You know ’em, you love ’em, it’s Marvel’s- maybe comics’- greatest team, the Adjectiveless, Exceptional, Astonishing, Wolverine & The, New, Immortal, X-Men! They’ve been around for over 60 years now, and insanely popular for 40+ of those years. Combining that with the fact that for many of those years there have been numerous titles running simultaneously, you end up with thousands of X-Men comics!

Out of those thousands there are so, so many great stories. The Marvel universe’s best and most important moments are full of X-Men stories. There are so many amazing ones, and many of them so drastically different, that creating any kind of ranking is both impossible and leads down the road to madness.

So, that being said, the following are not necessarily my favorite X-Men stories, but I love them all the same. There are still so many more I could include, so we may have a couple more installments of these.

All right, let’s get to it! Here are, in no particular order, 10 great X-Men (or X-Men adjacent/related) stories! (Also, you can find the first of these here, and one for Spider-Man here!)

“Phalanx Covenant: Generation Next”
Written By: Scott Lobdell, Fabian Nicieza
Art By: Joe Madureira, Andy Kubert
Found In: Uncanny X-Men 316-317, X-Men 36-37

 

 

 

 

 

One of three mini-crossovers within the overarching Phalanx Covenant event story, Generation Next focuses on a motley crew of X-Men characters left as the only ones that can rescue the next generation of mutants from the Phalanx, a race of technological creatures capable of assimilating people (not mutants yet, conveniently) into their hivemind. In this section of the crossover the X-Man Banshee teams with Jubilee, the somewhat reformed Emma Frost, and Sabretooth from an era where Marvel was clearly toying with trying to make him another Wolverine and have him lead more to anti-hero than all-out monster.

There is a great “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”-esque sequence where Banshee realizes that the Phalanx have infiltrated the X-mansion, and that the only mutants left that aren’t Phalanx disguised as X-Men are himself, a near comatose Emma Frost, a jailed Sabretooth, and Jubilee. This is really, really bad, but we are reminded that Banshee is not someone to take lightly.

This was a testing ground for the upcoming Generation X title, so we are introduced to some big names in the X-canon here, such as M, Synch, and Blink, Banshee gets a big profile boost, and the stage is set to transfer Jubilee to the Generation X team and to officially bring Emma Frost into the X family. But before they get there, they have to deal with these pesky genocidal machines! Can Banshee corral Sabretooth and Emma Frost enough for him and Jubilee to be able to rescue the new mutants? Can the new mutants rescue themselves? Not everyone is going to make it out of this one, folks!

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“Wolverine”
Written By: Chris Claremont
Art By: Frank Miller
Found In: Wolverine (mini-series) 1-4

 

 

 

 

Wolverine’s first solo outing was written by the legendary Chris Claremont and penciled by the equally legendary Frank Miller, and it lives up to both men’s reputations. Wolverine travels to Japan in pursuit of relationship with his love, Mariko Yashida. The only problem is that Mariko’s father, Shingen, is a ruthless mob boss and has no intention of allowing his daughter to marry a super hero! Logan infiltrates Shingen’s compound to ‘rescue’ Mariko, where he is challenged to an honor duel by Shingen. Shingen, the superior swordsman, toys with Logan until his rage gets the better of him, and he shames himself in the duel, confirming what Shingen has been telling Mariko: that Logan is no better than an animal; a man without honor. Mariko tearfully rejects Logan and tells him they can never be together. Shingen quickly arranges a marriage for Mariko to a cruel man who will help Shingen’s business. Can Logan get over the crushing defeat he has suffered? Who is Yukio, and can she help Logan take down Shingen and rescue Mariko? Can Logan pull his head out of a bottle long enough to even try?

An engaging story that stands the test of time and then some, this story is now more than 40 years old and is somehow still one of Wolverine’s very best! Miller turns in some of the best artwork of his career at this point, particularly with regards to the fight sequences (which Paul Smith would expertly homage/rip off for Wolverine’s fight with the Silver Samurai, but we’ll get to that). Highly recommended for everyone from Wolverine die hards to casual Marvel fans. A must read!

