X-Men Season 1 Headcanon

12/21/2024

This is the third Headcanon I've done for the X-Men in the past fifteen years.

The first Headcanon "The X-Men In Ten Seasons" was just me looking at X-Men related collections and trying to remember which ones were good or seemed important to continuity, and dividing them up into seasons. It was fun but it was only moderately informed. I was a huge X-Men fan but I wasn't an exceptionally knowledgable one.

The second Headcanon was based on The Most Important Stores In X-Men History. The most impactful, iconic stories that, if you asked any comic book store employee who had even a passing knowledge of the X-Men, they probably would recommend virtually the same list.

In 2017/2018, I read most of the X-Men related books that had been released in trade paperback. But I'd get bored during the silver age stories, and start skimming pages, and I'd get frustrated in some of the 90s books, and start skimming pages, so I sort of read most of the X-Men chronology but not really.

At the beginning of 2024 I started rereading earnest. Every volume of X-Men related book currently available in trades (and some stories that haven't yet been collected in trades but which I have the issues of). Weirdly, this improved my experience of reading some of the terrible books because I was really invested in how characters got from point A to point B, even if the story was jankily written, poorly drawn, or just a complete narrative mess. I am reading everything.

I'm currently nearing the end of the 1990s, having read every available issue of X-Men (which will become X-Men Legacy), Uncanny X-Men, X-Factor, New Mutants, Excalibur, X-Force, Wolverine, Cable, Deadpool, Generation X, and related miniseries for characters like Storm, Longshot, Bishop, and many more. My current posts about X-Men Headcanon are reviews of Every Book I've Read as part of this project.

This is the first post of The Best X-Men Stories that I've enjoyed. While I certainly weighed the cultural importance of these volumes to larger X-Men lore, I haven't included books that were deemed important but that I don't think aged well compared to other books of the time. I haven't included The Mutant Massacre, even though it resonates through the X-Men lore for decades. It's just messy and difficult to keep track of if you haven't read many of the books before it. Likewise, I've left off Inferno which is a book I'd never been able to get through before, and now that I have read every page, I wish I'd spent the time doing something more fun, like dancing barefoot in a room full of thumb tacks and barbed wire.

If you want to experience the best Inferno story, "X-Men '97" condensed the entire storyline into a single episode, and it's amazing. Watch that, instead of reading the original crossover event.

This first season contains ten books, mostly written by Chris Claremont, that I could sit and have a long conversation with someone about why I liked the story, its political importance, why it made me care for the characters, and how it influenced other books for better or worse.

With the exception of the first book, Magneto Testament, all these books are currently in print (or about to be put back into print in early 2025) and should be available for cover price or cheaper. It might also be possible to find Magneto Testament floating around your local comic book store or looking at sites like Thriftbooks and Bookshop Dot Org.

X-Men Headcanon
Season 1: Children Of The Atom

1. Magneto Testament by Greg Pak & Carmine Di Giandomenico

X-Men: none

1st Appearance: Magneto

If you've seen an X-Men movie, you've almost definitely seen a scene of a youngish Magneto in an office of a concentration camp using his powers of magnetism to kill someone. You've seen iron gates ripped from the ground, projectiles launched at Nazis.

That's not what this book is.

Interspersed with historical data about The Holocaust, we get the story of a young teenage Max (he has not yet taken the name Erich...his father's name) who's targeted at school because of his Jewishness, as the nation of Germany descends into anti-semitism and genocide. We get brief glimpses of important moments in his young life. He falls in love based on almost nothing. He rebels when it seems convenient. He protects his family when he can. But his powers are a hint, not a weapon.

When his family is murdered, he survives presumably because of his power of magnetism but we don't know. They could have just missed him or not delivered a fatal wound. He ends up in a concentration camp where he eventually is in charge of leading other Jew to their deaths.

It is, of course, a grim book. There is no moment of catharsis where he rips open an iron gate. He does not kill any officers by hurling cutlery at them. He survives. He does what he has to do to survive and to try and save a girl he loves, even though he doesn't seem to know very much about her.

I think this is a great starting point for a read-through of the Marvel Mutant Universe. It clearly sets the tone that, despite what your drooling, all-caps, anti-woke, right wing nutjob uncle thinks, this is a story about overcoming the harms of prejudice, bigotry, and racism/anti-semitism. Marvel's mutant sector, in particular has ALWAYS been about civil rights. Anyone who tells you otherwise lacks reading comprehension skills, and you should never give credence to anything they tell you about literature or writing because they're clearly too stupid to understand the basic premise of a comic series that's mostly directed at children and teenagers.

