It’s the most wonderful time of the year for Marvel Omnibus fans – time for the Tigereyes Most Wanted Marvel Omnibus 13th Annual Secret Ballot! This post explains every X-Men omnibus from 2001 to present that does NOT exist – all of which will appear as options on the 2025 poll.
To be very clear, this post only deals with books with “X-Men” in the title! Other X-Teams will be in one of my upcoming posts.
For the next two weeks, I’ll be covering Marvel’s entire publishing history by mapping missing omnibus volumes to fill in every gap in your Marvel oversize shelf! That’s all leading to the kickoff of the Tigereyes Most Wanted Marvel Omnibus 13th Annual Secret Ballot on Near Mint Condition on April 28, 2025.
Just counting omnibuses with the actual word “X-Men” in the title, we’ve had a staggering ten announced for 2025 or early 2026. But, see if you can spot the pattern in these books: X-Men: Blue & Gold – Mutant Genesis, X-Men: Onslaught Aftermath, Cosmic X-Men, X-Men by Marc Guggenheim All-New X-Men by Brian Michael Bendis, Uncanny X-Men by Brian Michael Bendis, X-Men: Age of Krakoa – Dawn of X Vol. 1, X-Men by Al Ewing, X-Men by Gerry Duggan, X-Men: Fall of The House of X / Rise of The Powers of X.
Plus, a reprint of the House of X / Powers of X oversize hardcover – a rare occurence! And, without X-Men in the name but still collecting X-Men issues is Phoenix: The Death And Rebirth of Jean Grey.
All but two of those omnibuses focus on the period covered in this post! We suddenly have coverage for the orphaned Young X-Men (2008), a complete omnibus map of Brian Bendis’s X-Men, all of X-Men Gold (2017), half of the four major legs of Krakoan continuity from 2022-2023, and a Krakoa-era anthology line!!!
That’s a lot of X-Men books! But, weirdly, about half of them were not very hotly demanded – both on the poll and by fans in general.
I think that’s a good thing. It shows that Marvel is pacing themselves when it comes to X-Men books and that they know they still have some major, fan-pleasing runs to release in the coming years.
If you’re not sure of what to vote for, stick around for a list of books vetted by a gang of the biggest mapping nerds on the internet with explanations from yours truly – keeper of the most-definitive guides to Marvel’s collected editions on the planet.
Or, if you don’t care about omnibuses, just use this post to learn about Marvel’s history and find some great comics to read!
This post would not be possible without research, mapping, and writing from JM21, a major CK supporter and a massive, massive X-Men fan! I have been mapping and re-mapping these books on my own for more than a decade and JM21’s fresh perspective helped me finally and for the first time land on a map of 2010 to 2012 that makes complete sense!!! JM21 is also a supporter of the UK charity Men Walking & Talking, which helps to create safe space for men to discuss their mental health and wellness. If you love this post and have a bit of extra comics cash you can spare consider donating the Men Walking & Talking today!
This post covers the following speculated omnibus volumes:
- X-Men in the 00s prior to Deadly Genesis & Messiah Complex
- X-Men: Uncanny X-Men – X-Corps by Joe Casey (2001 – 2002) [AKA New X-Men Companion]
- X-Men: Uncanny X-Men by Chuck Austen (2002 – 2005)
- X-Men: Uncanny X-Men – Reloaded Chris Claremont (2004 – 2006)
- X-Men: X-Men (1991) by Peter Milligan (2005 – 2006)
- Uncanny X-Men in the The Messiah Complex / 2nd Coming Era (2008 – 2010)
- X-Men: The Messiah Trilogy Crossovers (2007 – 2010) [crossovers ONLY of Messiah, War, & 2nd Coming]
- X-Men: X-Men – Road to Messiah Complex by Brubaker & Carey (2006 – 2008)
- X-Men: X-Men – Messiah Complex (2007 – 2008) [Endangered Species + crossover]
- X-Men: Uncanny X-Men by Matt Fraction Vol. 1 – Manifest Destiny / Utopia (2008 – 2010) [includes full Utopia/Exodus]
- X-Men: Uncanny X-Men by Matt Fraction Vol. 2 – Second Coming (2009 – 2011) [includes full 2nd Coming]
- Astonishing & Legacy in the The Messiah Complex / 2nd Coming Era (2008 – 2010)
- X-Men: Astonishing X-Men Vol. 2 (2008 – 2011) [AKA by Ellis, Way, & Gage]
- X-Men: X-Men Legacy Vol. 1 by Mike Carey (2008 – 2010)
- The Road to Schism & AvX
- X-Men: Uncanny X-Men by Kieron Gillen (2011 – 2012) [AKA Road to AvX, includes Gen Hope]
- X-Men: Astonishing X-Men Vol. 2 (2008 – 2011) [AKA by Ellis, Way, & Gage]
- X-Men: X-Men (2010) by Victor Gischler (2010 – 2013) [AKA Curse of the Mutants]
- X-Men: X-Men Legacy Vol. 2 by Mike Carey & Christos Gage (2010 – 2012)
- X-Men: Wolverine & The X-Men by Aaron Companion (2011 – 2015) [includes minis, Amazing, W&tX (2014), etc]
- X-Men: Astonishing X-Men Vol. 3 (2012 – 2013) [AKA by Pak & Liu; includes X-Treme X-Men]
- X-Men: X-Men (2010 & 2013) by Brian Wood et al (2012 – 2015)
- X-Men in Marvel Now (2013 – 2015)
- X-Men: X-Men (2010 & 2013) by Brian Wood et al (2012 – 2015)
- X-Men: Wolverine & The X-Men by Aaron Companion (2011 – 2015) [includes minis, Amazing, W&tX (2014), etc]
- X-Men in All-New All-Different Marvel (2015 – 2017)
- X-Men: Uncanny X-Men & Magneto by Cullen Bunn (2014 – 2018) [includes Civil War II: X-Men]
- X-Men: All-New, All-Different, Extraordinary X-Men by Hopeless & Lemire (2015 – 2017) [All-New & Extraordinary]
- X-Men RessurXion & Disassembled (2017 – 2019)
- X-Men: All-New X-Men – ResurrXion & Extermination by Cullen Bunn (2017 – 2018) [AKA X-Men Blue]
- X-Men: RessurXion Companion (2017 – 2018) [Astonishing by Soule, Red, Black, Gen X, X-23, & Cable]
- X-Men: Uncanny X-Men & The New Mutants by Matthew Rosenberg (2018 – 2019) [New Mutants, Multiple Man, Astonishing, Uncanny]
- X-Men: X-Men Disassembled & The Age of X-Man (2018 – 2019) [full event omni]
- X-Men – Age of Krakoa by Creator or Title (2019 – 2024)
- X-Men: Age of Krakoa – Marauders by Duggan & Orlando (2019 – 2023)
- X-Men: X-Men Legends (2021 – 2022)
- X-Men: Age of Krakoa – Nightcrawler & Legion by Simon Spurrier (2021 – 2023) [AKA Way of X et al]
- X-Men – Age of Krakoa – X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic (2021 – 2024)
- X-Men: Age of Krakoa – X-Men by Kieron Gillen (2022 – 2024) [Immortal X-Men et al]
- Age of Krakoa Line-Wide Omnibuses (2019 – 2024)
- X-Men: Age of Krakoa – Dawn of X Vol. 2 – Road to X of Swords (2020)
- X-Men: Age of Krakoa – Dawn of X Vol. 3 – X of Swords (2020 – 2021) [AKA X of Swords Expanded OHC]
- X-Men: Age of Krakoa – Reign of X Vol. 1 – X of Swords Aftermath (2021) [continues to Hellfire Gala 2021]
Remember: These titles and mappings are a suggestion of how Marvel could assemble these books. They are meant to help you decide on your votes on the Tigereyes poll. Your vote on the poll is a vote in favor of Marvel creating a book with that title or covering that period, NOT an endorsement of a specific map. Maps are presented as a proof of concept and to help you build your personal reading list.
Want to check out all of the other voting options for the 2025 Tigereyes Poll? Check out my 2025 Tigereyes poll options overview page that explains the poll, how to vote, and every title that will appear – including links to all of the posts in this series.
Over-the-top comics posts like this one are made possible via the support of Patrons of Crushing Krisis. For less than the cost of a single comic issue a month you can fuel my in-depth comics coverage, plus gain access to dozens of exclusive collecting guides & reading orders – including all of the Crushing Comics Guide to Marvel Comics.
X-Men Omnibus Mapping: X-Men in the 00s prior to Deadly Genesis & Messiah Complex
The 2000s are our problem decade when it comes to X-Men omnibus coverage. See Guide to Uncanny X-Men (2001 – 2011) and Guide to New X-Men & X-Men (2001 – 2008) for the many titles this era includes and witness the complete lack of omnibuses.
