The X-Men started at the bottom, and now they’re one of the most popular superhero teams of all time. There are many reasons for this, but one of them is behind all of them — excellent writing. The X-Men have flourished over the decades because Marvel has been able to find the perfect writers to work on the X-Men’s books, giving readers the greatest X-Men stories of all time. Being an X-Men writer isn’t easy; the mutant side of Marvel is basically its own sub-universe full of heroes, villains, and supporting cast members. There’s also the extremely tangled continuity of the X-Men, and fans who are rabid for the team. Honestly, the fanbase is probably the hardest thing about being an X-Men writer, as they jump on basically anyone who doesn’t give them exactly the X-Men stories they want.
The best X-Men writers have to perform a delicate balancing act. The X-Men rose to prominence because of the way writers were able to balance the soap opera dynamics of the team with wild action and adventure stories. These writers understand how to use the dynamics of the X-Men in perfect ways, giving readers multi-faceted masterpieces. These 10 X-Men writers are the best of the bunch, creating stories that are everything the X-Men should be.
10) Stan Lee/Jack Kirby
I know what you’re thinking — everyone knows that Stan Lee was the writer and Jack Kirby was the artist. However, because of the Marvel Method — which saw the writer and artist plot the book, then the artist drawing the story completely on their own, coming up with the imagery without a script, and then the writer come back in and add the dialogue — it’s impossible to call Lee the writer, as Kirby did even more work of creating the story than Lee did; beyond that, the entire idea of mutants and human evolution is much more of a Kirby idea than Lee’s. Lee and Kirby worked together on X-Men (Vol. 1) #1-17, with Jay Gavin coming in to help with art for X-Men (Vol. 1) #14-17. Kirby and Lee worked created the bedrock of the X-Men, introducing villains like Magneto, Mastermind, the Blob, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, the Juggernaut, and the Sentinels. Lee and Kirby always made a good team, and their time on the X-Men was fruitful.
9) Roy Thomas
Roy Thomas was Stan Lee’s heir apparent (Jack Kirby made a character called House Roy to work with his Stan Lee pastiche Funky Flashman in his New Gods books at DC) and is one of Marvel’s most legendary creators. Thomas is most well-known for his work on Avengers and Conan the Barbarian, but he wrote a lot of X-Men as well, working on X-Men (Vol. 1) #20-43, 55-64, and 66. His first run isn’t talked about very much, but issues #55-64 and #66, where Thomas worked with Neal Adams, one of the greatest artists in the history of the comic medium, are considered some of the best X-Men stories of all time. Thomas was able to write in Lee’s style (honestly, better than Lee did at times), and gave readers some X-Men classics, creating characters like Sauron (the pterodactyl, not the Dark Lord), Havok, and Polarison. Thomas’s time with Adams gave readers something special, and that alone is enough to earn him a spot on this list.
8) Scott Lobdell
Scott Lobdell doesn’t get a lot of credit for how good his X-Men comics were, mostly because of his fumbles writing books at DC during the New 52. Lobdell was tapped to help script Uncanny X-Men after Chris Claremont left the book, and when Jim Lee and Whilce Potracio left Marvel to form Image, he was given the reins of Uncanny X-Men. Lobdell wrote Uncanny X-Men #286-350, Astonishing X-Men #1-4, X-Men: Alpha #1, X-Men: Omega #1, and X-Men: Prime #1, returning for issues #390-393. Uncanny X-Men was the bestselling book in comics, and Lobdell kept it at the top for much of the ’90s. Lobdell had his problems as a writer — he was one of the creators who kept adding open-ended plots to the X-Men and never actually closing them out — but he also understood the character dynamics of the X-Men. Lobdell wrote some great X-Men stories, and was one of the masterminds of The Age of Apocalypse. Go back and read some of Lobdell’s Uncanny issues, and you’ll see a writer who is much better than he gets credit for being.
7) Fabian Nicieza
Fabian Nicieza made a name for himself working with Rob Liefeld on X-Force, scripting Liefeld’s plots. After the Image departure, Nicieza was tapped as writer of X-Men (Vol. 2), putting out issues #12-45 and #86-87, as well as Amazing X-Men #1-4, and earlier work on Uncanny X-Men #279-280 and #366-367. Nicieza mostly worked with artist Andy Kubert, and gave readers some of the better X-Men stories of the ’90s. Nicieza got the characters, and was great at going in different directions that felt like the good old days of Claremont without completely copying the master. Of Lobdell and Nicieza, Nicieza is definitely the better writer. He took what he inherited from earlier writers and ran with it, giving X-Men fans a cool ride.
6) Jason Aaron
Jason Aaron first joined the X-Men office as the writer of the various Wolverine books of the late ’00s, where he made quite a splash. In 2011, Jason Aaron was the mastermind behind X-Men: Schism, a five issue X-Men event with Carlos Pacheco, Frank Cho, Daniel Acuna, Alan Davis, and Adam Kubert that split the X-Men in two. Aaron launched Wolverine and the X-Men (Vol. 1), which ran for 42 issues, and Amazing X-Men (Vol. 2) #1-6. Aaron worked with some amazing artists — Chris Bachalo, Nick Bradshaw, Ed McGuinness, and more — and brought readers back into the school life. Aaron was able to take ideas from the works of Claremont, Morrison, and his own work on Wolverine to tell character focused little gems of X-Men stories, making Quentin Quire a more fully realized character, and creating several great young X-Men like Broo. Aaron’s run was one of the brightest spots of ’10s X-Men book, a book that made people realize that Wolverine could actually lead a team.
