in the late 1970s, the team found it its place, with the former teen team replaced by a team of international adults in a soap opera that just so happened to include sci-fi, fantasy, superhero action, romance, tragedy, friendship, and the weirdest sexual politics imaginable with a powerful civil rights message at its heart. The X-Men were untouchable from the 1980s to the 2000s, putting out books that would sell millions of copies and lure the best creators in the history of comics to create unforgettable stories.

And, indeed, the X-Men have starred in some amazing stories. There are few teams in the Marvel Universe that have the breadth of stories that the X-Men do, the neverending soap opera of Marvel’s merry mutants going in more directions than most fans can imagine. These ten stories are the best of the X-Men’s oeuvre, comics that have changed the landscape of superhero medium forever, shaping our perceptions of the characters now and for years to come.

“Ghost Box”

A lot of people like to point to Joss Whedon and John Cassaday’s run as the pinnacle of Astonishing X-Men, but disgraced writer Warren Ellis’s run — it’s weird that Astonishing X-Men had two controversial writers in a row — is actually better, and his first story “Ghost Box” is the perfect example why. Ellis and artist Simone Bianchi bring Storm into the X-Men during an investigation into a mutant’s death. It leads them to a spaceship graveyard, with clues that this mystery may lead into the multiverse. “Ghost Box” is insane X-Men sci-fi, and the art is gorgeous. This is a perfect X-Men story in every way — awesome action, brilliant character work, and out there concepts.

“The Rise and Fall of the Shi’Ar Empire”

There are some awesome X-Men/Shi’Ar stories out there, but the best one in the modern era is “The Rise and Fall of the Shi’Ar Empire”, by Ed Brubaker, Billy Tan, and Michael Clayton. This story saw a team of X-Men — Havok, Polaris, Nightcrawler, Warpath, Xavier, and Marvel Girl (Rachel Summers) — go into space to chase down Vulcan, the third Summers brother who is heading towards the Shi’Ar Empire with revenge on his mind. What follows is an intergalactic adventure full of action and adventure, one that ends very differently than readers would expect. This story is an all-around epic, taking the lessons of the earlier Shi’Ar stories and shifting everything to the next level. “The Rise and Fall of the Shi’Ar Empire” doesn’t get the credit it deserves, but it belongs among the best X-Men stories ever.

“Avengers/X-Men: Utopia”

Marvel’s “Dark Reign” has some excellent stories, but the best book of that era is a crossover between the X-Men and the Dark Avengers. “Avengers/X-Men: Utopia” ran through Dark Avengers and Uncanny X-Men, kicking off with a one-shot, by Matt Fraction, Marc Silvestri, Luke Ross, and Terry Dodson. There were also tie-in issues in X-Men, as well as Dark X-Men: The Beginning and Dark X-Men: The Confession. The story revolves around an anti-mutant protest getting out of hand and the Dark Avengers heading in to town to clash with the X-Men. They’ve brought their own team of Dark X-Men, and Cyclops is left with a difficult choice — fight a war with the federal government’s superheroes or surrender. It’s a pulse-pounding story, from an era of X-Men comics that don’t get the kind of attention that they deserve.

X-Men (Vol. 2) #1-3

Writer Chris Claremont is the greatest writer in the history of the X-Men and this entire list could easily just be Claremont stories. As it is, there are only going to be three, and this is the first. X-Men (Vol. 2) #1-3, by Claremont and Jim Lee, is the last story of Claremont’s seventeen-year-long run. It pit the new X-Men Blue Team — Cyclops, Wolverine, Beast, Rogue, Psylocke, and Gambit — against Magneto and his Acolytes. This story serves as a primer on Claremont’s years of work on Magneto as a character, and is one of the best Magneto stories of all-time. On top of that, this three issue story represents the best art of Jim Lee’s time on X-Men. Lee is a top rank X-Men penciler, and every page looks it. This story is killer, and one of the best reboots of all time.

Inferno

“Inferno” is the name of two classic X-Men stories, one from the 1980s and one from the 2020s. As good as the 1980s story is, it’s the 2020’s Inferno, a four issue miniseries from Jonathan Hickman, Valerio Schiti, R.B. Silva, and Stefano Caselli, comes from the X-Men’s brilliant Krakoa Era and is one of the highlights of that storied period that makes this list. It’s a bit complicated — Krakoan politics get a shake-up when Mystique resurrects her wife Destiny, and secrets are revealed that will lead to Xavier and Magneto’s greatest battle. Jonathan Hickman’s time on the X-Men is something of a disappointment; it was ended before its time and never got to hit the levels it could have. There are still some excellent stories, however, and Inferno is one of them. It’s Hickman at his finest, mixing sci-fi, political intrigue, and hardcore superhero action. Add in the killer art, and this one is a must-read.