We have omnibuses of the side-titles that turned into flagships with New X-Men Omnibus, X-Treme X-Men Vol. 1 & Vol. 2, and Astonishing X-Men by Whedon & Cassaday, but we don’t have any omnibuses of Uncanny X-Men – and none of X-Men (1991) after the end of New X-Men! We have more omnibuses of X-Factor by Peter David from this era than we do of the main two long-running X-Men titles.
Get ready, folks. We have to do some heavy lifting to get this mapped.
X-Men: Uncanny X-Men – X-Corps by Joe Casey (2001 – 2002) [AKA New X-Men Companion]
Joe Casey’s run that kicked off alongside Grant Morrison’s New X-Men (2001) has been previously collected as an X-Men: X-Corps paperback, which contained Uncanny X-Men (1963) #394-409 & Annual 24/2001. However, generally it’s up to omnibuses collecting Uncanny X-Men (1963) to maintain the line’s comprehensive coverage, so the omnibus version of that book would pick up some other material.
A vote for this book is primarily a vote to collect Joe Casey’s run of X-Men and the accompanying year of X-Men Unlimited. However, since that yields a relatively short omnibus, this could also act as a catch-all for a massive number of limited series that ran alongside Grant Morrison’s New X-Men.
This would primarily collect Uncanny X-Men (1963) #394-409 & Annual 24/2001, X-Men Unlimited (1993) #34-43, Spidey/Marrow (2001) #1, and likely also Brotherhood (2001) #1-9 – which is a good tonal fit for Casey’s run.
Also, we can pick up Omar’s most-complained-about miss in the X-Men line mapping, X-Men: Magik (2000) #1-4 – which fits prior to this but was omitted.
However, that’s not all that this book could collect! This could also pick up any or all of the X-Men Icon miniseries (Cyclops (2001) #1-4, Iceman (2001) #1-4, Nightcrawler (2002) #1-4, Chamber (2002) #1-4, and Rogue (2001) #1-4). Plus, there were other mini-series in this period, including X-Men: Hellfire Club (2000) #1-4 (which could also be collected in the prior period), X-Factor (2002) #1-4, Muties (2002) #1-6, and Morlocks (2002) #1-4 that will almost certainly be abandoned if they aren’t collected here – and, luckily, there’s room!
X-Men: Uncanny X-Men by Chuck Austen (2002 – 2005)
This much-maligned run is actually peak “X-Men as soap opera” comics, and maybe finally getting it in omnibus would shut everyone up about it!
We now have this mapped in a trio of paperbacks – X-Men: Unstoppable, X-Men: The Trial of Juggernaut, and X-Men: Reload [by Chuck Austen], so we know exactly what to expect.
However, it would need to also pick up a few more issues of X-Men Unlimited (1993) to complete the Uncanny omnibus line’s coverage of that series.
A vote for this book is a vote for all of Chuck Austen’s X-Men in one place… although. maybe it would leave off his writing on X-Men (1991), which might fit better with the Peter Milligan volume, below.
This book would collect Uncanny X-Men (1963) #410-443, New X-Men (2001) #155-156, X-Men (1991) #157-164 (& 165, by Claremont), Exiles (2001) #28-30, and X-Men Unlimited (1993) #44-50.
However, there’s a chance that X-Men (1991) #157-164 moves into a separate omnibus with Milligan’s material from that title.
X-Men: Uncanny X-Men – Reloaded Chris Claremont (2004 – 2006)
If there’s any omnibus in the 2000s era that I’m surprised we haven’t seen yet, it’s this one! An entire book of Chris Claremont writing Storm, Bishop, Rachel Summers, Emma Frost, & Betsy Braddock with Alan Davis and Chris Bachalo on art?! That is very easy to market.
I think reception for this run has always been soft because the trades were hard to acquire for a long time until a set of fatter paperbacks appeared in 2018-2019. At that point, any renewed love for this run was muted by the thrum of anticipation of Hickman on X-Men.
Or, maybe this run is just middling? I sure don’t think so – it’s actually one of my favorite runs of X-Men! I think unlike some of Claremont’s future returns, which could be wordy and discursive, this one is tight and fun. He gets to focus on all of his favorite characters, plus he plays with Bishop for the first time.
This could continue the convention of collecting all of X-Men Unlimited (2004) along with the Uncanny X-Men line, but in this case I think it could be a better fit to include that non-Claremont material with an omnibus X-Men (1991). Instead, it would make a lot of sense to include Claremont’s Excalibur (2004) starring Xavier and Magneto here in full, which entirely a prelude to House of M (which happens during this book with an arc that, coincidentally, focuses on Captain Britain
This run ends with Claremont departing and Ed Brubaker continuing the plots of Deadly Genesis (2006) into “The Rise & Fall of the Shi’ar Empire.”
A vote for this volume is a vote for the some of the scant remaining in-continuity Chris Claremont X-Men team material yet to see oversize coverage!
This would collect Uncanny X-Men (1963) #444-474 & Annual 1/2006, Decimation: House of M – The Day After (2006) #1, and the Claremont-penned X-Men (1991) #165. This could easily pick up the entirety of Excalibur (2004) #1-14 by Claremont as a prelude to the House of M arc of Uncanny included here. Alternately, it could include all of X-Men Unlimited (2004) #1-14, which released alongside this run.
X-Men: X-Men (1991) by Peter Milligan (2005 – 2006)
While Chris Claremont writes Uncanny X-Men, Peter Milligan takes over for Chuck Austen on the adjectiveless X-Men (1991). Milligan writes a somewhat somber take on the X-Men, although he also brings Apocalypse back for his first big arc in nearly a decade with “Blood of Apocalypse.”
This would collect the content of two Peter Milligan trades, Dangerous Liaisons and Blood of Apocalypse (2022 version). That’s just 25 issues of material, so there is some room to include more here – especially since Milligan’s name alone isn’t necessarily a huge seller on an X-Men book.
One solution is to pull all of X-Men (1991) #157-165 up to here instead of collecting in the Chuck Austen omnibus. Another is to collect all of X-Men Unlimited (2004) #1-14 here, which I think is very smart! And, finally this could turn into a sort of “Astonishing X-Men Companion” to collect material that includes the core Cyclops/Emma team, since they star in this run at the same time as Whedon’s Astonishing.
A vote for this book is a vote to collect a minimum of all of Peter Milligan’s run in one oversize hardcover… but maybe a lot more than that!
This would collect a minimum of X-Men (1991) #166-187 and a direct crossover with Black Panther (2005) #8-9. Milligan’s trades also include Cable & Deadpool (2004) #26-27.
However, it might make sense for this to simply begin with X-Men (1991) #157-165 so all of this period of the series is collected in a single book.
To that this could add all of X-Men Unlimited (2004) #1-14. Or, it could act as an “Astonishing X-Men Companion” and add Giant-Sized X-Men (1975 / 2005) #3-4, a story from Free Comic Book Day: 2006 – X-Men/Runaways, Phoenix: Endsong (2005) #1-5, Phoenix: Warsong (2006) #1-5, and Mythos: X-Men (2006) #1.
X-Men Omnibus Mapping: Uncanny X-Men in the The Messiah Complex / 2nd Coming Era (2008 – 2010)
This is my favorite era of X-Men and we have NO OMNIBUSES. ZERO. NONE.
It’s also one of the more complicated eras of X-Men to collect into Omnibus. See Guide to Uncanny X-Men (2001 – 2011) for all the gory details.
Luckily, I have fellow X-Men lover JM21 helping with the maps this year, and with his feedback we have FINALLY wrangled this into books that make COMPLETE SENSE to me for the first time, ever.
Do you see me screaming in text? That is how excited I am about this year’s concise set of poll options.
X-Men: The Messiah Trilogy Crossovers (2007 – 2010) [crossovers ONLY of Messiah, War, & 2nd Coming]
Are you the kind of person who enjoys abridged novels and reading Cliffs Notes? Well, then this book is for you!
This is JUST the “Messiah Trilogy” of crossovers, which are really a set of bookends to this period plus a totally unrelated X-Force/Cable crossover that happens to have “Messiah” in its title.
What would make a lot more sense is to collect Uncanny X-Men / Dark Avengers: Utopia/Exodus in the middle… but no one ever asks for that! And, even if they did, at that point wed be deliberately omitting all of the texture of Matt Fraction’s Uncanny run to focus on the hits – the kind of mapping we complain about DC doing all the time.
A vote for this book is a vote for being impatient and seeing three blockbuster stories that won’t make sense as a reading experience collected into one book. You’ve been warned.
