Marvel’s X-Men are some of the most complex, exciting heroes in the comics giant’s entire roster. With dozens of wonderful characters with awe-inspiring powers and exciting interpersonal dynamics, the X-Men have some of the most consistently excellent stories in comic book history. From the epic Dark Phoenix Saga to the more recent E is for Extinction to the always classic Days of Future Past, X-books are packed to the brim with iconic comic book storytelling.

From the late 1970s into the 1980s, writer Chris Claremont was leading the X-Men on a journey to cement themselves as the definitive Marvel superhero team. This era for the team was the most impactful in its entire history—with characters like Storm, Colossus, and Nightcrawler introduced early on, and an endless supply of ideas that would later become staples of the X-Men canon being introduced. One of the storylines from Claremont’s time on the Uncanny X-Men book that fans often forget about, however, is The Brood Saga, a science fiction odyssey across space featuring some of the X-Men’s most epic battles.

The Brood Saga Brought Full-On Sci-Fi to the X-Men

Cosmic Adventures Became the Norm for the X-Men in the Wake of the Brood

Spanning from Uncanny X-Men #154 to Uncanny X-Men #167, the Brood Saga was a long-running overarching storyline that the X-Men found themselves stuck in for longer than they had originally expected. Unlike some modern events or major storylines for teams like the X-Men, Brood Saga ebbs and flows—seemingly concluding early on, only to resurface across subsequent issues. What starts as a somewhat simple science fiction adventure in space escalates over and over until it becomes a terrifying and sad body horror story.

Although the Dark Phoenix Saga had already unfolded in earlier issues, The Brood Saga solidified the idea that the X-Men belonged in space among characters like the Shi’ar and the Starjammers just as much as they did on Earth among humans. This concept, introduced early in Chris Claremont’s run on Uncanny X-Men, has remained a cornerstone of the team’s stories ever since, influencing decades of X-books.

Brood Saga is different from previous Claremont X-Men story arcs in a few key ways. It doesn’t immediately present itself as the massive, far-reaching epic it ultimately becomes. The Brood Saga simply tells a story with each issue, slowly revealing that it is part of a larger narrative, uncovering a far deeper, more insidious truth about the enemies the X-Men are facing in deep space. It’s a brilliant move by Claremont and company, and it effortlessly reinforces the idea that the team is completely out of their element in the far reaches of outer space.

The Brood Saga Is As Personal As It Is Galactic

This X-Men Storyline Is More Than Just Sci-Fi Thrills

While The Brood Saga features some of the most intense and exciting action the X-Men had experienced up to that point, it also contains some of the most emotionally potent and compelling character drama in a Marvel comic. From Scott Summers, aka Cyclops, coming to terms with the revelation that the space-faring pirate Corsair is his father, Christopher Summers—a man he believed long dead—to Logan, aka Wolverine, grappling with his inner demons and the possibility of having to kill his friends, The Brood Saga pulls no punches. It’s packed with twists, terrific artwork, and tense plotting.

The villainous alien race known as the Brood is as terrifying as they are calculating, a combination of factors that throws the X-Men and their allies off-balance. Being both hyper-intelligent and beast-like in visage, the Brood are formidable foes for the X-Men. Their pact with Deathbird, the sister of Majestrix Lilandra of the Shi’ar, makes them even more of a threat to the heroes of the Uncanny X-Men series, and their plans for the future of a myriad of alien races make the conflict much more personal and high-stakes than some previous storylines.

Separating the X-Men for much of the storyline escalates the tension and horror of The Brood Saga. With the young Kitty Pryde and Nightcrawler aboard a Shi’ar vessel while their teammates fight for their lives against Deathbird and her Brood allies, the parallel storylines heighten the drama and play with audience expectations about what might be happening in each situation. The apparent death of Colossus serves as a perfect fake-out, forcing the two separate groups of X-Men to mourn his loss in their own ways. When Colossus returns just an issue later, it doesn’t take away from the impact of the earlier moment and ultimately adds depth to the dynamics between members of the team.

The Stakes Felt Seriously High During The Brood Saga

Readers Weren’t Sure Which X-Men Characters Would Live or Die

In the aftermath of a shocking event like The Dark Phoenix Saga, X-Men fans were on edge about whether other iconic members of the team might perish in battle. Jean Grey’s death had shown that nobody was safe. fans realized that nobody was safe. The Brood Saga arrived at the perfect time to toy with readers’ expectations and worries about the safety of their favorite mutant heroes. With the Brood capable of “impregnating” their foes with eggs that eventually kill the host and birth a new Brood queen, the stakes for the X-Men had never been higher.

Though Wolverine, with his mutant healing factor, is able to resist the egg’s gestation after being infested with a Brood egg, the rest of the X-Men are apparently not so fortunate. Knowing his teammates lack his healing ability, Wolverine is haunted by the terrifying truth that his friends might soon transform into monstrous Brood creatures, and he has no way to stop it or save them. Up to this point, Wolverine had been a hothead—stoic, gruff, and tough-talking, and not a particularly emotional character. When his guilt and fear for his teammates took center stage in The Brood Saga, it served as a terrific change of pace for readers.

Another character who experienced a compelling shift in portrayal during The Brood Saga was Carol Danvers, aka Ms. Marvel, who readers would later know as Captain Marvel. At the time, she was a close ally of the X-Men, and her involvement in the story stemmed from having recently lost her powers to the then-villainous mutant Rogue, who would later join the X-Men as a hero.

Powerless, Carol is captured by the Brood and Deathbird and subjected to horrific experiments. However, her unique, not-quite-human biology, along with dormant abilities within her, leads to an extraordinary transformation. Carol gains incredible powers on a scale she had never known before, becoming Binary and taking the fight to the Brood on a cosmic level. As Binary, a codename she would use for some time in the comics, Carol helps the X-Men combat the Brood and their sentient spaceships, the Acanti.

The End of The Brood Saga Set the Stage for Decades of Stories to Come

The Saga’s Ending Set Up New X-Men Stories, On Earth and In Space

In the climactic, space-faring moments of The Brood Saga, Carol Danvers, using her newfound Binary abilities, breaks the shackles holding the giant Acanti ships under the Brood’s control, expelling the eggs infecting the X-Men. With the immediate threat to the team vanquished and their enemies on the run, Binary and the X-Men decide to return to Earth, where they suspect the last of the Brood spawn awaits—inside the body of Charles Xavier himself.

While the X-Men had been away in space fighting the galactic threat of the Brood, the Earth-bound mutant Charles Xavier assembled a new team to take the X-Men’s place in case they failed in their mission in the stars. This team, known as the New Mutants, consisted of young, inexperienced mutants which would go on to star in numerous highly-successful comic book series of their own. The team’s creation stems directly from the events of The Brood Saga, and fans of the New Mutants should be aware that they owe the existence of their favorite team to this iconic Claremont story.

Upon returning to Earth, the X-Men and the New Mutants face the horrifying task of confronting the Brood-possessed Professor Xavier. They are forced to make an agonizing decision about their mentor’s fate. Cyclops takes a stand, choosing to keep Xavier alive, a decision that allows Shi’ar medicine to clone Xavier and provide him with a brand-new body, one capable of walking. For the first time in a long while, the X-Men find themselves optimistic about the future. At the end of The Brood Saga, they are given a well-deserved break from their roles as Earth’s protectors and society’s outcasts. The Brood Saga more than earns its place among the greatest X-Men stories ever written.