Paco Medina

Ultimate X-Men Omnibus Vol. 4 is the endgame shelf-piece for Marvel's alternate mutant universe. After Ultimatum breaks the world, the remaining mutants are no longer simply a streamlined version of classic X-Men; they are survivors in a hostile political landscape. The appeal is closure and contrast: this is where the Ultimate line stops feeling like a fresh entry point and becomes a darker argument about what the X-Men idea looks like after catastrophe.

Daniel Way's Deadpool run launched in 2008 and defined the character for a generation of readers who came to Marvel through the film era — it's the run that pushed the fourth-wall breaking and comedic irreverence to their most extreme expression, making Deadpool one of Marvel's best-selling characters in the process. Way's first volume drops the mercenary into the Secret Invasion event and then into a sustained antagonistic relationship with Norman Osborn's Dark Reign, finding endless comedy in Deadpool's attempts to be taken seriously as a professional assassin.

Marc Guggenheim (showrunner of Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow) brings his sense of TV pacing to the comic: each issue with its emotional arc, each arc with its climax, and the whole working as a serialised season. Focus on individual characters and the ethical dilemmas that define mutants. Good gateway to the modern format.