10 Best Modern Age Marvel #1 Comics

The X-Men has something of a funny history, constantly changing its mission statement and the book's central focus. The problem was that from the mid 1990s to the early 2010s, no one could agree on what that direction should be. Every time a creator would take over, for good or ill, each had a new approach for Marvel's merry mutants, but none of them gave the line a focal point.

Then the Schism story arc happened splitting the X-Men down ideological lines. On one side was the long time X-Men leader Cyclops and on the other was Wolverine.

At its conclusion, Wolverine would leave Utopia, strike out on his own and set up the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning. He was giving the existing X-Men new roles as teachers and introducing an almost entirely new student body. The book was not only a call back to classic Claremont era X-Men but gave a heavy nod to the Grant Morrison run as well. Two of the most popular and creative tenures on the X-Men.

The first issue is Jason Aaron and Chris Bachalo setting out their stall using the framing device of a school inspection. It perfectly introduces readers to the faculty, students, antagonists and tone of this new title. It would also explain why Marvel needed it and how it differed from the rest of the X-Titles they were publishing at the time.