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I’m no X-Men fan, so I don’t even come close to have one favorite era, let alone five. But that’s an impressive article.

I’ll go with the unpopular choice of the Legacy era, mostly because that’s when I was reading the most X-comics. I did dig the Age of Apocalypse stuff at the time, mostly because I was about 12 or so.

That was some heavy-duty writing there, Greg!!!

I will go with Morrison’s run, followed closely behind by The Phoenix Era (I would have called it the “All-New, All-Different Era,” and just have it last until Byrne’s departure).

The Super Hero era followed by the Morrison run.

Given the attention to detail awarded THINGS FALL APART 1–EXILE–THINGS FALL APART 2, I have to wonder aloud if these were was Mr. Burgas’s introduction to the world of X(essive)ness? Poor guy, if true.

Top 5, sounds like fun–USE THE BORDA COUNT, please:

1. Phoenix (2)
2. God of All (13)
3. Original Recipe (1)

A very distant…
4. We Screwed Up (15)

Finally, obviously (given the rag-tagedness of the remaining contenders),
5. Milligan’s X-FORCE (offlist)

And yes, I have read 80%+ of the books in question.

I have to pick the Exile Era, most of my favorite stories are from that era.

I disagree with the Alan Davis run “lacking focus”. It may have seemed this way for the first few months, but the remainder of the run was very driven by the Skrull/Apocalypse story.

Obviously, it’s one of my favourite runs, with the Phoenix Era, the Morrison run and Joe Kelly’s short run (not Seagle’s, which was a mess that didn’t go anywhere).
I’m warming up to the current writers, though it took Messiah Complex for me to start liking Brubaker’s tenure (which is weird, since i enjoy Cap, Daredevil, Iron Fist & Criminal a lot).

I go with what you called “The Phoenix Era,” for one simple reason: the book wasn’t a bestseller, which meant that it pretty much fell under the radar of editorial & management. The result was that Claremont, Cockrum, and Byrne pretty much had carte blanch to do nearly anything, and that allowed them to be wildly inventive.

“The New Blood/Brood Era” was, in my mind, the tail end of this period. Once Cockrum left the series for the second time, the Brood story wrapped up, and New Mutants spin-off kicked off, it was a pretty clear demarcation for me of the start of a new era.

By this time X-Men had become a huge hit. Marvel wanted to capture lightning in a bottle in perpetuity, so the status quo set in, and the characters gradually stagnated over the next decade and a half.

because the titles are all the way up there i’m just gonna write the writers or main storylines

1. Morrison
2. Mike Carey
3.Joe kelly
4.Age of Apocalypse
5.Stan lee

Pretty eclectic but i like them for very different reasons. I actually despise claremont and byrne stories, i feel that the ideas are good but executed terribly with dialogue etc..

Honestly? I hate the X-Men. Morrison’s X-Men, however, was brilliant.

And hell, I worship at the altar of Whedon and I still dropped AXM.

Very ambitious and thorough work there! Outstanding!

As for my favorite eras, as follows:

1) Rebirth Era
Simply a lot of nostalgic value

2) The God of All Comics Era
Original spin on the X-Men opposed to tweaking old forms of X-Men

3) The Phoenix Era
Would probably top my list, if this era had introduced me to X-Men.. As a matter of fact, the cartoon made me appreciate this storyline that much more

4) The “Things Fall Apart” Era Mark 1
My love for this era stems from the Mutant Massacre storyline and the subsequent transformation of Angel to Archangel

5) The Exile Era
Actually enjoyed the Inferno storyline and find it more intriguing than events that followed after such as X-Cutioner’s song, Fatal Attractions and so forth.. Madelyn Pryor was sure one crazy she-bat

P.S. How about a run-down through all the X-events! Quite fitting with Messiah Complex running rampant now

“I disagree with the Alan Davis run “lacking focus”. It may have seemed this way for the first few months, but the remainder of the run was very driven by the Skrull/Apocalypse story.”
It DID have focus, but it was also terrible.

I would say (having missed pretty much everything between when Claremont started and Claremont left the first time)
1) NEW X-MEN
2) Casey’s Uncanny (killer stuff, another 6 issues and it would have started to become legendary).
3) the current era
4) The original team. The team worked best under Stan’s direction, and always works best when the book goes back to those ideas.

I read, and blogged, the whole original Claremont run a couple of years ago, indexed here. After going through it, I’m pretty baffled that anyone would consider the Phoenix era the high point of the book’s run. While good, it’s dated in a way that Mutant Massacre and a lot of the 80s stuff isn’t. I feel like Phoenix makes you take into account the fact that it’s a 25 year old comic, while a lot of the later stuff feels much fresher and interchangable with today’s comics.

Also, I have to question some of your divisions. I feel like Paul Smiths’ run, from about 162-177 or so, is a distinct entity from the others around it, in its focus on characterization over large scale superhero narrative. But, with so many comics to assess, it’s hard to come up with divisions that will satisfy everyone. So, here’s my top five…

1. God of All Comics era
2. Things Fall Part Era Mark 1
3. The Superhero Era
4. New Blood/Brood
5. Rebirth

1 – The New Blood/Brood Era
2 – The God of All Comics Era
3 – The Phoenix Era
4 – The Superhero Era
5 – The Original Recipe Era

and that’s really all the eras that ive read.

My favorite would have to be the Morrison era. It was the first time I thought the X-Men were cool because of the characters and their stories, rather than just having cool powers.

I never liked making Scott cheat

I thought it was important that Morrison never pegged him outright as a cheater. Scott had doubts, but Emma convinced him pretty soundly that he wasn’t actually cheating. After all, it wasn’t even a physical relationship until Jean was out of the picture, and that’s more than could be said for Jean and Logan’s many dalliances with infidelity.

I think it would have been cooler had Scott just flat out NOT been cheating with Emma, but really WAS just using her as a sort of therapist, with Emma, though, actually falling for him – and the two ending up together after Jean died.

Claremont never wrote Magneto as a true villain?

That’s certainly news to me. He’s at least as much a villain as Mesmero, if not more so, in his first Claremont appearances.

In fact, Magneto was never very convincing at all as anything _but_ a villain. Boy, was Secret Wars weird in that regard…

1 – The Onslaught Era. Age Of Apocalypse was the best ever
2 – The “Things Fall Apart” Era Mark 2
3 – The Rebirth Era
4 – The Legacy Era
5 – The Exile Era

The Grant Morrison Era was just crap the guy just can’t write a decent X-Men book just like Joe Casey (this was the downfall of the X-men), though to be honest the Era they are in now isn’t all that great eather except for the Ast X-Men issues.

Great Article!

1. Things Fall Apart Era Mark 2 because this is where I started reading and the art here from Silvestri and Jim Lee is STILL incredible.
2. Exiles, because I loved the line-up (especially Longshot and Dazzler) and the setting in Australia.
3. Pander to the Old-Timers, if that’s where Astonishing fits, because I really enjoy that run.
4. Legacy, because the Phalanx Covenant and the introduction of Generation X was awesome, and issues from this time also had great art by JRJR and JoeMad.
5. Superhero era, with the Kulan Gath story and more great JRJR art.

I’ve read all the other eras and there are bits I enjoy greatly from each one, heck even Austen’s run had some good art by Kia Asamiya around 416-419! But what can I say, nothing beats the Camera-proof Outback X-men.

Well, at least you know you’re a malfunction.

The Superhero Era has the majority of my favorite moments (particularly #200 and all the Paul Smith stuff) but it also has a lot of stuff I could do without. That being said, it’s still my favorite. The only eras that come close would be Phoenix, God of All Comics, and Things Fall Apart pt 1, probably in that order.

Phoenix Era.

Anyone who’s read almost all of the entire run, The Phoenix Era (I prefer to group the Claremont/Byrne issues here) is hands down the best run. Great stories and great characterization.

I’ve been largely dissatisfied with the book since the early 90′s until Joss Whedon’s handling of Astonishing X-Men.

Great stuff, Greg. This must have been time consuming! It’s not the one I grew up with, but I can’t go past The Phoenix Era.

I mean, the X-books I grew up with were cool enough, in a ’90s Marvel sort of way, but when I went back and read the Claremont-Byrne run (which I prefer to the Claremont-Cockrum run, though I can totally get behind your reasons for listing them as the same era) I realised why the X-Men inspire such devotion in people.

