10 Darkest X-Men Comics Ever

Readers of X-Men comics are no strangers to dark storylines. The X-Men are often thrown into complex and harrowing narratives. They explore themes such as racism and bigotry. Sometimes, they dive deep into a character’s dark history (especially Wolverine). Other times, the comics explore how immense power, like the Phoenix, can corrupt a seemingly incorruptible character like Jean Grey. In other stories, such as the recent Fall of X, readers watch as characters like Professor Xavier’s hubris finally catch up to them.

But what makes a good dark X-Men story? Certainly, there are plenty of examples to choose from. The ones that strike readers the most are the ones where the dark aspects strip a character to their core and reveal something new about them. This allows the audience to feel a deeper connection to the characters. And though a character’s actions might be horrifying, they can also humanize them by showing their flaws. But sometimes, the storylines explore a variety of characters, showing just how bleak it can be to be a mutant.

10 Days of Future Past Showed the X-Men a Bleak Future

The classic storyline was only two issues long

Days of Future Past packs quite an emotional punch for such a short story arc. The story follows Kate Pryde as her consciousness is sent into the past to her younger self. Her mission? Stop Mystique from assassinating Robert Kelly, Charles Xavier, and Moira MacTaggert. But readers also got to see what the future held for marvel’s merry mutants, and it was anything but merry.

In the future, most of the world’s superheroes, mutants or otherwise, will be killed. Sentinels had taken over and policed a wartorn North America. What little mutants there were left were either in camps or hiding underground. And if the first of the two-part story didn’t show how desperate the future was, the second part solidified it with a cover claiming, “This issue: Everybody Dies!” The story also complicated how all superheroes operated. Senator Kelly was staunchly anti-mutant, but the heroes discovered their villain’s death would worsen things. Days of Future Past was eventually adapted into one of the best dystopian movies since 2010.

9 God Love, Man KillsWent Heavy on the Political Message

The X-Men have always been a political comic

Since Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created the X-Men, they have always been a political metaphor for civil rights. Like many other X-Men writers, Chris Claremont made that motif a vital part of his 17-year run on the comic franchise. However, even though that messaging was clear in Days of Future Past, Claremont dove into the messaging even harder in God Loves, Man Kills.

In the story, Xavier debated with a fire and brimstone preacher named William Stryker (in X-Men film adaptations, he was changed to a military general). Stryker’s rhetoric was terrifying. He weaponized Christianity not just to attack Xavier in a debate but also to convince others that mutants were “abominations.” He then kidnapped and used Xavier’s telepathic powers to try and kill every mutant on Earth. The Marvel graphic novel showed readers that villains could come from any background.

8 Magneto Went Too Far in X-Men#25

Readers witnessed one of Wolverine’s worst moments inFatal Attractions

Fatal Attractions was a dark X-Men comic event for many reasons. Yet again, Magneto seeks to make mutankind the dominant species on Earth, and disrupts the planet’s electromagnetic sphere, causing chaos in every corner of the globe. He declares his intentions during Illyana Rasputin’s funeral and convinces her big brother, Colossus, to join him. However, that is far from the darkest moment of the event.

In X-Men #25, the team, led by Professor X in the field, went to the space station Avalon to confront Magneto. After Wolverine comes close to killing Magneto, the master of magnetism rips the adamantium out of Wolverine’s body. In retaliation, Xavier rips away Magneto’s mind. This set the stage for the massive X-Men and Avengers event called Onslaught, now considered one of the best X-Men events of the 1990s.

7 Mutant Massacre Traumatized Characters and Readers

The first X-Men crossover had long-lasting effects

Line-wide events are commonplace in comics now, but Mutant Massacre was a unique and very successful experiment when it came out. Spanning over eleven issues in five different series, the story took readers from one shocking event to another. They witnessed an event in comics unlike any other (at the time). Mister Sinister’s Marauders team murdered hundreds of Morlocks to eliminate what Sinister saw as “wild card” mutants.

Along the way, Gambit betrayed the X-Men and helped Sinister, Colossus killed the Maruader Riptide, and Thor used fire to cleanse the Morlock tunnels of bodies. The event also featured what many still call the best Wolverine and Sabretooth showdown in their long history of battles. But one of the most haunting moments came when Harpoon pinned Angel to the tunnel walls by his wings. Angel had his wings amputated, eventually leading him to join Apocalypse as the Horseman of Death, Archangel.

6 Bishop Destroys the Future in Messiah War

The Cable and X-Force crossover delivered the darkest moments in both books

Hope Summers has had one of the hardest lives in the X-Men franchise, and considering what many mutants have lived through, that’s saying a lot. She was born into a war between the Marauders, the Purifiers, and the X-Men. To keep her safe, Cable took her into the future. But this turned out to be a mistake, as Bishop, blaming Hope Summers for the dystopia he grew up in, started to burn entire timelines to find her.