Carmine Di Giandomenico's art is superb, and I think the muted grey color palette helps the book feel like something from our past without that visual metaphor overwhelming the story.

The story is affecting but not devastating to read. If you're familiar with the basic horrors of The Holocaust, you're likely to learn some new details, and maybe get a better feel for the timeline but it doesn't delve so deep into the story that you're likely to be weeping.

2a. The X-Men Epic Collection Vol 1: Children Of The Atom by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Roy Thomas, and Warner Roth

X-Men: Prof X, Angel, Cyclops, Beast, Iceman, Jean Grey

1st Appearances: Vanisher, Blob, Mastermind, Toad, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, Namor, Bernard, Zelda, Unus, Lucifer, Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, Ant-Man, Wasp, Ka-Zar, Zabu, The Stranger, Juggernaut, Mimic, Sentinels

Also featuring: Magneto

Stan Lee is one of the most important people in comics history. He was incredibly creative, prolific, and he co-created almost all of your favorite Marvel characters. But Stan Lee is not, and never has been a writer. He was a carnival barker with a typewriter and some very talented artistic coworkers. (I struggle to call them friends, having read many of his coworkers' opinions on the man.) I find his thesaurized prose agonizing to read. He was just so proud of writing that I find cringey.

The characters he created are only beloved by people under eighty because other writers fleshed them out and gave them personalities. Every Stan Lee character is an angry buffoon who acts rashly. If they're a hero, they have to constantly apologize for their idiocy. If they're a villain, they must twirl their imaginary mustaches and revel in how evil they are. That's it. That's all Stan Lee ever knew how to write. Every issue of his comics is exactly the same. If there is ever any actual progress in a story (a character moving on or having an epiphany) it will be undone during the issue, or in the following issue. Thanks to editorial asides and Stan's own tortured prose, continuity is always acknowledged but rarely do characters seem to have learned from said continuity.

For some people, this is The Best Era of X-Men. I don't begrudge them. I like some terribly written and constructed pop music. I like it unapologetically because it makes me happy, and likely nostalgic for when it came out. You, too should feel that way about comics. But I was born and started reading comics during the Claremont era (which I'm not nostalgic for), and didn't start trying to read the silver age adventures until I was well exposed to more complex and interesting stories.

These stories are important in the history of comics. They were an evolution in writing serialized stories, and shouldn't be forgotten. But even though Homo Erectus was a necessary and important stage of human evolution, I don't dream of hanging out in a cave somewhere listening to one tell me stories about a future that is now well within my past.

The second half of the collection matures into more long-form storytelling with an evolving and revolving cast of villains.

Mainly, a nebulous space character with a variety of powers gets entangled with Magneto, removes him from Earth, allowing the X-Men to deal with Juggernaut and then The Sentinels before Magneto returns with a much smaller scale scheme than usual.

It's the usual hokey Stan Lee yarns, though this volume sees Alex Toth and Warner Roth (as Jay Gavin) step in to pencil a few issues, and we also see the first couple of issues written by Roy Thomas, under Stan Lee's editorship.

I don't care about any of the villains in this book. The original concept of The Sentinels: Robots designed by man to protect them from mutants, who soon end up rebelling themselves, is such an early to mid-twentieth century trope that it requires defter hands than Stan Lee's to make it interesting to anyone over the age of nine. (Which, I understand, is around the target age of comics at the time.) Magneto continues to be a mustache twirling buffoon instead of the complex and conflicted villain/anti-hero he became later. Juggernaut's introduction is fun but The Stranger, and the return of the incredibly dull pseudo-Magneto, Lucifer, had me barely resisting the urge to start flipping pages and skimming the stories rather than digesting them.

If you love silver-age stuff, this is still probably going to be a blast for you, but if you're not someone who adores 1960s comics, this isn't going to be the collection that changes your mind.