I love your classifications of the early eras, Greg. But as you get to the newer stuff, a lot of your eras seem to overlap. Austen/Casey and Morrison (despite the vast differences in talent) were all on the books at the same time.

That said, my favorite is the Phoenix era, followed closley by the New Blood/Brood era. I wasn’t alive when they were coming out, but they’re still what I grew up reading, thanks to the reprint mags.

After careful consideration, I’d have to say that my fondest memories are of the Superhero (#4) and Things Fall Apart (#5) eras. That’s when I came in (around issue #175-ish) and so many of the building blocks for my collection started there. The X-Men were at their most dynamic, Claremont was strong without being indulgent, and I was totally crushing on Kitty and the female half of the New Mutants.

There was just a sense of memorabilty, energy, enthusiasm, and fun that was lost later on. I think I’ve actually managed to forget a lot of what happened afterwards…

I also like the New Blood (#3) era and Exile (#6) eras as well. I guess at heart, I’m an old-timer.

But don’t get me wrong: I liked Grant Morrison’s run, I scratched my head over Joe Casey’s, and I spent all of Chuck Austin’s run praying he’d go away…

So many eras, so many memories, and so many comics…

Although the first X-Men issue I ever owned was the “Heroes for Hope Special” (yes, seriously), I started reading every issue with the “Rebirth Era”, but drifted away into indies and Vertigo after a while until the magnificent “God of All Comics Era” pulled me right back in. But the issues that I have enjoyed reading and re-reading the most would have to be those of the “Phoenix Era”.

Wow. Interesting stuff, Greg.

I have great affection for the beginning of what you call the Superhero era as, for a teenage boy going through puberty, the introduction of the vulnerable Rogue did things for me that still makes that character my favourite ever Marvel superhero.

That said, I feel that Claremont lost the plot considerably earlier than you do – around issue 200 or so, or perhaps when he started writing the uber pretentious storylines involving Storm and Forge. Claremont seemingly became obsessed in just writing female characters and the book goes completely off kilter and Claremont, Marvel’s best writer in the 80s seems to go into meltdown. Some of the stories, in Essential X-Men Vol 7 that I am reading at the moment, are just terrible.

The Phoenix era is, of course, genius – you’re right that bringing back Jean Grey was one of Marvel’s most fatal errors – though the initial issues of the demarcated era wouldn’t be, in my opinion, top notch with Claremont finding his feet and only okay art from Dave Cockrum.

I’ve recently restarted re-reading X-Men and am partially glad I didn’t have to read through 200+ turgid issues of Uncanny X-Men, though the Joe Casey stuff sure looks intriguing. Grant Morrison’s stuff was often frustrating but I agree with you, he had no problem upsetting the applecart and that made the series incredibly exciting once again as you had no idea what would happen next – everyone seemed vulnerable.

Whilst it’s disappointing that Scott had the affair with Emma, it’s refreshingly human and enriched both characters – tearing down the whole notion of the fairytale romance between Scott and Jean. My biggest regret of the era is losing Xorn, a potentially brilliant character – the one off story featuring his character is one of my favourites.

I quite liked Milligan’s run and think that Carey has done a decent job to date on X-Men, though Brubaker has not been as good as yet on Uncanny as on either Captain America or Iron Fist.

My favourite ever X-Men stories – the Xorn one mentioned above and the one with Wolvie and Rogue in Japan (Uncanny 173, I think).

28 Posts Later. . .

I will always prefer Chuck Austen’s X-Men to Morrison’s X-Men. Yes, Austen did a lot of stupid stuff, but at least he was trying new stuff! And his work had the overwrought, over-the-top, melodrama I enjoy in comics. Not like Morrison’s work which just retold typical X-Men plots in a “cool” way. Yeah, so cool it left me cold.

I always liked Austen’s comics. ‘Eternals’, ‘US War Machine’ from Marvel MAX, even his failed ‘Worldwatch’. They were entertaining-something many comcis fail to be.

Oh, and my favorite X-Men era? pretty much everything between “Days of Future Past” and “Mutant Massacre”, the Superhero and Brood eras. I feel Claremont was spreading his wings with the characters, laying down longer and more complicated plots, and started “decompressing” stories. “Massacre” was the first X-Men crossover to really bring the many books together into a continuity so tight, you had to follow every title.

And I still hold a torch for Madelyne Pryor. Girl didn’t deserve what she got.

1) Phoenix era.
2) God of all comics / Grant Morrison era. The Magneto reveal alone puts it in the top five.
3) Superhero era.
4) “We screwed up – Let’s Pander”, largely for Whedon and Cassiday. Wonder if they’ll ever finish.
5) Original recipe. Hey, in the context of their time, there were some excellent books here. (And also a lot of dreadful ones, but that was the Silver Age for ya.)

Great article, BTW.

Doug M.

I stopped reading around issue 228 of UXM, picking up only a couple of issues in the 230 and 240s and first three issues of the Jim Lee series, so I can’t really comment on the series as a whole. I know I gave up the X-Men because my 12-year-old self was sick of Claremont using the same dialogue issue after issue, but having just re-read around 60 issues, I’ve got to say the period from where Storm takes over the Morlocks (170) to just after the Mutant Massacre (maybe 215), ending with her and Wolverine in a car and her suffering serious doubts about the future of mutant-kind, makes for a really great story. It probably helped that many of the X-men were given solo issues which made you care for them more than you would’ve if they were just a teammate. The strangest thing is this whole era is brushed off with two sentences by Claremont in “Comics Creators on the X-Men”.

This is a really long way of me saying “The Superhero Era” is my favourite.

I’ve read all the x-men titles up until the “We Screwed Up; Let’s Pander To The Old-Timers” Era.

The only era I’ve re-read:

The God Of All Comics era.

So much good stuff dropped in there, that works so much better on a re-read.

Actually, although I already voted for the Phoenix era, it just occured to me that I really, really, really liked Millar’s Ultimate run as well. Does that count as an era, of sorts? I prefer the Phoenix era, but Millar’s would come in second (or maybe third, after the Original Recipe. I mean, where else can you see the X-Men fight carnies?)

Tie between God of All Comics and New Blood/Brood. The bestest ever and the way I originally discovered it.

The God of All Comics Era. I have no ties to earlier X-Men stories, and I feel that Morrison took the story in a great new direction. Too bad they’ve backtracked on most of it.

1. The Phoenix Era
2. The God of All Comics Era
3. The Superhero Era
4. The Original Recipe Era
5. The Legacy Era (does AoA fit in here or in the following era? It seems to be here, which is why it makes number five. If not, switch it with the next one.)

I have to admit, I haven’t read anything from the late 80s. I also haven’t read much of Chuck Austen’s stuff, but no big loss there. I kind of liked Milligan’s stuff and it almost made the list.

It’s still too soon to say on the current stuff. Astonishing has been really good, especially the art. Carey’s been good so far.
Brubaker hasn’t really done it for me, but then not much of his stuff has. I found Deadly Genesis entertaining for what it was. I bought the Winter Soldier trade and was severely underwhelmed. It struck me as ueber-cheesey. Don’t see what the big deal is. I liked his Daredevil at first, but I’m becoming less enthusiastic as it goes along. Haven’t read any of his creator-owned/noir stuff, so I’ll try not to judge him.

Great article!

1. The Phoenix Era (which for me starts with G-S X-M 1 and goes on through Uncanny 143). This was, no arguments, not just the best mainstream comic of its era, but so far ahead of all its rivals the gap was almost unfathomable. Both creators (three if you include the hugely important Cockrum issues)at the peak of their abilities, massively influential, and the best evocation of sense of wonder as the universe gets deeper and richer since prime-period Lee-Kirby FF. This stuff was so good that for this reader the whole franchise was virtually unreadable thereafter.

2. The God of All Comics Era. After 20 years, a readable X-title! Morrison is on particularly strong form throughout, and Quitely doesn’t exactly constitute a hindrance, either.

3. Original Recipe. Hey, I’m older (just) than Greg Hatcher, I grew up on this! Would have ranked it higher had it been more consistent – man, it’s patchy – but you’ve still got Kirby (The REAL God of All Comics) at the outset, and the Adams issues are fantastic. For me, this is the best work Adams ever did (secret weapon = Tom Palmer), and it forced Roy Thomas to up his game to the extent it created a scripting style that – like it or not, and it’s no longer fashionable – pretty much defined comics writing throughout the ’70s. All this and Bernard the Poet too, though it has to be said that 1968 was even more catastrophic for the X-Men than it was for the Democrats.

