The Avengers have had a great time of things in the 21st century, finally coming back to the top after years as what was essentially a none factor when you compare them to the House of Ideas’ actual most popular superteam ever – the X-Men. There was once a time not too long ago when if you said, “The X-Men are Marvel’s most popular team,” a million MCU fans would jump out of the woodwork to tell you why you were wrong. Now, those same fans are the ones who are praising Marvel’s merry mutants and acting like they always loved them the most.
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The X-Men were able to become so popular because they weren’t ever the standard superhero team. The Avengers was a group of heroes that came together to fight threats that no one of them could face alone. The X-Men are a found family of people driven out by society, battling for the fate of their people. Their stories go in very different directions, with tales coming down the pipe that constantly define and redefine what the team means. These five X-Men storylines redefined the team, making them more popular than ever and showing just how mutable the concept of mutants is.
5) “Age of Apocalypse”
The X-Men are a team that was formed to fight against threats to both mutantkind and humanity, showing the world that mutants can be trusted. This idea has defined the team throughout its various eras; even when a lot about the team is changed, it stays the same. It’s rare that creators will completely redefine everything about the team, but there was a time they did that and created one of the most beloved stories ever – the 1995 blockbuster “Age of Apocalypse”. This massive tale took readers to another Earth, one where Charles Xavier had died before he ever even thought of the X-Men.
Apocalypse was able to take over the world, leading Magneto to create a group of mutants meant to fight against the dark lord. This story redefined them completely; while it was often the same members of the team, there mission was one of rebellion, not one of society-building. They battled against the forces of Apocalypse, saving as many humans as possible all while trying to break his power over North America. It fit the grim and gritty ’90s perfectly. Of course, Marvel has tried numerous times to copy its success, but nothing has match the original.
4) “Mutant Massacre”
“Mutant Massacre” isn’t often talked about as a story that redefined the X-Men, but I think it’s about time that we started. The story saw the Morlocks attacked by the Marauders, leading the X-Men, New Mutants, X-Factor, Power Pack, Thor, and Daredevil into the sewers beneath Manhattan to save mutant lives. When the dust settled, the Morlocks were all but destroyed, with numerous members of the X-Men in a bad place; Angel lost his wings, Colossus was a quadriplegic, Kitty Pryde couldn’t unphase, and Nightcrawler was beaten into a coma, the group moving away from the mansion and getting new members.
The story dropped in 1986, after years of writer Chris Claremont building up a comfortable status quo for the team. “Mutant Massacre” was the beginning of Claremont and New Mutants/X-Factor writer Louise Simonson destroying everything they’d built up for the mutant corner of the Marvel Universe. It led Apocalypse to his greatest story ever, the birth of Excalibur, and the X-Men out of the mansion, eventually ending up with the Outback Era. All of that started right here.
3) Uncanny X-Men #200
Chris Claremont revolutionized the X-Men and one of the biggest examples of this was Magneto. When the X-Men started, the mutant master of magnetism was positioned as the opposite of X-founder Charles Xavier. Whereas Xavier wanted peace and harmony between mutants and humans, Mags believed that mutants could never trust humanity and needed to take over the world, enslaving their predecessors. Claremont was the one who introduced the Holocaust origin to the character, the first step on a road that would lead to Uncanny X-Men #200. This story would see the villain turn himself in and go to trial for his crimes against the world, targeted by two Nazi mutants.
The X-Men began with a battle against Magneto. He was set up as their greatest foe, an enemy who had a plan for his people just like they did, competing with them for recruits. This issue changed all of that. Magneto still didn’t trust humanity, but he had decided that he could serve the mutant race better alongside the X-Men, working with them to create a world where mutants could live alongside humanity as equals. This led to an entirely new era of the team and helped make Mags even more popular than ever.
2) “E Is for Extinction”
I’ve made this joke before recently, but there’s not an X-Men list I can’t include a Grant Morrison story in. Morrison took over the team in 2001; the group were coming off the massive success of their first movie but the comics weren’t in the best place. Marvel had tried to bring back Claremont, but fans weren’t as into it as they had hoped, leading things in a new direction. Morrison brought a whole new view of the team to readers – the school became the focus, with the group acting as teachers and mutant rescue workers, traveling the world to recruit new students and deal with threats to mutants. All of this began with their first X-story, “E Is for Extinction”.
Gone were the colorful spandex, replaced by black leathers more reminiscent of the movie costumes. It gave them a more uniform appearance, fitting their new role in the world. The story itself is fantastic; the X-Men are attacked by Cassandra Nova, a mysterious new enemy who wants nothing less than the destruction of all mutantkind. It’s a story that felt like something completely new, even to longtime X-Men readers. It kicked off four years of stories that would go down as some of the best X-Men stories ever (as long as Morrison was writing them; the Austen years happened back then as well).
1) Giant-Size X-Men #1
Marvel came into their own in the ’70s, showing that the success of the ’60s weren’t just a fluke. The publisher introduced numerous new characters, with the Avengers rising to prominence over the Fantastic Four, a changing of the guard moment for the House of Ideas. In 1975, the publisher would turn their attention to the X-Men. Marvel’s merry mutants had kind of failed at the end of the ’60s, with their book no longer publishing new stories; they sold well enough to keep around, but not well enough to pay for new stories. Giant-Size X-Men #1, by Len Wein and Dave Cockrum, was their attempt to make the X-Men cool again and it worked better than anyone could have imagined.
Instead of introducing a new group of teen heroes, it debuted an international group of young adult mutants, sent on a mission to rescue the original team from a living island. Wein brought in Wolverine from The Incredible Hulk #181 and Cockrum used a bunch of designs that were meant for the Legion of Superheroes, creating a team that fans wanted more of. It redefined the X-Men completely, taking a team that no one cared about and making them into stars.
What’s your favorite X-Men-redefining story? Any you think I should have included instead of these? Sound off in the comment section below.
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