What Vintage X-Men Comics Should Every Marvel Fan Read At Least Once?

The X-Men went from a team that no one liked in the Silver Age to the biggest team in comics. The X-Men have been around for 61 years and have presented amazing stories to fans. Many of comics’ greatest creators have worked on the X-Men books, and Uncanny X-Men holds the distinction of having the longest run by a single writer – Chris Claremont’s landmark seventeen-year run. X-Men comics have changed the comic industry in a variety of ways, and many of its best stories come from the team’s early years.

Vintage comics can be pretty hard to read for modern readers. Comics have evolved in a variety of ways, but vintage X-Men books – ranging from their 1963 debut to the X-books of 1984 – have a lot of gems that some newer readers haven’t read. Some of these comics are considered among the best of all time, and every reader should hunt them down.

10 X-Men (Vol. 1) #1 Is Where It All Started

Silver Age Marvel could do no wrong with fans. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s fruitful collaboration gave the comic industry many of their greatest characters of all time, and that includes the original class of X-Men. X-Men (Vol. 1) #1 is the place where it all started, introducing Charles Xavier, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Angel, Beast, and Iceman, as well as Magneto, a character that many consider the greatest villain in comics. X-Men (Vol. 1) #1 is a true classic and every X-Men fan should experience it at least once.

Stan Lee’s writing can be a bit much for newer fans, but that’s all part of this book’s charm. Of course, the best part of this comic is Jack Kirby’s art, which is pretty standard for Marvel books of the time. Getting to see the X-Men battle Magneto for the first time is amazing and while X-Men would fall very short as the Silver Age went on and Lee and Kirby left the book, this issue is a piece of Silver Age perfection.

9 God Loves, Man Kills Is Perfect

Chris Claremont basically saved the X-Men, taking the team from obscurity to the heights of the sales charts. There are lots of reasons for this, and all of them are on display in God Loves, Man Kills. Originally published as Marvel Graphic Novel #5, God Loves, Man Kills introduced Reverend Stryker and his Purifiers, religious extremists who believe that mutants are demons and deserve nothing less than extermination. After the deaths of several young mutants, the X-Men and Magneto team up to battle bigotry in its most insidious form.

God Loves, Man Kills is perfect. There’s no other way to describe the book. Claremont shows the dangers of religious extremism and racism, telling a story that is still prescient forty-two years later. There’s a reason this book has stood the test of time. Claremont is on fire here, and Anderson and Oliff’s art brings the story to life in a way another art team couldn’t. God Loves, Man Kills is exactly the kind of story that the X-Men were created to tell, and any X-fan who hasn’t read it needs to fix that immediately.

8 Wolverine (Vol. 1) #1-4 Is Still A Definitive Wolverine Story Decades Later

Wolverine became the biggest character in Uncanny X-Men, so it was only a matter of time before he got a miniseries. Wolverine (Vol. 1) #1-4 took the hero to Japan for a visit to his girlfriend Mariko Yashida. However, he finds that her Yakuza boss father Shingen has married her off to one of his lackeys. Wolverine jumps into action but is trounced by the skilled and experienced Shingen. This leads the ol’Canucklehead to the wild ninja Yukio, as he realizes that he can’t beat Shingen the way he’s beaten so many others.

A book that combined early ’80s Chris Claremont and Frank Miller, with lesser-known legends like Rubenstein, Wein, and Orzechowski onboard, couldn’t be anything less than amazing and this book fits that bill. It cemented Wolverine as a solo star and showed there was more to the character than just the mouthy berserker he was at the time. Wolverine has changed a lot over the decades since this story came out, but it remains a definitive, must-read story for Wolverine and X-Men fans.

7 X-Men (Vol. 1) #12-13 Introduced Readers To Juggernaut

Lee and Kirby’s X-Men run introduced many of the bedrock characters in X-Men history. One of their most important creations was Juggernaut. Cain Marko was Charles Xavier’s bullying stepbrother, having gained the power of the Juggernaut when he found the temple of Cyttorak while in the military. Juggernaut’s powers made him the polar opposite of his brother, his brawn contrasting with Xavier’s brains. X-Men (Vol. 1) #12-13 started their long rivalry and is a blockbuster of a story.

Kirby was a master of drawing massive characters and laying out great battles, and this book has that in spades. It also has legendary artist Alex Toth on issue 12 chipping in on art, as Kirby was spread pretty thin at the time. Lee and Kirby only had one more issue after this two-parter, and this story ranks among the best of their run.

6 Uncanny X-Men #150 Is Evil Magneto At His Best

Magneto started as a stereotypical Stan Lee villain, histrionics-prone and mustache-twirlingly evil. Chris Claremont made Magneto into the sympathetic villain that would lead to the “Magneto was right!” era. There are lots of great Claremont Magneto stories to choose from, but the best portraying him as a villain is easily Uncanny X-Men #150. The story continues from the last issue, as Magneto takes the planet hostage, threatening destruction on the world unless everyone disarms and surrenders to him. The Soviet Union sends a nuclear sub after him, but the Master of Magnetism sinks it before it can launch nukes at him, and the X-Men jump into action to stop their greatest enemy from genocide.

