In the world of Marvel Comics, X-Men is its own franchise within the larger franchise. More than any other property at the publisher, they’ve managed to maintain several spin-off titles for years. But which of these X-Men spinoff comics are the best of the best? We’ve narrowed it down to ten. For this article, we’re eliminating any spinoff that has the word “X-Men” in the title. To us, that is simply another X-Men team. So no Astonishing X-Men, no X-Treme X-Men, etc. We’ve also chosen not to include two of the biggest X-Men spinoffs ever, Wolverine and Deadpool. Why? Because they have their own lists!
10. Marauders by Gerry Duggan
with Matteo Lolli, Stefano Caselli, Michele Bandini, Lucas Werneck, Mario del Pennino, Benjamin Percy, Vita Ayala
In 2019, writer Jonathan Hickman upended X-Men mythology with House of X/Powers of X, leading to what we now call the Krakoan era. During this five-year run, mutants now had a sovereign homeland on the living island of Krakoa, itself a mutant. Krakoa’s plants could even produce various life-saving drugs for humanity. Of course, many hostile nations refused to trade with Krakoa. So a group of mutant smugglers, with the pirate-like name “the Marauders,” took to the high seas to smuggle the drugs to the people of these enemy countries. Let’s just say, hijinks ensued. This was the basis for Marauders.
Leading this ragtag crew on her ship The Marauder (of course) was Captain Kate Pryde, now the Red Queen of the Hellfire Club. Her stalwart crew consisted of Storm, Iceman, Pyro, Bishop, and Emma Frost, representing the interests of the Hellfire Trading Company. Writer Gerry Duggan wrote the first run of the title, which lasted 21 issues and two years. It featured some terrific art from artists Matteo Lolli and Stefano Caselli. This series is some of the best modern Kate Pryde stories from Marvel Comics. And it’s already one of the most missed concepts from the Krakoan era.
Issues in Gerry Duggan’s Marauders Run:
Marauders (vol.1) #1-21 (2019-2021)
9. Exiles by Judd Winick
with Mick McKone, Jim Calafiore
Way before Marvel’s Multiverse was all the rage, Marvel Comics dipped their toe into an X-Men team made up of heroes from across different realities. Created by writer Judd Winick and artist Mike McKone, The Exiles series featured heroes from different universes, removed from time and space in order to correct “hiccups” from divergent timelines. (Hey, kinda like the resistance team in the Void in Deadpool & Wolverine!) Characters on the team included many alternate-universe X-Men, most of whom died on various missions.
The mainstays of Exiles were always Blink and Morph from the Age of Apocalypse reality, who were the series’ real emotional foundation. This is the series that truly made Morph an actual comics character and not just someone a reference from X-Men: The Animated Series. Judd Winick wrote the first 36 issues, which are widely regarded as the series’ best. But overall, the book ran 100 issues, which is not a bad run at all. It’s definitely one worth checking out.
Issues in Judd Winick’s Exiles Run:
Exiles (vol.1) #1-37 (2001-2004)
8. Alpha Flight by John Bryne
The Canadian superheroes known as Alpha Flight are the second X-Men spinoff team with their own title. They first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #120 in 1979 as Wolverine’s former teammates returning to force him to come back to the team under orders of the Canadian government. Among the team were the mutants Northstar and Aurora as well as Guardian, the gargantuan Sasquatch, Shaman, and Snowbird. Alpha Flight’s 1983 series was both written and illustrated by the collective’s co-creator John Byrne, a comic book superstar at the time. He added a new member, the diminutive Puck, who became a fan-favorite.
Technically, only Northstar and Aurora were mutants in that initial lineup. Yet Alpha Flight was definitely seen as an extension of the X-Men brand back in the day. In the early years, Alpha Flight even outsold books like Avengers and Thor. When Byrne left the series, momentum slowed on the title, and sales dipped. Still, the book ran for 130 issues and 11 years. It truly left its mark in history when Northstar became Marvel’s first openly gay superhero in 1992. Some of the later runs are iffy, but a lot of those early John Byrne stories still hold up today.
Issues in John Byrne’s Alpha Flight Run:
Alpha Flight (vol.1) #1-28 (1983-1985)
7. Cable by Duane Swierczynski
with Ariel Olivetti
Nathaniel Christopher Charles Summers, better known as the time-traveling cyborg mutant mercenary Cable, was the epitome of ‘90s comics aesthetic. With the big guns and the bigger pouches, he certainly had it all. Created by Rob Liefeld for X-Force, he was popular enough to receive his own ongoing series in that era, but it never made a huge splash (unlike his frenemy Deadpool). But in the late 2000s, Cable relaunched as an ongoing series, and became a take on Japan’s Lone Wolf and Cub, in a series written by Duane Swierczynski and featuring some gorgeous art by Ariel Olivetti.
