X-Men: Days of Future Past offered up more mutants than you ever could have imagined, yet you’re hungry for more and unsure where to turn after the latest (and arguably greatest) X-Men movie? Time to hit the comic book store.
Jumping from X-Men movies to comics presents some problems, however. First, there is a significant difference between each medium’s version of characters and concepts. This is true for all superhero movies, but while the difference between Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Captain America the comic book is relatively minor in the grand scheme of things, the movie and comic book incarnations of the X-Men can be wildly different, despite the X-Men movies being the only franchise that attempts to directly adapt comic book stories for the screen.
There’s also the problem of variety. Put simply, there’s a lot of X-Men comic material out there. Marvel currently publishes no fewer than five series with X-Men in the title, to say nothing of spin-off series likeUncanny Avengers, Wolverine, X-Factor, Cyclops or the forthcoming Storm. For the last two decades, in fact, Marvel has published a mind-boggling amount of X-Men-related material (We chose some of the best last year), and the idea of simply jumping in justifiably seems more than a little terrifying.
Below are a handful of comics that expand upon themes and characters from the movie, yet act as an introduction to the comic book version of the franchise for newcomers. We want to make it easy for you to read X-Men comics. Or, at least, as easy as it is to read any comic where time travel, soap opera plots, and shocking revelations that will change everything occur practically daily. Read on.
All-New X-Men #1-14 (2012-2013)
This series heralded the arrival of Brian Michael Bendis, former Avengers writer and member of the Marvel Studios Creative Committee, to the franchise, and he brought the original X-Men along in a series that offers a unique jumping-on point for readers. The set-up is that the original five X-Men have been brought forward in time to the present day to “fix” the broken status quo in some way even they don’t quite understand. Turning the Days of Future Past gimmick on its head, the series (illustrated by Stuart Immonen and others) is smart, fast-paced and fun stuff that explains the current status quo in a way just overwhelming enough that you want to hang on and find out what happens next.
How to read it: Available digitally, as well as in the All-New X-Men: Yesterday’s X-Men, All-New X-Men: Here to Stay and All-New X-Men: Out of Their Depth collected editions.
Magneto #1 (2014)
The character who has been both the arch-enemy of the X-Men and one of their most valued members during his 50-odd year history is among the franchise’s most-developed and most interesting players in both cinematic and comic book incarnations. A series launched this year, by Cullen Bunn and Gabriel Hernandez Walta, sends Magneto on a mission to kill those who seek to hurt mutants before they have a chance to do any damage, exploring some of the seeming contradictions of a man who constantly blurs the line between terrorist and freedom fighter in the process. You’ll want someone to make it into a Michael Fassbender movie before you’ve finished the first issue.
How to read it: Available digitally and single issue print editions.
Wolverine #1-12 (2013-2014)
There are hundreds of solo Wolverine stories to choose from if you’re eager to learn more about Hugh Jackman’s alter ego. And that’s even before you get to X-Men comics that spotlight the be-clawed one (Jason Aaron’s run on Wolverine and the X-Men from 2011-2014 is highly recommended). When novelist and occasional Doctor Who writer Paul Cornell took over the Wolverine series last year (with artist Alan Davis in tow), he launched a long-running storyline that culminates later this year with everyone’s favorite Canadian super-soldier meeting his maker. The storyline works surprisingly well, even if few people expect the death to stick (because, well, comics and because Wolverine has returned from the dead more than once before).
How to read it: Available digitally and in the Wolverine: Hunting Season and Wolverine: Killablecollected editions.
Excalibur #66-67 (1993)
TThe future dystopia from the “Days of Future Past” comic book storyline isn’t the same as that of the Days of Future Past movie. It did, however, get a happy ending a decade after the original story in the spin-off series Excalibur. Writer/artist Alan Davis took his team of former X-Men and assorted associates into the future ruled by Sentinels to sort everything out, and the result was a two-part storyline that inserted a rare piece of optimism back into the traditionally dreary, dark world of mutant superheroics. Be warned: This one isn’t easy to find, but it’s worth the hunt.
How to read it: Patiently. You’ll have to search back-issue bins at your local comic store for the original single issues.
Rise of Apocalypse #1-4 (1996)
The post-credit sequence at the end of Days of Future Past teased the arrival (in ancient Egypt, of all places) of En Sabah Nur, who may have been the first mutant on Earth and is far better known as the villain Apocalypse. En Sabah Nur pops up every few years with the intent to either rule or destroy the world depending on his mood, but this 1996 series explained his long backstory, and quite how someone born more than 50 centuries ago could still be alive and causing trouble for the X-Men today. Potentially required reading if you want to be up to date on the character before 2016′s X-Men: Apocalypse movie.
How to read it: Like the above Excalibur issues, the back-issue bins are probably the best place to find this four-part series. Digital editions are not available, and neither is the collected edition, which fell out of print some time ago. With the movie en route, it’s a safe bet to assume both will be forthcoming sooner rather than later, however.
