The X-Men are one of the most storied franchises in Marvel history. For years, books starring the team were the biggest in the comic industry, with some of the top talents telling stories that broadened fans' understanding of the team. In fact, when it comes right down to it, the X-Men have been a part of some of the greatest stories in comics history, ones that every fan should read.
That said, the X-Men's stories can often be pretty dark, as they deal with a lot of heavy real-world issues. On top of that, there are some tales that are just sad because they've let readers down for multiple reasons. However, that doesn't mean fans shouldn't read them, either because they're worth looking through or marveling at just how bad things can get.
10 House Of M Set A Terrible Precedent For The X-Men's Future
House Of M by Brian Michael Bendis & Olivier Coipel is a sad story for the X-Men in several ways. While the story's quality is all over the place, it wrought one of the biggest changes on the X-Men in years--Scarlet Witch's mass de-powering of the mutant race. This completely changed the X-Men, as the once ascendant mutant race was reduced to a pittance, one that their racist foes could wipe out easily.
It made the X-Men weaker than they had been in years and set up the X-Men for a very dark time in their existence. It's also tough for fans because it was a harbinger of Marvel's treatment of mutants for years to come, marginalizing and partitioning them off in their own rapidly dwindling corner of the Marvel Universe.
9 Uncanny X-Men #303 By Scott Lobdell & Richard Bennett Featured A Tear-Jerking Death
Magik has become one of the most powerful and important X-Men in recent years, but she also gets credit for one of the saddest X-Men stories of all time. By the '90s, she had been de-aged to her actual preteen age and, tragically, contracted the Legacy virus, a disease that only affected mutants. The X-Men did everything they could, but in the end, Illyana would lose her fight with the virus.
Death was no stranger to the X-Men but Illyana was just a child at the time and having her die of a terrible disease that the team could do nothing about was a striking moment, one that would have major repercussions for the team.
8 X-Men #25 Ended In Tragedy For Everyone Involved
X-Men #25 by Fabian Nicieza & Andy Kubert showcased one of the ultimate confrontations between the X-Men and Magneto. After Magneto detonates a massive electromagnetic pulse that crippled the Earth, the X-Men decided it was time to take drastic measures to stop the evil mutant. The battle between the team and Magneto got heated, with Magneto ripping the adamantium from Wolverine's bones, nearly killing him, and Xavier mindwiping his old friend.
Xavier and Magneto always had a complicated relationship, and this one sees both of them go all out to completely destroy the other. The complete and total dissolution of their friendship and the consequences of that are very sad.
7 Generation Next Is The Saddest Part Of Age Of Apocalypse & That's Saying Something
Age Of Apocalypse is one of the most beloved X-Men stories of the '90s, but there's no denying that it's also one of the most heartbreaking. This is sort of by design--a world where Apocalypse has taken over America and enslaved and slaughtered most humans in the country while the people of Europe prepare nuclear war--isn't going to be a walk in the park.
The toughest part of it is Generation Next by Scott Lobdell & Chris Bachalo, featuring Colossus, Kitty Pryde, and the teenage X-Men breaking into the Seattle Core to retrieve Colossus's sister Illyana, whose powers can help stop this terrible world from coming into being. However, it's a basically hopeless mission and the book gets really, really dark. It's a great read that's going to ruin a reader's day.
6 House Of X/Powers Of X Mixes Hope & Despair
Writer Jonathan Hickman and artists Pepe Larraz and R.B. Silva's House Of X/Powers Of X is the most important X-Men story of the 2010s, introducing all kinds of new concepts and bringing the X-Men back to prominence after years of editorially enforced stagnation. While this was a good thing, it tinged all the hope it brought to the X-Men with a heaping helping of despair.
Through the many lives of Moira MacTaggert, it was revealed that the mutant race is pretty much always doomed no matter what they do, as the evolutionary arms race between mutants and humanity causes humans to exterminate them with the help of machines. This took all of the hope of the new beginning the mutant race had earned and tinged it with darkness.
5 Operation: Zero Tolerance Shows Just How Far Humans Will Take Racism
Humans have been trying to destroy the X-Men for a long time and Operation: Zero Tolerance by Scott Lobdell & Chris Bachalo shows just how deep the racism of humanity runs. The titular Operation: Zero Tolerance is a government agency devoted to controlling mutants and destroying them if need be. The agents go so far as to inject themselves--and unknowing test subjects--with nanotech that transforms them into Sentinels.
The X-Men books have long been about the fight against racism and Operation: Zero Tolerance shows just how far racists will go to achieve their goals. It's a reminder in how it mirrors the racists of the real world.
4 Inhumans Vs X-Men Was The Height Of Marvel Hating On The X-Men
Inhumans Vs X-Men by Charles Soule, Jeff Lemire, & Leimil Francis Yu is heartbreaking mostly because of what it represented to fans of the X-Men and how badly Marvel was treating them at the time. Because of various real-world issues, Marvel had decided to push the Inhumans in place of the X-Men. They did this by revealing that the Terrigen Mists the Inhumans had released into the atmosphere were lethal to mutants.
While this was bad enough, Marvel actually made the X-Men into the aggressors against the Inhumans because fighting against genocide was wrong somehow? It was all so terrible, and it disheartened X-Men readers to no end, seeing how their favorite heroes were being treated because of movie rights.
3 Days Of Future Past Was The Original Dystopian Future
Days Of Future Past is a classic X-Men story by Chris Claremont, John Byrne, & Terry Austin, one that would open up a whole new avenue of storytelling for mainstream superhero comics--the dystopian future. In the future of Days Of Future Past, man's war against mutants had succeeded, with Sentinels having destroyed most of the mutant race.
The surviving X-Men came up with a desperate plan to stop the whole thing from happening and fans had to watch their favorite X-Men die to ensure that the horrors of this timeline never took place. This dark future was a depressing glimpse into what could be.
2 The Dark Phoenix Saga Showed The Downfalls Of Power & Heroism
Chris Claremont & John Byrne's The Dark Phoenix Saga is widely considered one of the greatest stories in the history of the medium. However, it's also sad on multiple levels, from the way Mastermind used his mind powers on Jean Grey to basically change who she was and begin the whole process to its iconic ending, where Jean chose death over the horror her life had become.
It also showcased the X-Men's desperation as their friend, someone they loved, changed before their eyes and transformed into a monster. The story took a familiar narrative--a hero's fall from grace--and changed the normal ending of their eventual comeback and created something powerful and memorable.
1 God Loves, Man Kills Showcases The Dark Side Of Religion
Chris Claremont & Brent Anderson's God Loves, Man Kills is one of the most powerful X-Men tales of all time. With mutants disappearing, the X-Men are forced to team up with their arch-nemesis Magneto to figure out exactly what's going on. At the center of it all is Reverend William Stryker, a man twisting and perverting religion to his own foul ends.
This story is more important than ever as it shows how something that can be beneficial to so many--religion--can be taken by evil men and twisted into a tool of racism and oppression.