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X-Men by Chris Claremont – Definitive Collecting Guide to Uncanny X-Men #94-280

The definitive issue-by-issue comic book collecting guide and trade reading order for the original run of Uncanny X-Men by Chris Claremont comic books in omnibus, hardcover, and trade paperback collections. Part of Crushing Krisis’s Crushing Comics. Last updated November 2024 with titles scheduled for release through July 2025.

Uncanny X-Men by Chris Claremont (1975 – 1991)

X-Men did not officially become Uncanny X-Men until issue #142. However, the cover featured the “Uncanny” adjective starting with #114. Ultimately, many fans and comics resources refer to the entire relaunch from issue #94 forward as Uncanny X-Men – a convention Marvel upholds with the titling of their Marvel Masterworks reprints.

This 16-year period of X-Men by Chris Claremont is indisputable as the most classic era of X-Men, as well as generally considered to be one of the best runs of superhero comics of all time. The vast majority of thematic material later expressed in other forms of X-Men media including films, games, and toys originated in this run.

It all begins in 1975 with Len Wein and Dave Cockrum on Giant Size X-Men, which brought back Wolverine from a single appearance in Incredible Hulk and introduced a trio of characters that have become anchors of the franchise: Storm, Colossus, and Nightcrawler. It also brought Banshee and Sunfire back into the X-Men cast from their earlier Silver Age appearances, plus introduced Krakoa – the mutant island!

Chris Claremont took over writing duties from Len Wein just a few issues later. Under his pen, the trio of Wolverine, Storm, and Colossus would persist throughout a historic 16-year run that saw X-Men go from a marginal book returning from cancellation to the most-popular comic book franchise in America.

Along the way Claremont and a who’s who of artist collaborators steered the title through many signature foes and historic plots that have influenced movies, books, games, and toys for decades.

The first half of Uncanny X-Men by Chris Claremont – alongside Dave Cockrum, John Byrne, and John Romita Jr. – features a core of the classic Giant Size team, plus Kitty Pryde, under the leadership of Cyclops and Professor Xavier.

It included classic storylines like Proteus, The Dark Phoenix Saga, Days of Future Past, The Brood Saga, and God Loves Man Kills. Claremont and his collaborators introduced characters including Moira MacTaggert, Lilandra and the Shi’ar Empire, Arcade, Emma Frost and the Hellfire Club, Dazzler, Kitty Pryde, Rachel Summers, Callisto, Caliban, Forge, Selene, and many more – including importing Mystique and Deathbird from his run on Ms. Marvel! Plus, it saw him launch New Mutants and begin Magneto’s heroic turn.

The latter half of Chris Claremont’s landmark run on Uncanny X-Men – with Romita Jr., Marc Silvestri, & Jim Lee – begins with Storm usurping leadership of the team from Cyclops, who leaves the team for X-Factor. That means none of the original five X-Men star in this period of the book. Storm, Wolverine, and Colossus have seniority, and the team features some lesser-known characters such as Longshot, Dazzler, and original-body Psylocke, while introducing Mister Sinister, Jubilee, assassin-body Psylocke, and Gambit – plus, bringing back Sabretooth from his Bronze Age run on Iron Fist. And, it featured Magneto’s slide back to villainy.

That period bears a distinctly more dark and rebellious tone, with 21 issues passing with no X-Men team in existence! It also introduces the idea of both X-book and Marvel-wide crossovers with Mutant Massacre, Fall of the Mutants, Inferno, and X-Tinction Agenda.

This guide is not a complete reading order that follows the team through all of their various guest appearances! Instead, this guide focuses only on the issues of the Chris Claremont run and issues routinely collected alongside them. For a complete X-Men reading order for this period, start with The Definitive X-Men Reading Order: Second Genesis.

Silver Age X-Men – Collecting Guide and Reading Order for Uncanny X-Men (1963) #1-93

The definitive issue-by-issue comic book collecting guide and trade reading order for Marvel’s Silver Age X-Men and X-Men Hidden Years comic books in omnibus, hardcover, and trade paperback collections. Part of Crushing Krisis’s Crushing Comics. Last updated November 2024 with titles scheduled for release through June 2025.

The Silver Age X-Men

The X-Men debuted in 1963 under the pen of the father of the Silver Age Marvel Universe, Stan Lee, and his frequent collaborator, Jack Kirby.