Cable follows up on the heels of the mutant population decimation caused by the Scarlet Witch. After this incident, an infant “mutant messiah,” Hope Summers, is born. The series follows Cable’s new mission, where he takes baby Hope on a journey out of this timeline to protect her and raise her as his own. The X-Man Bishop follows them across timelines, in an ongoing The Fugitive type chase. Cable worked way better as the grizzled reluctant dad than the gruff soldier cliché, and even though this book only lasted 25 issues, it’s one of the better, more consistently written X-Men spinoff comics.
Issues in Duane Swierczynski’s Cable Run:
Cable (vol.2) #1-25 (2008-2010)
6. X-Statix by Peter Milligan and Mike Allred
with Laura Allred, Nick Dragotta, Darwyn Cooke
In the early 2000s, the X-Men line of comics were stale and stuck in a visual and storytelling loop forged in the ‘90s. So Marvel hired Madman creator, cartoonist Mike Allred, and former DC/Vertigo writer Peter Milligan. Together they gave the X-Force series a top-to-bottom makeover with issue #116. They crafted a deftly satirical take on reality TV, celebrity culture, and mixed it in with some mutant soap opera. In their first adventure, nearly the whole team died on a mission, replaced with a new roster in the next issue. The cartoony style of Allred often clashed with the over-the-top violence and humor, but that’s what made their version of X-Force so unique.
After a year, X-Force rebranded as X-Statix, and gained a new #1 issue, mainly because the premise was so far removed from the original X-Force concept. The most astounding part is that they made a series about immature and often unlikable new “heroes” like Mister Sensitive, U-Go-Girl, and Vivisector, and yet kept readers coming back. In 2004, the series ended as it began—with the whole team dying. X-Statix is a unicorn in mainstream comics publishing, as it’s a story (and a team) with a definitive beginning, middle, and end, and no one has dared to touch it since. Well, except for their weird green glob of a mutant cameraman named Doop, who is still floating around the Marvel Universe.
Issues in Peter Milligan and Mike Allred’s X-Statix Run:
X-Force (vol.1) #116-129; Brotherhood #9; X-Statix #1-26; Wolverine/Doop #1-2; X-Statix Presents: Dead Girl #1-5 (2001-2004)
5. Generation X by Scott Lobdell
with Chris Bachalo, Roger Cruz, Tom Grummett, Pasqual Ferry
With the end of New Mutants in 1991, the X-Men line of books was left without a crucial component—a title about young students at Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. So in 1994, the NEW New Mutants launched with a title of Generation X. At the time, a title like that was very relevant to the teens and twentysomethings reading the book. Instead of being taught by Xavier, former X-Man Banshee taught these new students. They included Jubilee, as well as new characters like Monet St. Croix, Husk, Synch, and Skin. Banshee’s co-instructor was the recently reformed White Queen, Emma Frost.
Much like the New Mutants before them, these gifted students were mainly from diverse backgrounds. Scott Lobdell wrote Generation X, with detailed art by Chris Bachalo, showing off a style that made him a fan favorite. Generation X carried the torch of New Mutants well, and the genesis of Emma’s arc from villain to hero really happens in the pages of this comic. Scott Lobdell’s X-Men run isn’t considered as one of the greats. However, his run on Generation X is an extremely fun mutant teen soap opera, and remains beloved to this day for a reason. It’s just good yarn spinning.
Issues in Scott Lobdell’s Generation X Run:
Generation X #1-28 (1994-1997)
4. Uncanny X-Force by Rick Remender
with Jerome Opeña, Esad Ribic, Phil Noto
X-Force as a team existed in many iterations since 1991, when X-Force #1 sold five million copies. Most versions of the team were a militant mutant paramilitary strike force, made up of various younger heroes, mostly former New Mutants members. In 2008, the concept was reinvented once again, with X-Force becoming Cyclops’ secret Black Ops team, including members like Wolverine and X-23 for the first time. Yet it took almost twenty years for an X-Force series to truly become one of the best X-Men spinoff comics ever with 2010’s Uncanny X-Force.
The X-Force concept really flourished under the creative team of writer Rick Remender and artist Jerome Opena, who forged a squad of the X-Men deadliest killers. Among them were Wolverine, Deadpool, Psylocke, Archangel, and Fantomex. Remender’s Uncanny X-Force run lasted only 35 issues, from 2010-2012. Yet this brief run produced such memorable epics as “The Apocalypse Solution” and “The Dark Angel Saga.” Both of those stories remain among the best mutant sagas ever. Other X-Force lineups have come before and after this one. But this run still goes down as the concept fulfilling its true potential at last.
