As the decade comes to a close it is a time to reflect. A time to look back at some of out most cherished memories of the years past and celebrate their achievements. So in that spirit, I have taken a look at the best stories from each of the past ten years. As comics are a serial medium, there is some overlap in the calander, but these refect the bulk of a story coming out in the given year. This is based on my opinion, which is correct and people need to stop questioning it. So, without further ado, let’s begin.
2010|X-Men: Second Coming
Some have described the time between House Of M and the most recent X-Men relaunch as the “Extinction Era”. An apt name considering there were no less than three different plot elements conspiring to wipe out mutantkind. It was a struggle between despair and hope and that hope was never higher than after X-Men: Second Coming.
This was the columination of plot points that the X-Books had been driving towards for several years. Hope Summers, the first mutant born after the Decimation, returns to the present as a teen and quickly has the expectaions of a desperate people behind her. The event perfectly captures the role Cyclops found as a leader of men as he’s forced to make gut-wrentching choices to save his people. It’s a fast-paced block buster that keeps readers on their toes, and a perfect start to a new decade.
2011|Uncanny X-Force: The Dark Angel Saga
Uncanny X-Force was always a freight train of a book. Rick Remender crafted an unrelenting story about the spiraling consequences of one death. Those actions kicked off The Dark Angel Saga, a devastating and emotional story built into a roller coaster of action and X-Men continuity. It’s elevated to new heights thanks to the storytelling from a murderers row of talented artists like Mark Brooks, Esad Ribic, Dead White, and, in his best work, Jerome Opeña. It all comes together in a stone cold classic that will make you scream “hell yeah” one minute, and tear your heart our of your chest the next.
2012|X-Club
And now for something completely different.
Si Spurrier will never be a writer for everyone. He’s got too many quirks, he’s too interested in pushing odd ball ideas past the point any reasonable person would otherwise stop, he loves his thesaurus. Most importantly, Si knows how to combine all of that zany energy with a compelling and tight narrative that keeps readers wanting more.
In X-Club, Spurrier gives artist Paul Davidson the job of making sense out of nonsense. He gives himself the job of making the reader care about that nonsense, and he does it by taking a group of mostly one-note characters and developing them into something fascinating. It’s a mini bursting with creativity and fun that will put a smile on the face of any X-Fan.
2013|Uncanny X-Men: Revolution
There are few writers in comics like Brian Michael Bendis. Take quality and execution of out the picture if you will but Bendis is one of the greatest idea men in the game. For most of the aforementioned Extinction Era, a shadow hung over Scott Summers’ head. Was he to follow the path of Xavier or Magneto? Bendis starts his run on Uncanny X-Men by playing into the readers expectations. This Cyclops wears black, he fights the Avengers, he spouts revolutionary rhetoric, even Magneto is afraid of what he might do. But Bendis cleverly subverts those expectations and delivers a much more nuanced story.
This is the tale of a man who doing what he has always done, fighting for mutants. He is flawed, hated, and feared by even his friends, but he fights on regardless. Chris Bachalo delivers world-class art and designs that are still the template for many of these character today. While this plotline, and Bendis’ run in general, would end with a whimper, it kicked off with a bang.
2014|Magneto: Infamous
In 2011’s fun, but flawed, film X-Men: First Class, we are introduced to Magneto as a man with a mission. He’s in the killin’ Nazi business, and cousin, business is a-boomin’. In that spirit came Cullen Bunn and Gabriel Hernandez Walta’s Magneto. This is a grim tale of a monster hunting other monsters, casting the master of magnetism as a man brimming with machinations, but motivated by a noble goal.
Walta’s art is moody, visceral, and casts a dreadful shadow over the proceedings. For his part, Bunn tells a tight story that’s constantly propelled forward, while finding the perfect amount of gravitas for his lead’s voice. It’s a special story that captures in comics what the films had gotten right from the start.
2015|E Is For Extinction
2015 was a weird year for the X-Men, and Marvel in general. The year kicked off with everyone ignoring that AXIS had just happened, filled time until Secret Wars, played in mini-series land for the summer, and ended by launching the most reviled slate of X-Books in history. Needless to say, it was a rough one. Still there were highlights, especially among the Secret Wars minis. The brightest of which was E Is For Extinction.
Longtime Grant Morrison collaborator Chris Burnham teamed up with the Frank Quitely influenced Ramon Villalobos to deliver a four-issue mini that pushed the ideas from New X-Men past their logical extreme. It’s a story about the futility of trying to recreate something old, framed in a book that’s doing just that. It toes that tightrope by making everything in this story as intense as possible. Villalobos and colorist Ian Herring are on fire with they hyper-charged neon pallet mixed with intricate line work. It’s a wild story about where the X-Men could have gone and a celebration of everything Secret Wars was trying to be.
2016|X-Men: Worst X-Man Ever
2016 continued the nadir of the previous year with books that could never get momentum and an overarching extinction plot that was deeply distasteful to many fans. Once again, stepping out of continuity was the key to finding quality in books like X-Men: Worst X-Man Ever. In his 2007 song “Mara and Me”, Say Anything and Worse X-Man Ever writer Max Bemis begins with a generic “emo” song before dropping the pretense, and music, to sing:
Wait a second –
I can’t write the same damn song over and over again
I can’t define myself through irony and self deprecation
I can’t deny myself being alive through my alienation
It’s with that maturity and self-actualization that Bemis approached this story. It celebrates the idea of the X-Men while touching on the alienation of being in a group, but not part of it. It would be easy to turn the story of Bailey Hoskins into a cheap joke, but Bemis, with the soft and gorgeous artwork of Michael Walsh, adds an unfathomable amount of heart. It’s a wonderful celebration of the X-Men than many fans have overlooked.
2017|All-New Wolverine: Enemy Of The State II
There is perhaps no character in the last decade who saw their stock rise higher than Laura Kinney. She went from a stagnate, cold, assassin to a character with great depth and a world class supporting cast. She became many people’s definitive Wolverine and the reason for that is best seen in All-New Wolverine: Enemy Of The State II. In a very real way, Laura has to kill her past, kill everything that represented who she once was, and baptize herself in the mantel of The Wolverine. Tom Taylor writes a pitch perfect Laura and shows a woman overcoming the trauma she faced in her past. Don’t call her X-23, this story cemented how much more she was than a letter and number.
2018|New Mutants: Dead Souls
It’s hard to imagine that New Mutants: Dead Souls didn’t start as a piece of synergy. Put the New Mutants in horror settings and thematically tie into a film that refuses to come out. Matthew Rosenberg didn’t have to go as hard as he did, but instead chose to tell a heartbreaking tale that explores the depth of the X-Men. His plotting keeps each issue mostly contained, while building up to a horrific crescendo and his dialogue is whip-smart. The real star of the show, however, is Adam Gorham, whose moody art balances shadow and light, keeping readers on edge as they travel down the spiraling path the comic lays out. Don’t be afraid of picking up one of the best X-Men stories in a long time.
2019|House Of X & Powers Of X
Could it be anything else? Jonathan Hickman, Pepe Larraz, and RB Silva ended the Extinction Era and, in its’ place, grew something beautiful. These stories brought together comics fans in a way that happens once in a decade. There’s nothing to be said about these books that hasn’t been analyzed to death this year, so I won’t say anything except this. It surpasses the hype and is truly a new dawn for the X-Men.
Do you disagree with all of this or think it was spot on? Let me know what your favorite stories of the last decade were as we journey forth into a new one!
Zachary Jenkins co-hosts the podcast Battle of the Atom and is the former editor-in-chief of ComicsXF. Shocking everyone, he has a full and vibrant life outside all this.