And let’s have some big love for X-Men: First Class.

I don’t know favorite ever, but Mike Carey’s X-men is GOOD.

I picked up the Supernova’s HC not knowing what to expect, and I got high tension, interesting stories with character’s that I loved- Acting like the characters that I love!

He has made all the past era’s of the X-men, bad ideas and all, a fluant part of these characters now, and they are all the cooler for it. The X-men as they stand feel totally organic.

Brubakers Uncanny pales in comparison.

“But as you get to the newer stuff, a lot of your eras seem to overlap. Austen/Casey and Morrison (despite the vast differences in talent) were all on the books at the same time.”

Agreed. If you’re going to lump Claremont and Whedon because they started at the same time, you have to put Morrison alongside everything that came out with him, Kelly and Austen. In general, I think you’ve got too many eras. I think some of them could be combined.

From 2001 on, I think I would group all the X-Men books from the start of Morrison’s run through the end of it into one era. I think that is fair, because in many ways, it seemed like Uncanny of that era suffered from “Not Written by Morrison” syndrome. It was overshadowed and somewhat left to fester.

Then, you could take everything from the end of Morrison through just before Brubaker/Carey and link it. Austen, Milligan, Claremont. Now, before anyone say that seems unfair, I would point out that this list has lumped 7 YEARS worth of X-men into one dismissive lump. I am sure there is some good stuff in there that is being hurt by that lumping. But this was an era where it felt, to me as a reader, where it felt like the driving goal was to get as far away from Morrison as possible.

So I would say those five eras could be lumped safely into 2 eras. The “God of All Comics” Era and the “God of All Comics is Dead” era.

1. The “Things Fall Apart” Era Mark 1

I LOVED this era. This is when I became a real X-Men fan. I loved it until they went through the Siege Perilous.

2. The Superhero Era

Mostly because this was when I first read them.

3. The God of All Comics Era

Continuity be damned. This was just good readin’.

4. The New Blood/Brood Era

I like this better than the Phoenix stuff, but admittedly, I didn’t get the impact of it when it was happening.

5. The Exile Era

I liked it at the start but it tailed away.

My real favourite era was the New Mutants, from the start untilt he end of the Sienkeiwicz run.

1) Phoenix Era
2) Brood Era
3) God Era

Truthfully? If we must confine it to these choices it would be the ‘Phoenix’ era; but really the name for it is the ‘pre-exploitation era.’ I liked it when the X-Men was the book nobody knew about and they could try anything. Cockrum’s issues, particularly, up to the first Byrne issue with the M’Krann crystal; it was just a wildly inventive experimental period and Marvel’s been mining it ever since. Even Morrison said he went back to that era for the inspiration to try and get the book on its feet again, which is why I’m not placing his first.

Technically, there’s also the ‘homeless’ era between your first and second when the originals would pop up in other people’s books or get solo series or get larded on to other teams. The Beast solo stories were great, and I admit to an indefensible fondness for the Champions with Angel and Iceman.

As for the point about eras overlapping – yes, I tried to not do that, but when you have wildly different styles on the books, you kind of have to, don’t you? I think until Morrison came on board, there was an effort to keep the two comics thematically similar. Since then it doesn’t seem like that’s a concern. So I know that eras overlap, but I hope you’ll forgive me. This is unscientific, after all! I don’t necessarily put Whedon and Claremont in the same era because they started at the same time. I think Whedon could easily fit into the current era. It just seems like those two books were efforts to return to a “golden age,” so I put them together. Again, I haven’t read most of the Claremont or Whedon books, so I could e wrong. Most of the people talking about Astonising X-Men, however, rhapsodize about how it’s “old-fashioned X-Men goodness,” and the issues I read seem to back that up. So the placement isn’t as arbitrary as the fact that they started at the same time.

I haven’t read the early issues, which is why they are in one lump. From what I have read of them, there doesn’t seem to be too much difference between the early issues and the later issues. And, remember, X-Men came out every other month back then, so the time frame is stretched a bit.

My top 3

1. The “Things Fall Apart” Era Mark 2
2. The Exile Era
3. The Phoenix Era

Top 2 are due to the fact that I started really getting into comics at that time. Third one is because I used to read a lot of Classic X-Men reprints, which led me to go out and buy some of the originals when I got older.

BTW “Siege Perilous” is one of the greatest names for anything, ever. Too bad it’s such a stupid plot device.

I will always have a soft spot for the “Loss of Focus” era, since that is when I began reading the X-Books regularly.

Maggott had limitless possibilities, dammit! Grumble grumble

I suspect I’ve read fewer X-Men comics than any other fan with a generally voracious appetite for superhero comics, and have really only read significant portions of the following eras, ranked thusly.

It’s not really a high endorsement of *any* of them, though. None would crack my “Top 100 Eras” for superhero comics as a whole.

1. 1 – Original Recipe: It’s C-list Lee-Kirby Silver Age goodness… but, heck, that’s still Lee-Kirby Silver Age goodness!
2. 3 – New Blood/Brood era: Borrowed these from a friend and read them, found them mildly engaging.
3. 4 – Superhero era: Read the book regularly up to #200, which I took as a good “jumping-off point.” Read it mostly because I kinda liked Wolverine, which is true of any teen-aged comic book fan at some point, I expect.
4. 11 – Loss of Focus Era: I was on a Deadpool-inspired Joe Kelly kick which only lasted a several months before I concluded that whatever magic inspired Deadpool wasn’t present here.
5. 13 – Grant Morrison: Read the first couple issues, recognized it as well-done, but simply not my cup of tea, as I didn’t particularly care about any of the characters.

Oddly, my favorite “era,” and the only one I truly endorse whole-heartedly, is the first two X-Men movies, which did an admirable job of getting to the core of what’s cool and fun about the concept, without all the excess baggage.

1. Phoenix
2. Brood (I started reading X-Men during the Brood Saga, and “Days of Future Past” is my favorite X-story)
3. Superhero
4. Things Fall Apart (The Massacre was amazing and disturbing, though it became the template for so many other comic yarns)
5. I’ve only read the first two trades of Morrison’s run, and I dig those, as well as big chunks of the AoA.*

* I quit collecting comics in 1990, due to a lack of funds and an abiding hatred of cross-overs. I bought the AoA stuff for shits and giggles, quit again, and I began regularly buying again a few years ago.

The New Blood/Brood Era first and foremost; great art, Claremont probably at his creative peak, and did anyone who read those as a kid/early teen not have a ginormous crush on Kitty Pryde?

Then the Phoenix era, which is really the most creative era of the series; pretty much everyone else since has just played with those toys (Hellfire Club, Dark Phoenix, Proteus, et cetera et cetera.) Claremont and Byrne before they were famous, before their egos wrecked their collaboration, back when they could just do whatever they felt like and it was always fun.

Then the other eras of Claremont’s first run…which work, but only when read in big chunks. Pretty much everything from #225-280 is one big, extended metaplot, which is kind of frustrating when you follow it on an issue-by-issue basis, but it is rewarding and has a lot of good artists working in collaboration with Claremont.

Then the God of All Comics era: Not nearly as good as everyone thinks it is, because Morrison is merely putting exclamation points at the end of all of Claremont’s sentences, but still some damn fine reading in there.

After that, none of the eras stick out as “good” for me, although there are good runs of individual titles in those eras. I like Peter David’s X-Factor runs, Whedon’s Astonishing run, a few other scattered bits and pieces, but really, once Claremont left the first time, it’s never been the same. (Even when Claremont came back; his returns to the X-Books have not been very good, for whatever reason.)

It’s really uncool to lump 66 issues together. You should have titled this the eras of the New X-Men. The first 66 issues saw an incredible variety of talent and approaches, from Lee-Kirby to Arnold Drake to Thomas-Adams, and you could easily break them down into 10-20 issues chunks like you did the post Giant-Size X-Men 1 era. If you do so, you’ll find that the Lee-Kirby issues really set the paradigm, and that Thomas-Adams advanced it more than anyone. In fact, most of the early All New All Different X-Men were reworkings of the classic Thomas-Adams stories. It’s one thing to dismiss the Silver Age, another to pretend that all 66 issues were overwhelmingly similar. There’s a far great difference from issue 1 to 66 than there is from issue 94 to 277.