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“Phoenix!”
Written By: Chris Claremont
Art By: Paul Smith
Found In: Uncanny X-Men 175

Possibly my single favorite issue of X-Men growing up. In this story Cyclops, retired from the X-Men, is awfully suspicious of his girlfriend, Madelyne Pryor, and her eerie similarities to his recently deceased girlfriend, Jean Grey. He flat out asks her if she is connected to the Phoenix somehow, and in response he is blasted with some Phoenix-like energy and the next thing he knows he’s falling from the sky over the X-mansion!

When Cyclops regains consciousness, he is horrified to learn that the X-Men see and hear him as none other than the Dark Phoenix! Having tried to contact the likes of the Fantastic Four and Avengers, among others, and having seemingly seen them all be killed by the same energy that hit Cyclops, the X-Men are horrified, believing that they are up against the end of days. Professor X is then struck down by a booby trapped Cerebro, but it sure seems like a psychic attack to the X-Men. They attack “Phoenix” with reckless abandon, and Cyclops is forced to use the knowledge he has gained of their powers and fighting tendencies to fight off the likes of Wolverine, Colossus, Storm, Nightcrawler, Rogue, Shadowcat, and the dragon, Lockheed, all at once!

Can Cyclops hold off his former teammates long enough to awaken the Professor, who can hopefully set things right? How is this happening? Who is manipulating events like this, and to what end? An action-packed issue full of amazing moments, a great reveal, and even a wedding! Check it out!

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“Follow the Leader”
Written By: Scott Lobdell
Art By: Chris Bachalo
Found In: X-Men Unlimited 1

While in transit in their jet, the Blackbird, X-Men Cyclops, Storm, and Professor X are shot down by a mystery attacker. Crashing in the middle of a massive snowstorm, they are exposed to the elements, separated, and wounded. Cyclops’ visor is broken, so he is also essentially blind. The X-Men’s leaders are forced to rely on nothing more than guts, determination, and their survival skills if they have any chance of surviving this nightmare scenario.

Can the veteran super heroes find each other in these horrible conditions? Can they reunite with their mentor in time to save him and each other? Who shot them down, and why? Can they find their attacker, and if so, can they defeat them without their teammates and after such a harrowing ordeal?

The first issue of a quarterly released title, the X-0ffice came out swinging on this one. This is very likely the best issue the title has to offer. Fans of Storm, Xavier, and/or Cyclops have a must-read, and as it was released in 1993 there are a ton of pin-ups and back-up features to check out, as well. Odds are you can find this one in the dollar bins at a convention or your local comic store, but it is 100% worth a read!

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“New Mutants: Part 2”
Written By: Brian Michael Bendis
Art By: David Finch
Found In: Ultimate X-Men (vol 1) 41

Brian Michale Bendis was THE name writer for Marvel in the early 00’s. He’s most well known for his work on Ultimate Spider-Man, Daredevil, Alias, and a massive run on Avengers, but one of his runs that really went under the radar was his 12-issue Ultimate X-Men. It’s mostly forgettable, with one major exception: this issue.

The arc is called “New Mutants”, and introduces many reimagined characters to the book, including the likes of Emma Frost. Most of the arc is dedicated to showing off shiny new ultimate versions of existing characters, but here in part 2 it’s an all-new character and the only X-Man present is Wolverine.

It seems that the main character in the story, a young boy, had his mutant power activate at school, and it was… it was really, really bad. Everybody in a certain radius from him dies, nearly immediately. His body releases some insane toxin that just drops people. But Wolverine’s healing can handle it. Logan tracks the kid down, and they sit and talk about what has happened to the kid and how awful it is.

Smarter than he seems, the kid puts the pieces together and figures out Wolverine’s reason for being there, and it’s not to recruit him to the X-Men. A heartbreaking tale of a young man that had something horrific happen to him that was out of his control completely, and now everyone and everything he’s ever known and/or loved is dead. A shocking tale of just how dangerous mutants can be, regardless of their stance on human/mutant coexistence, and just how far some X-Men are willing to go to protect and save a world that hates and fears them.

