How To Start Reading X-Men Comics

The X-Men have had some amazing ups and downs over the years. The team started in Marvel’s Silver Age, with Stan Lee and Jack Kirby setting the foundations of the team. However, those early days saw X-Men become a second-string Marvel comic, overshadowed by books like Avengers, Fantastic Four, and The Amazing Spider-Man. The mid-’70s saw things pick up, and since then, the X-Men have dominated the comic industry, spending years as the sales leader.

The X-Men are getting a lot of attention again because of X-Men ’97, and there’s a good chance that the animated series will drive fans to the comics. However, the X-Men comics have a reputation for being complicated and convoluted. It can be tough to know where to start with the X-Men, but luckily, there are multiple places in X-Men history that a new reader can start at.

The Claremont Years Are Full Of Amazing Stories And Readily Available

X-Men was a reprint book for several years before the team was given another chance to shine with Giant-Size X-Men #1. Writer Len Wein and artist Dave Cockrum introduced an entirely new team, bringing the recently debuting Wolverine onto the team, keeping Cyclops from the original run, along with Banshee and Sunfire, and giving readers all-new characters like Storm, Colossus, Nightcrawler, and Thunderbird. This would lead to writer Chris Claremont taking over X-Men, which would become the longest run on a Marvel comic by any writer. Claremont wrote the X-Men from 1974 to 1991 and created many of the greatest Marvel stories ever. Claremont took the blank slate of the X-Men and transformed it into one of the most beautiful superhero tapestries ever.

When people think of the X-Men, they often think of Chris Claremont’s stories. The Dark Phoenix Saga, Days Of Future Past, The Brood Saga, God Loves, Man Kills, Fall Of The Mutants, Inferno, and so many more are all on the list of greatest X-Men stories ever. Chris Claremont worked with many of the greatest artists ever – Dave Cockrum, John Byrne, John Romita Jr., Paul Smith, Marc Silverstri, Rick Leonardi, and Jim Lee – and was able to balance building characters with action-packed stories.

Claremont created the soap opera aspect of the X-Men, the drama that has become a hallmark of the team. The great thing about Claremont’s stories is that they are almost always in print. It’s easy to find stories like The Dark Phoenix Saga in collected editions, and there are multiple omnibuses in Claremont’s run. Claremont is a great place for any fan to start. A new reader doesn’t really need to read every issue of Claremont’s first seventeen-year run, and there are lots of ways to get these stories without digging through back issue bins. The best places to start with Claremont are usually The Dark Phoenix Saga and God Loves, Man Kills. These stories are Claremont’s X-Men at their best.

The Early ’90s Are The Bestselling Era Of The X-Men

X-Men ’97 continues the 1990s animated series, a snapshot of the most popular X-Men era. The ’90s were the X-Men’s victory lap after owning the 1980s. 1991 would be the year the X-Men broke all the records. X-Force #1 sold like hotcakes, but it was about to be overshadowed by X-Men (Vol. 2) #1. This new title was launched for artist Jim Lee and contained the last Chris Claremont story for nine years. It began the Blue/Gold Team era, splitting the massive X-Men roster into two teams.

X-Men (Vol. 2) #1-3is a great place for new fans and opens the doors to the ’90s for any reader. This three-issue story pits the X-Men against Magneto and catches readers up on the years of lore they’d need to understand the X-Men if they missed the entirety of the 1980s. X-Men (Vol. 2) #1sold eight million copies, a record that hasn’t been touched since, and made a legion of young readers into comic fans. The story is collected as X-Men: Mutant Genesis, but finding the first three issues of the book is rather easy. They were heavily over-ordered, and most comic stores have several copies somewhere.

The ’90s get a bad rep for being complicated, but starting from X-Men (Vol. 2) #1 is great for new readers. X-Men ’97 will get many people interested in this era, and Mutant Genesis isn’t the only great story from the ’90s for new readers. Fatal Attractions is another Magneto story that changed the teams for years. The Age Of Apocalypse is another great choice. This alternate universe story doesn’t have that high of a bar for X-Men knowledge that a new reader would need. Many longtime X-Men fans number it among the best stories ever.

Omnibuses collect the multiple four-issue series that made up the story, but that said, not all of it is created equal. Astonishing X-Men, Amazing X-Men, Weapon X, Generation Next, and Factor X are the best series of the story, but reading the whole thing does give new readers a mostly great story. A new reader can just read The Age Of Apocalypse if they want to see a unique X-Men story. X-Men (Vol. 2) is the best place for new readers to stay, especially in the first thirty issues. Later X-Men stories, from 1996 to 1999, are great for longtime fans but aren’t anywhere a new reader should approach without reading here first.

Grant Morrison’s New X-Men Run Is The Best X-Men Run Of The 21st Century

Superhero comics always reboot their books, and the X-Men have had lots of them. However, not all of them are created equal and not all of them work for new fans. The X-Men in the ’00s are full of these reboots, but a perfect one for new readers is New X-Men. Writer Grant Morrison is known for their strange but heavily imaginative stories, and they were given the helm of the X-Men after coming to Marvel. X-Men (Vol. 2) was transformed into New X-Men. Morrison brought the X-Men back to basics in their run.

The X-Men were established as a school to teach mutants to use their powers, partly to be superheroes but also to fit in. Morrison took this to the next level. The Xavier Institute brought in multiple students beyond the superheroes, and the X-Men went from being concerned with saving the world and making humans love mutants to rescuing workers and teachers. The roster of the team – Cyclops, Jean Grey, Wolverine, Beast, Emma Frost, and Professor X – was perfect for the series, combining the most popular X-Men to create a team that was great in battle and gave readers the kind of drama they wanted.