Learn to love that Silver Age people!

Superhero Era and Things Fall Apart I are my favorites, and I see them more as one period.

I was surprised to see how 19 years had passed since I’d read X-MEN regularly…

Wow, what a post. Uncanny is one of the few long running series I can boast to having read every issue.

For me, based purely on personal preference:

1. Superhero Era: Jrjr at his finest, and for me, when I think of the X-Men, I think of this. 175, the issue where Cyclops takes on the whole team is one of my all time favorites, as is 196, when the X-Men (and Magneto) try to stop a bombing on the college campus where Prof X is teaching.

2. Phoenix Era: For all the reasons everyone already said. Without this era, there would be no others. And while it is the Phoenix era, these are the stories that made me love Cyclops-like when he attacked Wolverine during the Proteus story, just to get Wolverine’s head back in the game. Great stuff.

3. The Rebirth Era: This is when I first started reading X-Men (and comics): X-Men 8. I had no clue what was going on, and immediately began moving forwards and backwards to fill in all the blanks. X-Cutioner’s Song was my first experience with a crossover, and I ate it up. I know now it really wasn’t that great, but at the time, wow. I loved it.

4. Legacy Era: Reading these (and the Onslaught Era stuff) as they were released, when I was in Jr High/beginning of High School, had me captivated. I had no doubt every vague hint, every half formed sub-plot, every mysterious character motivation would be explained at som point. There was a palpable sense, to me, that everything was building to something. It wasn’t until a few years later, after several new creators came and went and I realized that whatever answers I still didn’t have weren’t ever coming, that the rose fell off, and I realized that the only thing they were building towards was the next crossover, and the one after that, and that there never was much of a longterm plan-the vague hints and subplots were vague because they hadn’t finished the stories yet, and were just trying to keep us coming back for more. I know that now, and know the stories from this era aren’t really good at all, but man, at the time, there was nothing like it in the world, and I loved it.

5. The God of All Comics Era: For the Magneto reveal, and Quentine Quire, and making the school a school again. And because when he broke up Scott and Jean, I, one of those Scott and Jean purists, was surprisingly okay with it.

Hey Greg (or Brian) how about doing a poll on the best X-title runs?
We’d have to fish through piles of crap (let’s just pretend Liefeld never happened), but there are a few gems like Robinson/Casey and Ladronn on Cable, Milligan and Allred on X-Force(I really need to track down more of those issues/trades), Peter David et al on X-Factor, Claremont on Byrne on X-Men, Morrison et al on X-Men (they should have made the book quarterley if it would have enabled Quitely to draw the whole run), and Claremont and Sienkiewicz on New Mutants. I can’t think of any others at the moment. Maybe Lobdell and Bachalo on Generation X.

Oh yeah, loved Ellis and Yu’s Wolverine.

That’s an easy one. For me it will always be the Exile era. That era had my favorite X-Men line-up ever (especially the relatively obscure characters: Longshot, Dazzler, Havok, and Psylocke when she wore pants). Not all of the stories are classics, but there are a lot of great ones in here. I’ve always thought it was a pity that this era was so short.

Close runner-up would be the Superhero era. The first X-Men comics I ever read were some of my uncle’s old back issues from the late 190s, early 200s. Coming into the comics from the Fox cartoon made this a bit of a culture shock (especially Rachel, who quickly became one of my all-time favorites and whose subsequent return to the X-Men back in ’04 is what got me reading comics again), but I really did enjoy. Having gone back and read through this era in its entirety more recently, it really holds up as one of my favorite periods in the book’s history.

1. Things fall apart, Mach 1. Especially the Mutant Massacre crossover – these stories were exactly what I wanted at the time.
2. God of all Comics. For the scenes of Logan and Scott at the strip club alone, plus a bunch of other mad stuff.
3. Phoenix era. Great plotting and character beats, gorgeous art – legendary stuff. Not higher because recent re-readings are a little painful due to the sheer volume of narrative captioning.
4. Meat & Potatoes. I’m placing Astonishing here, as story elements from that book inform what Bru & Carey are doing in the main titles (mistrust of Xavier, Scott & Emma’s relationship status, Kitty & Piotr being back). For mine, Carey’s been rocking on adjectiveless. Brubaker has recovered nicely from the out-of-his-wheelhouse space opera. The suspense/gritty/noir stuff he seems to be doing now is a perfect complement to Carey’s “summer blockbuster with heart” approach.
5. Superhero. Bump this one up to #4 if you don’t allow my placing Astonishing in the Meat & Potatoes era. I love this era for powerless, mohawked Ororo and BWS. ‘Nuff said.

Thanks for this Greg. Well done. Fun stuff.

I’m a long time x-men reader. Started in the early/mid 80′s as a yung-un, skipped much of the 200′s, and have stopped reading X-men (and superheros in general) in the last year or so. Forgive me that my ranking is steeped in nostalgia, but it’s based on what I enjoyed the most not “what are the best comics”. Subjective relativity beholder etc. . .

1) Superhero era (4)
2) Pheonix era (2)
3) God of all comics era (13)
4) New Blood/Brood era (3)
5) Original recipe era (1)

My picks:

1. “Things Fall Apart” Era Mark 1
2. The Phoenix Era (Obvious
3. The New Blood/Brood Era
4. Superhero Era
5. Original Recipe Era

Original Recipe for me.

Then Casey’s. Then God of All Comics’. (Weren’t they the same era, though?)

Then I stopped reading.

I think some of your later “eras” should only qualify as “periods.” The whole original run of seven years is counted as one era, but Exile and some others from the 80s and 90s are barely a year in length each. Bias, bias, I say. Almost makes me want to vote for the original run out of sympathy or spite.

I stopped enjoying the books in the late 80′s, and stopped buying them around 1994, which should make pretty clear my opinion of the Things Fall Apart, Rebirth and Legacy periods.

1- Phoenix era – You can really only judge a book against two comparisons, what had come before and what was happening simultaneously. There was nothing else like this book in 1976, 77, 78, 79… As another commenter noted, it was really the first time since the Lee/Kirby days that Marvel Comics really got some serious heat going. The three-parter at the start of Byrne’s run, with Mesmero and Magneto, and the intro of Alpha Flight in Calgary a year or so later, were truly splendoriffic.
2- Superhero era – Those JR Jr issues are among my favorites, especially the Juggernaut bar fight and Kulan Goth’s New New York.
3- New Blood/Brood era – I loved the scarred Logan fighting freakish bugs and sinister sleazoids in the giant rotting carcass of dead space whales. Should be a movie.
4- Original Recipe era – The Lee/Kirby issues at the beginning (especially the first Sentinels appearance) and the Thomas/Adams period at the end were good. Just toss out the thirty-odd issues in the middle. The Adams issues (especially the return of the Sentinels and the Savage Land issues) set the bar pretty high for the new book to compete against.
5- Homeless era – Thanks Greg Hatcher for pointing this period out. Loved those Beast books and the Captain America appearances (but not the Champions).

Wow, that’s a lot to digest.

Let’s start out with:
1. Exiles (this is when I first start reading the X-Men books)
2. Rebirth (I just liked this era for the art, and because this is when I re-picked up the book)

Hmm…get’s a little more difficult here..
Legacy, God of All Comics, and the Phoenix eras, in no particular order

For me its…

Phoenix era
God of all comics era
The “We Screwed Up; Let’s Pander To The Old-Timers” Era (but only for Astonishing X-Men, I don’t read any of the other books)
New Blood/Brood era
Original recipe era (if you include Adams only, put it up two notchs)

Nice article! I’ve more or less stopped reading the X-Books circa 1994 (except for the Casey and Morrison issues, when I briefly came back), so that is why I’m not including Whedon, Brubaker, etc.

1 – The Phoenix Era. Claremont and Byrne, two guys with very different sensibilities and very different styles that somehow managed to create together work that is vastly superior to their individual strengths. Byrne had energy and edge that Claremont lacked, Claremont had tenderness and humanity that Byrne lacked. Just like Stan and Jack did before, they were opposites that complemented each other perfectly.

2 – The Superhero Era. The book finally recovered from Byrne’s exit as John Romita, Jr. brought back much-needed energy to the stories. Claremont had some of the best character work of his career here, with Magneto becoming more three-dimensional, Rogue’s split-personality acting up, Colossus and Kitty’s romance deteriorating, Nightcrawler’s crisis of faith… today this sort of character drama is standard procedure, but back then everything seemed very novel. And the best part of it all? The stories still had slam-bang action to go along with the angst.

