MCU Star Iman Vellani Names the Essential X-Men Comic, and It Tackles Hatred Head-On
With the X-Men set to return in ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ on December 18, newcomers are wondering where to even begin with decades of comics. The mutant team’s history is so sprawling that even devoted Marvel fans find it intimidating. One of the MCU’s biggest comic book fans has now offered an answer for anyone searching for the essential X-Men comic.
Iman Vellani is better placed than most to weigh in. Her Kamala Khan became the first mutant in the MCU after the ‘Ms. Marvel’ finale, and in the comics she officially joined the X-Men. Vellani also co-wrote ‘Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant’ with Sabir Pirzada, a series that put Kamala right in the middle of the team’s world.
That background gives her recommendation extra weight. Asked which X-Men comic to read, Vellani chose ‘X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills’, saying in a recent video that it is “the purest distillation of what these characters represent.” She also pointed out that it was written by Chris Claremont.
Her reasoning centers on the villain. Reverend William Stryker has built his entire religious and political following around hatred of mutants, and a group called the Purifiers acts on his behalf to kill the mutants they find. Vellani described Stryker as someone who speaks for God while preaching hatred and murder.
She called the story dark, and said it shows how people’s beliefs can often be more dangerous than the people themselves. It is a striking choice, because the book’s menace comes from a man with a microphone rather than a superpowered foe.
The story was published in 1982 as Marvel Graphic Novel #5, with Claremont writing and Brent Anderson on art. It opens with the Purifiers killing two children, a scene that sets the tone for the rest of the book. When Professor X is kidnapped, Magneto offers the X-Men a more violent way to fight Stryker’s bigotry, forcing the team to question Xavier’s ideals.
It was also the first X-Men graphic novel, and it became one of the main inspirations for the plot of ‘X2: X-Men United’. One comics site argued that if you had to sum up the franchise with a single book, this would be the one. That reputation helps explain why Vellani reached for it.
The book is not without its critics. Some reviewers find Claremont’s dialogue overly verbose, with characters prone to long speeches, and argue that parts of the story have not aged well. Even so, it is regularly cited as one of the greatest standalone X-Men stories ever told.
That mix of praise and criticism is part of why it remains a fixture of reading lists. It was written against the backdrop of the rise of televangelists in the early 1980s, and its themes still resonate today.
Vellani has been open about not being a lifelong X-Men reader. She has said the comics felt intimidating, so she caught up by watching the ’90s animated series while reading Grant Morrison’s ‘New X-Men’ and Jonathan Hickman’s run. Her pick comes from someone who dived deep into the material, rather than someone who grew up with it.
She is also part of Marvel’s build-up to the film, hosting the five-episode ‘Countdown to Avengers: Doomsday’ podcast with Frank Alvarez. Her own appearance in the movie has not been officially confirmed, although Andy Serkis seemingly hinted at it in an interview. Marvel has said nothing definitive.
The recommendation lands as the film’s marketing leans hard into the X-Men. The trailers have shown Patrick Stewart’s Professor X, Ian McKellen’s Magneto and James Marsden’s Cyclops, along with Doctor Doom raising an army of Sentinels. Those robots were built by humans who fear mutants, which is a theme Vellani’s pick explores directly.
If the film picks up even part of that spirit, fans who read the book beforehand will feel the weight of it. For anyone planning a reading list before December 18, this is a strong place to start.
Which X-Men story would you recommend to someone getting into the franchise?
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