As much as this volume isn't for me, I am going to include it in my X-Men Headcanon, but I do it begrudgingly.

or 2b. X-Men First Class Mutants 101 by Jeff Parker, Roger Cruz, Kevin Nowlan, Nick Dragotta, Paul Smith, Colleen Coover, Victor Olazaba, Michael Allred, Laura Allred, Val Staples, and Pete Pantazis

X-Men: Prof X, Angel, Cyclops, Beast, Iceman, Jean Grey

1st Appearances,: Lizard, Jarvis, Dr. Strange, The Vanir, Ymir, Skrulls, Gorilla Man

Also Featuring: Blob, Sentinels, Juggernaut, Thor, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, Bernard, Zelda

If you just can't stomach the Silver Age comics, this is an alternative introduction to the first proper team of X-Men. Written in 2007, it takes place during Children of The Atom. While it never contradicts the stories there, it does muddle history a bit by including more modern technology. Also, the characters are more in-tune with their modern selves rather than everyone being a reactionary fool like they are in The Silver Age.

There's a ton of fun tie-ins to the original X-run, but none of them are necessary to follow the stories. Also, each issue is a one-off story, usually featuring a member of the wider Marvel Universe.

3. X-Men Epic Collection Proteus by Chris Claremont, John Byrne, and George Perez

X-Men:Prof X, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Storm, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Banshee

1st Appearances: Nanny, Petrified Man, Mariko, Moses Magnum, Proteus, Snowbird, Northstar, Shaman, Sasquatch, Aurora, Luke Cage, Arcade, Colleen Wing, Arkon

Also Featuring: Beast, Mesmero, Magneto, Sauron, Ka-Zar, Zabu, Lilandra, Moira, Shadow King, Misty Knight, Sunfire, Angus MacWhirter, Vindicator, Mastermind, Polaris, Spider-Man, Madrox

This is a huge leap between stories. Get used to it, if you're only going to read the best X-stories, you're going to have to learn to read with whiplash. The team will change remarkably between stories. Here, for example, we've jumped from the early 1960s to the early 1980s.

For me, this is where Claremont's run on X-Men, which starts in the late 70s, really clicks. We go from the Stan Lee Every-X-Men-Is-A-Hothead-Who-Argues-Over-Everything era to the characters working together as a team, and Wolverine being the one character who continues to question authority.

We see the Claremont team of Cyclops, Storm, Colossus, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, and Banshee really gel and become The X-Men while Jean Grey and Charles Xavier are written out to have their own adventures that we check in on periodically but which are not the crux of the story.

Claremont really begins to weave his storylines well here. Introducing elements that won't resolve for several issues, and introducing characters and tropes that X-Men writers will continue to chip away at for decades.

This is an absolute must for any X-fan. It's the beginning of Claremont at his best, and includes several stories that were revisited in The Animated Series.

While still building to The Dark Phoenix Saga in the background, the separated X-Men are slowly reunited just in time for a showdown with Moira Mactaggert's insanely powerful mutant son. The Animated Series fleshed out this story really well but the source material here is also pretty great for late early 80s superhero comics.

There's even an adventure featuring Spider-Man where there is a ridiculously spelled out sound effect on the page, and Spider-Man says "(ridiculous sound effect)! I remember what that is!" It's precisely the right level of cheesy comic writing for me.

4. X-Men Epic Collection The Fate Of The Phoenix by Chris Claremont, John Byrne, and John Romita Jr

X-Men: Prof X, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Wolverine, Storm, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Shadowcat

1st Appearances: Emma Frost, Sebastian Shaw, Dazzler, Smasher, Stevie Hunter, Rachel Grey, Franklin Richards, Mystique, Destiny, Pyro, Avalanche

Also featuring: Banshee, Moira, Madrox, Mastermind, Angel, Donald Pierce, Candy Southern, Dr Strange, Lilandra, Araki, Jarvis, The Watcher, Gladiator, Skrulls, Vindicator, Shaman, Snowbird, Wendigo, Blob, Magneto, Sentinels, Robert Kelly

This volume contains Chris Claremont's two most popular stories from his decade plus run on the X-Men books. First and foremost, the space saga surrounding Jean Grey's original time as The Phoenix, which is the mose soap opera-y soap opera in late 20th century comics. The story has been retold in the X-Men movies, in the X-Men animated series, in video games, and has been satarized and/or homaged in a billion different comics and webcomics. It's probably the most important event in X-Men history, and while it's not THE BEST EVER story, it still stands as Very Entertaining To Read, forty years later.

Before we get to the second classic story, Wolverine and Alpha Flight clash a few times.

