X-Men #1 (Sep 63) - The X-Men were formed (yay!). The original members were Angel (Warren Worthington III), Beast (Hank McCoy), Cyclops (Scott Summers), Iceman (Bobby Drake) and Marvel Girl (Jean Grey). They were all tutored by Professor Charles Xavier, the world's most pwoerful telepath. In their first issue they fought Magneto (Erik Lensherr) who would go on to become their main nemesis

X-Men #2 (Nov 63) - Intro the Vanisher (Telford Porter)

X-Men #3 (Jan 64) - Intro the Blob (Fred J. Dukes)

X-Men #4 (Mar 64) - Magneto's Brotherhood of Evil Mutants first appeared and they were Mastermind (Jason Wyngarde), Quicksilver (Pietro Maximoff), his sister the Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff) and Toad (Mortimer Toynbee)

X-Men #8 (Nov 64) - Intro Unus the Untouchable (Gunter Bain), a man who couldn't actually thouch anything which made eating a problem

X-Men #9 (Jan 65) - Intro Lucifer. Lucifer was an alien from the planet Quist who years earlier, had cost Xavier the use of his legs. The X-Men fought the Avengers in order to give Xavier time to stop Lucifer

X-Men #10 (Mar 65) - Intro Ka-Zar and the Savage Land

X-Men #11 (May 65) - Intro Juggernaut (Cain Marko) and the Stranger, a giant alien. Cain was Charles Xavier's step-brother and he hated Charles from the get go. The Stranger kidnapped Magneto and the Toad

X-Men #14 (Nov 65) - Intro the Sentinels, large mutant-hunting robots created by Bolivar Trask. They too would go on to become major thorns in the X-Men's side over the years

X-Men #17 - 18 (Feb - Mar 66) - Magneto managed to free himself from captivity at the hands of the Stranger and attacked Xavier's mansion. Luckily, Professor Xavier freed himself and contacted the Stranger who came after Magneto

X-Men #19 (Apr 66) - Intro the Mimic (Calvin Rankin), a mutant who could take on the abilities of those he met such as Angel's wings, Cyclops' optic blasts and Marvel Girl's telekinesis

X-Men #22 - 23 (Jul - Aug 66) - The X-Men vs. Count Luchino Nefaria round one

X-Men #27 (Sep 63) - The Mimic joins the X-Men, but only for three issues

X-Men #28 (Apr 66) - Intro the Banshee (Sean Cassidy) who was being controlled mentally by an organization called Factor Three

X-Men #31 (Apr 67) - Intro Candy Southern, who would become Angel's girlfriend for quite some time

Marvel Girl (right)

X-Men #35 (Aug 67) - Intro the Changeling (name never revealed) who was a member of Factor Three who the X-Men faced during this time over many issues. The other members of Factor Three were their leader, the Mutant Master, the Vanisher, the Blob, Mastermind and Unus

X-Men #42 (Mar 68) - The X-Men fought the subterranean Grotesk and Professor Xavier seemingly died at his hands. However, it was later revealed that this was in fact the Changeling, though only Charles and Jean knew this fact. Charles was secretly preparing for an alien invasion by the Z'Nox for the next twenty plus issues behind the scenes

X-Men #44 (May 68) - Angel vs. Red Raven, a golden age character who first appeared bacin in Red Raven Comics #1 in 1940

X-Men #49 (Oct 68) - Intro Lorna Dane and Mesmero. Lorna Dane would later become Polaris whilst Mesmero could hypnotize people into carrying out his will

X-Men #53 (Feb 69) - The X-Men vs. Blastaar, an alien from the Negative Zone

X-Men #54 (Mar 69) - Intro Alex Summers and the Living Pharoah (Ahmet Abdol). Alex didn't get the codename Havok until X-Men #58. He was Scott Summer's younger brother

X-Men #60 (Sep 69) - Intro Sauron (Karl Lykos, right), a man who would change into a pterosaur and try and suck the life energy from his victims in order to survive

X-Men #62 (Nov 69) - Magneto introduced his Savage Land Mutates who were Amphibius, Equilibrius, Piper, Gaza, Barbarus, Lupo and Brainchild. Lorelei was introduced in the following issue

X-Men #64 (Jan 70) - Intro Sunfire (Shiro Yoshida). The X-Men fought him as he was intent on taking revenge on the U.S for the bombing of Hiroshima

X-Men #65 (Feb 70) - Professor Xavier revealed he wasn't dead after all. he drove off an invasion by the alien Z'Nox

X-Men #66 (Mar 70) - The X-Men vs. the Hulk. This was the final issue in the series until 1975. Issue #66 to 93 reprinted earlier stories. The X-Men didn't disband however and continued to make guest appearances in other titles during this hiatus. Havok and Polaris joined the team during this time. A later series, X-Men: The Hidden Years featured stories set in this time with artwork as it was back then

As there is a gap until the next X-Men issue, here's a little reminder of what else was happening in the Marvel Universe at the time.