From Messiah Complex, this would collect X-Men: Messiah CompleX (2007) One-Shot, Uncanny X-Men (1963) #492-494, X-Men (1991) #205-207, New X-Men (2004) #44-46, X-Factor (2005) #25-27, and X-Men: Messiah CompleX – Mutant Files (2007) #1.
From Messiah War, this would collect X-Force (2008) #14-16, Cable (2008) #11-15, X-Force/Cable: Messiah War Prologue (2009) #1, and material from X-Men: Future History – The Messiah War Sourcebook (2009) #1. (This follows the convention of recollections of this material as a crossover, which omit X-Men: The Lives and Times of Lucas Bishop (2009) #1-3).
From Second Coming, this would collect X-Men: Second Coming (2010) #1-2, Uncanny X-Men (1963) #523-525; New Mutants (2009) #12-14, X-Men Legacy (2008) #235-237, X-Force (2008) #26-28, and material from Second Coming: Prepare (2010) #1, plus supporting material from X-Men: Blind Science (2010) #1, X-Men: Hellbound (2010) #1-3, and X-Men: Hope (2010) #1.
X-Men: X-Men – Road to Messiah Complex by Brubaker & Carey (2006 – 2008)
I don’t know why it took me so long to understand that this makes sense as the next sequential X-Men omnibus, but now that I see it I cannot go back.
This material has always had a combined trio of problems: it’s too significant, too popular, and too short.
Ed Brubaker’s X-Men material is relatively brief, and three quarters of it are already collected in the War of Kings omnibus line. The remainder of his run in “Extremists” in Uncanny X-Men (1963) #487-491 is a quick’n’dirty Morlocks brawl that doesn’t fit with any other material from this period.
Meanwhile, Mike Carey’s “Supernovas” and “Blinded by the Light” in X-Men (1990) are a pair of intense fan-favorite runs that people desperately want to see collected in omnibus. But, we’ve already had an oversize hardcover of most of them, and pushing them to be a part of an X-Men Legacy Omnibus line not only is a tonal mismatch, but also makes it less feasible to collect that entire line into two volumes.
Duh… why not just combine both of those runs into one place?!
This could optionally include all of the “Endangered Species” back-up stories, but I think it makes much more sense to include them along with Messiah Complex itself. However, if you look at the title of this and say “Hey, that should include Endangered Species,” I wouldn’t tell you that you were wrong.
Instead, if we want to get totally wild, we could also double-dip Brubaker’s material from War of Kings here with X-Men: Emperor Vulcan (2007) and X-Men: Kingbreaker (2008). That actually makes a ton of sense to me, as it gives more closure on Brubaker’s spacebound X-Men squad and gives readers a reason to seek out “War of Kings” as a follow-up instead of the abrupt ending of “Rise and Fall.” However, I wouldn’t suggest collecting War of Kings (2009) here, which is not by Brubaker and no longer an X-Men story. At that point, I think you simply need to commit to buying that existing event book to follow the rest of the plot.
A vote for this book is a vote to collect the two flagship runs that lead up to Messiah Complex. They really aren’t a “prologue” to Messiah Complex. More like a couple of smaller roads that eventually feed into an X-Men super-highway.
This book would collect Ed Brubaker material from X-Men Deadly Genesis (2005) #1-6, “Rise and Fall of the Shi’Ar Empire” (Uncanny X-Men (1963) #475-486, and “The Extremists” (Uncanny X-Men (1963) #487-491). It would also collect Mike Carey’s “X-Men: Supernovas” (X-Men (1991) #188-199 & Annual 1/2007) and “Blinded by the Light” (X-Men (1991) #200-204).
We could also double-dip Brubaker’s material from War of Kings here with X-Men: Emperor Vulcan (2007) #1-5 and X-Men: Kingbreaker (2008) #1-4.
X-Men: X-Men – Messiah Complex (2007 – 2008) [Endangered Species + crossover]
This is a straightforward map that fans have demanded for an eternity, since the Messiah Complex oversize hardcover has been out of print for 15 years now!
You have “Endangered Species,” a story told in back-ups across the entire line to summarize the dire straits of the mutant race and set up Messiah Complex, and then you have Messiah Complex – the first major direct crossover through the entire X-Men line in nearly a decade.
All done, right?
Well… in the spirit of expanding crossovers into full omnibuses, both JM21 and I think there’s a solid case that this could include an epilogue of the remaining Uncanny X-Men issues prior to #500 – which have never been collected along with the post-500 Matt Fraction material that follows this run.
And, if you think that some of Mike Carey’s preceding run from X-Men (1991) should also be included here as a prologue… well, great! This title doesn’t preclude that.
A vote for this book is a vote to gather the complete Messiah Complex saga into a single book for the first time… maybe with a little something extra.
First, this would collect the prelude of “Endangered Species” from X-Men: Endangered Species (2007) #1 and backup stories from X-Men (1991) #200-204, Uncanny X-Men (1963) #488-491, X-Factor (2005) #21-23, New X-Men [Academy X] (2004) #40-42.
Then, this would collect Messiah Complex from X-Men: Messiah CompleX (2007) One-Shot, Uncanny X-Men (1963) #492-494, X-Men (1991) #205-207, New X-Men [Academy X] (2004) #44-46, X-Factor (2005) #25-27, Marvel Spotlight: Messiah Complex (2007) #1, and X-Men: Messiah CompleX – Mutant Files (2007) #1.
Finally, it could include epilogue material from Uncanny X-Men (1963) #495-499, X-Men: Divided We Stand (2008) #1-2, the “Get Mystique” arc of Wolverine (Wolverine (2003) #62-65 – already collected by Aaron, but a direct epilogue to this story), and the much-later Cable (2008) #25 AKA Deadpool/Cable #25, which is a direct epilogue to this story.
X-Men: Uncanny X-Men by Matt Fraction Vol. 1 – Manifest Destiny / Utopia (2008 – 2010) [includes full Utopia/Exodus]
Now that we finally have a good map of Messiah Complex itself, Matt Fraction’s era on X-Men kinda maps itself.
It wouldn’t be the worst thing to have to start this with Uncanny X-Men (1963) #495-499, which I’ve always considered to be the unofficial start of this run. However, it has never been collected with Fraction’s run before and there’s no reason to think Marvel would start now. I won’t keep fighting that losing battle.
Instead, this would start cleanly with the blockbuster Uncanny X-Men (1963) #500 and collected through the full Utopia/Exodus crossover with Dark Avengers. It should also include X-Men: Secret Invasion (2008), which is by Mike Carey but doesn’t fit at all with his X-Men Legacy material since it’s about Cyclops in San Francisco.
I should note that I have reversed course and now I believe that this should include the X-Men Legacy (2008) #226-227 tie-in to Utopia. While it is not part of the direct crossover, it helps to give context on how Rogue becomes involved with the main team again, which becomes critically important in the issues that follow.
Where JM21 and I disagree is whether this should continue after Utopia. I think that the finale of Utopia/Exodus is an epic place to stop and I love the following “Nation X” arc, so I don’t want to split it up. JM21 has very thoughtfully decided to break “Nation X” in half so that the portion of it that has more to do with Utopia’s fallout appears here, and the rest appears in the next volume.
Either way, I think this is a good book that will please many X-Men fans!
A vote for this book is a vote for the first half of Matt Fraction’s Uncanny X-Men, which includes the full Utopia/Exodus event!
This would collect a minimum of Uncanny X-Men (1963) #500-514 & Annual 2/2009, the “Utopia” crossover and supporting material (Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men (2009) Utopia & Exodus, Dark Avengers (2009) #7-8, X-Men Legacy (2008) #226-227, and material from Dark Reign: The Cabal (2009) #1), as well as adding material left out of the Matt Fraction Complete Collections, including X-Men: Manifest Destiny Nightcrawler (2009) #1, X-Men: Manifest Destiny (2008) #1-5, X-Men: Secret Invasion (2008) #1-4, Dark X-Men: The Beginning (2009) #1-3 & The Confession, and maybe all of Dark X-Men (2009) #1-5.
This might also collect some or all of Uncanny X-Men (1963) #515-519, Dark Reign: The List – X-Men (2009) #1, and Nation X (2009) #1-4. If it includes #519, it should also include S.W.O.R.D. (2009) #1-5.
X-Men: Uncanny X-Men by Matt Fraction Vol. 2 – Second Coming (2009 – 2011) [includes full 2nd Coming]
Unlike Messiah Complex, which kicks off an era but isn’t really a part of any one author’s ongoing story, Second Coming is critical to Fraction’s era of X-Men! It makes no sense to collect the back half of Fraction in oversize format without it. It was only omitted from his Complete Collection paperbacks because it is big enough to be a paperback book of its own (which it was, as X-Men Milestones: Second Coming).