Then Mystique and Destiny debut during "Days Of Future Past" where we get to see the post-apocalyptic future of (checks notes) 2013! This is also an important piece of Marvel history that generations of X-Men writers reference or blatantly steal from even now, when we're over a decade past when this futuristic story was supposed to take place.

Apart from being a collection of classic stories, this volume is also where Wolverine started to become The Most Important X-Man Ever (to marketing people and editors, mostly).

If you're only ever going to read one twentieth century X-Men story, this is probably the one. But really, you should read at least two, and hit up X-Men Epic Proteus before this one. The pacing and unfolding storylines are prime twentieth century comics.

5. X-Men Epic Collection God Loves Man Kills by Chris Claremont, Frank Miller, Paul Smith, Bob Wiacek, Walt Simonson, John Romita Jr

X-Men: Cyclops, Storm, Wolverine, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Shadowcat, Rogue

1st Appearances: Madelyne Pryor, The Morlocks, Callisto, Yukio

Also Featuring: Magneto, Lilandra, Stevie Hunter, Binary, Magik, Silver Samurai, Viper, Carol Danvers, The Starjammers, Mystique, Destiny, Candy Southern, Amanda Sefton, Angel, Lee Forester, Mariko, Mastermind, Sebastian Shaw, Tessa

This book mainly makes the Headcanon for the title story. Despite it having its own issues with institutional racism, the story presents Claremont's anti-bigotry themes in clearer and more nuanced ways than his usual hammer-to-the-head delivery. It has many strengths, one of them being the evolution of Magneto from villain to anti-hero.

We also see Wolverine's first solo outing which will lay the template for decades of dull rehashes of the formula: Wolverine goes to Japan to check in on the love of his life only to find himself embroiled in yakuza clan warfare.

What follows is one of the weaker parts of Claremont's run on X-Men. It has some important plot points but to get to them, it asks the reader to immediately care about new characters as quickly as it introduces them.

The biggest ask is that the reader cares about Madelyne Pryor, a woman who Cyclops meets and immediately falls in love with because she looks like Jean Grey. But is she Jean Grey? Is she The Phoenix? Not enough time or story is included to make her a fully fleshed out character. Also, Scott just slowly fell in love with another character we didn't know much about, and she is quickly discarded for this new Jean Grey fill-in.

We're also introduced to Callisto and The Morlocks in a decent story that will continue to bubble under the surface of X-Men comics for decades.

The Rogue story is interesting but not given enough time, and the Wolverine material would probably have been better without editorial interference. Reportedly, Jim Shooter, the worst person to ever stain the Marvel masthead with his name, wouldn't allow Claremont or any other writer to portray any queer relationships. Claremont had intended on having Storm fall in love with Yukio, a Wolverine side-character. Instead, Claremont writes Storm so that she meets Yukio is enamored of her, then cuts her hair into a mohawk and starts wearing leather, which is about as obviously coded as you can get. Cheers to Claremont on that. May Jim Shooter trip today, chipping a tooth and having one of his eyes fall out. The entire comic industry would rejoice in the news.

6. New Mutants Epic Collection The Demon Bear Saga by Chris Claremont, Bill Sienkiewicz, Bob McLeod, and John Buscema

New Mutants: Professor X: Dani Moonstar, Wolfsbane, Cannonball, Sunspot, Magik, Magma, Cypher, Warlock

1st Appearances: Magus, Lilah Cheney, Legion, Guido, Reverend Craig, Sharon Friedlander, Tom Corsi

Also Featuring: Karma, Shadow King, Lockheed, Binary, Lilandra, Corsair, Ch'od, Waldo, Stevie Hunter, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Selene, Sebastian Shaw, Magneto, Lee Forrester, Moira MacTaggert, Cloak, Dagger, Rogue, Banshee, Madrox, Gabrielle Haller, Emma Frost, Dazzler, Rachel Grey

I'm putting this in headcanon purely for the first part of this collection. The Demon Bear Saga, is one of the best New Mutants stories. Much of this is the arrival of Bill Sienkiewicz as artist. Through a 2024 lens, his artwork is odd, anatomically jarring, a little sharp angled, and with a bit of a DC Vertigo or mid-90s MTV cartoon edge. But when it debuted in the 80s it was revelatory. I imagine traditionalists hated it but as a kid, I wanted more.