3 – The God of All Comics Era – After years and years of mediocre stories and people trying to emulate Claremont but only suceeding in copying his worst traits, we have something very readable again. Morrison’s main strength is his ambition. The stories read less like superhero fare and more like award-winning, hard-edged science fiction literature, and that is a good thing in a book that deals with evolution. Morrison’s main weakness though is that he didn’t make the characters very sympathetic (except maybe for Wolverine).

4 – The Things Fall Apart Era Mark 1 – I do agree that we have some very solid drama here, some very spectacular battles, some nice bits of storytelling, but I also can’t help feeling that what started here – the several X-Men characters drifting apart, the constant apocalyptic tone, the increasingly complicated conspiracies, the universe-wide crossovers – were the things that would in time grow into cancers and make the franchise unreadable. So, while I think these stories are probably as strong as the ones in the Superhero Era, they still make me a little bitter.

5 – The New Blood/Brood Era – Dave Cockrum isn’t a bad artist by any means, but I don’t think he was nothing special, and after Byrne, it seemed like the book devolved a bit. It had been innovative and genius, and now it was a bit conventional superheroes again. Still we have some nice stories here, and I chose this era for the fifth slot because it’s still Claremont before his creative slump.

I didn’t realize that Claremont and Byrne went into Magento’s iconic status or explored mutancy as subculture.

To say Morrison just copied earlier stuff is… lets be polite and say misguided. Of course he used the characters and concepts of the book he was writing, it is pretty much neccesary when writing a long running comic series.

Some comments before I vote.

I stopped reading X-Men (all titles) in 99 because I felt that the book had lost its focus, and didn’t buy anything X until 04, and only issues here or there since then. I find it interesting that this is smack in the middle of the era you label as “Loss Of Focus Era.” Your article will be taking me to the back issue bins once the holidays are over as I apparantly missed a lot that was good.

The inner-geek in me loves the fact that the first issue of X-men that I bought is one of the covers you used in your article.

You mention that Storm turned down Forge. As I remember it, Forge withdrew the proposal, expecting Storm to turn him down. But, the issue ended with Storm sad and dejected, whispering, “I was going to say yes.” Am I thinking of a different occasion?

You also make mention of 1989-1990 putting out more issues than normal. While X-Men (and a couple of other titles) went bi-monthly for the summer, the big reason that it appears that so many issues were produced is because Marvel re-did the dating on their comics at around that time.

Instead of an issue coming out in April with a cover date of June, they wanted issues coming out in June to have a cover date of June. So, they put “Early June”, “Mid June”, and “Late June” on the issues for April, May, and June. I may have the exact months wrong, but the idea is still there. Basically, you are accidentally counting Nov and Dec of 1988 in with the 1999 issues, which is why it looks like 17 issues were produced instead of 15.

Now, my votes:

1. Exile (I see you didn’t like it, but I loved Inferno. I’ve always thought that Inferno is an example of “Comics Crossover Done Right.” I felt that the story grew out of the previous 5 years of continuity, rather than shoehorned in as many crossovers are.)

2. New Blood / Brood (This was, IMHO, a real departure from the Original story engine, and yet even re-reading it as an adult I feel it works.)

3. Superhero (While I think that the stories presented in Exile and New Blood / Brood eras are better, the 83-86 era is what I always think of as the X-Men “setting” and these are the characters that I’ll always consider the “real” team.)

4. Rebirth (There was a lot in this era that felt rushed, but it was also a good jumping on point. Previous stories were abandoned in what felt like Claremont trying to clean house before he left. But, there was also a lot of new things going on that didn’t require the previous 10 years of continuity to appreciate, or in some cases understand.)

5.Things Fall Apart 2 (This is an excellent example of decompressed storytelling. Not streatched out for the crossover; not ultra-compressed to get it out of the way before the crossover. This is what I consider to be “Just Right” long term story telling.)

Honorable Mention. Phoenix (It is fashionable, these days to hate the X-Men in part because it was so popular fifteen to twenty years ago, and in part because of the Onslaught and Loss of Focus eras. But, even the haters recognize that it was the excellance of the Phoenix era that really laid the foundation for the excellance that came. And, none of that would have happened if the late 70s, if this era, hadn’t been an example of Comics Being (better than) Good.)

I’d like to clairify my list by saying that since I left midway through the Loss Of Focus era, I only know of the stories told since then. So, the other eras might be excellant and might even be excellant by my tastes and standards. But, since I’ve only read about them and here-or-there issues and not actual story arcs or long term plots, I didn’t vote on them.

Theno

1. Things Fall Apart Mark 1
2. Exile
3. Things Fall Apart Mark 2
4. Phoenix
5. Superhero

Pretty obvious I started reading X-men in the late 80s, isn’t it?

1. Things Fall Apart (1). Where I started reading comics. I was sucked in by 208 and 209 and hooked by 211. Peter walking forward while Riptide fills him with one shuriken after another. Then that panel where his hand shoots forward, grabs Riptide’s neck and the “Snap!” with a spurt of blood. And the final silhouette panel of the page with Peter holding Riptide’s limp body, facing the camera with white eyes saying, “Harpoon! Make peace with your gods, little man! You are next!” I have over four thousand comic books. Writing that paragraph about a book I bought 20 years ago still gives me goosebumps.
2. Phoenix Era
3. Things Fall Apart (2)
4. Rebirth Era
5. Exile Era. Since you mentioned it, I will vent my spleen RE: William Conover, who gives a speech featuring the statement, “Abraham Lincoln said that a house divided against itself cannot stand.” You are correct, PASTOR, but he was quoting Jesus. No pastor would accredit that statement to Abraham Lincoln. I remember the first time I read the gospels and found that statement. I felt like I had been deliberately lied to by those sources that accredited it to Lincoln.

Have a Great Day,
Gary E. Poisson

Yeah, if we could include any run in any X-Book I’d probably also add the following:

- Claremont/Davis’s Excalibur (great sense of fun and wonder without sacrificing any of the angst and moodiness that makes X-books different from other superhero titles)

- Claremont/Sienkiewicz’s New Mutants (I didn’t like Sienkiewicz psychedelic weird style when I was a kid, but I loved it when I re-read it as an adult, it was almost like a Vertigo book before there were any Vertigo books)

- Lobdell/Bachalo’s Generation-X (I think Lobdell generally sucked in the main X-books, he always came accross as the guy with Claremont’s vices but with none of Claremont’s virtues, but with Generation-X his slower, moodier, indoors style seemed to work)

- Louise and Walt Simonson’s X-Factor (You know, nowadays it’s an extremely tired cliche when you get a completely light-hearted, fun character and make him gritty and dark, but back then it was relatively new, and the way they changed Angel into Archangel was well-done)

Note: And I never liked the original X-Men run very much. Stan and Jack stories are always good, but the X-Men still felt a bit like second-strig Fantastic Four… and the less said about the Arnold Drake stories the better. Thomas and Adams stuff, okay, those were great, but very brief before it petered out.

That’s a rough divide of the eras for me. Of all of the X-Men writers I have to go with Claremont (or at least Claremont before he descended into madness), but his work is spotty. I like roughly #110 to 160 which cuts out the first half of your Phoenix era and the Brood chunk of the New Blood section. Then it wallows for a while before picking up when Romita comes on the book around #180 and is fun again in the Superhero era until just before the Trial of Magneto at 200. Those are my favorite issues but I really don’t like the stuff around them.

Forced into those eras I have to go with Grant Morrison since I liked almost all of his arcs even if I didn’t think it was as entertaining as those core Claremont issues.

1 New Blood/Brood Era

2 Phoenix Era

3 Original Recipe

4 Whedonverse

Can’t comment on the rest, as MY X-Men stopped being readable when Rogue joined and there was more than one book (New Mutants included), but then I am old

1) The Phoenix Era
2) The Original Recipe Era

But don’t count my vote. I bailed on the whole crappy X-verse when Kitty Pryde told off Loki in Asgard.

It’s LOKI, for Pete’s sake!!!!!

The Superhero Era should really be called the Character Development Era. Just think of all those wonderful character moments: Wolvie and Kitty Pryde talking about life, sitting on some stairs and he gives her a puff of his cigar, “This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship” with Colossus and Kitty, Rogue’s ongoing dilemma and her visit, with Storm to the banks of the Mississippi. The x-men men going out for a few pints and running into Juggernaut. The emphasis on character is what makes this run so great.

