Chris Claremont

X-Men Reading Order Guide – Era #5: X-Tinction

A reading order for stories starting from Uncanny X-Men #244 in May 1989 and ending with Uncanny X-Men #280 in September 1991, plus New Mutants, X-Factor, Excalibur, Wolverine, & more. A part of Crushing Krisis’s Collecting X-Men: A Definitive Guide. Last updated March 2021.

Era #3: New Mutants X-Men Reading Order Guide Era #5: X-Tinction

What does Era #5: X-Tinction include?

This era of the reading order focuses on a period where all of the X-Men teams are unravelling, and ends with each title in the franchise refocused for their sales dominance of the early 90s.

We begin this era with a flash of hope after a difficult run for the main X-Men team, who had been presumed dead to the world (including their many former teammates) since Fall of the Mutants.

The X-Men reconciled with X-Factor at the end of “Inferno,” with everyone happy to learn their friends were alive – including the revelation of Jean’s resurrection! Meanwhile, the New Mutants were rattled to find their friend Illyana reduced to childhood and Excalibur had barely agreed to become a team.

However, just a few issues later, the X-Men would be disbanded after a brutal fight with Master Mold, X-Factor would be stuck off the planet, New Mutants would see a key member perish, and Excalibur would be stranded across multiple dimensions!

In Uncanny X-Men, this leads to an unusual 18-month period where there was no X-Men team in the flagship X-Men title. Stories alternated between Wolverine’s adventures with Jubilee and glimpses at the scattered team, many of whom had no memories of their prior lives.

Meanwhile, Moira MacTaggert began to assemble a new team of mutants on Muir Island with the corrupting influence of the Shadow King looming over her. Wolverine and Jubilee collect Betsy Braddock, now in Kwannon’s body, while a mysteriously de-aged Storm meets Gambit, and Rogue is stranded in the Savage Land (where Magneto lurked, after abandoning the New Mutants in the wake of Inferno).

At the same time, Wolverine’s solo title delved into his long-hinted mysterious past. Despite many indications that Logan had lead a long and secret life prior to his joining the X-Men, up to this point there had been few concrete connections to it shown on the page. Claremont, Peter David, and finally long-time scripter Larry Hama teased both Logan’s connection to Sabretooth and fleshed out his connections in the Madripoor underworld, buiding up to the bombshell “Weapon X” flashback story in Marvel Comics Presents #72-84.

Chris Claremont began to reassemble the X-Men starting with “X-Tinction Agenda” in Uncanny X-Men #270. This crossover through all three main team titles served to further disband the classic New Mutants cast – which had just lost Dani to her other life as a Valkyrie but gained the paramilitary Cable as their new leader.

New Mutants runs for just three more issues after the end of “X-Tinction Agenda,” adding Shatterstar and Warpath to the team and seeing Deadpool’s debut. These are widely acknowledged (and collected) as a prelude to X-Force. The New Mutants were already dead and gone.

It all came to a climax in pair of stories. First, in X-Factor’s “Endgame,” Apocalypse takes a keen interest in Nathan Christopher Summers. Then, “The Muir Island Saga” brings together the remaining X-Men left unfound during “X-Tinction Agenda.” That set up a massive combined squad of primary X-Men for their face-off against Magneto at the beginning of the next Era, as well as an all-new X-Factor team.

Flagship X-Series in this era:

Uncanny X-Men (1963) #244-280 & Annuals 13-15 – see Uncanny X-Men by Chris Claremont

Ongoing X-titles released in this era (listed in order of age of series):

Alpha Flight (1983) #71-101 & Annuals – see Alpha Flight
New Mutants (1983) #75-100 & Annuals – see New & Young X-Men
X-Factor (1986) #40-70 & Annuals – see X-Factor
Excalibur (1988) #8-41 & Specials – see Excalibur
Marvel Comics Presents (1988) #17-85 – This features Wolverine and others; see Logan – Wolverine
Wolverine (1988) #4-47 & OGNs – see Logan – Wolverine

Limited Series released in this era (listed in alphabetical order):

Havok & Wolverine: Meltdown (1988) #1-4

Later X-titles set in this era:

X-Men: True Friends (1999) #1-3
Clandestine (2008) #1-5

Notes:

This era includes the events Atlantis Attacks, Acts of Vengeance, Days of Future Present, X-Tinction Agenda, Muir Island Saga, & Kings of Pain.
Wolverine’s legendary “Weapon X” story from Marvel Comics Presents (1988) #72-84 was published in this era, but it appears in Era 1 per its chronological placement.
The late 80s and early 90s was one of the most intertwined era of X-Men, including many instances where you need to switch back and forth between single issues! I have tried to vastly simplify that without creating too many spoilers.