It does help that his first story is when the series pivoted from The Next Young Group Of Mutants Tries To Find Their Way In The World to a collection of stories that explore the effect of trauma on minority youth.

There is a noticeable dip in quality of story (but not art) as we transition to the arrival of Warlock, and then the fallout of a Cloak and Dagger story. The stories are fine, and do an admirable job of pushing the characters in new directions but they feel scattered after the focused and brilliant Demon Bear Saga.

Next up is the introduction of Legion, a character who can be used super creatively, and was the focus of one of the best Marvel related TV shows they've come up with. Certainly the best pre-streaming TV show. Unfortunately, much of the first Legion arc uses a dated, problematic trope that makes it cringey to read. While this trope is only introduced so that Claremont can invert it is admirable. The end of the story does make it so that the characters using the problematic language and ideals turn out to be wrong and learn a lesson. That doesn't make the journey there any easier to read. It's not quite as bad as Claremont dropping the N-bomb in X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills to prove a point about racism but it's pretty close and it's drawn out for Much Longer.

7. X-Men Vs Fantastic Four by Chris Claremont, John Bogdanove, Barry Windsor-Smith, Jackson Guice, Marc Silvestri, and Dan Green

X-Men: Magneto, Storm, Havok, Wolverine, Kitty Pryde, Rogue, Psylocke, Longshot, Dazzler

Fantastic Four: Mr Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, Thing, She-Hulk, Franklin Richards

Also Featuring: Dr Doom, Malice, Juggernaut, Madelyne Pryor, Polaris, Lila Cheney, Moira MacTaggert, Banshee, Alicia Masters, Sharon Friedlander, Tom Corsi

I'm including X-Men issues #314-#319, which have not yet been collected into trade paperback but serve to bridge the gap between Mutant Massacre and X-Men Vs Fantastic Four. I presume this material will be colelcted in X-Men Epic Collection Vol 11, when that comes out.

This issues not included in the Fantastic Four Vs The X-Men feature the X-Men battling Malice, then Wolverine goes berserk while Storm lives out The Most Dangerous Game against some WWII era heroes who've aged into unethical vigilantes, and then Dazzler and a bunch of the X-Men on Muir Island battle Juggernaut. They're all fun, if not Important To Continuity, and help setup the interpersonal relationships we see in Fantastic Four Vs X-Men.

This was the first comic series I ever read. So there's definitely some nostalgia inspiring my review.

The story involves the X-Men needing a device from Reed Richards of The Fantastic Four in order to save their youngest member, Shadowcat during the aftermath of The Mutant Massacre. Through a series of dream sequences and a jubilantly nitpicky Doctor Doom interventions, Reed doesn't trust that his machine will help. Thus the Vs. part of the title, as the teams do squabble a couple of times. But, mostly, this is a team up book that doesn't have Universe Changing Consequences. It's superhero friends calling superhero friends to help solve a very specific team-focused problem. I enjoy that level of stakes.

The dialogue is Chris Claremont hokey. But I think it's some of his better hokey work. The art is standard 80s Marvel.

I recommend this more for X-Men fans than FF fans, as that's Claremont's wheelhouse, and if you do love continuity, there's a ton of fun events in this self-contained mini-series. If you're the type that gets really frustrated that Jennifer Walters behaves in a different manner than you would imagine based on She-Hulk Issue 31, maybe steer clear of this one.

8. New Mutants Epic Fallen Angels by Chris Claremont, Jo Duffy, Jackson Guice, Bret Blevins, Kevin Nowlan, Alan Davis, Rick Leonardi, Sal Buscema, Kerry Gammill, Marie Severin, and Joe Staton

New Mutants: Prof X, Magneto, Wolfsbane, Dani Moonstar, Sunspot, Cannonball, Karma, Magik, Magma, Warlock, Cypher

1st Appearances: Siryn, Renegade, Gomi

Also Featuring: Stevie Hunter, Magus, Kate Power, Sym, Carol Danvers, Corsair, Lilandra, Ch'od, Hepzibah, Waldo, Sikorsky, Storm, Sebastian Shaw, Selene, Tessa, Impossible Man, Sabretooth, Scalphunter, Vertigo, Harpoon, Empath, Roulette, Catseye, Shaman, Jetstream, Boom Boom, Ariel, The Vanisher, Beast, Iceman, Moon Boy, Devil Dinosaur

After the Mutant Massacre (a crossover event which is technically Very Important to the X-Men narrative but isn't an enjoyable enough read to make this headcanon), the New Mutants were separated and shunted through time with Magneto and the remaining X-Men thinking they're dead. Each team has ended up in an alternate future while Magik, who was separated from both teams, ends up encountering Professor X and the Starjammers.