Morrison’s run began with New X-Men #114 and ran to New X-Men #154. Morrison took a lot of familiar tropes from X-Men history – playing up the school, using the Phoenix Force, the Shi’Ar Empire, Weapon X, and more, tweaking them in new ways. For years, X-Men fans had to deal with reruns of what came before. Morrison took these reruns and did them in all-new ways. Morrison’s run is easy to find in collected editions, with work from artists like Frank Quitely and Phil Jimenez and X-Men legends like Chris Bachalo and Marc Silvestri.

Morrison’s love of comics shines through in every story, taking a book that was hard for new readers to get into and making it accessible. New X-Men does everything right for new readers. There are action-packed stories like E Is For Extinction and Assault On Weapon Plus, there are drama-packed stories like Riot At Xavier’s and Murder At The Mansion, and there are big crazy stories like Planet X and Here Comes Tomorrow. New X-Men does a great job of setting the scene for new readers from the beginning. It came after a pretty convoluted era of X-Men comics, and Morrison was given the edict of making the X-Men new reader-friendly in the wake of 2000’s X-Men film. It’s also the only X-Men comic that new readers should approach from 2001 to 2004.

Uncanny X-Men around this time was going through its worst period ever, Claremont’s X-Treme X-Men depends heavily on knowing Claremont’s run and new readers should stay far away from both of these books. Ultimate X-Men was meant to be perfect for new readers, rebooting the X-Men in a new Marvel Universe. However, Ultimate X-Men is very much a product of its time. Writer Mark Millar imbued the book with an edginess that no longer reads well. If a new reader wants to try the X-Men comics of the ’00s, Morrison’s New X-Men is the easiest to understand and the one that the X-Men’s pop cultural footprint best prepares readers for. Claremont’s run is considered the best, but Morrison has many stories that can stand with the best of Claremont.

The First Twenty-Five Issues Of Astonishing X-Men Is A Love Letter To Classic X-Men

Morrison left New X-Men in 2004 due to editorial clashes with Marvel. The X-Men books were without a superstar, but that wouldn’t last very long. Marvel got Buffy The Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon to write an all-new X-Men book known as Astonishing X-Men. Whedon was joined by artist John Cassaday, a rising star who made his name on the excellent series Planetary. Astonishing X-Men became the new flagship book of the line, starring Cyclops, Wolverine, Beast, Emma Frost, and Kitty Pryde.

Astonishing X-Men: Gifted is great for new readers and kicks off a twenty-five-issue story that serves as a love letter to Claremont’s run. Kitty Pryde is the main character of the run, and it begins with a story that pits the X-Men against an alien threat and an existential one – a cure for mutants. The next story deals with the sins of Professor Xavier, the third with the return of the Hellfire Club, and the last one takes the team to space to close out plot threads from the first story arc.

The great thing about Astonishing is that it doesn’t take a lot of X-Men knowledge to understand what’s happening. The book barely references things from New X-Men until the third arc, and Whedon does a great job of laying out everything that fans need to know about the team members. Cassaday’s art style is super clean, reminiscent of Paul Smith, and will definitely impress new readers. Astonishing X-Men‘s first four volumes are always in print, whether in omnibus editions or single volumes. The series was originally plagued with delays, which hurt the book’s reception, but new readers won’t have to worry about that. The low entry bar makes it a perfect entry point and will be great for readers who want to see the X-Men in some fun superhero stories.

The Krakoa Era’s Kickoff Is A Great Jumping On Point

Marvel enlisted the services of superstar writer Jonathan Hickman, who had done amazing work on books like Secret Warriors, Fantastic Four, Avengers, and New Avengers. Hickman was given the keys to the X-Men, and readers got the “two books that were one” – House Of X and Powers Of X. These two books took everything that had defined the X-Men and turned them on their ears. Instead of being at the mansion, the team created their own country on the mutant island of Krakoa, a living organism that the X-Men had fought many times. The Krakoa Era was a new day for the X-Men, leading to a reboot of the entire line.

House Of X/Powers Of X seems to have a high bar for entry, but Hickman understood how to take X-Men history and make it accessible. These two books complement each other and take readers to alternate timelines and the past, present, and future of the X-Men. House Of X/Powers Of X led to multiple books, and for the last five years, it has told a continuing story that dug through the depths of X-Men history.

This five-year epic is perfect for readers who want to get a single story from the X-Men. It’s different from almost every X-Men story before it, and that’s its greatest strength. There are multiple collected editions for the Krakoa Era, all of which are readily available. The Krakoa Era is great for manga fans who want an X-Men story with a beginning, middle, and end. Now, if new readers want to stay with the X-Men afterward, it is completely up to the individual, but it’s definitely a story that every new reader should try.

The X-Men Are Better For New Readers Than They Seem

Following the Krakoan Era, the best jumping on point for new readers was announced as three new flagship titles will launch the next era of the X-Men in the Marvel universe. This newest reveal only further highlights the ongoing cycle of change and rebirth the X-Men go through over the years.

The X-Men’s popularity meant that Marvel allowed creators to create a micro-Marvel Universe. There are hundreds of heroes and villains and webs of relationships between characters. There are alternate universes, stories set years in the past and future, and so many confusing little aspects of the team. The X-Men became notorious for having a high bar for entry by new readers, and that reputation was definitely earned in certain eras of the team. The X-Men can be a difficult nut to crack, but it’s not impossible.

The great thing about the multiple entry points to the X-Men is that each is tantalizing for new readers. The X-Men create readers who love the team like no other. New X-Men readers often become lifelong fans. Finding the right entry point is much easier than it seems, and all listed here will open up a new world. The X-Men have a rich history and finding the right entry to them opens a treasure trove of stories.