This book is all blockbusters. Rogue vs. Predator X. The returns of Magneto & Kitty Pryde. And, Second Coming, perhaps the most editorially-coherent and downright thrilling direct crossover in X-Men history.
After all that excitement, this would include some denouement, in the form of the “Five Lights” arc that follows Second Coming and establishes the reemergence of mutants around the world.
Personally, I maintain this should end there and not with the “Quarantine” arc in Uncanny X-Men (1963) #530-534, which Kieron Gillen co-wrote and makes so much more sense with his material. It sets up one of his big plot points! So, I might stand my ground on that one.
A vote for this book is a vote to combine the existing Nation X, Second Coming, and Second Coming Revelations hardcovers, plus some additional material.
This could begin with some or all of some or all of Uncanny X-Men (1963) #515-519, Dark Reign: The List – X-Men (2009) #1, and Nation X (2009) #1-4 if it is not in the first Matt Fraction volume.
Then, it would primarily collect Uncanny X-Men (1963) #515-529, the entirety of “Second Coming” crossover with #523-525 (from Second Coming (2010) #1-2, New Mutants (2009) #12-14, X-Men Legacy (2008) #235-237, X-Force (2008) #26-28), and material from Second Coming: Prepare (2010) #1), all of the Second Coming mini-series and one-shots (from X-Men: Blind Science (2010) #1, X-Men: Hellbound (2010) #1-3, and X-Men: Hope (2010) #1), Uncanny X-Men: The Heroic Age (2010) #1, and X-Men: To Serve and Protect (2010) #1-4.
I would argue it should include S.W.O.R.D. (2009) #1-5, which is where Beast is prior to Second Coming and does not make sense of a kickoff of the Gillen Omnibus the way it was in the Gillen Complete Collections.
Optionally, it could include Deadpool/Cable #26 (an epilogue issue), Uncanny X-Men (1963) #530-534, and “Journey to the Negative Zone” (Uncanny X-Men (1963) Annual 1/2011, Namor: The First Mutant (2010) Annual 1, and Steve Rogers: Super Soldier (2010) Annual 1).
X-Men Omnibus Mapping: Astonishing & Legacy in the The Messiah Complex / 2nd Coming Era (2008 – 2010)
X-Men: Astonishing X-Men Vol. 2 (2008 – 2011) [AKA by Ellis, Way, & Gage]
Astonishing X-Men tried to hang on to its identity as a prestige title with a run by Warren Ellis, but what it really wound up hanging onto is its trend of coming out very, very, very slowly. Ellis turned in two arcs, a supporting two-shot, and then a mini-series that was meant to be an additional arc than got spun off on its own.
Subsequently, after “Second Coming”, the title was revived to tell a pair of stories by Daniel Way & Christos Gage in alternating issues.
It makes sense to cut this book off there, since the remainder of it is by Greg Pak, Marjorie Liu, and then Liu crossing over with Pak.
A vote for this book is a vote to collect Warren Ellis’s Astonishing X-Men in oversize format for the first time, with a little treat of the Way/Gage material at the end.
This would collect Astonishing X-Men (2004) #25-43, Astonishing X-Men: Ghost Boxes (2008) #1-2, and Astonishing X-Men: Exogenesis (2011) #1-5.
X-Men: X-Men Legacy Vol. 1 by Mike Carey (2008 – 2010)
In the wake of Messiah Complex, Mike Carey transformed his run on X-Men (1991) into X-Men Legacy (2008).
This title leaned into the “Legacy” part of its name by doing deep dives on a pair of individual characters, unpacking their history, their personalities, and their powers. It started with Professor Xavier in probably the most thrilling run of Xavier-focused comics until Krakoa. Then, it shifted focus to Rogue and began a multi-year rehabilitation of her character into the strongest and most-consistent version we’d ever seen to that point (or would ever see again, thanks to her character assassination in Marvel Now at the hands of Rick Remender 😭).
We don’t need any other Utopia or Necrosha material for this run to make sense, because Legacy stories in those events stood alone without crossing over to other titles. Even though this book is relatively short, it doesn’t make sense to push past “Second Coming,” because the status quo of Rogue and the X-Men is so wildly different after the event.
A vote for this book is a vote for Marvel to finally collect this first half of this hotly-demanded Mike Carey material in omnibus for the first time!
This would collect X-Men Legacy (2008) #208-234 & Annual [AKA Giant-Size], X-Men: Odd Men Out (2008) #1, the “Original Sins” crossover (X-Men Original Sin (2008) One-Shot and Wolverine: Origins (2006) #28-30), and material from X-Necrosha [AKA Necrosha X] (2009) #1.
X-Men Omnibus Mapping: The Road to Schism & AvX
X-Men: Uncanny X-Men by Kieron Gillen (2011 – 2012) [AKA Road to AvX, includes Gen Hope]
Marvel has already mapped this for us in a pair of Gillen Complete Collections, but should we trust them.
Eh… I say not. The reasons are two-fold.
First, those Complete Collections don’t have any of Generation Hope (2010), which is 2/3rds by Gillen and absolutely should be collected along with his material.
Second, the back half of Gillen’s run is essentially him doing his own spin on Avengers vs. X-Men since he was not one of the five Marvel Architects in charge of the line at that point. Now that we have a proper AvX omnibus, that’s all collected in one place. It’s not the highest priority to double dip here.
Plus, that leaves us room to collect not only Generation Hope (2010), but another 12 issues of supporting material that we couldn’t possibly fit if we included the AvX material. However, Gillen’s Complete Collections begin with his S.W.O.R.D. (2009) #1-5, but that doesn’t fit here! Beast heads away for that story before Second Coming, so it should be in one of the prior Fraction books.
You might disagree with leaving out the AvX material… and that’s fine! But, that likely means you are voting for the first of two Gillen omnibuses instead of just one.
A vote for this book is a vote to gather all of Kieron Gillen’s era of pre-AvX X-Men all into one place, along with all of its supporting series.
This would definitely collect Uncanny X-Men (1963) #534.1 & 535-544; X-Men: Regenesis (2011) #1, Uncanny X-Men (2011) #1-10, “Journey to the Negative Zone” (Uncanny X-Men (1963) Annual 1/2011, Namor: The First Mutant (2010) Annual 1, and Steve Rogers: Super Soldier (2010) Annual 1), Generation Hope (2010) #1-17, X-Club (2011) #1-5, and Magneto: Not a Hero (2011) #1-4.
It could optionally include some or all of X-Men: Prelude to Schism (2011) #1-4 (which is horrible but can only fit in this book), X-Men: Schism (2011) #1-5 (which is by Aaron, in an Aaron Wolverine omnibus, and largely recapped by #544 and Regenesis #1), Uncanny X-Men (2011) #11-20 (in the AvX omnibus), and Avengers vs. X-Men: Consequences (2012) #1-5 (really a final arc of Uncanny, which in the AvX omnibus)
As discussed above, I actually think this should begin with Uncanny X-Men (1963) #530-534, which Gillen co-plotted and which really sets up Cyclops’s position in Gillen’s debut issue #534.1 I’d argue strongly this should NOT include S.W.O.R.D. (2009) #1-5, from Gillen’s Complete Collection Vol. 1, which happens prior to Second Coming.
X-Men: Astonishing X-Men Vol. 2 (2008 – 2011) [AKA by Ellis, Way, & Gage]
Repeated from above, the post-Ellis portion of this book all happens here prior to Schism.
A vote for this book is a vote to collect Warren Ellis’s Astonishing X-Men in oversize format for the first time, with a little treat of the Way/Gage material at the end.
This would collect Astonishing X-Men (2004) #25-43, Astonishing X-Men: Ghost Boxes (2008) #1-2, and Astonishing X-Men: Exogenesis (2011) #1-5.
X-Men: X-Men (2010) by Victor Gischler (2010 – 2013) [AKA Curse of the Mutants]
Starting after Second Coming, Marvel wanted to break the X-Men out of their own bubble of continuity that kept them separated from the rest of Marvel’s books. To accomplish that, Marvel relaunched an adjectiveless X-Men (2010) series by Victor Gischler that deliberately mashed the X-Men up with different characters in each arc.
This isn’t exactly hotly-demanded material, but it does include some key team-ups with Blade and Doctor Doom that make it relevant to Marvel’s current comics.
You’ll note that we’ve definitively split this up from the Brian Wood material at the end of the run. That’s because all of this Gischler material is long enough and consistent enough to stand on its own, whereas the subsequent Wood series X-Men (2013) is not long enough to exist without the rest of his material from this run.