Eventually, Cable and Hope arrived in a future where Bishop and Stryfe teamed up. X-Force showed up to help the mutant messiah and her adoptive father. Bishop had successfully killed nearly every living thing on Earth. In Mutant Massacre, Gambit betrayed his fellow mutants, even if he didn’t realize what his actions would lead to. However, in X-Force/Cable: Messiah War, Bishop knew exactly what he was doing.

5 The Dark Phoenix Saga Forever Changed Jean Grey

The storyline became Chris Claremont’s most famous X-Men arc

The Dark Phoenix Saga may be X-Men’s most famous story arc. Fox tried to adapt it to film twice and faced critical and audience backlash. It’s a complex story featuring the debut of Emma Frost, Dazzler, Sebastian Shaw, and Kate Pryde. But it also took a hero many thought nearly infallible and turned her into a monster.

After Mastermind tampered with her mind, Jean Grey began to lose control of the Phoenix Force that bonded with her. She became a being of rage and destruction and killed an entire populated planet in her madness. As a result, the Shi’ar Empire made the X-Men face trial by combat, during which Jean took her own life, unable to live with what she had become. Though Marvel later retconned the event to say it wasn’t the real Jean Grey, the actions still haunt the character.

4 Old Man Logan Broke Wolverine

He refused to ever use his claws ever again

What could make Wolverine quit being a hero and quit fighting at all? That was the premise of Millar and McNiven’s Old Man Logan, featuring a Logan so traumatized by his actions that he refuses to fight back even when attacked. In the “Wasteland” timeline Old Man Logan is from, the villains have defeated all the superheroes in America and divided the country up for themselves. Nearly every hero was killed, but Wolverine survived and started a family. He lived in California now run by the descendants of Hulk.

Throughout the storyline, readers saw flashbacks of Wolverine fighting all the X-Men villains simultaneously. However, the reality of the situation was far more harrowing. Millar and McNiven revealed that Wolverine wasn’t actually fighting villains at all. Instead, Mysterio tricked him into attacking the X-Men. Wolverine ended up killing all of his teammates. The revelation shocked readers. Old Man Logan quickly became a fan-favorite storyline and was used as the basis for the film Logan.

3 E is for Extinction Debuted One of Marvel’s Deadliest Villains

The X-Men witnessed one of the darkest days in their history

Similar to Days of Future Past, E for Extinction is a very short story arc, with only three issues. However, it packs a lot into just a few issues. Readers witnessed the return of the sentinels and the introduction of a new villain, Cassandra Nova. Not much later in his New X-Men run, Grant Morrison revealed that Nova was actually Charles Xavier’s twin sister that he attempted to murder in the womb. But that’s not the darkest moment of Morrison’s run.

In New X-Men #117, Cassandra Nova unleashed a super sentinel onto the mutant nation of Genosha and killed nearly every living mutant on the island. Xavier watched in horror through Cerebro as the island’s population dwindled from millions to nothing. When the X-Men and rescue crews arrived at the island, the only living person they could find was Emma Frost, whose skin had turned to diamond. The X-Men fought for decades to prevent something like this from happening and were powerless to stop it.

2 Age of Apocalypse Took Over the Entire X-Men Franchise

An event of this magnitude hasn’t happened since

While Marvel and DC have had many massive line-wide events, none have come close in scale to what Marvel accomplished with Age of Apocalypse. In this age of comics, they might never be able to again. When the event started in 1994, readers were unaware of what was about to happen. Today, easy-to-find solicitations ruin some of the magic of not knowing what is going to happen. But it wasn’t just the shock that made the event memorable.

What would happen if Xavier died before he could form the X-Men? To put it mildly, hell. Apocalypse rose to power in North America and created a hellish landscape to continue promoting his Darwinian “only the strong shall survive” views. In this reality, Sabretooth was a hero while Beast was a monstrous villain (granted, he still became a villain in the Earth-616 Krakoan era). Magneto led the X-Men, while Cyclops was one of Mister Sinister’s pawns. The event also introduced fan-favorite characters such as Blink and X-Man. But for several months, fans witnessed the horrifying alternate reality of Age of Apocalypse.

1 Uncanny X-Force #4 was Shockingly Dark

Fantomex’s actions left even Deadpool speechless

Rick Remender’s Uncanny X-Force run was dark from start to finish. At first, the team consisted of five members known for killing, including Wolverine, Deadpool, Psylocke, Archangel, and Fantomex. Their first mission was simple: find and kill Apocalypse before he can strike again. However, the mission became far more complicated when they discovered that Apocalypse was now in the form of a cloned child.

In Uncanny X-Force #4, the team debates what to do about the child. At first, Archangel wants to kill him regardless but then finds that he can’t bring himself to murder a child. But as Wolverine, Psylocke, and Archangel discuss what to do with the young boy, Fantomex kills him anyway. The team is left speechless for the rest of the issue. Though X-Men readers are used to seeing death, this was one of the most unsettling moments in the franchise’s history.