''Essential X-Men'' was a 76-page comic book published by

Panini Comics Panini Comics is an Italian comic book publisher. A division of Panini Group, which also produces collectible stickers, it is headquartered in Modena, Italy. The company publishes comic books in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, France, Germany, Hungary ...

UK, as part of their Collectors' Edition range. Beginning in 1995, the title reprinted Marvel US's range of

X-Men The X-Men are a superhero team in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer/editor Stan Lee and artist/co-plotter Jack Kirby, the team first appeared in Uncanny X-Men, ''The X-Men'' #1 (September 1963). Although initial ...

comics; three per issue. The comic is produced on higher quality paper than the US originals, and the covers are composed of card, which helps to preserve the comic. Also unlike the US originals, advertisements are kept to a minimum, with most simply promoting the other comics in the Collectors' Edition range or Marvel DVDs or video games. The comics it reprints are generally about two years behind comics in the US. It retails at the price of £3.99. Over the course of its 25-year history, ''Essential X-Men'' has reprinted many key events in the X-Men's history including the

Age of Apocalypse "Age of Apocalypse" is a 1995 comic book crossover storyline mostly published in the X-Men franchise of books by Marvel Comics. The ''Age of Apocalypse'' briefly replaced the universe of Earth-616 and had ramifications in the main Marvel Comic ...

and Onslaught sagas as well as more recently

Grant Morrison Grant Morrison (born 31 January 1960) is a Scottish comic book writer, screenwriter, and producer. Their work is known for its nonlinear narratives, Humanism, humanist philosophy and counterculture, countercultural leanings. Morrison has writt ...

's run. Currently it is reprinting

Peter Milligan Peter Milligan (born 24 June 1961) is a British comic book writer who has written extensively for both British and American comic book industries. In the UK, Milligan has contributed to numerous anthology titles including '' 2000 AD'', ''Revol ...

and

Salvador Larroca Salvador Larroca () is a Spanish comic book artist, primarily known for his American work on various ''X-Men'' titles for Marvel Comics. After starting his career as a Cartography, cartographer, Larroca transitioned to working as a comics artist ...

's run on ''

''. Unlike other Collector's Editions that

publishes, ''Essential X-Men'' rarely reprinted the classic stories. This is because in the US, the X-Men have multiple comics and in order not to fall behind the other Collector Editions in terms of continuity there is no room to print classic stories. It was put on hold in 2020 until 2021 when it was cancelled and replaced with ''Marvel Universe X-Men''.

Volumes

Volume 1

At the end of 2007, Essential X-Men became the title to host the

House Of M "House of M" is a 2005 comic book storyline published by Marvel Comics, consisting of an eight-issue comic book limited series with a number of crossover tie-in books written by Brian Michael Bendis and illustrated by Olivier Coipel. Its first i ...

event starting at issue #160 and ending with the release of issue #163 on 20 March 2008.

Volume 2

A new volume began in January 2010 with the storyline X-Men: Divided We Stand. This volume continued to publish Volume 1 of ''Uncanny X-Men'', as well as X-Men: Legacy. Tie-in issues to crossovers such as

Secret Invasion "Secret Invasion" is a comic book fictional crossover, crossover storyline written by Brian Michael Bendis and illustrated by Leinil Francis Yu, that ran through a self-titled eight-issue Limited series (comics), limited series and several ti ...

, ''Utopia'',

Second Coming The Second Coming (sometimes called the Second Advent or the Parousia) is the Christianity, Christian and Islam, Islamic belief that Jesus, Jesus Christ will return to Earth after his Ascension of Jesus, ascension to Heaven (Christianity), Heav ...

Curse of the Mutants "Curse of the Mutants" is a comics storyline that ran in books published by the American company Marvel Comics from July 2010 to May 2011. The arc centers on a human bomb exploding in San Francisco's Union Square, covering dozens (including Ju ...

and Fear Itself were also featured. Following the

Schism A schism ( , , or, less commonly, ) is a division between people, usually belonging to an organization, movement, or religious denomination. The word is most frequently applied to a split in what had previously been a single religious body, suc ...

storyline, ''Uncanny X-Men (Vol 2)'' and Wolverine and the X-Men were reprinted. These volumes built up towards the

Avengers vs. X-Men ''Avengers vs. X-Men'' (''AvX'' or ''AvsX'') is a 2012 crossover event that was featured in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The event, consisting of an eponymous limited series and numerous tie-in books, involves the return of the Phoe ...

storyline, tying into the ''Avengers Assemble'' collector's edition. This volume finished in 2014 after 59 issues.