A vote for this book is a vote to collect Victor Gischler’s run on X-Men (2010) in full.
This would collect X-Men (2010) #1-29 & 15.1, X-Men Giant-Size (2011) #1, and “Curse of the Mutants” AKA “vs Vampires” material from Death of Dracula (2010) #1, X-Men: Curse of the Mutants – Storm & Gambit (2010) #1, X-Men: Curse of the Mutants – Smoke & Blood (2010) #1 [originally solicited as “X-Club”], X-Men: Curse of the Mutants – Blade (2010) #1, X-Men vs. Vampires (2010) #1-2, Namor: The First Mutant (2010) #1-4, and the epilogue series, Wolverine & Jubilee (2011) #1-4.
Realistically, we could simply collect all of Namor: The First Mutant (2010) #1-11 here so it exists in full within the X-Men line in addition to in Namor’s own omnibus line. Gischler also wrote Wolverine: Revolver (2009) #1, which could also appear here.
X-Men: X-Men Legacy Vol. 2 by Mike Carey & Christos Gage (2010 – 2012)
This back half of Mike Carey’s X-Men Legacy (2008) is much more of a traditional X-Men team book than the first half. It’s effectively the “X-Men Away Team” as anchored by Rogue and Magneto, along with Xavier and Legion. However, it still dives much deeper into the psyches of these characters than a typical team book – sometimes literally! It also returns to Carey’s creations, The Children of the Vault, who Jonathan Hickman would later use in the Krakoa era.
Carey’s run on X-Men Legacy (2008) ends with issue #260. However, cutting this off there would orphan the front half of Christos Gage’s run that was not a tie-in to AvX. While there’s an argument that Gage’s run could fit into the next book – a Wolverine & The X-Men Companion – it almost seems cruel to not include it here to wrap up all of Legacy.
The bigger question is if this would include all of the Age of X crossover. I say it has to! Despite existing under the guise of being an alternate reality, it’s all incredibly real for our characters and has a major effect on the final arcs of Carey’s run.
A vote for this book is a vote to collect the remainder of Mike Carey’s Legacy, closing out his spectacular development of Rogue, in addition to bringing some closure to Legion and to Ed Brubaker’s team of X-Men lost in space.
This would collect X-Men Legacy (2008) #238-260, 260.1, & 261-275 and all of of Age of X (Age of X: Alpha (2010) #1, New Mutants (2009) #22-24, and Age of X: Universe (2011) #1-2)
X-Men: Wolverine & The X-Men by Aaron Companion (2011 – 2015) [includes minis, Amazing, W&tX (2014), etc]
This book is whatever you want it to be, based on the title. Whatever you think pairs with Jason Aaron’s Wolverine and the X-Men, that’s what this has!
That is almost certainly the supporting series Wolverine & The X-Men: Alpha & Omega (2011), which was criminally excluded from the Aaron omnibus, as well as Aaron’s side-series Amazing X-Men (2014).
It also seems crushingly obvious this would include the subsequent Wolverine & The X-Men (2014) #1-12 and Spider-Man & the X-Men (2014) #1-6.
There’s also a handful of other material from this period it could include (for example, there’s a case to be made for Storm (2014)!), but those are the obvious hits.
A vote for this book is a vote to collect all of the side-series supporting Jason Aaron’s run on Wolverine and the X-Men (2011), which continued from the post-Schism period into Marvel Now.
This would collect Wolverine & The X-Men: Alpha & Omega (2011) #1-5, Amazing X-Men (2014) #1-19 & Annual 1, Wolverine & The X-Men (2014) #1-12, Spider-Man & the X-Men (2014) #1-6.
It could add the silly Wolverine: In The Flesh (2013) #1 and the creepy Marvel Knights: X-Men (2014) #1-5, plus any other brief material from late Heroic Age or Marvel Now that features Wolverine with other X-Men and would otherwise be abandoned. (Abandoned Wolverine solo material from Now will fit better with a Savage Wolverine omnibus.)
X-Men: Astonishing X-Men Vol. 3 (2012 – 2013) [AKA by Pak & Liu; includes X-Treme X-Men]
I used to struggle with how the remainder of Astonishing X-Men (2004) out to be collected giving its final crossover with X-Treme X-Men (2012). There wasn’t enough room in one book for all of Astonishing from Ellis’s start on issue #25 through the end of the series at #68 with the “X-Termination” crossover included. Would that means shoving the crossover into a book with X-Treme X-Men (2012) and Age of Apocalypse? That wouldn’t sell very well.
JM21 cracked this problem by doing something obvious… which is why it’s nice to have people to collaborate with, even if you both have similar knowledge. He split the Astonishing books just prior to Pak’s brief single arc from issues #44-47. Since that Pak arc spawns his X-Treme X-Men (2012), we can now include that in full here with a perfect excuse to include the entire “X-Termination” crossover, since two of its three titles are in this omnibus.
I am a massive fan of both of those runs. Liu took a team of B- and C-list X-Men (Karma! Northstar! Warbird!) and turned them into a messy family unit stuck in adventures spawned from their pasts while the major X-Men teams took care of flashier problems. And, Pak gave Dazzler her best material in years… if not decades… in a run that challenged her to be a pragmatic leader who had to make occasionally deadly decisions.
A vote for this book is a vote to collect the remainder of Astonishing X-Men (2004) by Marjorie Liu & Greg Pak into one book, which is also a perfect excuse to include X-Treme X-Men (2012).
This would collect Astonishing X-Men (2004) #44-68 & Annual 1, X-Treme X-Men (2012) #1-13 & 7.1, X-Termination (2013) #1-2 [AKA Alpha & Omega], and Age of Apocalypse (2011) #13-14.
That’s about 44 issues, so at a push, it could also include Uncanny X-Force (2010) #19.1, Age of Apocalypse (2012) #1-12 and material from Point One #1. That would be all 3 threads of the X-Termination crossover. Otherwise, the Age of Apocalyse material could wind up abandoned. If it included that, we might change the title to reflect the alternate-related focused nature of 2/3rds of the book’s contents.
X-Men: X-Men (2010 & 2013) by Brian Wood et al (2012 – 2015)
This is a book where there is no “right” answer, so we have to just go with our gut.
This book would collect the back third of X-Men (2010), all by Brian Wood with Storm as the main character and running roughly parallel to Gillen’s Uncanny X-Men (2011), and then Wood’s continuation into X-Men (2013). When Wood left the book after issue #17, Marc Guggenheim and G. Willow Wilson chipped in an arc each with roughly the same team lineup to take us through issue #26.
Perhaps the cleanest option that would gather the most votes would to simply have a single title in the poll that read “X-Men (2010 & 2012) by Gischler, Wood, et al.” That would represent a 65 issue run that Marvel would almost certainly not release as one book, but it would centralize votes.
I’ll own that we probably goofed here by over-tuning the poll into two books. But, once JM21 and I realized that first book could include all of the “Curse of the Mutants” material and maybe even Namor, I think we got greedy and wanted to map it on its own.
A vote for this book is a vote for all of Brian Wood’s run on X-Men in one place, which finishes collecting X-Men (2010) and collects all of X-Men (2013).
This would collect collect X-Men (2010) #30-41 and X-Men (2013) #1-26 by Brian Wood. It might omit X-Men (2013) #5-6, which are Battle of the Atom crossover issues collected elsewhere in a Bendis omnibus.
Wood also wrote Wolverine and the X-Men: Alpha and Omega (2011) #1-5, which fits better into a Wolverine & The X-Men Companion but could also be placed at the start of this book. More essential, I think Marvel Knights: X-Men (2013) #1-5 fits very well here – it features most of this team – rather than in that Companion book.
X-Men Omnibus Mapping: X-Men in Marvel Now (2013 – 2015)
Before 2025, we had barely a fifth of X-Men flagships in Marvel Now covered in omnibus. Our only book was Wolverine & The X-Men by Jason Aaron, which extended from the Heroic age into half of Marvel Now. That left other flagships All-New X-Men (2012), Uncanny X-Men (2013), X-Men (2013), Amazing X-Men (2014), and Wolverine & The X-Men (2014) uncollected! See Guide to X-Men (2010 – 2019) and Guide to New Mutants & Young X-Men for coverage of all of those titles.
However, in 2025 Marvel announced a pair of books that cover the majority of the flagship X-Men gap in this period – All-New X-Men by Brian Bendis and Uncanny X-Men by Brian Bendis.
That means we’ve actually seen the other two books we need to complete the period already… they’re literally the prior two books in this list! But, for the sake of being comprehensive, let’s mention them again.
