Jekylhyde14

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Greatest X-Men Stories

Recently, I've been getting back in touch with the superhero team that really informed my childhood: The X-Men. Like most young nerds in the 90's, I anxiously awaited every episode of their Saturday morning cartoon show, I collected the trading cards, I had action figures of obscure characters I had never even seen in the comics (at that point), and I dreamed of growing up to be a badass like Wolverine. I did not grow up to be Logan (thankfully) and the X-Men have definitely seen better days, but I still have a place in my heart for those lovable muties... Here are the stories where I think they are at their best.

List items

  • If you know me, you saw this coming so I don't want to hear about it. Grant saved the X-Men from the fallout of the late 90's by reminding us why the X-Men are so great. Xavier's is a school and has always been fueled by its youth like the New Mutants or Generation X. Morrison gave us new students like Beak, Angel Salvadore, Quentin Quire, the Stepford Cuckoos, and many more mutant misfits who didn't quite fit the young, beautiful image of previous Xavier graduates. You got an amazing Weapon X story with genetically engineered superhumans and a proposed team of Super-Fascists that sounded suspiciously like the Justice League. You even got to look at worn concepts like the Shi'ar Empire in new and exciting ways. Magneto was the ultimate villain, Jean Grey sacrificed herself once more, and Morrsion finished the entire run with an old fashioned Post-Apocalyptic future. Some people claim that Grant ruined the X-Men with this run, but they are wrong. He celebrated the team by bringing back all the concepts that made them great and putting a new spin on them. I have yet to read a better X-Men story and I've read quite a few...

  • Not to confuse anyone, I do mean Joss Whedon and John Cassaday's run on this book. It was meant to be a follow up on Morrison's New X-Men and it reads that way, but Whedon makes it his own. He also gives you some memorable new students like Armor and Wing (poor Wing). The Mutant Cure was a bombshell dropped on the Marvel Universe (until House of M completely undercut it). Joss successfully brought his personal favorite, Kitty Pryde, back into the fold along with her roller coaster romance with the resurrected Colossus. The dialogue is witty, the stories are well-paced, and Cassaday's artwork brings the characters to life. It makes you wonder what went so wrong for the X-Books after this...

  • I was trying really hard to NOT put this at #3 because I do think this story gets really over-hyped, but, in the end, it is so influential that I had no choice (which tells you something, I guess). Chris Claremont and John Byrne were well into their stride when they wrote what would be the centerpiece of their long run. At heart, this story is about the darkness in the human heart and it's ability to corrupt. The Phoenix, a godlike entity of immeasurable power, gets seduced by the lurid temptations of being mortal. This causes a nightmare scenario of having to deal with a cosmic entity bent on selfish destruction. It's only the purity of Jean Grey's true spirit and her willingness to sacrifice herself for the greater good that win the day. It tends to come on strong and waxes poetic like a mofo, but you've got to love the X-Men's throwdown with the Shi'ar Imperial guard (who are basically the Legion of Superheroes). Personally, I also love the fact that Wolverine takes the same trip through The Watcher's hidden base that the Red Ghost took way back in Fantastic Four #13. That was a nice nod to Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

  • The Dark Phoenix Saga and Days of Future Past are really the one-two punch of the Claremont/Byrne run. This was the original X-Men post-apocalyptic future and it has been revisited and copied many times since. The Sentinel controlled future of Days of Future Past is truly bleak and reminiscent of the Holocaust. It is traumatizing watching some of your favorite X-Men get slaughtered in this possible future. You're anxious to see the X-Men succeed in stopping the event that sparks this catastrophe and shudder knowing what will happen if they fail. It's also cool seeing all the Fantastic Four references in the story especially knowing that John Byrne was soon to take over Marvel's first family. I'm not surprised that this is the source material for the next X-Men movie.

  • This is the first in what would be a long line of X-Men crossovers that told a single story across all of the active X-Books. Fortunately, it's also the best. The Marauders, a group of deadly mutants, hit the Morlock tunnels with the intention of committing genocide and the X-Men attempt to intervene. It's memorable largely because the X-Men fail and it takes its toll. Many of the X-Men are gravely injured, Angel loses his wings, and a majority of the Morlocks are killed. This is what happens when you leave Magneto in charge... This story also contains the first of many epic battles between Wolverine and Sabretooth.

  • For awhile, I thought that maybe #6 would be too high on the list for this relatively new, currently ongoing series, but, no, this book is great. I had left the X-Men for dead after not enjoying most of what came after Whedon's Astonishing run. Jason Aaron brought me back and he did it the way it should be done. Once again, we see new students like Broo, Kid Gladiator, Eye Boy, and Shark-Girl along with old favorites like Quentin Quire. Aaron plays around with old concepts like the Dethlok cyborgs and the Brood and puts a new spin on them. The book is hilarious with off-beat issues like the one that follows Doop through his week. Wolverine & the X-Men does what every good X-Book must do: Celebrate the history and material without being locked down by it.