Top 12 X-Men Collections of 2011 – Reprinted Material

January 3, 2012 by krisis

Welcome to 2012 – I am still a comic book geek.

Specifically, the X-Men.

Yep. That’s a lot of comic books.

Specifically, I own something like 95% of every X-Men comic book ever reprinted.

On New Years’ Eve I said to myself, “You dashingly handsome scoundrel, how can you use your obsession to aid people who like the X-Men a normal, healthy amount – unlike you?”

The answer? I will count down for you the top twelve collected editions reprinting X-Men comics originally released before 2010. There’s a vast world of thousands of X-Men comics that have been released since 1963, and not all of them are readily available to buy in book format. These reprints mean that hard-to-get, or never-before-reprinted issues can be bought in handy collections with better reproduction of the line art than original issues.

(As for new X-Men material from 2011, that will require a whole new post to cover!) [Read more…] about Top 12 X-Men Collections of 2011 – Reprinted Material

Wolverine, Logan – Collecting Guide and Reading Order

The definitive, chronological, and up-to-date guide and trade reading order on collecting Wolverine via omnibuses, hardcovers, and trade paperback graphic novels. A part of Crushing Krisis’s Collecting X-Men: A Definitive Guide. Last updated August 2024 with titles scheduled for release through July 2025.

Collecting Wolverine

Wolverine is second only to Spider-Man in sheer quantity of stories told about a single character in the modern Marvel Universe. Collecting his every appearance is a close-to impossible task.

That can make it hard to be a fan who wants to read about your favorite 5’3″ Canucklehead without picking up expensive back issues. Luckily, those comics have been collected into dozens of softcover graphic novels, called “trade paperbacks.”

This guide lists three types of Wolverine collections – ongoing series, limited series where he is a title or starring character, and significant story-arcs. It is split into several sections and eras: [Read more…] about Wolverine, Logan – Collecting Guide and Reading Order

Excalibur – Definitive Collecting Guide and Reading Order

The definitive, chronological comic book collecting guide and reading order for Marvel’s Excalibur and Knights of X in omnibuses, hardcovers, trade paperback, and digital. Part of Crushing Krisis’s Crushing Comics. Last updated September 2024 with titles scheduled for release through December 2024.

Introduction to Excalibur

Excalibur is one of the most peculiar of all of the original X-Men spinoffs, and that’s a large part of why it is was beloved by fans and continues to be revived – though never quite in the same form.

In 1988, Excalibur was a light-hearted departure from a particularly heavy period of main X-Men series. Chris Claremont packed up three of his favorite X-Men – Nightcrawler, Shadowcat, and Rachel Summers (Phoenix II) – and flew them across the pond to the pencils of former Marvel UK collaborator Alan Davis. They added Marvel UK characters (and non-mutants) Meggan and Captain Britain (Psylocke’s brother) to create an irreverent, firmly British spin on an X-book.

It initially launched in the wake of “Fall of the Mutants” in Uncanny X-Men. Claremont’s flagship book found the mutants besieged from foes on all sides.

The lighthearted Nightcrawler and idealistic Kitty Pryde were both early sacrifices to this status quo as casualties of “Mutant Massacre” a year earlier. By the time they healed the X-Men were no longer a fit for them – and, in continuity, believed to be dead!

Meanwhile, Claremont creation Captain Britain had wrapped up a 10-year run at Marvel UK across a number of different comic titles and anthology. The latter five years of his life were stewarded a by a rising star artist named Alan Davis (as well as, briefly, Alan Moore), but with Davis moving on to work on Batman and the Outsiders it looked like the end of the line for Captain Britain.