X-Men: X-Men (2010 & 2013) by Brian Wood et al (2012 – 2015)
The last book from the period above is actually the first book in this period too, since it collects X-Men (2013).
A vote for this book is a vote for all of Brian Wood’s run on X-Men in one place, which finishes collecting X-Men (2010) and collects all of X-Men (2013).
This would collect collect X-Men (2010) #30-41 and X-Men (2013) #1-26 by Brian Wood. It might omit X-Men (2013) #5-6, which are Battle of the Atom crossover issues collected elsewhere in a Bendis omnibus.
Wood also wrote Wolverine and the X-Men: Alpha and Omega (2011) #1-5, which fits better into a Wolverine & The X-Men Companion but could also be placed at the start of this book. More essential, I think Marvel Knights: X-Men (2013) #1-5 fits very well here – it features most of this team – rather than in that Companion book.
X-Men: Wolverine & The X-Men by Aaron Companion (2011 – 2015) [includes minis, Amazing, W&tX (2014), etc]
Similarly, we also need this book from above for its collection of Amazing X-Men (2014) and Wolverine & The X-Men (2014), which both count as flagships since they were main runs starring characters like Wolverine and Storm with “X-Men” in the title.
A vote for this book is a vote to collect all of the side-series supporting Jason Aaron’s run on Wolverine and the X-Men (2011), which continued from the post-Schism period into Marvel Now.
This would collect Wolverine & The X-Men: Alpha & Omega (2011) #1-5, Amazing X-Men (2014) #1-19 & Annual 1, Wolverine & The X-Men (2014) #1-12, Spider-Man & the X-Men (2014) #1-6.
It could add the silly Wolverine: In The Flesh (2013) #1 and the creepy Marvel Knights: X-Men (2014) #1-5, plus any other brief material from late Heroic Age or Marvel Now that features Wolverine with other X-Men and would otherwise be abandoned. (Abandoned Wolverine solo material from Now will fit better with a Savage Wolverine omnibus.)
X-Men Omnibus Mapping: X-Men in All-New All-Different Marvel (2015 – 2017)
Before 2025, the landscape of omnibuses for the period of X-Men from Marvel Now through Krakoa was bleak. Some side teams and characters scored their own books, like All-New Wolverine by Tom Taylor, but the main line of flagships had nothing. See my Guide to X-Men (2010 – 2019) for more details.
Now, we’ve got a solid third of the flagships collected in three books – All-New X-Men by Brian Bendis. Uncanny X-Men by Brian Bendis, and X-Men Gold (2017) in X-Men by Marc Guggenheim. But, that leaves us with a lot more material to collect from the flagship X-Men books!
X-Men: Uncanny X-Men & Magneto by Cullen Bunn (2014 – 2018) [includes Civil War II: X-Men]
This book is primarily a collection of Uncanny X-Men (2015) by Cullen Bunn, which is one of three flagship X-Men titles in All-New All-Different Marvel Now, starting late in 2015.
That volume is only 20 issues, which makes it a collecting dilemma. Do we try to lump all three flagships into one massive 60-page book? If we did, we’d lose the flexibility to include anything else in there, including Civil War II: X-Men (2016), also by Bunn.
Luckily, having Bunn’s name attached to this gives us a very obvious set of additional material to include – Magneto (2014). This is another “too short for omnibus” run at #21 issues, so it makes a perfect omnibus combined with Bunn’s Uncanny.
Magneto’s first solo ongoing series existed to the side of Bendis’s run on Uncanny X-Men (2013) and it quickly turned into a sleeper hit – Bunn’s most-popular Marvel title to that point that didn’t star Deadpool! With Gabriel Hernandez Walta on most of the art duties, Bunn crafted a dark, personal, morally grey run that saw Magneto struggling with his dichotomy as heroic leader of the mutant race and villainous mutant terrorist and separatist.
Bunn continued those themes with Magneto into the much flashier run on Uncanny X-Men (2015) with Greg Land on most of the art duties. It featured a “slice first, question later” team of Betsy Braddock as Psylocke, a somewhat good Sabretooth, and an overconfident Monet.
The great thing about collecting all of this as one book is it makes a perfect two book set with Bunn’s next run on X-Men Blue (2017), which continues to feature Magneto.
A vote for this book is a vote to completely collect the first half of Cullen Bunn’s Magneto saga in one book, which will marry perfectly to an X-Men Blue omnibus on the other side.
This book would collect Magneto (2014) #1-21, Uncanny X-Men (2015) #1-19 & Annual 1, and Civil War II: X-Men (2016) #1-4. It could also optionally collect the Secret Wars (2015) series House of M (2015) #1-4, by Dennis Hopeless.
X-Men: All-New, All-Different, Extraordinary X-Men by Hopeless & Lemire (2015 – 2017) [All-New & Extraordinary]
With Bunn’s Uncanny X-Men (2015) out of the way in a book that merges it with his Magneto (2014), we’ve cleared the way to easily collect the other two flagships of this period.
I can already hear you starting to argue… “Why put these together? They don’t have anything to do with one another!”
To which I would reply: Au contraire, mon ami! Actually, these runs fit together perfectly.
Jeff Lemire drafts teen Jean Grey from the “All-New” squad into his Extraordinary X-Men (2015), which means if you want to follow up your read of Bendis’s All-New X-Men Omnibus you need to read both of these series to get the full story of his characters. And Lemire’s book was anchored by Storm, Nightcrawler, Colossus, and Old Man Logan, but the stories actually mostly focused on younger X-Men – not only Teen Jean, but also Magik, Anole, Glob Herman, and others. Magik actually winds up being the featured star of the majority of the series.
Plus, both of these books leaned hard into the time travel elements of the “Apocalypse Wars” linewide theme, whereas Bunn’s book stayed in the present day.
A vote for this book is a vote to collect the more youthful two thirds of the All-New All-Different era flagships into a single volume that also acts as a direct sequel to Brian Bendis’s All-New X-Men Omnibus.
This book would collect All-New X-Men (2015) #1-20 & Annual 1 and Extraordinary X-Men (2015) #1-20 & Annual 1. It would likely also Death of X #1-4, also by Jeff Lemire.
X-Men Omnibus Mapping: X-Men RessurXion & Disassembled (2017 – 2019)
We went from zero omnibus coverage of RessurXion in Omnibus to having one big hunk taken care of in X-Men by Marc Guggenheim, which mostly collects X-Men Gold (2017). See Guide to X-Men (2010 – 2019) for details.
That means we need roughly four more books to collect all of the “X-Men” titles from this pre-Krakoa period.
X-Men: All-New X-Men – ResurrXion & Extermination by Cullen Bunn (2017 – 2018) [AKA X-Men Blue]
This is the easiest book to map in this period now that we’ve found a good solution for mapping the All-New X-Men content that fits between Bendis and Bunn.
A vote for this book is a vote for a comprehensive collection of the final chapter of the All-New X-Men’s time in the present day, which is written entirely by Cullen Bunn except for the final story, Extermination (2018), by Ed Brisson.
This would collect X-Men Blue (2017) #1-36 & Annual 1, Venomized (2018) #1-5 (which is effectively an extra arc of this series when the young team disappears from the main title), and Extermination (2018) #1-5 (which completes this story).
It could optionally add all of Jean Grey (2017) #1-11, already collected in Phoenix: The Death and Rebirth of Jean Grey, but also part of the overall All-New X-Men storyline.
X-Men: RessurXion Companion (2017 – 2018) [Astonishing by Soule, Red, Black, Gen X, X-23, & Cable]
This volume is messy, but necessary. The messiness extends to us misspelling Marvel’s made up word “ResurrXion” in the poll title, which I can’t change now.
We basically have two major, anchoring, flagship runs that are too short for their own omnibuses in the first mega-arc of Astonishing X-Men (2017) by Charles Soule and all of X-Men Red (2018) by Tom Taylor.
However, we can’t collect the final arc of Astonishing X-Men (2017) here, because it’s part of Matthew Rosenberg’s overall X-Men saga and it needs to be collected with his work. But, we have the opposite problem with Phoenix Resurrection: The Return of Jean Grey (2017) which is by Rosenberg, but somewhat necessary (and fun!) to read before Taylor’s Red.
That gives us a smallish 28 to 33-issue omnibus here, to which I think we’d certainly add the villainous one-shots from X-Men Black (2018) #1-5.
That would leave a lot of supporting titles from ResurrXion stranded. Would this collect some of them? All of them? Or, would we also need a “X-Men – ResurrXion Solo” omnibus?
Our title leaves that to your imagination. A vote for this book is a vote to primarily deal with Astonishing, Red, and Black… and if it collects more than that, great!