This issue represents one of the most important Magneto stories ever, one that would be referenced for years to come. Claremont has always written the best Magneto, and this issue is a wonderful example of that. On top of the excellent writing, Cockrum’s art is amazing, giving readers a climactic battle that is unforgettable.

5 Giant-Size X-Men #1 Was The Rebirth Of The X-Men

Giant-Size X-Men #1 is a legendary comic. The X-Men had been trapped in reprints for years by 1975, and that didn’t look like it was going to change. Giant-Size X-Men #1 changed all of that, introducing readers to an all-new team of X-Men when the original team is captured by the living mutant island known as Krakoa. This book introduced readers to Storm, Colossus, and Nightcrawler, brought Wolverine to the X-Men in his second comic appearance, and set up the team for the greatness that was to come.

There are so many great things about this comic. If there is one book that is responsible for the rise of the X-Men, it’s this one. Cockrum dropped multiple best-of-all-time character designs in this book, and Wein gives readers a story that is engaging and action-packed. This is the book that launched a thousand stories and gave the X-Men all the tools they needed to take over the comic industry in the years to come.

4 Uncanny X-Men #143 Is Superhero Horror Done Right

Uncanny X-Men #143 is the last issue of Claremont and Byrne’s time together, and it’s an amazing ending to what was easily the most fertile period in X-Men history. Uncanny X-Men #143 is titled “Demon” and is a Christmas issue starring the Jewish Kitty Pryde. As the rest of the team goes out for Christmas festivities, Pryde is left alone in the mansion. Kitty expects to have a quiet night at home, but when the N’Garai cairn vomits forth one of its demonic monsters, Pryde is involved in a battle for her life all by herself. With her powers not working against the monster, Pryde has to reach deep down to survive.

A horror story set in Christmas, starring a Jewish character, is something of an anachronism, but Claremont and Byrne make it work. Claremont’s style was extremely wordy, but the way he sets the tone of this issue shows the strength of his style. Byrne rightly deserves his reputation as a top artist and this issue shows him at his best. “Demon” is a one-issue masterpiece, a perfect blend of horror and superheroes that still stands tall all these years later.

3 Roy Thomas And Neal Adams’s X-Men Run Is The Best Of The Book’s Early Years

Roy Thomas was Stan Lee’s heir apparent. Thomas took many of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s creations and brought them to the next level. Artist Neal Adams was the Jim Lee of his day, an artist whose style would inspire many of the best creators in comic history, both for his art and his pioneering stance on creator’s rights. Thomas and Adams worked together several times, and had a short but memorable run on X-Men (Vol. 1) before the book became a reprint comic. The two worked together on issues #57-63, with Adams taking some time off in #64 but returning for #65.

Thomas and Adams took over a book that was circling the drain and made it into a must-read. Of course, few people were reading the comic back then, so it would be years before the majority of Marvel fans knew how good this book became with them on it. Thomas and Adams were amazing together and seeing them put the team against the Living Pharoah, Magneto, all-new villain Sauron, and more shows the potential of the X-Men even back when no one was giving the book a chance.

Claremont and Byrne were the killer team that brought the X-Men to the next level, and their last multi-part story is yet another reason why they are two of the best X-Men creators of all time. Days Of Future Past showed the X-Men’s terrible future, a time when the Sentinels have taken control of the world, slaughtering mutants and superhumans alike. The X-Men of the future send Kate Pryde back in time to stop the assassination of Senator Robert Kelly by Mystique’s Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, in the hopes of stopping their future from coming to be.

Days Of Future Past introduced the dystopian future to the X-Men, popularizing the story trope in the comic industry in the decades to come. It’s only two issues long, an all-killer, no-filler piece of comic perfection. Seeing the Sentinels of the future slaughter the X-Men was a shock in 1980, and while fans are used to the X-Men dystopian future trope nowadays, this story not only stands up but is better than 90% of X-Men comics that have come after it.

1 The Dark Phoenix Saga Is The Best X-Men Comic Ever

Many comics vie for the title of best Marvel comic of all time, but there’s one that stands head and shoulders above the rest. The Dark Phoenix Saga is an X-Men masterpiece, a story that Claremont started cooking way back in Uncanny X-Men #101 with Jean Grey’s introduction as Phoenix. The Dark Phoenix Saga tells the story of Jean Grey’s fall to darkness, a story that does an amazing job of selling the fall of a friend and the lengths the X-Men will go to save her, as well as how far she’ll go in the end to repay them. This story not only contains many iconic moments in X-Men history during the battle against the Dark Phoenix but also introduces the Hellfire Club.

The Dark Phoenix Saga is the story that everyone thinks of when they think of Claremont and Byrne’s time together. It set itself apart from everything else on the stands in 1979 and 1980, an epic tragedy like no other. Claremont’s poetic writing style is the key to this story. Sure, Byrne’s art is gorgeous and a highlight in comic history, but Claremont’s prose does a brilliant job of selling the story’s emotional throughline. The Dark Phoenix Saga is epic in every sense of the word and it’s a vintage story that every fan needs to read multiple times.