Claremont collaborated with Davis on a pair of annuals that imported the character (and his sister, Psylocke) to the states, but he was too unknown in the American market to support his own ongoing there.

(There was also the problem of Rachel Summers, who had been supplanted as team psychic by Psylocke, and who brought her own complications of her extensive future knowledge, connection to Cyclops, and massive powers.)

This was the genesis of Excalibur, which saw Claremont reteaming with Davis and using his extensive knowledge of British culture (he was born there) to return to Captain Britain, to give Nightcrawler room to be the dashing swashbuckler he always hinted at in X-Men, and to write Kitty’s coming of age away from the horrors facing the X-Men.

Excalibur was my favorite book in the 90s because of its stable core of lovable characters, and its sensible handling of alternate timelines.

The challenge of the “Excalibur” brand name is that X-Men fans tend to associate it as much with Kitty and Nightcrawler as they do with Captain Britain, but the former two characters have long since been reabsorbed by the core of the X-franchise while Brian Braddock has moved firmly away from mutants.

In 2001, Ben Raab – who had written the final fifth of the initial volume – returned with a four-issue mini-series to follow up on some plot threads.

Claremont relaunched the title in 2004 as focused on Xavier and Magneto living on Genosha in the run-up to House of M, but the name never made any sense for a book that was completely divorced from the themes of the original.

Later, in the wake of House of M introduced a “New” version set in London that paired Captain Britain with Dazzler and Juggernaut, but didn’t capture fan’s hearts like the original did.

In 2019, the Dawn of X relaunch curated by Jonathan Hickman tapped the “Excalibur” name for a new spin on the concept. Tini Howard’s new volume focused not on the Britishness of the brand name, but on Captain Britain and their magical connections to Otherworld established by Claremont’s original run. It also swaps Brian Braddock for his sister Betsy as Captain Britain, and duplicates the original import of fan favorites Kitty and Nightcrawler by bringing in Rogue and Gambit – along with Jubilee, Rictor, and Apocalypse! The book would be one of two anchors to the first big event of the new era of X-Men – X of Swords (alongside the X-Men flagship title). [Read more…] about Excalibur – Definitive Collecting Guide and Reading Order

X-Treme X-Men – Definitive Collecting Guide & Reading Order

The X-Treme X-Men comic books definitive issue-by-issue collecting guide and trade reading order for omnibus, hardcover, trade paperback, & digital collections. Find every issue and appearance! Part of Crushing Krisis’s Crushing Comics. Last updated January 2024 with titles scheduled for release through July 2024.

The X-Men line received a major shake-up to its status quo in 2001. To make way for Grant Morrison’s tightly-focused cast in New X-Men (2001), Marvel spun off some of its most beloved X-characters into a third flagship X-title: X-Treme X-Men, penned by veteran scribe Chris Claremont and launched with artist Salvador Larroca.

This new team boasted heavy-hitters and fan-favorites Storm, Rogue, Psylocke, Bishop, along with newer charaxters Thunderbird, and Sage, It would later feature Cannonball, Gambit, and Shadowcat. Beast, and Wolverine also appeared, though they were shared with Morrison.

It’s important to note that, at its launch, X-Treme X-Men was the only X-team that featured a consistently fantastical, heroic theme. Morrison’s New X-Men trended more cerebral and sci-fi, while Austen took Uncanny X-Men to a more soapy, relationship-focused feel. Meanwhile, X-Force relaunched as the tongue-in-cheek X-Statix. At the time, X-Treme was alone in carrying the banner of a classic X-Men feel.

It was also the only comic book at the time to feature Storm, Rogue, or Bishop, who barely even make a guest appearance elsewhere during this run.

X-Treme ran for the full length of Morrison’s run on New X-Men. Afterwards, Morrison’s slimmer, scholastically-focused team was in turn spun off into Astonishing X-Men, penned by Buffy The Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon. Astonishing borrowed Kitty Pryde from this book, with the main two X-Men titles absorbing most of the other characters.

The title went unused for almost a decade before being revived in 2012 for an unlikely purpose – a reality-hopping Dazzler vehicle penned by Greg Pak that might have been better off known as Exiles. Then, in 2022, Chris Claremont returned for a revival.