As the young kids say, 1980s X-Men stories were a different vibe. You had to be there. The original 1963 X-Men comics found their inspiration from the 1960s Civil Rights era. They got canceled but were revitalized in 1975 with Giant-Sized X-Men #1. They then found a narrative groove in the 1980s that has yet to be creatively matched. One writer, Chris Claremont, wrote X-Men comics for 17 years straight. Claremont and his co-creators created original X-Men characters and stories that are still taken for granted as tropes today. Besides 2019’s House of X/Powers of X, I think the best era of X-Men comics is found in the 1980s.
Greatest 1980s X-Men Stories
What made the 1980s X-Men stories the best? Comic books were comic books back then, not advertisements for future films. X-Men comics combined mutant conspiracies, paranoia, space operas, melodrama, horror, fantasy, and superheroes deftly in one narrative package.
Most of the X-Men comics made in the 1980s were written by one man, Chris Claremont wrote the top X-Men comics from 1975 through 1991. Claremont was so influential and good at his job that Marvel Comics still pays Claremont a retainer to NOT write comics for competitor companies. Whether or not Claremont writes for Marvel, Marvel pays him not to write comics for competitors.
Claremont wrote the Dark Phoenix Saga and Days of Future Past, among other classic X-Men stories. Whether or not you’ve ever read an X-Men comic, you know those stories. Claremont co-created Rogue, Kitty Pryde, Mister Sinister, Psylocke, Phoenix, Mystique, Gambit, and many other X-characters.
No, Claremont was not the only X-Men writer of the 1980s. The point is that his creativity molded X-Men comics through three different decades. He wrote all of the stories on this list.
Here are eight of the greatest X-Men stories you should check out now.
1. Days of Future Past (1981)
Mutant-hunting Sentinel robots are actively exterminating mutants globally in the year 2013. The last mutants on Earth will face extermination if nothing is done. Kitty Pryde, one of the last remaining X-Men, transfers her consciousness into the past and into the mind of her younger self back in 1980.
She must then assemble the X-Men and prevent a historical event from happening to stop a dystopian future from occurring. 2014’s X-Men: Days of Future Past was based on this Claremont story.
This 184-page hardcover collects X-Men issues #138 – 143. Buy it now from Amazon for $35.
2. Uncanny X-Men #200 (1986)
“The Trial of Magneto.” The governments of the world put Magneto on trial for crimes against humanity. In the comic books, Magneto is an anti-human racist who believes that mutants should be the superior race. In the aftermath of a terrorist attack, Prof. X leaves Earth, and Magneto becomes the new headmaster of the X-Men.
Buy this 41-page comic on Kindle now for $1.99.
3. Uncanny X-Men #201 (1986)
“Who Shall Lead the X-Men?” is one of the greatest 1980s X-Men stories. Prof. X is gone, Magneto is now the mentor of the X-Men, and the leadership role for the X-Men team is vacant. Storm and Cyclops battle in the Danger Room to win the right to become X-Men leader. This issue also features the first appearance of infant Nathan Summers, who would later become Cable.
Buy the 23-page issue on Kindle for $1.99.
4. ”God Loves, Man Kills” (1982)
Before the advent of the trade paperback, Marvel would specifically publish stories in graphic novel format. One of the best 1980s X-Men stories is the graphic novel “God Loves, Man Kills.”
It takes influence from the dawning televangelist era and ultra-conservative politics of the 1980s.
Televangelist William Stryker is preaching hateful rhetoric about mutants. He is slowly convincing an anti-mutant America that mutants are ungodly and have no right to exist. The X-Men team up with Magneto to stop Stryker and his hateful messaging. This story was the inspiration for 2003’s X-2: X-Men United.
Buy this 496-page graphic novel for $27.
5. X-Men: Dark Phoenix Saga (1980)
This is one of the best-known 1980s X-Men stories. The Fox-era X-Men films unsuccessfully tried to adapt this story in two franchises. While on a mission in space, Jean Grey comes under the possession of the Phoenix Force, an ancient force of nature from the dawn of the universe. The Phoenix Force gives Jean Grey the powers of a God, and she begins to lose control. In the end, she has to sacrifice her life to save the X-Men and Earth.
Buy this 200-page paperback now at Amazon for $20.
6. The Brood Saga (1981)
1980s X-Men stories were notorious for their space opera sagas. The X-Men would get in a spaceship and go on cosmic adventures. In the Brood Saga, the X-Men encounter the Starjammers, a band of space pirates, and the Shi’ar Empire. The Shi’ar are an ancient race that were battling the Phoenix Force long before it came to Earth.
The Brood are parasitic aliens that implant eggs in their hosts to reproduce. Wolverine is the only mutant to withstand their assault and races to save the X-Men. The Brood were a blatant but terrifying ripoff of the Alien Xenomorphs.
Buy this 424-page saga on Kindle now for $25.
7. Uncanny X-Men #251 (1981)
It’s the late 1980s, and the X-Men’s headquarters are now in Australia. The newest X-Men is an Aborigine known as Gateway, with the power to create portals. However, Wolverine is captured and crucified by the Reavers, an X-Men-hating team, on an X-shaped cross. Wolverine spends the issue reliving his past adventures before Jubilee and the X-Men help rescue him.
The cover of this comic was an inspiration for the iconic scene in 2024’s Deadpool and Wolverine.
Buy this 23-page comic on Kindle now for $1.99.
8. Mutant Massacre (1986)
One of the greatest 1980s X-Men stories was also the first major crossover for Marvel Comics. The Marauders are assassins who have been paid to exterminate the Morlocks. The Morlocks are a vulnerable subterranean race of mutants who live in the tunnels under Manhattan. Their only hope for survival is now the X-Men.
This 319-page hardcover collects the Mutant Massacre saga as well as several tie-in issues. Buy it now on Amazon for $69.
1980s X-Men Stories
I’m an old-school comic book reader, so I admit my bias when it comes to X-Men comics. But I have been reading X-Men comics since the early 1980s. X-Men comics essentially became unreadable in the 1990s due to over-complication in storylines and IP oversaturation.
House of X/Powers of X is a 2019 X-Men event that reintroduces and reimagines the X-Men mythos for a new era. It was known as the Krakoa era. Unfortunately, the Krakoa era is over, and modern X-Men comics are back to the creative disarray they were notorious for in the 1990s.
If you’ve never read X-Men comics before, then I recommend that you start with the 1980s X-Men stories. They are the blueprint for all of the best X-Men comics and media adaptations that came afterwards.
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