Damn it, Theno, you’re right. Forge did withdraw his proposal. Here I am saying how good they are and remembering the image of Storm in the rain crying because I thought she turned him down but regretted it. It’s the other way around, of course. Damn it. I hope you can forgive me, as it’s been 16 years or so since I read those issues.

“Meanwhile, the patients at Moira’s research station fought Mystique and Freedom Force and then Pierce and his Reavers,”

A small correction, but actually Freedom Force came to the Muir Islanders’ aid, and they all fought against the Reavers.

I remember it well because that was when Destiny was killed. Did they ever bring her back, by the way? :p

“- Claremont/Sienkiewicz’s New Mutants (I didn’t like Sienkiewicz psychedelic weird style when I was a kid, but I loved it when I re-read it as an adult, it was almost like a Vertigo book before there were any Vertigo books)”

I agree COMPLETELY! I remember when Sienkiewicz took over and I thought “What the hell is this crap.” I was about 16.

I went back as early as five years later and… wow. That run was incredible. I have loved Warlock ever since, even though he is not quite the same by anybody else.

1) Phoenix Era.

(I grew up reading those and as far as I’m concerned they were fabulous and stand up to the test of time)
—————–

2) whatever era the Jim Lee stuff comes into

(a nice boost to a dying toad of a franchise)
—————–

3) Morrison era

(he brought the concept back to it’s origins – with a twisted take)
—————–

4) the Brood era

(those Paul Smith issues were fabulous, but this era lost a LOT of points for me due to the “bad” quality of Cockrum’s 2nd tenure & the start of “really bad” Claremont writing
——————

5) Original X-MEN era.
Some of those are cheesy stories, but they’ve got some goodies in there.
——————

***Honorable mention***

Astonishing X-MEN era.

I only read the first couple of arcs, but that was enough for me to know that those two guys have their shit together for some great X-men stories.

~P~
P-TOR

GREAT work. My favorite eras are:

1) The Phoenix Era
2) The Brood Era (which also includes God Loves, Man Kills)
3) The God of All Comics Era
4) The Outback Era (sorry, Exile era doesn’t work)
5) Superhero Era (This one is far below the other 4, even if it still was pretty good. Claremont begun to make his first big mistakes there: marrying Cyclops to Madeline Pryor, begun to be obsessed with Storm, etc).

And I think Milligan’s run is at least as bad, if not worse than Austen’s. While he didn’t do things so bad as the Draco, I can’t think of a single really good moment in his run, and all the stories sucked, while Austen at least had 2 or 3 good issues.

The Phoenix Era and the Brood Era. Because if you don’t like the Belasco Issue or the Dracula Issue then there is something seriously worng with you.

Absolutely marvelous article. Thank you!

Here’s my personal ranking:

1. The Phoenix Era. This is where it all started for me (published in Finnish circa 1985, as I was just learning to read). Furthermore, I read these regularly even today.

2. The Superhero Era. I still remember these stories fondly. Nimrod was intense.

3. The Things Fall Apart Era Mark 1. Great stuff, but I’m still don’t understand the Siege Perilous. Perhaps, I should read the storyline once again.

4. The Rebirth Era. At the time, Jim Lee’s artwork was the greatest I had ever seen.

5. The God of All Comics Era. This might be a weird opinion: “Morrison’s X-Men was truly great, but I did not like it.” Or did not like as much as I would have enjoyed the same stories involving not so familiar characters…

(Damn, I sound like an old fool.)

Probably should be ranked higher, but as they say: “When I was young, even the nostalgia used to be better”.

To me the Phoenix era with Claremont and Byrne was the highst quality the series has ever been, but I still have a nostalgiac turn for the “Exiles” era when they were living in the Australian outback and Silvestri was drawing the book. To this day, I still miss Purple Armor Psylocke and Giant Hair Rogue with the legwarmer outfit. And Longshot rocked! Those were the stories where I first discovered the book and I was hooked for the next 4-5 years until post X-Tinction Agenda burnout…

I will always prefer Chuck Austen’s X-Men to Morrison’s X-Men. Yes, Austen did a lot of stupid stuff, but at least he was trying new stuff! And his work had the overwrought, over-the-top, melodrama I enjoy in comics. Not like Morrison’s work which just retold typical X-Men plots in a “cool” way. Yeah, so cool it left me cold.

Yeah, except for the ways you’re entirely wrong. Morrison was the one doing new things, while Austen was recycling bad soap opera plots.

You’re totally entitled to enjoy one more than the other, but your assessments are completely inaccurate.

1) Morrison Era
2) Phoenix Era
3) Superhero Era
4) We Screwed Up Era
5) Rebirth Era

Clear distinctions for me, and no other era is a close 6th place at all.

I didn’t read every era (but I’ve heard that I didn’t miss that much and saved a lot of money).

1. The Rebirth Era.
Or I could say “my great adventure with mutants begins.”

2.The God of All Comics Era.
It was new, it was hip, it was weird.

3.The “We Screwed Up; Let’s Pander To The Old-Timers” Era.
Simply astonishing heroics.

4.The “Things Fall Apart” Era Mark 2.
Quite good and interesting.

5. I cannot choose one era. Only bits of of old, classic story arcs (Days of Future Past, Phoenix, Fall of the Mutants, etc.). If I had to I would probably choose Age of Apocalypse times.

So reading this article, I realized I have a lot of affection for various X-Men characters, concepts, even story arcs… but there’s no era of X-Men comics I would consider entirely readable. The best of the lot are probably Phoenix and Morrison, but the Phoenix stuff is uneven and the Morrison stuff is marred by the fill-in art issues that ended up too unsightly to give me a chance of connecting to the story.

My favourite era isn’t on the list. It’s Mark Millar’s run on Ultimate X-Men.

If I’m not allowed that I’ll take New X-Men. They’re the only two X-Men runs I’ve ever liked – and yes I have read the Dark Phoenix Saga.

Loving up the Silver Age…

…I’d say there are four eras; the first and last are great, the second is patchy, and the third is dire.

The first is 1-16, the Lee/Kirby idea. A couple of issues fall flat, but for the most part, it’s great stuff – the Magneto/Xavier ideology conflict is there from the outset, and the first Sentinels story brings it to a close. In between, you get the debuts of the original Brotherhood of Evil Mutants (best villain team name ever, no contest), the oddly durable Blob, Ka-Zar and the Savage Land, the Stranger, and the first and best Juggernaut story (the bizarre combination of Toth on Kirby layouts is surprisingly effective). Not a bad turnout for a second-string Lee/Kirby title. Okay, the Vanisher and Unus and Lucifer are poor, but this is the most creative X-era prior to the Phoenix period.

Then there’s a period mainly by Roy Thomas and Werner Roth, which runs from 17-37. The stories in this run aren’t so hot, for the most part (though there’s some nice stuff with the Mimic and Juggernaut), and the whole mutants versus/alongside homo sapiens storytelling engine is largely lost. But the characterisation is, by Silver Age standards, subtle and sophisticated, and it basically creates many of the personalities which are developed much later by Claremont, Cockrum and Byrne. In other words, it’s worth reading for the soap opera stuff, which Roth’s art style is so suited for. Jean was never lovelier!

From issue 38 onwards the story count drops to 15 pages for the main tale, to make way for the uninspired “Origins of the X-Men Back-Up Feature”. This seems to bring about a failure of inspiration on Thomas’ part and subsequent writers Gary Friedrich and Arnold Drake are even worse. Artistic revolving doors don’t help, either. It’s a terrible period, with very little to comment on other than a relatively moving (fake) death of Professor Xavier story, a couple of nice Steranko covers (his interior art on two issues is disapppointing), and the unanswered question of how Barry Smith improved so dramatically so quickly. Avoid this era.

Then there’s the final glorious run, with Thomas back from 55 and inspired by Adams from 56 onwards. I’ve already gushed about this in an earlier post but it’s a stunning and hugely influential run that essentially sets the tone for the “New” X-Men six years before they appear. Claremont helps plot the Sentinels tale, apparently (and tellingly). I didn’t like these comics when they first appeared, when I was eight – too edgy, too realistic, too scary. Somewhat surprisingly, there’s a tale by Denny O’Neill in here (65 – not that good) and the first Sunfire story in 64 is drawn by Don Heck and Tom Palmer in a way that – amazingly – can make you think it’s Adams until you look carefully. A gem.