X-Men (1963) is one of the most important key issues of the Silver Age because the team debuted fully formed with a complete cast of Professor Xavier, Cyclops, Marvel Girl AKA Jean Grey, Angel, Iceman, Beast – and, their signature foe, Magneto!

The “Original Five” were lead by Professor Xavier against foes like Magneto and his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, Namor, Unus The Untouchable, The Blob, Juggernaut, the original Sentinels, and many other classic X-Men enemies that are recalled to this day. Issue #4 introduced Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, who would soon migrate to the Avengers to become a part of “Caps Kooky Quartet” along with a third reformed villain, Hawkeye.

The original run of X-Men lasted from issue #1 in September 1963 through issue #66 in March 1970. From there, the title continued exclusively as a bi-monthly reprint book from issues #67-93, republishing prior issues with new cover illustrations.

Those five ears ended in 1975 with the publication of Giant Size X-Men and the relaunch of the title with a new cast in issue #94.

Though no new X-Men material was published from 1970 to 1974, the team was still active at the margins of the Marvel Universe – as seen in occasional guest appearances. That has led this period to be dubbed “The Hidden Years” by both Marvel and fans. Those “Hidden Years” contain contemporaneous Silver and Bronze Age material from the period, as well as later-inserted material.

Since all of that material features the assembled Silver Age team, it is also covered by this guide – distinguished as “Silver & Bronze Hiatus Appearances” and “Modern Age Hidden Years.”

(Making things even more confusing, the “Modern Age Hidden Years” should generally be read first – since it does not include the fuzzy version of Beast!)

Because this era is covered comprehensively by multiple formats, I have not listed the full breadth of single issues collected by story or single issue – there’s no reason to collect this run in that fashion. However, I have included some key issues below to help orient you to major moments in the Silver Age run.

If you want a reading order of every X-Men comic and character in that period (including guest appearances, flashbacks, and retcon stories), see The Definitive X-Men Reading Order, Era #1: Original X-Men.

A note on the title of this series: The official publication name of this title was “X-Men” through the Silver Age and beyond. The title was not formally changed to “Uncanny X-Men” until the indicia of issue #142. However, Marvel routinely refers to the entirety of this 1963 – 2010 volume as “Uncanny X-Men,” as on this Marvel Unlimited entry for issue #1. As a result, my convention on Crushing Comics is to always refer to the entire series as “Uncanny X-Men,” even prior to the indicia change.

Deadpool – The Definitive Collecting Guide and Reading Order

Updated Mar 25, 2025! The Deadpool comic books definitive issue-by-issue collecting guide and trade reading order for omnibus, hardcover, and trade paperback collections. Find every issue and appearance! Part of Crushing Krisis’s Crushing Comics. Last updated March 2025 with titles scheduled for release through December 2025.

Looking for Cable? He used to live on this page, too! See The Definitive Cable Collecting Guide and Reading Order.

Deadpool is now a multi-media star – perhaps one of Marvel’s most-visible characters – but he had humble beginnings.

He was introduced in 1991 in one of the final issues of New Mutants, created by Rob Liefeld and Fabian Nicieza as mercenary who was an oddball cross between Spider-Man and DC Comics’ Deathstroke.

Deadpool was just one of a slew of newly-introduced extreme characters that leaned into the bloodlust of early 90s fans. Yet, he stood out in the crowd in his remarkably sparse early appearances. That was largely because Nicieza gifted him with a unique, sardonic, self-deprecating voice, which other writers gladly picked up.

After six years of guest appearances, Deadpool landing his own ongoing in 1997 penned by newcomer Joe Kelly only tiny handful of issues into his career. The series stuck – it was one of the few to survive Marvel’s early 2000’s cull, and Deadpool would never again go without at least one ongoing series to his name.

Astonishing X-Men & Amazing X-Men – Collecting Guide & Reading Order

Updated September 29, 2025! The Astonishing X-Men & Amazing X-Men comic books definitive issue-by-issue collecting guide and trade reading order for omnibus, hardcover, and trade paperback collections. Find every issue and appearance! Part of Crushing Krisis’s Crushing Comics. Last updated September 2025 with titles scheduled for release through June 2026.

Astonishing X-Men launched under the unprecedented auspices of being an X-Men with the hottest possible creators that you could follow without a tangle of other comics to buy.

