10 X-Men Graphic Novels You Must Read Before You Die

10. Astonishing X-Men

Alright, so this may be a little bit of a cheat but there is no denying that Joss Whedon's run on the Astonishing X-Men, which began in 2005 and ran for 25 issues, reinvigorated Marvel's number one team of mutants.

During his time at the helm, he brought Colossus back from the dead, turned the Danger Room into a living entity, gave the world a new Hellfire Club, sent the X-Men on a violent journey to Breakworld, and had Shadowcat save the planet by phasing into a giant bullet before disappearing into space along with it.

And it wasn't just the brilliance with which he told these tales that make them essential reading, as well as the owning off, but also the vein of humor that fills each page.

Whether that's Kitty Pryde and Emma Frost sniping at each other on the former's return, or Cyclops finally being allowed to show he's much more than a vanilla flavored one-dimensional personality vacuum, Whedon took his legendary writing chops and let them run wild.

This gave the whole thing a fresh look and dragged the once stoic X-Men into the 21st century, and it was about time.