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 a day 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.
6. “E is for Extinction” by Grant Morrison, Frank Quitely and Tim Townsend (New X-Men #114-116)
This was the opening arc of Grant Morrison’s tenure on X-Men. Morrison revamped the look of the X-Men as well as the general status quo, as mutants are popping up with so much frequency that the Beast (who has mutated into a more animalistic, feline-looking version of his “normal” blue furry self – the idea of “secondary mutations” was also something Morrison newly introduced into the X-Men universe) discovers that if things continue as they are going, NON mutants will be extinct in a few generations! During this turbulent time in mutant history, a new villain made her mark. Cassandra Nova takes control of a seemingly defunct Sentinel base to decimate Genosha in a stunning sequence by Morrison and Quitely…
Image via Marvel
and the haunting reduction of the population…
Image via Marvel
16 million mutants killed in less than an hour! The X-Men, along with new member Emma Frost (who was one of the very few survivors of the Genosha attack), hunt down Nova and seemingly stop her…but it is too late, she has taken control of Professor X’s mind. What will she do with her new body? The X-Men will soon find out.
5. “House of X” by Jonathan Hickman, Pepe Larraz, R.B. Silva and Marte Gracia (House of X #1-6, Powers of X #1-6) – 231 points (5 first place votes)
A few years back, Jonathan Hickman was given license to completely overhaul the X-Men franchise with a pair of miniseries called House of X and Powers of X. As part of their commitment to Hickman’s new approach, Marvel canceled all of their X-Men titles and had only Hickman’s two books come out for three months, with House of X one week and Powers of X the next week. He worked with artists Pepe Larraz, R.B. Silva and Marte Gracia on the two series.
The series reshaped the whole X-Men experience by setting up their own nation and opening it up to representatives from other nations in exchange for a special medicine that the X-Men have developed from a plant on Krakoa, but things take a strange turn with Ambassador Magneto…
Image via Marvel
The series went into the past and the future to show how the decisions made today with the new destiny of the X-Men will have impact on everything for generations to come. Hickman has always been one of the great planners in comic book history and that care was shown in the intricate plotting in House of X/Powers of X, which led to a whole new relaunch of the X-Universe that lasted for five years before recently being relaunched with the current X-Men line of books.
4. “The Age of Apocalypse” by Scott Lobdell, Mark Waid, Fabian Nicieza, Andy Kubert, Joe Madureira, Steve Epting, Roger Cruz and a pile of other artists and writers (X-Men: Alpha #1, Amazing X-Men #1-4, Astonishing X-Men #1-4, X-Men: Omega #1 plus a bunch of tie-ins)
In this alternate universe storyline, Charles Xavier’s crazed yet powerful son, Legion, went back in time to kill Magneto, figuring that he’d put a stop to the Magneto/Professor X feud before it ever started. A group of X-Men went back in time to stop him, including the X-Men’s resident time-traveler, Bishop. They fail to stop Legion but young Charles Xavier DOES stop Legion, but only by sacrificing himself to save Magneto. This, as you might imagine, throws the whole timeline out of whack.
First of all, no Xavier. Second of all, Magneto now has to vow to take up Xavier’s dream for himself. Third, and perhaps most importantly, this big mutant battle years before mutants were supposed to be up and around at this level woke up Apocalypse earlier than the world was ready for. So Apocalypse proceeds to pretty much take over the world, as no superheroes were yet around to stop him. Magneto, for his part, puts together a ragtag group of mutants known as the X-Men (I think Xavier can cut the BS about the team being named after their X-tra powers when it turns out it is named after him even with him dead) to fight against Apocalypse.
Scott Lobdell, Mark Waid, Fabian Nicieza, Andy Kubert, Joe Madureira, Steve Epting, Roger Cruz and a pile of other artists and writers show the adventures of the X-Men as well as every other X-related character, with the titles of each book being changed for four months (X-Factor became Factor-X, X-Men became Amazing X-Men, Excalibur became X-Calibre, X-Force naturally became…Gambit and the X-Ternals?! Okay, not all changes made sense). Bishop, being out of time already, retained his memory of the changes and he eventually helped the X-Men to get him back in time to put right what once went wrong. This was a tremendously fun and very well-coordinated crossover and the idea of actually stopping all of the books for four months (and then return them to normal) was a shocking move at the time, especially because most of the books ended on some dramatic cliffhanger before the timeline shifted (Wolverine had just popped a third claw into Sabretooth’s brain, Rogue had just kissed that slimy Gambit, etc.)
Magneto even gets to see his world end with his wife and child (after first taking care of some much-delayed business)…
Image via Marvel
In the end, Apocalypse just has too much darn metal in his suit, ya know?
Image via Marvel
Daaaaaaaaaaamn, Magneto!!!
Marvel has revisited this story a number of times since, including a new riff on it in Age of Revelation out next month!