Though that concept would be slightly watered-down over the years, the theme of a standalone, fan-pleasing X-Men book focused on relationships as much as heroics has always been the mission statement of Astonishing X-Men, and it was echoed in 2014’s Amazing X-Men.

Note: Astonishing X-Men, Vol. 1 (1995) and Amazing X-Men, Vol. 1 (1995) were both four-issue limited series that were part of the Age of Apocalypse alternate timeline. Astonishing X-Men, Vol. 2 was a three-issue limited series that was a precursor to a major Apocalypse storyline.

When Astonishing launched in 2004, Grant Morrison’s massively popular run on New X-Men had just come to a somewhat abrupt halt, at least in part due to disputes behind the scenes. That lead to a line-wide re-alignment of X-Men titles, including cancelling Chris Claremont’s sideline title X-Treme X-Men and moving him back to the flagship Uncanny X-Men.

Marvel had unleashed something entirely new with Morrison’s run that no existing Marvel writer could replicate – not even Claremont: Morrison was an outside voice to the X-line who brought a much-needed injection of fresh ideas and a legion of new fans.

Enter Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly (though they’d all see cancellation by the time Astonishing kicked off). He was geek royalty with a massive fanbase, and despite having only written a handful of Buffy comics to that point, he had grown up with the X-Men. In fact, Buffy was based on Claremont’s archetype of Kitty Pryde (and Dark Willow on Phoenix)!

Marvel contracted Whedon to pen 12 issues, paired with rising superstar artist John Cassaday (who was in-progress on Planetary and just off of a run on Captain America). Rather than hand Whedon and Cassaday an existing title as they had with Morrison, Marvel created an entirely new one for the pair.

It was a prescient move on Marvel’s part, as when Whedon and artist John Cassaday hit delays within the first year of the book, it allowed the rest of the X-Men universe to keep moving while the pair toiled over each new issue. Marvel took the unusual step of treating Astonishing as “continuity-free” – though it acknowledges events like M-Day, it is free of crossovers and was released at a different rate than other X-books. In fact, it took four years for these 25 issues to be released – effectively putting them on a bi-monthly schedule.

Whedon took over the concept of a more academically-minded team from Morrison, with a staff of Cyclops, Emma Frost, Wolverine, Beast, and substituting Shadowcat for the recently departed Jean Grey. Dozens of Xavier Institute students are featured in the background of the early issues.

With Whedon & Cassady’s run on the book over, Marvel continued the trend of using Astonishing‘s crossover-free setting to lure high-profile creators – this time landing Warren Ellis. Creator of the critically acclaimed Planetary, Ellis actually got his start on Excalibur in the mid-90s. Ellis swaps Kitty Pryde and Colossus for Storm and Armor and gives the book a speculative fiction and sci-fi theme. Afterwards the book was handed to Daniel Way and Christos Gage, Greg Pak, and finally novelist Marjorie Liu – who played up the team-as-family theme.

Amazing X-Men began as Jason Aaron’s take on an X-Men away team as his run on Wolverine & The X-Men wound down, but it wound up as a single-shot story of Nightcrawler’s resurrection when he was whisked away to helm Original Sin and then launch Star Wars. Popular X-Men Academy and X-Force writer Christpher Yost wrote the majority of the remaining issues, which maintained a more light-hearted 80s feel to both the team and the stories.

Marvel relaunched Astonishing X-Men as part of their 2017 ResurrXion era, first penned by Charles Soul – who fit the A-lister billing – and then by Matthew Rosenberg, who would transition directly to writing the flagship Uncanny X-Men in early 2019.

The great thing about this pair of titles is that any time the writer changes is a great place to start! There is never any ongoing continuity – every run by a different writer is completely self-contained.

Crushing Comics – Guide to Reading & Collecting Marvel Comics

Updated November 11, 2025! You shouldn’t have to be a comic book expert to enjoy reading Marvel Comics! Find every Marvel issue from all of their major titles and characters in the right reading order in this Marvel Comics Guide, including how they’ve been collected in physical and digital format – plus, suggestions for the best places to start.

My dozens of guides to major titles – including every X-Men and Avengers team – will always be freely available for all visitors. New guides debut exclusively to Patrons of Crushing Krisis & Crushing Comics before being released to the general public. Join for less than the cost of one comic per month to help support the costs of maintaining this site!

I’ve teased some of my upcoming guides with the MARVEL logo over a grayed-out image, but I’m always happy to hear what you’re excited to see in the future!

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