So there, in the unlikely event anyone’s interested, you have it.

Excellent work in classifying a comic book of over 4 decades vintage. For the most part I agree your summations. As for my Top 5, here goes:

1. The Phoenix Era (Claremont & Byrne reached their creative peaks and became household names as well as brought me back into comics.)
2. The God of All Comics Era (Morrison bravely took a moribund title into exciting new directions. Each issue was a new adventure.)
3. The Rebirth Era (Jim Lee’s art brought a much improved focus to Claremont’s writing.)
4. The New Blood/Brood Era (Yeah, the Brood are rip-offs from Alien, but they’re also about the only comic book villians to give me nightmares.)
5. The Superhero Era (Credit JRJR for this one. Not perfect, but Claremont makes a noble effort.)

Here’s my top three:

1. The Phoenix Era
2. The “Things Fall Apart” Era, Mark 2
3. The New Blood/Brood Era

After that, I have an awful lot of trouble thinking of any era that I’ve actually enjoyed reading and rereading on several different occasions over the years . . . individual story arcs from other times, maybe, but usually not entire eras.

And I tend to agree with Sean Whitmore’s point about how odd it is that several of your later “eras” overlap chronologically, focusing on what one writer was doing on one title during the same time that another writer was fooling around with another title . . . if you’re going to do it that way, should you also give Louise Simonson her own “era” from the days when she was the regular writer (around the late 80s and into the early 90s) on the closely related mutant titles of “X-Factor” and “New Mutants” while Claremont was still on his first long run on “Uncanny X-Men”?

X-Men 64 with the debut of Sunfire is a real treasure, and so seldom reprinted. And as Mark S said, it looks like Adams drew it! I’m not sure if Don Heck was instructed to mimic Neal Adams, if Tom Palmer was told to do his best to make it look like Neal Adams, or if the result was just the natural outcome of pairing Heck and Palmer, but it fits the tone of the Thomas-Adams-Palmer run perfectly. And to my knowledge, it’s only been reprinted in the Marvel Masterworks series and on the 40 Years of X-Men DVD, which is a shame.

Thanks for the Silver Age love!

The same thing (as noticed by DanCJ) bothers me – Why Ultimate X-Men aren’t even mentioned ? It should occupy The God of All Comics Era. That’s my favourite team and only recently it has lost it’s ‘magic’ a little. But I think it’s still more realistic than other adventures (no cosmic alien stuff and hundreds of other timelines/dimensions).

You really broke up the 80s there. I’d say the Silvestri/Lee parts, they’re what actually got me to get X-Men. I combine those two stints and call it “Hell Yeah and F*ck Yeah!” Honestly, I bought the Byrne era just so I could get to Australia and not be lost!

So, that’s like ’87 to ’91. The “cooler” X-Men become living ghosts that warp to the scene via Aborigine. COME ON. Australia, Gateway, ninja, ninja Psylocke, Reavers, Dazzler, Havok, Longshot, pre-Rogue Gambit, Rogue herself becoming a hot 80s chick, Jubilee, brown suit Wolverine in everybody’s face, mohawk Storm, Sinister…. I could go all day with this stuff.

I’d say the reason why Ultimate X-Men isn’t mentioned is the same reason why sales are slipping. To long-time die-hard fans, it’s not a “real” X-Men book because it doesn’t “count” toward the original continuity.

(If I was feeling more cynical, I would say this is why Ultimate is doomed. As long as 616 is being published, it’s always going to “count” more, regardless of how good or bad it is relative to Ultimate.)

That’s interesting, Lynxara. I thought sales were slipping because people weren’t enjoying what Kirkman was doing with the book. It sold pretty well when Millar was there, and it was still firmly out of continuity then, wasn’t it?

“That’s interesting, Lynxara. I thought sales were slipping because people weren’t enjoying what Kirkman was doing with the book. It sold pretty well when Millar was there, and it was still firmly out of continuity then, wasn’t it?”

Took the words out of my mouth. People lost interest in the book (me included) because Kirkman’s run is pretty bad. By Lynxara’s way of thinking, Ultimate X-men would have never been a success in the first place.

I guess the flipside of that is that when Millar was doing it, it had the added incentive of being a new and exciting endeavour bookended by a couple of great movies. Still, I loved Millar’s run.

1. Phoenix
2. New Blood/Brood
3. God of all…
4. Superhero
5. Things Fall Apart, Mark One

Superhero was when X-men started to lose it for me, partly because they started crossing over with New Mutants (a title I didn’t like as much) more often, a dark omen of the franchise-aspect to come.

After the mutant massacre the crossover aspect just became too much for me. Plus they broke up the core of Storm, Wolverine, Nightcrawler and Colossus, and for me it was never as good after that.

I’m going with issues 168-205, and 206-228. I’m surprised I didn’t decide on 94-138, though…I guess I really liked JRJR’s contributions as well as Marc Silvestri. I also really dug “Professor” Magneto, the Morlocks, the Mutant Massacre, and the battle with the Hellfire Club!

I have to say that i loved all the eras of Xmen when they came out with the exceptions of Claremonts second run and Milligans, those were pretty bad. I didnt really have any problems with Austens run, except for the artwork. his run wasnt the best but alteast he was trying something different. Seagles wasnt very good but aleast he had Bachalo on art, that helped. Carey is currently kicking alot of ass, cant wait to see what his Xmen Legacy is all about.

[...] Remember, you can still vote for your favorite X-Men Era.  I appreciate all the comments so far.  It’s very cool of you all. [...]

Honestly, as much as I loved the X-Men when I was getting into comics, I’ve never really had the chance to extensively read most of the eras of the comic. Grant Morrison’s run was perhaps the first time I ever actually read more than 12 successive issues at any given time, and I’ve only really started to get into the line again since Mike Carey took over. With that in mind, here’s probably my favorite stuff of what I have read:

1. Morrison’s run – My god, there’s just so many unforgettable, iconic moments in here. It’s one of the most exciting takes on mutant comics I’ve ever read, and the Xorn reveal in Planet X is one of my favorite plot twists of all time.
2. Mike Carey’s run – This is perhaps the X-Men comic I had been dreaming of ever since I was a kid first learning about the characters. It’s fast paced, excited, brilliantly characterized, and Carey’s obvious love for all eras of the X-Men just shines through. It’s this book more than anything else that got me excited about Messiah Complex and the franchise all over again.
3. Claremont/Sienkiewicz New Mutants – I’m a sucker for Sienkiewicz in any form, and although I’ve only read a few issues, this book was definitely ahead of its time.
4. Age of Apocalypse: X-Calibre – I’m pretty sure this was the first Warren Ellis comic I ever read, and at age 11, it blew my mind. This comic is the reason that I’m a huge fan of both Mystique and Nightcrawler to this day, and it’s still the only part of AoA that I have any desire to reread to this day.
5. X-Factor #87 – Peter David and Joe Quesada at the top of their game for what is probably still my favorite thing David has ever written.

1. God of all comics run made me pick it back up again when it had been a long time
8. Rebirth was the original time that I picked up the series, Jim Lee was on the book which was a huge selling point for me as I am an artist first person as oposed to following writers as much
17. I have been enjoying the Meat and potatoes era at present I’m liking Mike Carey’s run a lot and I’ve always enjoyed Chris Bachalos. I always thought his AoA run was top notch
7 I have some fondness for things fall apart II because I read some of that

I was always a big fan of New Mutants esp Sienkiewitz
Also let me put in a plug for X statix

I’ll put Phoenix Era at #1- my first X-Men comic was part 2 of the Dark Phoenix Saga, reprinted in Classic X-Men. It made me a fan of the characters and creators involved, and whatever was happening in the regular X-titles paled in comparison.

The God of All Comics Era is a close second- I hadn’t been as excited for a new issue of X-Men to come out as I was when New X-Men was announced. It exceeded my expectations. The Morrison stories rose in fell in quality, but “E is for Extinction,” “Riot at Xavier’s,” and “Planet X” were top-notch.

The Paul Smith run (Early Superhero Era) was dynamite. If only he had drawn the book longer! I know JR Jr gets a lot of love, but I think his X-Men work pales in comparison to Smith’s pacing, experimentation, humor, and character art.

