Uncanny X-Men by Brian Michael Bendis Omnibus

Arthur Adams drew relatively little for Marvel and influenced almost everyone who came after. This gathers all of it: the Longshot debut, the X-Men annuals that made his reputation, and a large section of pencils, covers and unused art.

The other Claremont. Everyone knows the sixteen years on Uncanny X-Men; this collects what he was writing everywhere else across four decades, including the first Captain Britain series and a stretch of Doctor Strange. It is the volume that shows the range behind the reputation.

The complete X-Tinction Agenda crossover in one oversized hardcover. Chris Claremont and Louise Simonson reunite X-Men, X-Factor and New Mutants against Cameron Hodge and the mutant-enslaving state of Genosha, with early Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld art. The turning point that closes the 80s era and sets up the 90s relaunch.

The fourth volume covers Ultimate Comics X-Men, the relaunch that followed Ultimatum, in which mutants are hunted openly and the United States is falling apart. Nick Spencer and Brian Wood write this as dystopia rather than superheroics: internment camps, a mutant secession movement and Kitty Pryde leading a nation. Ultimate Fallout is also where Miles Morales first appears, which makes this volume more historically loaded than its cover suggests.

The third Ultimate X-Men omnibus takes the series to its end, and the end here is literal: Ultimatum wipes out most of the Ultimate universe's cast in five issues. Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk is the reason to own this: Damon Lindelof's six-issue miniseries, notorious for taking three years to finish and for a first page that shows Wolverine torn in half. Ultimatum then closes the line, and Requiem is the funeral. It is a genuine ending, which superhero comics rarely offer.

The second Ultimate X-Men omnibus covers the post-Millar years, with Brian Michael Bendis, Brian K. Vaughan and Robert Kirkman each taking the book in turn. Vaughan's run is the strongest stretch of the series: the Hellfire Club, Ultimate Longshot and the arc where Xavier's methods stop looking defensible. Because the Ultimate universe has no reset button, decisions made here stay made — which gives the middle of the run more weight than most relaunched titles ever manage.

Ultimate X-Men launched in 2001 as part of Marvel's attempt to restart its universe for readers who had never bought a comic, with Mark Millar rewriting the team from scratch and no continuity behind it. The Ultimate line is the clearest entry point Marvel has ever built: no back issues, no reboots to explain, and a Magneto written as an actual terrorist rather than a tragic antagonist. Millar's version is also the closest the comics ever came to the tone of the first X-Men films, which is why it still gets recommended to new readers.

Jonathan Hickman's own X-Men title is the spine of the Krakoan era: the book where the nation's founders explain, issue by issue, what they have actually built. Hickman writes each issue as a self-contained argument rather than a chapter: a Summers family home on the moon, a trade negotiation, a Krakoan holiday. The Giant-Size one-shots are where the resurrection protocol's costs get examined, and Storm's in particular is the best single issue of the era.

The event omnibus that closes Peter Parker's Ultimate Spider-Man story and sets up the arrival of Miles Morales. Brian Michael Bendis pushes the long-running Ultimate saga into its final confrontation, then follows the shock through Ultimate Fallout. A key companion to the Ultimate Spider-Man omnibus line.

Secret Invasion is the Marvel event that made paranoia the plot. Brian Michael Bendis spent years seeding Skrull replacements across the Avengers titles before the full infiltration exploded into a line-wide crossover. The premise — any hero could be a Skrull — destabilized reader trust in every character simultaneously. Collects the core Secret Invasion #1–8 limited series, plus key tie-in issues from New Avengers, Mighty Avengers, and the Secret Invasion: Who Do You Trust? one-shot.

All-New X-Men by Brian Michael Bendis Omnibus brings the original teenage X-Men into the present, turning time travel into a confrontation with what their future has become.

Avengers vs. X-Men Omnibus — the Phoenix Force returns to Earth and splits the Marvel universe. Captain America vs. Cyclops, the Phoenix Five transform the world, Hope Summers as the chosen one. The event that changed everything. Avengers vs. X-Men #0-12 plus AVX: VS #1-6 and AvX Consequences #1-5 collected in the complete omnibus. The Phoenix Force returns to Earth targeting Hope Summers — Captain America demands she be handed over, Cyclops refuses. Twelve issues of Marvel's biggest superhero war: the Avengers fighting the Phoenix Five (Cyclops, Emma, Namor, Colossus, Magik with Phoenix power). Ends with Cyclops in prison and the mutant population beginning to rise again. The event that launched the All-New Marvel NOW era.

X-Men: The Messiah Trilogy Omnibus collects the complete Messiah Complex, Messiah War and Second Coming — Hope Summers, the first mutant born after M-Day, and the war for mutantkind's future. The complete Messiah Complex (2007), Messiah War (2009) and Second Coming (2010) collected in one volume — the trilogy that defined the post-Decimation X-Men. Hope Summers, the first mutant born after M-Day, is the key to mutantkind's survival. Cable takes her into the future to protect her. The X-Men and X-Force fight through time to bring her back. Second Coming ends with a death that reshapes the team forever. Over 1,An oversized volume of the highest-stakes X-Men storytelling of the 2000s.

X-Men: Decimation Omnibus follows the aftermath of House of M, as mutantkind nearly disappears and the X-Men, X-Factor, Quicksilver and the 198 face a changed world.

House of M is the event where Wanda Maximoff rewrites reality into a world run by mutants, and then ends it with three words that cut the mutant population from millions to a few hundred. 'No more mutants' set the X-Men's status quo for the next decade, and the tie-ins are where the alternate world is actually explored — Spider-Man with Gwen Stacy alive, Wolverine remembering everything. Having Decimation: The Day After in the same volume closes the loop, since that is where the consequences begin.

The second half of the Bendis and Maleev run takes Matt Murdock to the only place the premise could go: prison, and then the top of the Kingpin's organisation. Matt declares himself Kingpin of Hell's Kitchen, and Bendis treats it as the logical endpoint of a man who has spent years refusing to compromise. The run ends with him arrested and imprisoned, which is one of the few genuinely unresolved endings in mainstream superhero comics. The What If? issue about Karen Page is unexpectedly the most affecting thing in the book.