The Most Exciting Marvel Comics Still Ahead in 2026
Marvel’s last few months of 2026 are getting weird in ways we appreciate. A new horror continuity is rebuilding familiar heroes with sharper teeth, mutant magic is getting its own team book, Jean Grey is finally coming home, and another X-Men lineup is stepping into a role usually reserved for the Avengers. Sure, there is, admittedly, a lot of X-Men on this list. But with what Marvel has coming, we’re perfectly fine with that. That being said, these are five Marvel comics giving us the most to look forward to before 2026 is over.
Midnight X-Men #1 — October 7
Jonathan Hickman is returning to the X-Men with Matteo Della Fonte for a version of mutantkind built inside Marvel’s new Midnight Universe, and the premise already sounds considerably nastier than the standard alternate-reality exercise. New York is caught between vampires and the mutant Empyres, with the uneasy peace between them approaching outright war. More importantly for what Marvel is attempting here, Midnight X-Men was solicited with a Parental Advisory designation alongside the rest of the line and belongs to a continuity specifically designed around horror, transformation and darker reinterpretations of familiar characters.
That freedom is a large part of why we’re interested. The X-Men have always worked unusually well when their mythology brushes against horror, from body transformation to persecution to some genuinely disturbing villains. Giving Hickman a separate universe where those ideas can be pushed further—without having to return everything to normal by the next crossover—makes Midnight X-Men one of Marvel’s most immediately intriguing experiments this year.
Midnight Spider-Man #1 — October 7
If Midnight X-Men sells us on the world, Midnight Spider-Man may be the book that shows just how unpleasant Marvel is willing to let that world become. Phillip Kennedy Johnson and ScieTronc rework Peter Parker’s origin through body horror, with Oscorp’s pursuit of eternal life leaving Peter physically transformed while the company begins creating further human-animal hybrids from what it has learned. Johnson has also made clear that the transformation goes considerably beyond a simple Man-Spider retread as the series progresses.
The clever part is that Peter’s usual moral center remains intact. Power and responsibility still matter; now the power itself is steadily making him more monstrous. Spider-Man has plenty of horror buried in his basic premise when you really look at it, and Midnight Spider-Man finally seems interested in staring directly at that.
X-Orcists #1 — November 18
Sometimes a lineup can sell a comic almost by itself. X-Orcists has Magik, Juggernaut and Madelyne Pryor hunting a demon that has escaped Limbo and begun attacking mutants and humans, with more mystical allies joining them as the five-issue series unfolds. Ashley Allen and Germán Peralta reunite after their work on Magik, giving Illyana another trip into the supernatural side of mutant life—this time alongside Limbo’s current queen.
Frankly, we did not need much more convincing after “Magik, Juggernaut and Madelyne Pryor.” It’s an odd enough combination to immediately suggest interesting character friction, while the focus on Limbo and mutant magic gives X-Orcists its own territory at a moment when Marvel has no shortage of X-books competing for attention.
Jean Grey #1 — November 25
Jean Grey was never in much danger of missing this list. She is, after all, our favorite X-Man of all time. Her new five-issue series from Jed MacKay and Rogê Antônio also arrives at a particularly interesting point for the character: following DNX, Jean is returning to Earth with the Phoenix still burning within her and the question of how much control she can maintain over its life-giving and life-ending power. The series also feeds directly into the next chapter of the wider X-Men line.
Jean stories often incorporate the cosmic force attached to her, so the idea of bringing her back to Earth immediately has our attention. MacKay already has an established hand in Marvel’s current mutant world, and a dedicated series gives Jean room to deal with what returning home actually means after everything the Phoenix has made possible—and everything it has cost her.
Maximum X-Men #1 — December 2
Then there’s Maximum X-Men, which may have our favorite team of the bunch. Christopher Yost and Tony S. Daniel put Storm in command of Wolverine, Colossus, Bishop, Iceman, Betsy Braddock, Firestar and Justice as the X-Men take on a much larger responsibility in the aftermath of Avengers: Armageddon. Their first problem is hardly modest either: an invasion from the Negative Zone.
It’s the mixture that makes this lineup fun. Storm, Wolverine and Colossus immediately bring classic X-Men history with them; Bishop and Betsy broaden that generational mix; Firestar has always occupied an interesting position around mutant teams; and Justice is the curveball, arriving with far stronger Avengers associations. Putting those personalities together under Storm while the team is being asked to operate on a more traditionally Avengers-sized scale gives Maximum X-Men a very good reason to justify the name.
