The X-Men in the ’10s were one of the worst times to be an X-Men fan. It’s not because the stories were bad, although there were some bad stories, but because of the decisions that Marvel made with the group. The success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the lack of the X-Men’s film rights, meant that the publishing arm of the House of Ideas wasn’t going to be pushing the team as much as they would the groups that they did have the rights to. This led to some ideas that weren’t the best for the mutants, although everything would change by the end of the decade.
The X-Men in the ’10s weren’t perfect, and are quite maligned by many fans for good reason, but that doesn’t mean you should throw the baby out with the bathwater. There were some pretty great ideas from this time, and they led the X-Men in interesting directions. Here are the five best X-Men ideas of the ’10s, serving to buoy a decade that a lot of X-fans want to forget.
5) Uncanny X-Force
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The late ’00s brought back X-Force, transforming the team into Cyclops’s hit squad led by Wolverine. X-Force (Vol. 3) was pretty great, but it was just the beginning. After that volume of the book ended, readers got one of the greatest X-Men series ever: Uncanny X-Force. Uncanny X-Force (Vol. 1) was written by Rick Remender with art Jerome by Opena, Mark Brooks, Phil Noto, and more, and shifted all of the ideas from X-Force (Vol. 3) into overdrive. Stories like “The Apocalypse Solution”, “The Dark Angel Saga”, and “The Final Execution” took the idea of the black ops mutant team and perfected it. This is an all-time best X-Men book and definitely deserves its flowers in a decade of mediocre X-Men ideas.
4) House of X/Powers of X
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Disney bought 20th Century Fox in 2019, regaining the film rights to the X-Men. While Marvel always denied that not having the film rights meant anything to the comics, it just so happened that after getting the rights back, the publisher brought superstar writer Jonathan Hickman to the X-Men, which would lead to the blockbuster Krakoa Era. All of that kicked off with House of X/Powers of X, with artists Pepe Larraz and R.B. Silva respectively. The “two books that are one” blew the minds of readers, and became the most talked about comic of the decade. A lot of people have come out of the woodwork to hate on Krakoa, but it’s impossible to deny just how important to the team’s history these books were.
3) Undoing House of M
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House of M is a vastly overrated event when it comes to quality, but it’s definitely important. Scarlet Witch de-powered the vast majority of the mutant race at the end of the story, leading to seven years of X-books that had the team fighting for the survival of a much reduced mutant race. However, all of that would end with Avengers vs. X-Men, a 12-issue event book that was meant to show the Avengers’ superiority over the X-Men in the years of MCU dominance (what did you think it was otherwise? Look how bad the story made the X-Men look). The story ended with Scarlet Witch and Hope Summers using the Phoenix Force to re-power the mutant race. It was a huge turning point in the team’s history and excited fans for the future of the team (right before Marvel decided to torpedo the mutants with the Inhumans push).
2) X-Men: Schism and Its Aftermath
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X-Men: Schism was a five-issue X-Men event that saw Wolverine and Cyclops violently end their friendship after years of working together closer than ever. This led to the splitting of the X-Men, with half staying with Cyclops on Utopia and the other half following Wolverine back to Westchester to start the Jean Grey School. This led to Uncanny X-Men (Vol. 2) and Wolverine and the X-Men (Vol. 1), the two best X-series of the ’00s. The X-books got exciting again, and the whole shebang led to Avengers vs. X-Men, the most important X-event until House of X/Powers of X. The aftermath of X-Men: Schism led to some amazing stories, the last gasp of X-Men quality until 2019.
1) The Utopia Era
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The seeds of the Utopia Era were planted in the late ’00s with the destruction of the X-Mansion and moving the team to San Francisco. This would lead to Avengers/X-Men: Utopia, which saw the mutants battle against Norman Osborn’s Dark Avengers. This story ended with the creation of Utopia, an island where the 198 remaining mutants could live together in harmony. The Utopia Era kicked off at the tail end of 2009, and lasted until the end of Avengers vs. X-Men. There are some amazing X-Men stories from this period, and it deserves way more respect than it gets.
What are your favorite part of ’10s X-Men? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!