This would primarily collect Astonishing X-Men (2017) #1-12 by Charles Soule (but not Matthew Rosenberg’s Astonishing X-Men (2017) #13-18), Phoenix Resurrection: The Return of Jean Grey (2017) #1-5, Astonishing X-Men (2017) Annual 1 (a lead-in to Red), X-Men Red (2018) #1-11 & Annual 1, & X-Men Black (2018) #1-5 (really, a series of villain one-shots for Magneto, Mojo, Mystique, Juggernaut, & Emma Frost)
That is 35 issues. To that, we could add some amount of the 67 remaining orphaned issues of this period from Generation X (2017) #1-9 & 85-87, Cable (2017) #1-5 & 150-159, Legion (2018) #1-5, X-23 (2018) #1-12, Iceman (2017) #1-11, and Mr. and Mrs. X (2018) #1-12.”
X-Men: Uncanny X-Men & The New Mutants by Matthew Rosenberg (2018 – 2019) [New Mutants, Multiple Man, Astonishing, Uncanny]
Matthew Rosenberg wrote an ambitious multi-title run of X-comics with themes that continued from title to title and that eventually culminated in a brutal, often joyless run of Uncanny X-Men (2018).
Little did we know at the time that “brutal and joyless” was on purpose, to set us up for the delight of Krakoa bringing everyone back to the family.
Does knowing about the existence of Krakoa excuse how cruelly this run treats many X-Men characters? I don’t know. It has so many sad endings for various X-Men that it really feels like the end of the line. Some people might really enjoy that, but others will find it upsetting since this book ends on a downer note without the foreknowledge of what Krakoa is about to bring.
A vote for this book is a vote to collect Matt Rosenberg’s entire entire multi-title X-Men epic into one place for the first time.
This would collect New Mutants: Dead Souls (2018) #1-5, Multiple Man (2018) #1-5, Phoenix Resurrection: The Return of Jean Grey (2017) #1-5, Astonishing X-Men (2017) #13-18 & Annual 1, Uncanny X-Men (2018) Annual 1 & #11-22, and War of the Realms: Uncanny X-Men (2019) #1-3.
We could include Uncanny X-Men (2018) #1-10 here, which was co-written by Rosenberg with Kelly Thompson and Ed Brisson. However, it’s almost certainly required to introduce an Age of X-Man omnibus, so it’s up to you if you’d like to see it double-dipped.
X-Men: X-Men Disassembled & The Age of X-Man (2018 – 2019) [full event omni]
This would begin with collecting the weekly “X-Men Disassembled” arc that launched Uncanny X-Men (2018) and then collect the full “Age of X-Man” event that it spawned, in a very similar collection map to the original X-Men: Age of Apocalypse omnibus.
A vote for this book is a vote to collect all of the Age of X-Man in one book for the first time, including its 10-issue prelude in Uncanny X-Men (2018)
This would collect Uncanny X-Men (2018) #1-10, Age of X-Man (2019) Alpha #1 & Omega #1, The Amazing Nightcrawler (2019) #1-5, Apocalypse and the X-Tracts (2019) #1-5. The Marvelous X-Men (2019) #1-5, Nextgen (2019) #1-5, Prisoner X (2019) #1-5, and The X-Tremists (2019) #1-5.
X-Men Omnibus Mapping: X-Men – Age of Krakoa by Creator or Title (2019 – 2024)
With us already having X-Men by Jonathan Hickman and Marvel announcing X-Men by Gerry Duggan and X-Men by Al Ewing this year, we only need a handful of additional book to collect all of the “flagship” main runs of the Krakoan era! See my Guide to X-Men – The Age of Krakoa (2019 – 2024) for more details.
X-Men: Age of Krakoa – Marauders by Duggan & Orlando (2019 – 2023)
While Marauders never had the word “X-Men” in the title, during the first two years of Krakoa Gerry Duggan’s seafaring squad anchored by Kitty Pryde & Emma Frost was probably the book with the most recognizable X-Men squad acting as X-Men.
This was effectively Krakoa’s “away team” prior to the launch of X-Men (2021). and having Emma on the cast meant it also had plenty of juicy Quiet Council content.
Steve Orlando’s decision to take Kitty’s team to space starting in 2022 made it much more of a supporting title (and, also, generally one of the least-enjoyed Krakoa books based on the crowds I hang with).
A vote for this book is to collect all of Marauders in one place across both of its runs, because if we don’t the Orlando run will be orphaned!
This book would collect Marauders (2019) #1-27, King in Black: Marauders (2021) #1, Devil’s Reign: X-Men (2022) #1-3, and Marauders (2022) #1-10 & Annual 1. It would would likely also include X-Men: Before the Fall (2023) Mutant First Strike #1, also by Orlando and featuring his team.
X-Men: X-Men Legends (2021 – 2022)
This retcon series of 1- and 2-issue arcs by classic creators revisiting their original runs isn’t really a flagship book, but if we’re playing by the “every title with X-Men in it” rules it’s only fair to include with this post.
A vote for this book is a vote to collect both of the X-Men Legends series exploring unseen chapters in past X-Men stories. Personally, I think it would be cool if an omnibus included 1-2 issues of the classic stories that lead into these retcon stories. That would create an awesome reading experience!
This would collect X-Men Legends (2021) #1-12 and X-Men Legends (2022) #1-6, but maybe also the classic stories that spun off into each of these retcon tales.
X-Men: Age of Krakoa – Nightcrawler & Legion by Simon Spurrier (2021 – 2023) [AKA Way of X et al]
I always explain the final two years of Krakoa as a “four-legged” stool of plot. You have three legs of the stool from the obvious flagships of X-Men (2021) by Duggan, Immortal X-Men (2022) by Gillen, and X-Men Red (2022) by Ewing. And, a stool can stand with three legs! But, it was obvious due to publishing decisions in 2022 that there was actually a fourth leg of the main plot of Krakoa that simply didn’t have “X-Men” in its title.
Simon Spurrier’s run writing Nightcrawler as the soul of Krakoa’s X-Men became the default fourth flagship book of the line in 2022, when it had equal story weight to the other flagships thanks to its participation in “Day of Judgment,” it joining Gillen & Ewing in spinning off into “Sins of Sinister”, and it taking on one of the major plot-threads of Krakoa in developing Mystique’s story.
Also? This is a de fact sequel to Spurrier’s wildly popular run on X-Men Legacy (2013), which has its own omnibus! You need the sequel!
A vote for this book is a vote to collect all of Si Spurrier’s run on Krakoan X-Men into a single book.
This would collect X-Men (2019) #7 and all of Simon Spurrier’s Way of X (2021) #1-5, X-Men: The Onslaught Revelation (2021) #1, Legion of X (2022) #1-10, Nightcrawlers (2023) #1-3. X-Men: Before the Fall (2023) Son of X #1, Uncanny Spider-Man (2023) #1-5, and X-Men Blue (2023) Origins #1.
X-Men – Age of Krakoa – X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic (2021 – 2024)
Starting from October 2021 and running through the end of the Krakoan era, Marvel ran a weekly digital comic called X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic (2021) that included some huge plot developments for its characters along the way!
Each digital issue could represent between 4-10 pages of a print comic depending on how it was laid out, so as a whole the run is absolutely omnibus-sized.
My fervent hope is that this material is collected alongside the Age of Krakoa anthology omnibus line once it reaches the period after the 2021 Hellfire Gala. However, even if it does, we’d still need this material recollected to fit alongside a bookshelf of creator-centric Krakoa collections.
This would collected X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic (2021) #1-142.
X-Men: Age of Krakoa – X-Men by Kieron Gillen (2022 – 2024) [Immortal X-Men et al]
I made no secret in the decade from 2012 to 2022 that Kieron Gillen is my favorite post-Claremont X-Men author of all time, so I was immensely pleased to see him return to the line in the wake of Jonathan Hickman to deliver a definitive mic drop on the themes of his original run that were truncated by AvX.
This run focuses heavily on Jean, Hope, and Mister Sinister, but also on the cracks in the flawed foundation of Krakoa’s Quiet Council. No writer in the Krakoa era wrote as much nuance into the fractured ruling body of mutantdom as Gillen.
A vote for this book is a vote to collect all of Kieron Gillen’s return to the X-Men in one place, with the exception of his “Rise of the Powers of X.” Per the mapping of the similar X-Men by Duggan omnibus, that material won’t appear here – only X-Men Forever (2024), which Gillen has stated was always meant to be the final arc of Immortal X-Men (2022).
This would collect a minimum of Kieron Gillens’s Immortal X-Men (2021) #1-18 and X-Men: Before the Fall (2023) Sinister Four #1, and X-Men Forever (2024) #1-4
I’d argue it also needs X-Men: Hellfire Gala (2022) #1 for context, though that was written by Duggan..