I have an inordinate fondness for the Joe Kelly issues in general, and Maggott in particular.

Neal Adams’ X-Men comics may contain some questionable dialogue and plot contrivances, but they are out-and-out fun!

As for X-Comics total, Alan Davis’ Excalibur and the Sienkiewicz New Mutants issues get top-5 spots with the Phoenix, God…, & Smith eras.

Blaming the sales decline on Kirkman’s stuff with Ultimate X-Men is holy fanboy writ, but I don’t entirely buy that. Kirkman’s stories are weak, but not appreciably weaker than the bulk of the 616 X-books. Likewise, sales are sliding to a greater or lesser degree across the entire non-Spidey Ultimate line, and you can’t blame all that on Kirkman.

You can blame it on fans en masse deciding that Ultimate’s continuity has become less interesting than 616′s, though, and I’ve heard this logic outlined by more than a few fans who aren’t happy with various Ultimate titles. Right now X-Men is getting something of a revitalization very reliant on Brube and Casey’s willingness to play in the backwaters of X-Men continuity, while in Ultimate, Kirkman appears to be trying to manufacture backwaters out of whole cloth.

1. Things Fall Apart mk1
This is where I came in, right during the Mutant Massacre

2. Exile Era
Shortly after this I dropped them from my pull, though I picked up an issue here and there to see if I liked it again.

3. Morrison Era
When I added them back to my pull

4. Pander
I am one of the oldtimers they’re going after, though the only book I read is Astonishing.

5. don’t really have a fifth, guess it’s a tie between Phoenix, New Blood, and Fall Apart mk2

Incidentally, Greg, this write-up piqued my interest in the X-Men so much that I’m picking up the back issues from the last Claremont story I’ve read and plan on reading the series through to about Onslaught, when everything starts sucking too much. Thanks for the inspiration!

I was going to do a top five here, but then I realized that I can really only rate four:

1. God of All Comics Era – I just don’t think the book has ever been written as well, before or since. Morrison brought innovation and (gasp!) subtlety to the series, and dragged it, kicking and screaming, into the 21st Century. It’s now retreated safely back into the 20th again, but for one real bright shiny moment, I was happy.
2. Phoenix Era – Amazing comics that have aged well, and launched what many think of as the modern standard for super hero comics.
3. New Blood Era – The book took a dip in quality once Claremont lost Byrne as a co-plotter, and the book slowly lost focus. But these were still some imminently readable books.
4. Super Hero Era – Claremont’s work on the title continued to slide here, but Romita Jr’s art saves a lot of stories that might not have worked otherwise.

After issue 200, X-Men fell completely apart as far as I was concerned, and really only became readable again when Morrison came on. If I was pressed to pick a fifth era, I guess I’d say the current stuff. I don’t like it enough to buy it, but it doesn’t seem to be actively bad, either.

Or, if I could give you a write-in, I’d pick the Milligan/Allred X-Force. Very great, very weird comics that I loved.

Oh, yeah! I said that the current stuff doesn’t actively suck, but that doesn’t take into account how very much I hate Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men. It reads like Kitty Pryde fan fiction, and I’m just not going to pay money for that.

It is very pretty, though.

[...] Let’s see what your favorite X-Men Era is.  It was a bit of a landslide, as two eras dominated.  Yeah, they won’t shock you, either. [...]

Kinda offended by the obvious bias in the era titles.

1. The Phoenix Era
2. The Superhero Era
3. The Legacy Era
4. The “We Screwed Up” Era
5. The Onslaught Era

I wouldn’t put Claremont’s third go-round on “Uncanny” on the same level as Whedon’s “Astonishing.” Whedon’s dialogue is natural, his charcters feel real, the art is spectacular, the only big problem being it’s dreadful scheduling. Claremont’s run then was filled with mind-control and slavery, moreso than usual, and inconsistent art.

And Paul Smith is one of the top 3 best artists the X-Men have ever had.

“aming the sales decline on Kirkman’s stuff with Ultimate X-Men is holy fanboy writ, but I don’t entirely buy that. Kirkman’s stories are weak, but not appreciably weaker than the bulk of the 616 X-books”

Most fans disagree on that.

[...] Which is your favorite X-Men Era? lots of “eras” the x-men have gone through (tags: ComicBooks marvel X-Men history) [...]

[...] Greg Burgas breaks down the various X-Men eras, then asks readers to rate their top five. The results are up: my favorite era got second-place, but the winning era’s great, too. [...]

I prefer the New Blood/Brood stuff, in which everything centers around Kitty. Storm acts like a mom and gets jealous of Kitty’s dance instructor, Nightcrawler and Wolverine are her loving uncles who are always playing hide-and-seek for beer, Colossus is a gentle 17-year-old hulk who is hot for a 13-year-oldm, and Cyclops is a cool dude who leads the team and tries to relate to the others. AND NO XAVIER. Xavier’s only good when he is evil or gone.

This is followed by Grant Morrison’s New X-Men, in which he advances the ideas of the X-Men to their next logical step, moving past years of a stagnant holding pattern that was held in fear of doing something too new. Not only did he advance those ideas, he also created a whole bunch of great new ideas to hag 20 more years of stories off of. Plus, Morrison had Evil Xavier and gone Xavier, so he’s got that going for him. Plus, Jean Grey was never so cool, and he finally made Emma Frost into an interesting character. Plus, Beast is a lionface now, as long as artists actually remember that. Also: Check out that ultra new wave visor Cyclops has going.

Morrison’s Age is a shit.

He destroied Jean Grey!

I stopped reading the X-Men titils back in the mid ’90s – right after Jim Lee left Uncanny and X-Men came out with 5 different covers (oy!). I just got so sick of all the gimmicks of the industry. That being said – I am an avid X-Men fan and have the entire series collected up until UXM #300.

Here’s my TOP eras:

1. PHOENIX ERA (should be called the All New-All Different Era) – this is by far the finest X-Men books ever written. Like many have said, without this Era – the X-Men wouldn’t have been the X-Men we know today and Wolverine would not have become ‘Wolverine’. These books not only paved way for the future in story-telling of the X-Men but for comics in general.

2. SUPERHERO ERA – looking back at these issues, its quite refreshing to see comics just be comics. The stories were clean and to the point. This is comic nostalgia at its best.

3. REBIRTH ERA – Jim Lee is a big reason why I am such a fan of this era. His artwork really was revolutionary for the time and still stands the test of time when looking back today. I also really like the new Asian Psylocke and even the X-tinction Agenda story arc.

4. THINGS FALL APART ERA – I like this era for a pretty shallow reason – The covers! #248, 267, 268, #269 are Jim Lee classics and Mark Silvistri’s #251 (Wolverine crucified) is one of the best X-Men cover ever!

[...] My colleague Greg Burgas breaks it down for you pretty well here. [...]

I am only just getting into x-men so I want to thank you for a very useful article. I tend to agree with your views on those eras that I have enoyed so it is helping me steer clear of some of the bad ones.

So far I love the Grant Morrison era, have been indifferent about Milligans work and so far have enjoyed the legacy series in terms of art work (I haven’t actually read the series yet)

Great article! My head is spinning from all the info.

I think in time Carey will be much more revered for what he’s been doing for the X-books. Having to salvage the mess that was before was a monumental task.

Well,I’ll mention the writers too
1.CHRIS CLAREMONT
2.CHUCK AUSTEN
3.JOSS WHEDON

I hated Morrison’s run due to the Scott summers/emma frost angle…….I hated what Scott did to Madelyne Pryor,then he does it again to Jean……..truly unbelievable.He did have some solid stories though but the arc seemed like an extended fight scene most of the time.Genosha wipeout was a great idea,but Imperial was one big fight scene.The only trade I haven’t read by Morrison is ASSAULT ON WEAPON PLUS.

In contrast,Austen’s X-men seemed refreshing & more like a family.Sure,he did get a few facts wrong like the catholic angle in HOLY WAR.Again,the only arcs I haven’t read by Austen are SHE LIES WITH ANGELS & DAY OF THE ATOM.The rest is pretty decent stuff,even THE DRACO.Soap opera is decent if it works.He also brought a great angst angle to the team.I like my heroes as a family of humans,not leather clad grandstanders.Also,Morrison did rehash old standard stuff:mass scale destructions(aka coast city),evil twins & more

I only have childhood nostalgia for the Legacy era.