The alternate future timelines where each team sees the aged-up versions of their missing teammates living in a different type of dystopia is a ton of fun, as is Professor X becoming part of the story again. We also see the showdown between Magus and Warlock before we return to the X-mansion in the proper timeline for a mediocre retread of the New Mutants vs The Hellions, and a very odd adventure with the Fantastic Four villain, Impossible Man.

This is the volume where the New Mutants series veers away from the horror, and into the usual Claremont wheelhouse of superhero time travel/space epic. I think it's an improvement. We do have the typical team infighting, resulting in a brief spin-off series featuring Sunspot, Warlock, Siryn, Madrox, Boom Boom, Ariel, Renegade, and Gomi. It isn't a great story but it does let some lesser used Marvel mutants and lobsters shine.

9. X-Men Epic Mutant Genesis by Chris Claremont, Fabien Nicieza, Jim Lee, Whilce Portacio, Peter David, Ken Laminski, Kirk Jarvinen, Tom Raney, Terry Shoemaker, Paul Smith, Andy Kubert, Jerry DeCaire, Ernie Stiner, and Steven Butler

X-Men: Professor X, Forge, Storm, Banshee, Wolverine, Psylocke, Gambit, Jubilee

X-Factor: Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast, Iceman, Angel

1st Appearances: Foxbat, Gauntlet, Psynapse, Barrage, Hard-Drive, Askani, Shinobi Shaw, Fabien Cortez, Delgado, Birdy

Also Featuring: Magneto, Apocalypse, Cable (as a baby), Captain America, Thing, Human Torch, She-Hulk, Cameron Hodge, Tusk, Opal, Trish Tilby, Charlotte Jones, Black Bolt, Medusa, Gorgon, Crystal, Karnak, Lockjaw, Sebastian Shaw, Shadow King, Lian, Rogue, Strong Guy, Moira MacTaggert, Legion, Siryn, Madrox, Colossus, Stevie Hunter, Val Cooper, Mystique, Polaris, Chief Magistrate Anderson, Matsuo, Nick Fury

There's a ton of story packed into this penultimate Claremont storyline. Unfortunately, this trade starts with Fabien Nicieza's "Kings Of Pain" storyline, which doesn't do justice to the stories that come after it.

From there we dive into the conclusion of the original X-Factor/Apocalypse storyline, which adds the Inhumans into the mix, and has big consequences for everyone, especially baby Cable.

From there, it's time to finally piece the X-Men back together (they've been seperated for a couple of years worth of comics) as The Shadow King's rule over Muir Isle leads to the return of Professor X and a whole slew of changes for every X-Team besides Excalibur.

This collection also features X-Men #1-3. Personally, I would have put this in the next collection, as it truly feels like the beginning of a new era, even if it also wraps up Claremont's FIFTEEN YEARS-long run on the title. But it is a blast and shows the next evolution of Magneto from villain to anti-hero to terrorist-with-a-pretty-solid-reason-to-be-upset.

10. X-Men Epic Bishop's Crossing by Jim Lee, Whilce Portacio, John Byrne, Scott Lobdell, Howard Mackie, John Romita Jr, Andy Kubert, Tom Raney, Ron Wagner, and Rurik Tyler

X-Men Gold: Professor X, Storm, Jean Grey, Angel, Iceman, Colossus, Forge

1st Appearances: Mikhail Rasputin, Bishop, Trevor Fitzroy, Bella Donna

Also Featuring: Ghost Rider, Donald Pierce, Emma Frost, Shinobi Shaw, Roulette, Empath, Bevatron, Catseye, Tarot, Lady Deathstrike, Sentinels, Gateway, Sunfire, Gambit, Wolverine, Jubilee, Cyclops, Psylocke, Beast, Rogue, Opal, Mystique, Hiro, Callisto, Healer, The Brood

This is an especially pivotal story if you're a fan of "X-Men The Animated Series" and/or "X-Men '97". As you can probably guess by the title, this is the debut and origin of Bishop. We also see some stories involving Colossus's lost brother, The Upstarts' ascendence, the beginning of the storyline where we learn the X-Men were betrayed and ultimately killed by one of their own, and this is where we first see that Cyclops has a wandering eye when there are other hot telepaths around. You can't put all the blame on Emma when it was her turn to get caught in his cheating eye beams.