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“To Have and To Hold”
Written By: Chris Claremont
Art By: Paul Smith
Found In: Uncanny X-Men 173

 

 

 

A follow-up of sorts to the Claremont/Miller Wolverine mini-series, this issue finds the X-Men visiting Japan at Wolverine’s invitation to celebrate his wedding to Mariko Yashida. Since it’s the X-Men and nothing can ever go right, they are poisoned, with only Wolverine and the brand-new member, Rogue, remaining ambulatory. Rogue was a member of the Brotherhood of Mutants under leadership of her adoptive mother, Mystique, and in a fight with the Avengers she absorbed the powers and memories of Carol Danvers (now Captain Marvel) aka Ms. Marvel, nearly killing her. Ms. Marvel was a good friend of the X-Men, so they weren’t particularly pleased when Xavier invited Rogue to join up. At this point the X-Men don’t trust, and don’t even seem to like Rogue very much.

Rogue and Wolverine get tangled up in a battle with the Japanese underworld as well as the terrorist, Viper, and Mariko’s half-brother, the Silver Samurai! Featuring some classic Claremont writing (Wolverine’s reaction to meeting Madelyne Pryor for the first time is great) and some gorgeous Paul Smith artwork (that even apes Miller for the fight scenes!) this could have been just a fun one-off story, but the development for Rogue and her standing with the team, particularly with Wolverine, the fantastic action scenes, the debut of an all-new look for Storm (mohawk!) and the emotional gut punch ending make this an all-timer everybody should check out.

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“The End of the Beginning”
Written By: Fabian Nicieza
Art By: Rob Liefeld
Found In: New Mutants 100

 

 

OK, this might be a bit of a surprise. I’m not known for being a big Liefeld fan, and a lot of fans (at least at the time) took a fair amount of umbrage with how much the New Mutants book had already changed since he came on board and weren’t too thrilled that this was the final issue of New Mutants. Looking at the artwork now, it definitely doesn’t make it easy to argue in support of Liefeld; the way he draws the human body sometimes you have to wonder if he’s ever actually seen a real person before. You can’t deny, however, that his art carries a certain energy to it, and at this point in his career that was probably at its peak.

This issue does a good job of establishing who the players are through action scenes: we are given a little bit about long-time New Mutant Cannonball, ally Boom Boom, and their somewhat new at the time leader, Cable, while also getting a little bit of background on Warpath (not new at the time, but new to the book) and Domino, and the newly appearing Shatterstar (from Mojoworld) and Feral (from the Morlocks). Every character gets a chance to do something pretty cool (especially Shatterstar, who Liefeld clearly had an affinity for), and while it might not stand out to the adult version of me the same way it did to the kid version, there’s something undeniable about the characters, their designs, and doing that thing that makes your inner 12- year old go “Ah, cool!”, such as Shatterstar’s double swords or when he stabs himself to kill the guy that has him in a hold from behind (even if it was stolen from Frank Miller’s “Ronin”).

This is the final word on the New Mutants. Most of the original students had moved on from Xavier’s, and Cable takes them the final step away from school here and into the ‘paramilitary unit’ stage of their existence. Gone are the days of Moonstar and Cypher and Warlock. This is essentially X-Force #0. If you’re just not able to look past the Liefeld/1990 of it all, it’s understandable, but if you can look past some of that there’s a rather enjoyable issue here, with a hell of a twist on the ending to set up X-Force, which premiered shortly after this was released.

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“Enemy of the State” and “Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.”
Written By: Mark Millar
Art By: John Romita, Jr
Found In: Wolverine (vol 3) 20-25, 26-31

Oh, man, this is a wild one. Wolverine’s biggest fear is that, deep down, he is just the animal, the killing machine that so many have tried to make him into over his very long life. He’s afraid that’s true, and that one day he would hurt those closest to him, that he has come to think of as family: the X-Men.

He wasn’t thinking big enough, sadly.

When Logan is ambushed by the Hand and the terrifying Gorgon, he is defeated and actually killed! Gorgon, it seems, is also working along with Hydra, and the two groups of all-time shitheels use the Hand’s resurrection abilities to bring Wolverine back to life, and both lend their brainwashing techniques to waking Wolverine back up as an agent of Hydra! Now fully a bad guy, Wolverine is straight up terrifying. The super hero community, military, SHIELD… they all crap their collective pants, and as we will see, for good reason.

