Chris Claremont

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.

X-Men: Blue & Gold – Mutant Genesis Omnibus captures the explosive early-90s relaunch energy of the X-Men, with Chris Claremont and Jim Lee reshaping the team’s visual identity for a new era. It is bright, crowded, dramatic and built around the moment when mutant comics became the centre of Marvel’s pop force. Collectors come to this for the Jim Lee moment, but the volume also matters because it captures the X-Men becoming a pop-cultural machine: team design, roster energy and soap-opera tension all sharpened for maximum impact.

Closing of the historic Claremont-Lee collaboration. After editorial differences over creative direction, Claremont left the X-Men after 16 years of uninterrupted writing — the longest continuous run on a superhero title in history. Jim Lee briefly took over the script before leaving to found Image Comics alongside Todd McFarlane and others. A moment of historic transition for Marvel and for American comics that changed the industry forever.

First volume of the 1991 relaunch with Claremont and Jim Lee. Issue #1 of the new series sold 8.1 million copies: the best-selling comic in history. Jim Lee on X-Men is absolute visual reference material: the characters as they were drawn for the next decade, the look that inspired the '90s animated series and subsequent films.