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House of X/Powers of X

The Krakoa Era kicked off with one of the greatest X-Men stories of all time. House of X/Powers of X, two six issue miniseries by Jonathan Hickman, Pepe Larraz, and R.B. Silva, changed the X-Men for five years. When mutants start a new nation on the mutant island of Krakoa, it awakens the most powerful anti-mutant agency, one out to destroy everything the mutants are trying to create. However, one X-Men ally’s secret power has given the X-Men the information they need to perhaps save mutants forever. All the while, readers get a glimpse of the past and future of the mutant race, supplementing the main story and showing the stakes of the X-Men’s actions. Hickman’s shocking X-Men classic tore the Internet down in 2019 and remains one of the most revolutionary X-Men stories ever. It’s a tour de force, one that is uniquely an X-Men story. House of X/Powers of X is straight up brilliant.

“Here Comes Tomorrow”

Grant Morrison’s run on New X-Men is considered the second best X-Men run of all time, after Claremont’s first run. Not everyone loves it, sometimes for valid reasons and other times for reasons not so valid, but it’s hard to deny that Morrison’s run was special. Morrison was able to take the plots of X-Men stories past and made them new. Morrison gave their own pastiche on the dark X-Men future with the story “Here Comes Tomorrow”, joined by classic X-Men artist Marc Silvestri. “Here Comes Tomorrow” takes place on an Earth ravaged by the Beast of the Apocalypse, with the last few X-Men fighting against him. The return of the Phoenix is a sign of either hope or doom, as every one races to get their hands on it. This is vintage Morrison, a gonzo masterpiece of superhero action and high concept insanity, topped off with Silvestri’s beautiful art. An argument can even be made that this is the best alternate future X-Men story, which speaks very well for its pedigree.

“E is for Extinction”

Morrison’s New X-Men run kicked off with a bang. “E is for Extinction” hit the X-Men with a one-two punch — an attack by Cassandra Nova, a mysterious woman with a grudge against Xavier, and the revelation that humans would be extinct in four generations. Morrison and longtime artistic collaborator Frank Quitely took X-Men fans on a journey, throwing wild Sentinels, a rogue Master Mold, genocide on a massive scale, and the most one-sided battle in X-Men history at them. “E is for Extinction” is X-Men storytelling at its finest, with the team at their soap opera best with the kind of ideas that could only come from someone like Grant Morrison. Quitely’s art isn’t for everyone, but it definitely works for this out of left field story. “E is for Extinction” is revolutionary, and exactly what the X-Men should be.

God Loves, Man Kills

Claremont’s first seventeen years writing the X-Men did a lot with the concept, especially finding new ways to use the X-Men’s central metaphors of racism and equality. God Loves, Man Kills, a graphic novel by Claremont and Brent Anderson, is the X-Men as social commentary. When Reverend Stryker and his Purifiers begin to kill young mutants, the X-Men and Magneto team with each other to go after the bigots. God Loves, Man Kills takes a look into the hypocrisy of organized religion and its role in bigotry. It’s a deep and heavy story, one that could only come from the X-Men. It’s Claremont and the X-Men at their best, a powerful story that remains shockingly prescient 43 years after it was published.

“The Dark Phoenix Saga”

“The Dark Phoenix Saga” is a legendary story. This is the classic of Chris Claremont’s first run, working with artist John Byrne to tell a Greek tragedy starring superheroes. “The Dark Phoenix Saga” is peak Marvel; it’s a story that takes years of continuity and characters and uses them to inform a story that changed the X-Men forever. By now, everyone knows the basics of “The Dark Phoenix Saga”, but there are a lot of people who really need to read it again. Like everyone. Everyone needs to read it again. Claremont’s poetic prose is a huge part of what makes the story work; this book’s captions and dialogue outline the sheer emotion of the story and truly hammers home the stakes. Byrne’s art is gorgeous. There are few artists out there who can match Byrne’s character acting and detail, and “The Dark Phoenix Saga” is a feast for the eyes. “The Dark Phoenix Saga” is a masterpiece and it’s easily the finest X-Men story of them all.

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