  • This is a sentimental favorite of mine, for sure, but I think it still holds up. It was really jarring as a kid picking up Age of Apocalypse: Alpha and seeing how different the universe and the characters I know were in this new world created without Xavier. I wondered if I'd ever see the old universe again and worried that I wouldn't (of course I would, but, hey, I was a kid). It's hard to argue against how cool this was. The costumes were colorful and different and the art popped off the page like an anime. Jean Grey and Wolverine were together as I always knew they should be, and Sabretooth was an X-Man??? Yeah, not all the books were great and some of the writing falls flat, but this was a bold move on Marvel's part by letting an alternate universe story take over as the status quo. This shock value only goes so far, though, which is why I wasn't quite as into House of M or Age of X.

  • This is the second big crossover told throughout all the X-Books, and it's only a crossover in the loosest sense of the word. The only thing that really connects the stories told in Uncanny X-Men, X-Factor, and the New Mutants is the Mutant Registration Act looming in the background. Otherwise the titles are following their own paths and dealing with their own threats which makes the story unfocused and the crossover label a bit of a gimmick, but that's Marvel for you. Luckily, the three separate stories are all memorable. The X-Men sacrifice themselves for the human race on national television and are resurrected leading to the fresh X-Men in Australia take. Poor Cypher is killed and not resurrected (at least not immediately) and his death becomes an influencing factor for years to come. In X-Factor, we got our first major Apocalypse story and the birth of the Archangel. It's unfocused for sure, but Fall of the Mutants is still a milestone.

  • I think this makes my list because of just how effective the writing is when it comes to making you hate the villain. Cameron Hodge and Genosha kidnap some of the X-Men and then use the international community's fear of mutants to play the victim as a struggling island nation being invaded by foreign terrorists. The X-Men refuse to blink and are ready to create an international incident to save their own. Storm gets de-aged and Wolfsbane is tortured and reverts to her wolf form permanently. You watch as these characters you like are hurt and degraded. The entire time Genoshans are defending their Mutant enslavement policies by whining about how bad things were for them before like that makes it all right. You just can't wait until the heroes bring Genosha crashing down around their heads.

  • Fatal Attractions makes my top ten for two scenes in particular. The first is when Colossus leaves the X-Men to join Magneto at his sister's funeral being fully disillusioned with Xavier's dream after Illyana's death. It was the first time I'd seen a loyal X-Man turn his back on the team like that. The second, of course, is the infamous scene where Magneto rips the adamantium skeleton from Wolverine's body which would leave Logan without the indestructible metal for much of the 90's (but I guess Chris Claremont was going to kill Wolverine if he stayed writer of the book so there are worse fates). It was certainly a game changer and the concept of Magneto using his powers to screw with the Earth's electro-magnetic fields has been revisited a few times since. Plus, you've got to love those hologram, trading card covers... right... RIGHT?

  • I once heard someone refer to this crossover as "The Greatest Story Ever Told." Clearly it isn't but when you're eight it definitely leaves an impression. Xavier is seemingly shot in the head by Cable (and survives???) and the X-Force become renegades while everyone tries to piece together what really happened and why. I still remember the issue where the X-Men and X-Factor bring in the members of X-Force. It was tragic to watch friends and lovers fight each other over a misunderstanding. This story really sets the pace for the X-Men in the 90's (for better or worse), and gives you a strong introduction to Stryfe and all the drama that would follow between him and Cable.

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Jekylhyde14

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Jekylhyde14

@time:

First off, thank you for your comment and I’m sorry I haven’t gotten back to you before now. I’m glad we agree on a few things. Honestly, I titled this list “Greatest X-Men Stories” because these are, in my mind, the greatest. It’s a personal list, though, and I certainly didn’t expect everyone to agree with me 100%. These are just the stories that held the most relevance to me and struck a chord.

I’m not going to address each point where we differ, but I do want to talk a little more about Grant Morrison’s New X-Men and its portrayal of Cyclops and Phoenix. You’re not the first person I’ve heard express those particular views over what Grant did to Scott and Jean’s marriage and how the relationship ended. Believe me, I know that when you like a relationship in fiction and it doesn’t turn out the way you were hoping that it’s really frustrating (I get pretty defensive of my favorite super-couples too). I’m betting I probably won’t change your mind about this either, but I’ve never had the sense that Grant did any injustice to Scott and Jean’s relationship and I’m going to explain why.