Avengers #89 - 97 (Jul 71 - Mar 72) - The Kree/Skrull war. The Avengers were a superhero team formed around the same time as the X-Men. Their main characters were Captain America (Steve Rogers, another golden age hero), Iron Man (Tony Stark), the Wasp (Janet Pym), Thor (Dr. Donald Blake) and Hawkeye (Clint Barton). They had several line-up changes up to this point and along with the Fantastic Four who were formed before the X-Men, were Earth's main defenders against alien invasions and super criminals. The Kree and the Skrulls were two alien races who have a long history of interaction with Earth's heroes

Marvel Feature #1 (Dec 71 ) - The Defenders were given their name after several issues of build up and their own series in August 1972. The original team was the Hulk, the Sub-Mariner (Prince Namor), the Silver Surfer (Norrin Radd, both right) and Dr. Strange (Dr. Stephen Strange). Though theirs was classed as a non-team, they went on, with a few line-up changes for 152 issues and later members included Iceman, the Angel and Beast

Incredible Hulk #162 (Apr 73) - Intro Wendigo, a powerful creature living in Canada

Amazing Spider-Man #121 (Jun 73) - The death of Gwen Stacey, Peter Parker's first real love. though it was Parker's web that actually broke her neck, his nemesis the Green Goblin was to blame

Giant-Size Fantastic Four #4 (Aug 74) - Intro Jamie Madrox, the Multiple Man. Jamie could create duplicates of himself as his name suggests

Defenders #16 (Oct 74) - The Ultimate Mutant regressed Magneto to infant age

Incredible Hulk #180 (Oct 74) - Intro Wolverine (right). he wasn't given the name Logan until much later. He was a short, feisty mutant who had unbreakable adamantium claws extending from the top of his hands and a strong healing factor

Giant-Size Avengers #4 (Jun 75) - The wedding of Vision and the Scarlet Witch. The two Avengers married, despite the Vision being a synthezoid, much to Wanda's brother Pietro's dismay

Avengers #137 (Jul 75) - Beast teams up with the Avengers for a few years

Giant-Size X-Men #1 (Jul 75) - The X-Men were given a new series, though this time, the old guard who had been joined by Havok and Polaris in the intervening years were replaced by a new team. They were Banshee, Colossus (Piotr Rasputin), Nightcrawler (Kurt Wagner), Storm (Ororo Munro), Sunfire, Thunderbird (John Proudstar) and Wolverine. Illyana Rasputin, Piotr's little sister and her parents were also introduced in this issue. The only other debuts were those of Nightcrawler, Storm, Colossus and Thunderbird. They fought a living island called Krakoa in order to rescue the original team

X-Men #95 (Oct 75) - Thunderbird becomes the X-Men's first fatality as he dies in battle with Count Nefaria

Champions #1 (Oct 75) - The Champions were formed. Former X-Men Iceman and the Angel teamed up with the Black Widow (Natasha Romanov), Ghost Rider (Johnny Blaze) and the Olympian demi-god Hercules to fight crime in Los Angeles

X-Men #96 (Dec 75) - Intro Moira MacTaggert and the demonic N'Garai. The X-Men battle the demons while Moira becomes the mansion's housekeeper. She is an old friend of Charles Xavier and soon becomes romantically acquainted with Banshee

X-Men #96 (Feb 76) - Lilandra Neremani of the Shi'ar was first seen, though her face wasn't shown. She would become Xavier's new love in time

X-Men #99 (Jun 76) - Intro the villainous Black Tom Cassidy, Banshee's cousin. The X-Men fought Steven Lang's Sentinels aboard a S.H.I.E.L.D space station

X-Men #101 (Oct 76) - A major story. Jean Grey 'died' while piloting a space shuttle back to Earth. Unknown to the X-Men at the time, her body was cocooned at the bottom of the ocean and her place taken by an alien entity called the Phoenix Force

Captain Britain #1 (Oct 76) - Brian Braddock debuted in a British title, some time before he made his first U.S appearance with Spider-Man. His sister was Betsy Braddock who would, many years later become the X-man Psylocke

Ms. Marvel #1 (Jan 77) - Carol Danvers debuted. She would later become Binary and team up with the galaxy-spanning Starjammers

X-Men #104 (Apr 77) - Magneto was returned to adulthood. Corsair (Christopher Summers), Scott Summer's father debuted in this isue as did his fellow Starjammer Ch'od