Issues in Rick Remender’s Uncanny X-Force Run:
Uncanny X-Force (vol.1) #1-35 (2010-2012)
3. Excalibur by Chris Claremont
with Alan Davis, Ron Lim, Marshall Rogers, Arthur Adams, Rick Leonardi, Chris Wozniak, Ron Wagner
If Chris Claremont and Alan Davis’ Excalibur was pitched as a TV series, it would be “What if X-Men, but also Doctor Who?” In 1987, the X-Men franchise was the biggest in comics with four monthly titles (that was a lot for back then). During the Fall of the Mutants event, the X-Men faked their deaths and went underground in Australia. Afterward, several iconic members were left behind, including Nightcrawler, Shadowcat, and Phoenix (Rachel Summers). Yet writer Chris Claremont was not ready to let go of his favorites like Kurt Wagner and Kitty Pryde. So he thought outside the box for a spin-off team.
Claremont used this opportunity to launch these mutant heroes off into their own comic, which was so much more than just “X-Men U.K.” During this run, these ex-pats and ex-X-Men, were joined by Captain Britain and his girlfriend Meggan. They operated out of his lighthouse in the British Isles, traveled to other dimensions, and had generally weird adventures month in and month out. Kitty Pryde really became an adult hero in this series, finally shedding her “junior X-Man” status. We should add that the artwork of Alan Davis is absolutely gorgeous throughout this run, his clean lines and expressive faces reminding everyone he’s one of the greats. This run’s one drawback is the extensive amount of fill-in artists for Davis, who was the series co-creator.
Issues in Chris Claremont’s Excalibur Run:
Excalibur Special Edition (1988) 1, Excalibur (1988-1990) 1-34, Excalibur: Mojo Mayhem (1989)
2. X-Factor by Peter David
with Larry Stroman, Jae Lee, Joe Quesada, Pablo Raimondi, Valentine De Landro, Carmine Di Giandomenico
When X-Factor began, it was the hyped-up reunion of the original five X-Men. And that team, while having many great stories, is not the greatest iteration of the team. The best version came in 1991, when the original students returned to the X-Men proper. Marvel then handed over the title to Incredible Hulk writer Peter David and essentially left him a bunch of mutant heroes that were now homeless thanks to team restructuring. Peter David reimagined X-Factor as a government-sponsored mutant team, led by Valerie Cooper, meant as PR for Charles Xavier’s philosophy to the human masses.
Peter David mixed comedy and heroics in a way that things like Buffy the Vampire Slayer would later become famous for doing. C-listers like Multiple Man and Strong Guy, background mutants for years, now had real personalities for the first time. As field leader, Havok finally emerged out of his brother Cyclops’ shadow. David later returned to X-Factor in the 2000s, where he reimagined them once again as P.I.’s working on mutant cases. Later versions of David’s X-Factor were corporate heroes. The lineup and premise would change, but the quality under Peter David never did. This is ne of the best, and also most underrated, X-Men spinoff teams of all time.
Issues in Peter David’s X-Factor Run:
X-Factor (vol.1) #70-92, Annual #7-8 (1991-1993) Madrox #1-5; X-Factor (vol.2) #1-50; X-Factor: The Quick and the Dead; X-Factor Special: Layla Miller; X-Factor (original numbering resumed) #200-262 (2005-2013), All-New X-Factor 1-20 (2014-2016), X-Men Legends (2021) 5-6
1. The New Mutants by Chris Claremont
with Bob McLeod, Bill Sienkiewicz
By 1981, Uncanny X-Men was Marvel Comics’ biggest-selling title. Marvel Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter knew they needed a spinoff series. So Chris Claremont went back to the original concept of the X-Men—a training school for mutant teenagers. Instead of X-Men, these kids were “the New Mutants.” Under Claremont, there were many more female characters, as well as POC in Xavier’s new class. Claremont and artist Bob McLeod introduced the team in a special graphic novel. Not long after, they received their own ongoing series in 1983.
Claremont focused on the soap opera aspect of mutant stories over traditional superheroics and fans flocked to the series, making it one of Marvel’s biggest hits of the ’80s. He later teamed with artist Bill Sienkiewicz, whose stylistic art broke the boundaries of mainstream superhero comics, particularly during the psychedelic Demon Bear Saga. It was also during New Mutants that Magneto saw his biggest character growth, as Claremont made him the Headmaster of Xavier’s School, forcing the former mutant terrorist to learn to be a paternal figure.
Writer Louise Simonson took over New Mutants as writer with issue #55, and would end with #100, becoming X-Force. But the quality of storytelling never quite matched Chris Claremont’s initial run on the title. A run that proved a mutant team could work without the likes of Cyclops, Storm, and Wolverine. The characters from New Mutants, particularly Sunspot, Cannonball, Wolfsbane, and Magik, have gone on to A-List X-Men status. But their character traits were all forged in Claremont’s legendary run. The first, and still best, X-Men spin-off series.
Issues in Chris Claremont’s New Mutants Run:
New Mutants (vol.1) #1-54 (1983-1987)