Gap
X-Men #67–93
Reprints only. No new X-Men stories were made for five years – the series just printed old issues again. Nothing to read here.
Sixty years of mutants, dozens of teams and more crossovers than anyone can count. You don't have to read it all – pick the path that fits you. Each one follows the story in order, book by book, and tells you what happens, what matters and where the gaps are.
Professor X's first class of five teenage mutants, Magneto and the Sentinels.
The X-Men everyone knows: Storm, Wolverine, the Phoenix and Days of Future Past.
Jim Lee's blue and gold teams – the X-Men of the 90s cartoon and X-Men '97.
A clean modern start: Morrison's New X-Men, then Whedon and Cassaday's Astonishing X-Men.
The newest era: every mutant lives on Krakoa, a living island – and nobody truly dies.
Professor X gathers five teenage mutants – Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Beast, Angel and Iceman – at his school. Magneto, the Juggernaut and the Sentinels all appear here for the first time.
The team grows up: Polaris and Havok arrive, the Sentinels return, and Neal Adams draws some of the best issues of the decade before the series stops.
Reprints only. No new X-Men stories were made for five years – the series just printed old issues again. Nothing to read here.
In 1975 Giant-Size X-Men #1 brings a brand-new team – Storm, Wolverine, Nightcrawler and Colossus – and everything changes.
A new international team: Storm, Wolverine, Nightcrawler and Colossus. Jean Grey becomes the Phoenix, John Byrne starts drawing the book, and the Hellfire Club makes its move.
The Dark Phoenix Saga, the most famous X-Men story, and Days of Future Past, the dark future the films borrowed. Kitty Pryde joins, and Byrne's run ends.
The X-Men fight the alien Brood in space, Rogue joins the team, and Cyclops marries Madelyne Pryor, a woman who looks just like Jean.
Rachel, a girl from the future of Days of Future Past, arrives, Storm loses her powers, and Magneto slowly starts to change sides.
Xavier's new class of teenage students, also written by Claremont. It runs alongside Uncanny Omnibus 3–5, with Bill Sienkiewicz's wild art from #18 on.
Magneto stands trial and then takes over Xavier's school, while Professor X leaves Earth. The team's future gets darker from here.
The Marauders slaughter the Morlocks in the tunnels under New York. Several X-Men are badly hurt, and the team is never the same again.
The X-Men give their lives to save the world on live TV – and are secretly brought back. In X-Factor, Angel becomes Archangel.
Believed dead, the X-Men hide in the Australian outback. Madelyne Pryor is left alone, and something dark starts to grow in her.
Inferno itself is not on the site yet. Madelyne becomes the Goblin Queen, and the truth about her and Mr. Sinister comes out. Phoenix Omnibus 2 has the main issues.
Jubilee joins, the team falls apart one by one, and Jim Lee arrives as the new artist.
The X-Men, X-Factor and the New Mutants unite to free their friends from Genosha, an island nation that turns mutants into slaves.
The team comes back together as the Blue and Gold teams. Claremont says goodbye with X-Men #1–3, still the best-selling comic of all time.
From here the X-Men are the blue and gold teams of the 90s cartoon and X-Men '97. The 90s path follows them book by book.
The two teams of the cartoon: Blue with Cyclops, Wolverine and Gambit, Gold with Storm, Jean and Bishop. Then X-Cutioner's Song: Professor X is shot.
X-Men #1–11 are also in Claremont & Jim Lee Omnibus 2.
Magneto rips the metal out of Wolverine's bones, and Professor X wipes Magneto's mind. The darkest moment of the decade.
Scott and Jean finally get married, and the X-Men and the Avengers team up in Bloodties to save Quicksilver's daughter.
Not on the site yet. Legion travels back in time and kills Professor X, and the world becomes Apocalypse's nightmare. The Age of Apocalypse Omnibus collects it.
Extra stories from the Age of Apocalypse world. Read it after the main Age of Apocalypse Omnibus.
Back in the normal world, the team rebuilds. Wolverine starts to lose control, and a new threat called Onslaught is only whispered about.
The clues pile up: Onslaught is coming, and he seems to know the X-Men from the inside.
Not on the site yet. Onslaught turns out to be the dark side of Professor X, and the Avengers and the Fantastic Four seem to die stopping him.
After Onslaught the world turns against mutants, Professor X is arrested, and the X-Men have to go on without him.
Gambit's darkest secret comes out: he led the Marauders to the Morlocks before the Mutant Massacre. The X-Men put him on trial.
1997–2001 is mostly not in an omnibus yet. The story picks up in 2001 with Grant Morrison's New X-Men.
Grant Morrison turns the X-Men into teachers at a real school for mutants. Sixteen million mutants die in Genosha, and Scott and Jean's marriage breaks.
Joss Whedon and John Cassaday bring back the classic feel: a 'cure' for mutants is found, and Colossus comes back from the dead.
Whedon's run ends in space, on the Breakworld. Astonishing #13–18 are not on the site yet, so this fills only part of the gap.
After House of M only a few hundred mutants are left. Then the first new mutant baby is born, and everyone wants her. This is Hope's story.
Kieron Gillen writes the last years of the original Uncanny X-Men on Utopia, the mutant island off San Francisco, up to its final issue.
2012–2019 is mostly not in an omnibus yet. In 2019 Jonathan Hickman starts everything over, and the Krakoa path begins.
Every mutant moves to Krakoa, a living island nation, and mutants can no longer truly die. The best place to start the modern X-Men.
All the other Krakoa series from the first year – X-Force, Marauders, Excalibur, New Mutants, Fallen Angels and more – in reading order.
The second half of Dawn of X: life on Krakoa gets complicated, and every team heads towards the X of Swords crossover.
After X of Swords, Krakoa is a real nation with real problems, and each series goes its own way.
Not on the site yet. The Hellfire Gala, the mutant planet Arakko on Mars, and Mr. Sinister's dark version of the future.
Orchis attacks, and the dream of Krakoa falls apart. The era ends here.
After Krakoa the X-Men start over in the From the Ashes era (2024), not in an omnibus yet. New omnibuses are announced every year, so check back later.