First, let’s talk about the relationship in general: Scott and Jean were made for each other… literally. From the outset they were set up to be the couple you were hoping for and you knew this was destiny because they were both so pure. Cyclops has always been the classic superhero of the team (until recently). He was idealistic and morally sound. Jean’s personality echoed this with her added sense of motherly sacrifice. They were the perfect couple because they were the good guys and you knew it. The other major aspect of their relationship was that it was a cycle of loss. Cyclops watched Jean sacrifice herself numerous times for the greater good and each time had to come to terms with being without the person he loved. Whenever she came back, though, he would drop everything to be with her (including a wife, Madelyne Pryor). By the time Grant took the book, they had done just about everything that a couple can do together: They got married, raised a child (Cable in The Adventures of Cyclops & Phoenix), and even had a daughter of their own albeit from an alternate reality. What held them together, though, was the purity of their love and their spirits. Eventually, they had nothing to hide from one another.

Then Cyclops was possessed by Apocalypse. For the first time, he tasted pure evil and was used to commit travesties. Even after his body was exorcised, he was still left with a taste of that evil and a part of him sort of enjoyed it. Now there was something to hide and this time it was Scott who had to do the hiding from the psychic wife whom he’s always been the bedrock for. This is where we come in with Grant’s story. When Grant is showing you their marriage dissolve, he’s taking you through Scott’s journey of alienating himself from the wife he loves too much to disappoint and finding solace in the company of someone who understands what it’s like to be truly tempted by the dark side: Emma Frost. The funny thing is, Jean had a similar relationship with Wolverine who was darker and more complex than Cyclops and no one really complains. Scott just found a similar relationship with Emma. Keep in mind that Jean was also hiding from Scott the fact that her Phoenix powers are changing and evolving. What we saw was two people who loved each other changing and hiding it from one another. This happens in even the strongest of marriages and the strongest of loves. Also, let’s face it, as pure and good tempered as they were, Scott and Jean were never perfect (i.e. Madelyne Pryor, Wolverine, the time it took Jean to accept Rachel, etc., etc.). When I read New X-Men, I never got the sense that Morrison was arrogantly ruining a solid marriage. He was exploring what happens when two superheroes in love start to grow apart.

Finally, I’ll touch on the scene that leads up to the Scott and Emma kiss you are so disgusted by. Before this kiss happens, we’re in a Post-Apocalyptic future that Jean as the Phoenix has been sent to surgically remove from the universe. She succeeds and cuts the dark future Sublime built out of the timeline, but this leaves the universe wounded and in need of a replacement future. Now, keep in mind that in the dark future with Sublime, the kiss between Cyclops and Emma never happens. We are told by the M’Kraan Crystal that “Scott succumbs to loneliness and doubt and all is lost unless…” So in the Sublime future, Scott carries the weight of Jean’s loss and choses to go off alone leaving the X-Men and his potential relationship with Emma behind. Returning to Phoenix’s dilemma, she’s at first confused about how to save the universe and help it gain a new future. That’s when the Phoenix Quentin Quire quotes to her: “’If you want to grow a new future to replace the one you just cut away… you have to water it with your heart’s blood.” That’s exactly what Jean does. She says to herself, “Ha. Live Scott,” and creates a (hopefully) brighter future for her friends. This future starts with Scott letting Jean and their recursive loop of tragedy go and kissing Emma. This was Jean’s life blood. To create a new timeline she made one final sacrifice by giving the push that allowed her true love to move on and live his life. The kiss only happens because Jean wills it, so I can’t see how it tarnishes her memory. Honestly, this is the most beautiful and triumphant scene I’ve ever read in an X-Men comic. Jean lets go, Scott lets go, and the universe is allowed to move on. It just goes to prove that sometimes the ultimate act of love is letting go.

Anyway, sorry for hitting you with this reply that was MUCH longer than I intended but you really got me thinking which I appreciate. Again, I’m sure I haven’t changed your mind about anything, but I wanted to share the way I read it for the record. I’m fully open to there being flaws in my list and I’ve been trying to catch up with X-Men stories I missed after losing faith in the books shortly following House of M. If you have any recommendations for me or the list, I would love to hear them. I’m always open to new things.

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time1

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time1

I like your list, but I do disagree with a lot things.

Your right about :

X-Cutioner's Song

Fatal Attractions

Age of Apocalypse

Days of the future past

Dark Phoenix Saga

They are the greatest story arcs.

X-Tinction Agenda

Fall of the Mutants

Mutant Massacre

Were very good stories, but not the best.

I completed disagree with New X-Men and Astonishing x-men. Both titles are very over-rated. Joss Whedon wrote 4 stories in 12 issues. Only 2 of the stories were actually good. What was the point of reunited Kitty and Colossus, then separating them.

I would never consider New X-Men series as one of the best X-Men series, or having the best story arcs. Grant Morrison was naive and arrogant writer. He destroy Cyclops and Jean Grey Marriage without having any understanding of it or any respect for it. Then he kill of Jean grey, without showing her any respect. He made Jean grey make Cyclops move on. Then Cyclops was kissing Emma Frost right next to Jean Grey grave, disgusting much.

Wolverine and the X-Men is a terrible series and has some rubbish story arcs.