5) Kieron Gillen
There was an era of Uncanny X-Men after House of M that was written by Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction, and Kieron Gillen. Those are three big names, and of the three of them, Gillen’s work was the best. Gillen wrote Uncanny X-Men (Vol. 1) #531-544, Uncanny X-Men (Vol. 2) #1-19, X-Men: ReGenesis #1, Immortal X-Men #1-18, Immoral X-Men #1-3, Sins of Sinister #1, Sins of Sinister: Dominion #1, X-Men: Before the Fall: Sinister Four #1, X-Men Forever #1-4, Rise of the Powers of X #1-5, and X-Men/Uncanny X-Men #35/700. Gillen understood that the key to a good X-Men story is character, and did amazing work with Cyclops, Magik, Emma Frost, Mystique, Hope Summers, Exodus, Mister Sinister, and basically every other character he wrote. Immortal X-Men was probably the best Krakoa Era X-Men book, and he wrote the best parts of the last stages of the Krakoa Era. Gillen was born to be an X-Men writer, and he did an amazing job.
4) Joe Kelly/Steve Seagle
Joe Kelly and Steve Seagle came on the X-Men books together and left together, so they’re being considered a unit for the purposes of this list. Kelly and Seagle joined the X-Men books after Scott Lobdell left, and wrote X-Men (Vol. 2) #70-85 and Uncanny X-Men (Vol. 1) #350-364 respectively. Kelly and Seagle walked onto the book after “Operation: Zero Tolerance” left the X-Men a blank slate. Xavier was gone, Cyclops and Jean left, and the X-Mansion had been stripped down to the floorboards by Operation: Zero Tolerance. They had to rebuild the X-Men and did so admirably, working together on a truly massive roster. Their stories are some of the best written of the ’90s, character focused stories with wild stakes that were able to stand on their own in the Claremont obsessed ’90s. Clashes with editorial — who wanted to speed up the X-Men getting back to the status quo — forced them off the book, which was disappointing for fans. ’90s X-Men gets a bad rep, but their books are definitely worth hunting down.
3) Jonathan Hickman
Jonathan Hickman is Marvel’s best writer, and has since his 2019 return to the publisher. Hickman was given the X-Men book, and kicked off the Krakoa Era, drastically changing the X-Men’s status quo and history. Hickman wrote House of X #1-6/Powers of X #1-6, X-Men (Vol. 5) #1-21, X of Swords: Creation #1, X of Swords: Stasis, #1, X of Swords: Destruction #1, and Inferno #1-4, laying the groundwork for the Krakoa Era by creating the Orchis Initiative, making Moira MacTaggert a mutant, establishing the rules and power structure of Krakoa, and laying down multiple plots that would be picked up after he left the book. Hickman’s run on the X-Men is often looked at as disappointing compared to his runs on the Avengers and the Fantastic Four, but it’s still very good, dropping ideas and concepts on readers that they had never seen before in the X-Men books. Hickman was the most creative X-Men writer in decades.
2) Grant Morrison
Grant Morrison’s defection to Marvel in 2000 was a huge opportunity for the publisher, and they took advantage of it by giving Morrison the X-Men. Morrison wrote New X-Men #114-154, working with artists Frank Quitely, Ethan Van Sciver, Igor Kordey, Phil Jimenez, Chris Bachalo, and Marc Silvestri. Morrison did away with the superhero costumes and antics; instead, they focused on the X-Men as mutant rescue workers, working across the globe to make life better for their fellow mutants. Morrison took tried and true X-Men concepts like Sentinels, the Shi’Ar, the Phoenix Force, Magneto, and other bedrock X-Men ideas and made them feel modern. Morrison took the X-Men formula and dragged it into the 21st century, and it’s apparent on every page. Seriously, go and read their run and compare it to what we’re getting today, over twenty years later. Morrison made the X-Men fresh again, and everyone after them can only wish to be as good.
1) Chris Claremont
Chris Claremont is the greatest X-Men writer of all time and it’s not all that close. Basically every great X-Men idea was created by Chris Claremont. Claremont started writing the X-Men way back in 1975, and has had multiple runs on the X-Men since then. Claremont wrote Uncanny X-Men #94-279, #381-389, #444-473, X-Men (Vol. 2) #1-3, #100-109, and #165, X-Treme X-Men (Vol. 1) #1-46, and more X-Men miniseries than you can shake a stick at. Claremont is the mastermind behind “The Dark Phoenix Saga”, “Days of Future Past”, “The Brood Saga”, the Shi’Ar Empire, made Wolverine, Storm, Nightcrawler, Kitty Pryde, Colossus, Rogue, Gambit, Dazzler, Psylocke, and Longshot popular, and created an entire army of villains like Mystique, Destiny, Mister Sinister, Pyro, and so many more. Claremont is the person behind Magneto’s origin. Claremont is the master; he didn’t create the X-Men, but he created the modern idea of the X-Men.
Who is your favorite X-Men writer? Sound off in the comments below.