There’s also a chance this could (and should) contain some or all of Gillen’s Judgment Day content from A.X.E.: Judgment Day (2022) #1-6, A.X.E.: Avengers (2022) #1, A.X.E.: X-Men (2022) #1, A.X.E.: Eternals (2022) #1, A.X.E.: Eve of Judgment (2022) #1, A.X.E.: Judgment Day Omega (2022) #1, A.X.E.: Death to the Mutants (2022) #1-3, A.X.E.: Starfox (2022) #1 and material from Free Comic Book Day 2022: Avengers/X-Men 1 (A.X.E. story).
Since the Duggan omni did not collect Fall of the House of X, this would likely not collect Rise of the House of X or Dead X-Men.
X-Men Omnibus Mapping: X-Men – Age of Krakoa Line-Wide Omnibuses (2019 – 2024)
Marvel did something unexpected and delightful this year with the announcement of X-Men: Age of Krakoa – Dawn of X Vol. 1. It looks like it might be the book of an X-Men completionist’s dreams – collecting all of Krakoa in chronological reading order.
See my Guide to X-Men – The Age of Krakoa (2019 – 2024) for more details.
Of course, Marvel already abruptly cancelled a similar line of trade paperbacks halfway through an era of Krakoa with no warning, and it was sometimes mapped poorly and puzzlingly. So it’s hard to be 100% excited about this line of books until we see how Volume 1 is mapped, glimpse the contents of Volume 2, and know if Marvel has the fortitude to release the 10 additional volumes we’d need to cover everything through the Fall of the House of X omnibus.
Yes, you read that right: 10 additional volumes. Omar and I both mapped it independently of each other and came to the same conclusion.
However, we made the decision not to include all ten of those volumes on the poll this year the way we did last year.
Why not?
Last year, we treated each distinct period of Krakoa as its own 2-3 omnibus run, which followed our rules about not “mapping in the unknown” for the purposes of the poll.
However, this year we have both X-Men: Age of Krakoa – Dawn of X Vol. 1 and X-Men: Fall of The House of X / Rise of The Powers of X announced as bookends to Krakoa. Now that our speculated omnibus line is becoming reality, Marvel has introduced ambiguity we didn’t previously have.
Would Dawn of X Vol. 2 include series that weren’t a part of the Anthology trades, like Juggernaut (2020)? That affects our maps! How far beyond “X of Swords” will Marvel push in Dawn of X Vol. 3? That affects our maps! Does the absense of X-Force (2019) and Wolverine (2020) from the Fall of / Rise of Omnibus means that Marvel agrees that their final 2024 arcs were still part of the prior “Fall of X” period, since they all happen prior to Fall of the House of X (2024) #1 in reading order? THAT AFFECTS OUR MAPS.
As a result, we’re only comfortable mapping three more volumes into the future for this year’s poll. Especially when it comes to material that flirts with Inferno (2021) or collects the 2023 “Fall of X” period, we just don’t have enough information about how this line will work now that it’s officially being released to know what to predict.
If we get a Dawn of X Vol. 2 announced for 2026, it will go a long way towards answering these questions, which should allow us to push a bit farther with confident mapping on next year’s poll.
X-Men: Age of Krakoa – Dawn of X Vol. 2 – Road to X of Swords (2020)
Believe it or not, there is another big omnibus of content after Dawn of X Vol. 1 and prior to “X of Swords”!
When Marvel solicits this volume, it will answer two big questions for us!
First: Will Marvel slavishly follow the mapping breaks from their existing Anthology trades and how they mapped around big crossovers and events? OR, will this book end a little earlier than “X of Swords” to push more content (and more complete story) into the next book.
(We assume the latter.)
Second: Will this stick just to the core Krakoa books collected in the Anthology trades and not incorporate any supporting X-Men content from this period? OR, will Marvel include supporting X-adjacent series that the Anthology trades skipped so we have a truly complete Krakoa reading experience?
(We hope for the latter, which means this would include Juggernaut (2020) #1-5 and X-Men / Fantastic Four (2020) #1-4)
A vote for this book is to collect the second half-year period of the Age of Krakoa, collecting all material through the X of Swords prologue stories, which may or may not be held for the next volume.
Roughly, this would collect New Mutants (2019) #8-12, Giant Size X-Men (2020) Nightcrawler, Wolverine (2020) #4-5, X-Men (2019) #8-11, Empyre: X-Men (2020) #1-4, Marauders (2019) #9-10, X-Force (2020) #9-10, Giant Size X-Men (2020) Magneto, Giant Size X-Men (2020) Fantomex, Giant Size X-Men (2020) Storm, Hellions (2020) #1-4, Juggernaut (2020) #1-5, X-Men / Fantastic Four (2020) #1-4, X-Factor (2020) #1-3, Cable (2020) #1-4
It could optionally add Giant-Size X-Men: Tribute To Wein & Cockrum (2020) #1, since the original origin of Krakoa is the ultimate origin of this era.
X-Men: Age of Krakoa – Dawn of X Vol. 3 – X of Swords (2020 – 2021) [AKA X of Swords Expanded OHC]
A vote for this is a vote to recollect X of Swords, very likely incorporating slightly more of is prelude and epilogue material to expand the contents of the original X of Swords OHC.
This might collect collect the officially-bannered prelude to X of Swords from Maurauders (2019) #11-12, Excalibur (2019) #9-12, X-Force (2019) #11-12, X-Men (2019) #12, rather than leaving them in the prior omnibus.
Then, it would collect X of Swords from Free Comic Book Day: X-Men / X of Swords, X of Swords: Creation (2020) #1, X-Factor (2020) #4, Wolverine (2020) #6, X-Force (2019) #13, Marauders (2019) #13, Hellions (2020) #5, New Mutants (2019) #13, Cable (2020) #5, Excalibur (2019) #13, X-Men (2019) #13, X of Swords: Stasis (2020) #1, X-Men (2019) #14, Marauders (2019) #14-15, Excalibur (2019) #14, Wolverine (2020) #7, X-Force (2019) #14, Hellions (2020) #6, Cable (2020) #6, X-Men (2019) #15, Excalibur (2019) #15, X of Swords: Destruction (2020) #1, X of Swords Handbook (2020) #1.
Finally, it might continue to collect the immediate aftermath of X of Swords from some or all of X-Men (2019) #16-20, Cable (2020) #6-12, Excalibur (2019) #16-18. This depends on how strict the line is being about issue-to-issue reading order.
X-Men: Age of Krakoa – Reign of X Vol. 1 – X of Swords Aftermath (2021) [continues to Hellfire Gala 2021]
We’re not taking the risk of mapping this explicitly, because it comes with too many questions!
The major question is if Dawn of X Vol. 3 would simply end at the end of X of Swords, or give some denouement to the finale of the crossover in the form of epilogue stories from X-Men (2019) and Excalibur (2019).
There’s also the question of how this book will handle longer swaths of runs that interacted less with other titles, which becomes increasingly common in this period. Cable (2020) #6-12 is very much its own story, but because Cyclops, Emma, and Rachel Summers all pop in for an assist, it could wind up interspersed with issues of X-Men (2019) and Marauders (2019). We won’t know how Marvel plans to handle that until we see the contents of the prior two volumes.
Finally, it’s just not clear how far this volume might reach. In your mind, you might assume it should end with the end of Hellfire Gala 2021 – which is a blockbuster finale that would make this a satisfying read! However, even with the post-“X of Swords” issues we pulled into the map of the prior volume, it would take 75 issues for this to reach the end of Hellfire Gala.
Not only does that mean this is obviously two books, it also raises the question of how to get all the way to the end of Inferno (2021)… another 59 issues, which means it’s 134 issues to get through the entire period!!!!
Plus, will the act break of X Lives/Deaths of Wolverine be collected at the end of an Inferno-era omnibus to somewhat disguise how incoherent it is so the next book starts cleanly with Immortal X-Men (2022) and X-Men Red (2022)? Or, should that be collected to start the next period with a confusing story that the books immediately do their best to ignore?
Once we see Dawn of X Vol. 3 and how it collects the material around X of Swords, I think it will be slightly easier to anticipate how Marvel will move forward to this next era of Krakoa.
Until then, you don’t get a map! A vote for this book is simply a vote to continue the Krakoa line after X of Swords!
Excellent work on the Road to Messiah Complex and Messiah Complex Books. This era feels like a puzzle, meaning different. things for different readers, this feels like the best reading experience. Once Marvel figure it out, the rest of the mid to late noughties books will be able to follow.