X-Men #105 (Jun 77) - Lilandra finally arrives on Earth and meets Charles Xavier

2001: A Space Oddyssey #8 (Jul 77) - Intro X-51, the Machine Man (Aaron Stack)

Iron Fist #14 (Aug 77) - Intro Sabretooth (Victor Creed), a similar character to Wolverine only more psychotic

Ms. Marvel #9 (Sep 77) - Intro Deathbird (Cal’Syee Neremani), the sister of Lilandra Neremani

X-Men #107 (Oct 77) - Intro the Shi'ar Imperial Guard who were Lilandra's bodyguards, Raza Logknife and Hepzibah (both Starjammers)

X-Men #108 (Dec 77) - Phoenix saves the universe. Intro Jahf and Modt, guardians of the M'Kraan Crystal

Champions #17 (Jan 78) - The Champions disbanded after a so-so series

Marvel Team-Up #65 - 66 (Feb - Mar 78) - Captain Britain's first U.S appearance helping Spider-Man take on the assassin, Arcade

X-Men #109 (Feb 78) - Intro James MacDonald Hudson of Alpha Flight. he would be shown to have a long history with Wolverine

Uncanny X-Men #114 (Oct 78) - The word Uncanny was used for the first time on the X-Men book. Betwen #112 and #114 the X-Men fought Magneto again, resulting in the destruction of Magneto's Savage Land base

The X-Men comics were by now becoming popular. The stories were involving, there were many more characters running around the Marvel Universe to keep track of and a huge variety of powers being displayed. there are far too many storylines going on to mention them all so I'll stick to the major developments

Uncanny X-Men #117 (Jan 79) - Intro Shadow King (Amahl Farouk), a powerful telepath though not quite on Xavier's level. Believing the X-Men had dies in the Savage Land, Charles Xavier left Earth with Lilandra

Uncanny X-Men #118 (Feb 79) - Intro Mariko Yashida, Wolverine's future girlfriend.

Uncanny X-Men #120 (Apr 79) - Intro Alpha Flight, Canada's own superhero team. The rest of James Hudson's team debuted. They were Snowbird (N’arya aka Corporal Anne McKenzie), Sasquatch (Dr. Walter Langowski), Shaman (Dr. Michael Twoyoungmen), Aurora (Jeanne-Marie Beaubier) and Northstar (Jean-Paul Beaubier). James Hudson now called himself Vindicator. The team had history with Wolverine who used to be a member.

Uncanny X-Men #122 (Jun 79) - Phoenix first meets Jason Wyngarde, really Mastermind. These are the beginnings of the forthcoming Dark Phoenix story

Uncanny X-Men #125 - 128 (Sep - Dec 79) - The X-Men were forced to fight Proteus (Kevin MacTaggert), Moira MacTaggert's son and ultimately, kill him

Uncanny X-Men #129 (Jan 80) - Intro Kitty Pryde and the Hellfire Club. Kitty was a young girl who could phase herself through objects such as walls and electronic equipment which shorted out due to her power. The Hellfire Club was on the face of it, a respectable organization but was a front for a group of mutants who had world domination in mind. First appearances for Sebastian Shaw (Black King), Emma Frost (White Queen), Harry Leland (Black Bishop) and Donald Pierce (White Bishop). Emma Frost, the White Queen of the Hellfire Club (right) with Storm

Uncanny X-Men #130 (Sep 77) - Intro Dazzler (Alison Blaire), not to be confused with the other Dazzler, Angel's uncle Burt. Dazzler could create her own light providing she had enough ambient noise around her

Uncanny X-Men #132 - 137 (Apr - Sep 80) - The Dark Phoenix saga. The Phoenix (pretending to be Jean Grey of course) became corrupt and in order to prevent itself destroying the universe, killed itself. Scott of course didn't know it wasn't Jean and was distraught, leaving the team in the next issue. Kitty Pryde arrived at the school to replace him. Senator Kelly first appeared in #133

Uncanny X-Men Annual #4 (Oct 80) - Intro Margali Szardos, a powerful sorceress

Uncanny X-Men #139 (Oct 80) - Intro Stevie Hunter who would become a good friend of Storm and Kitty Pryde in particular

Uncanny X-Men #141 - 142 (Jan - Feb 81) - Days of Future Past. this was an important storyline showing a future dominated by Sentinels in which mutants were killed or put in concentration camps. Intro Rachel Summers, daughter of Jean Grey and Scott Summers in an alternate timeline. This was also the first appearance for Destiny II (Irene Adler), Avalanche (Dominic Petros) and Pyro (St. John Allerdyce)