This mainly makes headcanon because it packs a bunch of important 90s X-stories in just a few issues. Lee had great pacing here, and ideas that still resonate in modern comics. It's really a stark contrast between his books and the other X-books of the era. He just kept throwing out good ideas, and then moving on to other new ideas. He didn't abandon anything either, he just found ways to weave the ideas into each other. Brian K Vaughan gets a lot of credit for writing comics so that each page is like an episode of a show, and each issue is like a season with a cliffhanger that makes you want to tune in the next week. I'd argue that Lee, Whilce Portacio, and company were doing that twenty years earlier.

If you like 90s X-books, this is your jam, your bread, your peanut butter, and the knife you need to spread them. It's well worth the read, even if it isn't An Absolute Classic story.

11. X-Factor Epic X-Aminations by Peter David, Scott Lobdell, Skip Dietz, JD DeMatteis, Shana David, Joe Quesada, Jae Lee, Chris Batista, Buzz, Jan Duursema, Terry Shoemaker, Paul Ryan, Greg Luzniak, & Cliff Van Meter

X-Factor: Havoc, Polaris, Rahne, Quicksilver, Madrox, Strong Guy, Val Cooper, Forge

1st Appearances: Haven, Monsoon

Also Featuring: Doc Samson, Random, Trish Tilby, Moira MacTaggert, Crystal, Prodigal, Amelia Voght, Unuscione, Katu, Colossus, Milan, Frenzy, Scanner, Kleinstock Bros, Rusty, Skids, Spoor, Sentinels, Robert Kelly, Cortez, Archangel, Icaman, Colossus, Cyclops, Prof X, Lila Cheny

After dealing with the Cable clone/assassination crossover event, X-Cutioner's Song, we begin Peter David's farewell storyarc, and it's fantastic. It's each of the members of the team meeting with psychiatrist and Hulk antagonist, Doc Samson and trying to work out their benefits/problems with being part of X-Factor. It's a very twenty-first century issue but it came out in the early 90s.

The team's trip to Genosha ends up adding a fascinating angle to the Havoc/Rahne issue, as well as introducing the team to The Legacy Virus, which is going to ravage the X-portion of the Marvel Universe for years. We even see the introduction of a questionable guru character whose motivations and behaviors don't precisely align, as well as some inner-team turmoil when there's a possible betrayal.

This is just a really solid collection of stories, especially if you skip the X-Cutioner's stuff. Nothing against the overall X-cutioner's story, it's a decent crossover but you only get three non-consecutive portions of it here which makes for a choppy and unsatisfying read. Otherwise, this is a must-have for Peter David fans while also being a decent primer for Scott Lobdell who does his best to keep David's charm while also adding his own ideas into the story.

12. X-Men Fatal Attractions by Scott Lobdell, JM DeMatteis, Fabien Nicieza, Larry Hama, Joe Quesada, Brandon Peterson, John Romita Jr, Richard Bennett, Greg Capullo, Jan Duuresma, Andy Kubert, Adam Kubert, Ken Lashley, Roger Cruz, Cliff Van Meter, Jae Lee, Chris Sprouse, Paul Smith, Darick Robertson, & Matt Ryan

X-Men: Prof X, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast, Angel, Iceman, Storm, Wolverine, Rogue, Pylocke, Revanche, Jubilee, Gambit, Bishop

X-Factor: Val Cooper, Havoc, Quicksilver, Polaris, Madrox, Wolfsbane, Strong Guy, Random

X-Force: Cable, Cannonball, Sunspot, Boom-Boom, Rictor, Shatterstar, Feral, Warpath, Siryn

Excalibur:Nightcrawler, Kitty Pryde, Rachel Summers

1st Appearances: Exodus, Kleinstock, Neophyte, Spoor, Milan, Seamus Melloncamp, Empyrean