Logan is turned against his friends and family, and it’s ugly. He goes after Daredevil to satisfy the Hand’s desire for him, he kills a bunch of b-list heroes, he goes after the FF… it’s bad.

Can Logan overcome what’s been done to him (yet again)? Can the X-Men help bring their friend back to the side of the angels before something unthinkable happens? If Logan IS able to overcome the conditioning, what in the world is he going to do about it?

The most dangerous mutant alive shows everyone, hero and villain, over the course of these two stories (that are really one story) that he’s as scary as they come. He doesn’t give a flying shit about his own safety thanks to his healing factor, and if you cross him hard enough he won’t give a shit about ANYTHING other than carving you up. Definitely check this one out!

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“The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix”
Written By: Scott Lobdell
Art By: Gene Ha
Found In: The Adventures of Cyclops & Phoenix 1-4

A somewhat forgotten mini-series, this story is worth checking out for the outstanding Gene Ha artwork, alone, but if you’re a fan of Cable, Apocalypse, Stryfe, or Summers family drama, this is a must-read!

Enjoying their well-deserved honeymoon on a secluded beach, Scott and Jean are yanked into the far future and placed in human bodies with no warning and no explanation! They’re able to survive just long enough to meet Mother Askani, a very old woman who claims that she runs the Askani clan, which is the group that sent an agent back in time to save young baby Nathan Summers from the techno-organic virus he was infected with by Apocalypse (see our previous list for a mention of the excellent X-Factor: Endgame). She claims responsibility for sending for Cyclops and Phoenix, because her time is short and she needs someone to watch after young Nathan and make sure he survives and Apocalypse’s forces don’t get him. Given reasonable facsimiles of their powers in their normal bodies and adopting the names “Slym” and “Redd”, Scott and Jean get a chance to do something they had given up any hope of: to raise their son. They roll with all of this crazy shit like it’s just another day. Gotta love these two.

Granted, it’s in a horrible, dystopian wasteland where their arch-enemy rules everything, but hey! They’re X-Men! That’s like a regular Wednesday for them.

Some much needed gaps are filled in as far as the history of Cable and Stryfe and how Apocalypse figures into it all, and there are some nice twists and turns, including the true identity of Mother Askani, Apocalypse’s final fate, and how this little kid will grow up to become Cable, one of the biggest badasses in the entire timestream.

Great stuff! Again, the artwork of Gene Ha is so good it’s worth it just to stare at his drawings.

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“Dreams Fade”
Written By: Fabian Nicieza
Art By: Andy Kubert
Found In: X-Men (vol 2) 25

Yup, it’s THAT issue. The Fatal Attractions crossover, featuring the return of the thought-dead Magneto, is insane. His followers kill half of a hospital, he nearly murders Cable, he crashes a child’s funeral and recruits an X-Man to turn on his longtime teammates, and when, in this issue, the X-Men retaliate, he nearly kills Wolverine by ripping the unbreakable adamantium out of his body!

It’s one of the most recognizable, famous moments in the history of comic books, much less Marvel comics, and the execution is very strong by Nicieza and Kubert.

Magneto’s threats to Earth and humanity have gone far enough, and now, with his devastating assaults on the X-Men and their allies, lines have been crossed. How will the X-Men respond? More importantly, how will Professor X?

Featuring events that would all carry heavy significance moving forward, leading to the Operation: Zero Tolerance and Onslaught crossovers down the line, there are only a handful of X-issues that carry as much significance as this one does. Also, check out that Gambit hologram cardstock cover! 90’s!

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That’s it for this installment! Be sure to check out the first installment here, and our installment on Spider-Man stories here!

There are so, so many more awesome X-Men stories to choose from, and I’ve alreadystill got a long list of ones to choose from for the next time. For now, do yourself a favor and check out any and all of the stories mentioned above! Next time I’ll include some X-Force, some Peter David X-Factor goodness, maybe another event/crossover, some Alan Davis Excalibur, and will almost certainly drop some more Krakoa era greatness on you. Buckle up!