We are celebrating the 50th anniversary of the All-New, All-Different X-Men by, starting today, counting down YOUR picks for the Greatest X-Men comic book stories of the past 50 years! You all voted, I added up your votes, and now I will count down your votes, five stories an entry for however long that takes to get to #1!
These X-Men stories come from comic books that starred the X-Men, or at least crossovers in which they were the co-stars. This doesn’t include solo Wolverine stories, or solo X-Force stories, or solo X-Factor stories. Just X-Men comic book stories. Here are the final three!
3. “God Loves, Man Kills” (Marvel Graphic Novel #5)
In this classic graphic novel by Chris Claremont and Brent Anderson, the X-Men are forced to team up with Magneto when they run afoul of the anti-mutant religious zealot Reverand Stryker. Stryker ends up kidnapping Cyclops and Professor Xavier and the X-Men and Wolverine go to rescue them and since they have teamed up with Magneto in this fight, they are more willing to use…extreme measures.
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Instead of a larger battle on live television, though, the X-Men essentially win the day through vigorous debate. After Stryker denounces Nightcrawler as non-human…
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Kitty retorts, “More human than you! Nightcrawler’s generous and kind and decent! He had every reason to be bitter, every excuse to become as much of a demon inside and out, but he decided he’d rather learn to laugh instead! I hope I can be HALF the person he is, and if I have to choose between caring for my friend and believing in YOUR God…then I choose…m-my friend!” Nice.
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Eventually, Stryker’s inhumanity rears its ugly head and the X-Men are saved.
Image via Marvel
Powerful stuff.
This really influenced the next decade of X-Men comic books, as the more mature themes introduced in this comic were slowly worked into the normal continuity.
2. “Days of Future Past” by Chris Claremont, John Byrne and Terry Austin (X-Men #141 and Uncanny X-Men #142)
Days of Future Past was a major X-Men storyline, as it introduced many key figures and plotlines that would reoccur many times over the next 30 years (and counting).
The main concept of the book is that a group of X-Men in the future, a dark future where most mutants have been hunted down and killed by government-mandated genocide (using giant robots called Sentinels), decide to try to change their present by sending one of them back in time to stop the problem before it began. The way they do this is by sending the mind of Katherine Pryde into the mind of herself as a teenager, Kitty Pryde of the X-Men.
You see, the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants are destined to kill Senator Robert Kelly, an anti-mutant Senator who wants to run for President. If they succeed, this will lead tot he backlash that made their timeline occur. So the idea is to avoid that by saving Kelly’s life.
The rest of the comic mixes in the present-time X-Men trying to stop the Brotherhood…..
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along with the future X-Men facing off against the Sentinels.
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The battle between the X-Men and the new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants was one of the best battles Byrne and Austin ever drew.
So all in all, this story introduced the dark future timeline, which became a major trope for the X-Books (alternate timelines), plus introduced major characters like Rachel, the telepath who sends Katherine’s mind to the past, and a few new evil mutants who kept popping up over and over again over the years (Avalanche, Destiny and Pyro). Not bad for just a two-issue story arc!
This was also notable in that it was the last storyline that the classic X-Men team of Chris Claremont and John Byrne did on the book (Byrne left the book after one more issue, a classic Christmas tale).
1. “The Dark Phoenix Saga” by Chris Claremont, John Byrne and Terry Austin (X-Men #129-137)
The last few issues of the Dark Phoenix Saga, where Phoenix actually BECOMES Dark Phoenix, almost overshadow the importance of the issues that lead up to Phoenix turning evil.
To wit, those issues (which actually were a bit of a cause for celebration for the X-Men, as they were finally reunited after being split up for a year or so – real time – as Jean Grey and Professor X thought that the rest of the team had died after a battle with Magneto) introduced the following characters:
Kitty Pryde
Emma Frost
Dazzler
Sebastian Shaw
The Hellfire Club, in general
Think about that – Kitty Pryde and Emma Frost are two of the more memorable additions to the X-Men since Giant Size X-Men #1, and they BOTH debuted in this storyline!
Not to mention the fact that the lead-up contains the fight against the Hellfire Club where Wolverine is thought dead and the X-Men captured
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only for Wolverine to turn up at the end of #132 vowing revenge, in a panel is one of the most iconic panels in Marvel History…
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And then Jean Grey snaps and becomes the Dark Phoenix and things get all sorts of crazy.
John Byrne really does a marvelous job on the battle sequences involving Dark Phoenix as the X-Men do their best to take down their friend. They try their best in #135, but she quickly defeats them and flies off into outer space. Her traveling makes her yearn for sustenance, which she gets by entering and imploding a star, soaking in the energy of its destruction. She does not care that the destruction of the star also destroys the planet it orbits. A starship of the Shi’Ar Empire notices, though, and challenges Dark Phoenix.
She destroys the ship easily, but not before it gets off a message to the Shi’Ar Royal Throneworld, where the Empress of the Shi’Ar Empire, Lilandra (Professor X’s then-current lover) springs into action.
Meanwhile, in #136, Dark Phoenix returns to Earth where her teammates and her love, Cyclops, await her with a device meant to shut down telepaths. She destroys it and once again takes care of her teammates with ease, but Cyclops manages to calm her down by appealing to her still human side. At this point, Professor X attacks, and he and Phoenix have a telepathic battle, where ultimately, due to the aid of whatever vestiges of Jean Grey remain in Dark Phoenix, he manages to shut Dark Phoenix’s powers down.
The X-Men do not have a moment to rest, though, as they’re instantly teleported to a Shi’Ar battleship orbiting Earth, where the Shi’Ar Imperial Guard and Empress Lilandra demand Jean Grey be delivered over to them for punishment for her actions as Dark Phoenix. Professor X utters a Shi’Ar ritual challenge, which Lilandra is duty-bound to accept. Therefore, in #137, the X-Men will fight the mighty Shi’Ar Imperial Guard for the fate of Jean Grey.
The next day, the teams meet on the Moon for their battle. The X-Men are heavily outnumbered and outclassed by the Guard, who are made up of the most powerful heroes of the Shi’Ar Empire. Although the X-Men fight valiantly, they are slowly picked off, one by one, until only Cyclops and Jean remain free. When Cyclops is taken out as well, Jean begins to panic and the limits Professor X placed on her begin to crumble – Dark Phoenix frees herself and wants revenge. The X-Men stand ready to battle Dark Phoenix, but Jean manages to take control long enough to intentionally trip a defense mechanism laser, killing herself so that Dark Phoenix can hurt no one else ever again.
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It’s a terribly poignant moment, expressed beautifully by Claremont, Byrne and Austin.
What a combination of two great stories all mixed into one saga, while killing off a major character and introducing a bunch of new ones.