Also Featuring: Magneto, Colossus, Forge, Moira Mactaggert, Banshee, Magick, Reed Richards, Thing, Captain Britain, Sunfire, Fabien Cortez, Frenzy, Unuscione, Amelia Voght, Sanyaka, Trevor Fitzroy, Shinobi Shaw, Gamesmaster, Tribune, Toad, Blob, Pyro, Phantazia, Gabrielle Haller, Charlotte Jones, Trish Tilby, Robert Kelly, Sharon Friedlander, Tom Corsi, Lilandra

As you might guess by the volume of names above, this is a messy mega-crossover. While it has one excellent issue, and a couple of very important plot points for many future storylines, I have a difficult time recommending this. Mostly because it pivots around Magneto being a villain again. Yes, Magneto started as a villain, but he evolved into an anti-hero, an actual hero, and then into the murky era of being an opponent to the X-Men for a very valid reason that didn't cast him precisely as a villain. And then he died, fairly heroically. So to bring him back as a villain again felt really tacky, lazy, and not very believable.

I've grown to like Scott Lobdell's books more than I thought I did, and I do think he tells some compelling stories in this volume, but the conceit of Magneto being a villain just doesn't work for me.

There is a death, from The Legacy Virus, in this volume that was devastating when the issue was written, and it's devastating now. The story of grief from the perspective of Jubilee, Jean Grey, and Kitty Pryde is possibly Lobdell's best comic. It's certainly the best Jubilee story I can think of.

But then we have a character I most remember from The Age Of Apocalypse (which hasn't happened yet), Magneto and his Acolytes, a couple of minor but recurring character deaths, and a huge Wolverine moment.

So, I think I'm going to begrudgingly put this volume as a recommendation with the caveat that there's a lot of material, and not all of it is great, but all of it does feed into the major storylines, and it does make sense. We're about to enter an era of X-Men where most logic goes out the window, so I guess you should check out this, as one of the last bastions of decent, if complex and sometimes annoying, X-books before that era begins.

13. Generation X Epic Collection Back To School by Scott Lobdell, Fabien Nicieza, Joe Madureira, Roger Cruz, Andy Kubert, and Chris Bachalo

X-Men: Banshee, Jubilee, Emma Frost, Sabretooth

Generation X: Banshee, Emma Frost, Jubilee, Husk, Sync, Monet, Skin, Blink, Chamber

1st Appearances: Penance, Emplate, DOA

Also Featuring: Prof X, Jean Grey, Cameron Hodge, Steven Lang, Beast, Cyclops, Bishop, Angel, Iceman, Gateway, Nanny, Orphan Maker

This is an intriguing X-Men storyline about the Phalanx that becomes the origin story for X-Men Gen 4 (Gen 1 is the original team, Gen 2 is the Uncanny Team from the 80s, and Gen 3 is New Mutants/X-Force).

The adventure for How The Team Comes Together is fun, and once the actual Generation X story gets started, we get to see a nice evolution in how mutant teams exist. This isn't gorgeous Jean Grey, the psychic and telekinetic, with her nerdy suck-up boyfriend, the athletic Cyclops. There's no bouncing gymnast with snappy patter who is ostracized because he has big feet. Nobody looks like an angel, and nobody looks like a regular teen until he turns on his ice powers. When Paige is injured, she has to peel off her skin to reveal a new, uninjured body. Angelo's body has too much skin. And while Monet, Jubilee, and Everett look like normal teens, Jonathan appears to have a nuclear furnace where most people has a face, and the girl known only as Penance has a razor sharp body, not cool claws that they can push in and out of their skin like Wolverine, her whole body is razor sharp. It's basically a team of Nightcrawlers, in that they can't really hide that they're mutants.

In their first set of storylines, they battle the parasitic Emplate, they have to figure out how to interact with one of Emplate's non-verbal victims, Penance, and then they're sent to rescue a mutant teen who's taken a class hostage because the school kicked him out. His powers? He doesn't have any. He's just physically deformed and has trouble breathing. But he's treated like he's a violent criminal who the police assume is bulletproof because he's a mutant.

Despite a lackluster ending (The Holiday Spectacular is slightly holidayish but not at all spectacular), this is a worthy volume for my headcanon as we get to see a new team get together and we see new sides of Banshee and Emma Frost, who serve as the heads of the new Massachusetts Academy (you know, the school where Emma Frost was training The Hellions until she fell into a coma and most of her team died). The only negative caveat I have for this book is that if you really like the series, you should know that most of it hasn't yet been collected into trades.

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