Volume 3

The third volume primarily printed

All-New X-Men ''All-New X-Men'' was a comic book series published by Marvel Comics that debuted in November 2012, with the launch of Marvel NOW!. The series centers on the five original X-Men, brought from the past to the present to confront their future counte ...

and the third volume of

Uncanny X-Men ''Uncanny X-Men'', originally published as ''The X-Men'', is an American comic book series published by Marvel Comics since 1963, and is the longest-running series in the List of X-Men comics, X-Men comics franchise. It features a team of super ...

, both of which were written mainly by

Brian Michael Bendis Brian Michael Bendis (; born August 18, 1967) is an Americans, American comic book writer and artist. Starting with crime fiction, crime and hardboiled, noir comics, Bendis eventually moved to mainstream superhero fiction, superhero work. While a ...

. The series also featured the story-lines

Battle of the Atom "Battle of the Atom" is a 10-part comic book crossover storyline published by Marvel Comics that debuted in September and October 2013 and ran through multiple X-Men books. The story involves the X-Men of the future traveling to present time in ...

, ''Trial of Jean Grey'', then Black Vortex. Like Wolverine and Deadpool &

Marvel Legends Marvel Legends is an action figure line based on the characters of Marvel Comics, initially produced by Toy Biz, then by Hasbro. This line is in the scale, with spin-off lines in the , , and scale. The line initially began in 2002 as a spi ...

, the comic didn't reprint any

Secret Wars ''Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars'', commonly known as ''Secret Wars'', is a 12-issue American comic book Fictional crossover, crossover limited series published from May 1984 to April 1985 by Marvel Comics. The series was written by Jim Shooter ...

comics. This lasted from 2014 to 2016, concluding with issue 27.

Volume 4

The comic was relaunched as part of the

All-New, All-Different Marvel All-New, All-Different Marvel (ANADM) is a 2015–2019 branding for Marvel Comics' entire main line of comics. Taking place after the crossover storyline "Secret Wars", it details the new Marvel Universe, with nearly 60–65 titles relaunched wi ...

event in 2016. This volume reprinted three main comics;

Extraordinary X-Men ''Extraordinary X-Men'' is a comic series from Marvel Comics and the flagship X-Men title under the All-New, All-Different Marvel re-branding. The story takes place following the conclusion of the Secret Wars crossover event. In this comic serie ...

, Volume 2 of

and Volume 4 of Uncanny X-Men.

Civil War II ''Civil War II'' is a 2016 comic book crossover storyline published by Marvel Comics. Debuting in June of that year, it is the sequel to 2006's "Civil War" and consists of a nine-issue eponymous core limited series, by writer Brian Michael Be ...

and

Inhumans vs. X-Men ''Inhumans vs. X-Men'', also stylized ''IvX'' or ''IVX'', is a 2016 American comic book limited series published by Marvel Comics. The series ran for seven issues, beginning with a prologue issue #0 in November 2016 before officially beginning in ...

were also printed, along with ''Deadpool Unleashed''. This run lasted for 22 issues, finishing in 2018.

Volume 5

The current volume began printing in 2018. It predominantly reprinted Marc Guggenheim's X-Men: Gold and Cullen Bunn's X-Men: Blue, thus covering the ''Mojo Worldwide'' crossover that featured both teams. The first twelve issues of

Astonishing X-Men ''Astonishing X-Men'' is the name of four X-Men comic book series from Marvel Comics, the first two of which were Limited series (comics), limited series. The third volume, an ongoing series, began in 2004 in comics, 2004, with its first run writt ...

(Volume 4) as well as the entirety of the crossover ''Phoenix Resurrection: The Return of Jean Grey'', which witnessed the revival of the adult

Jean Grey Jean Elaine Grey-Summers is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist/co-plotter Jack Kirby, the character First appearance, first appeared in ''Uncanny X-Men, The X-Men'' #1 ...

, were also printed. Once ''X-Men: Gold'' and ''X-Men: Blue'' concluded, Panini begun reprinting Volume 5 of ''Uncanny X-Men''. The

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

of 2020 caused the magazine to be temporarily placed on hold until it was cancelled and replaced in 2021 with ''Marvel Universe X-Men'', which started reprinting House of X / Powers of X. {{Panini CEs Marvel UK titles