The article discusses sensitive topics, including abuse, addiction, suicide, sexual assault, and extreme violence.

When it comes to dark and mature comics, most people believe DC publishes grittier and grimmer stories than Marvel. However, this couldn't be further from the truth. Although the MCU and most Marvel mainstream stories are kid-friendly, the publisher also has its fair share of dark comics.

Marvel's most mature stories are usually explicitly violent and include graphic content. However, violence isn't the only trait that makes a comic dark. These comics explore mature topics of all kinds. They sometimes delve into the very core of human nature. What truly makes these the darkest Marvel comics is the profound despair and hopelessness they convey.

Updated on May 7, 2024 by David Harth: Comics have moved on from the kid-friendly approach of their early years. Marvel has always stayed on the cutting edge of superhero stories, riding the trends and providing stories for all kinds of readers. Many of these stories have been quite dark, their subject matter and level of violence showing just how dangerous being a superhero can be.

25 Rise Of The Powers Of X Hinged On A Terrible Mission And A Monstrous Betrayal

Fall Of X has been catastrophic for the X-Men, and many dark stories have come out of it. The Krakoa Era is closing it out with a bang, and Rise Of The Powers Of X is an epic ending for it. Rise and its sister book, Fall Of The House Of X, are both quite dark, but Rise's entire premise and events make it the darker book of the two. The plot sees Xavier, a Mister Sinister-possessed Doug Ramsey, the magical Essex clone Mother Righteous, and the chronokinetic Rachel Summers sending a team of X-Men through Moira MacTaggert's past lives to learn when exactly her powers manifested. Xavier's plan was to go back in time to that moment and kill Moira, ending the existence of Krakoa and the likelihood of Enigma, the AI version of Nathaniel Essex, from becoming a godlike being known as a Dominion.

That's bleak enough, but the book seemingly lightens up when the X-Men can convince Xavier not to kill Moira. However, Xavier shoots Rachel and goes to Nimrod and Omega Sentinel, the AI heads of Orchis, to give them his services in exchange for saving mutantkind. The book is unremittingly dark; even when things seem to lighten up, they suddenly ramp up to eleven. Rise Of The Powers Of X is excellent, keeping readers guessing how bad things will get.

24 Wolverine: The Beast Agenda Sees Wolverine Transformed Into A Weapon By An Old Friend

Wolverine's life has always been tragic, defined by many terrible events. His transformation into a living implement of death by Weapon X was one of the formative tragedies of his life, one that gaining a family in the form of the X-Men helped assuage. This is a struggle that fellow X-Man Beast understood all too well. Beast's mutation was exacerbated by his experimentation, and he had to learn how to deal with his bestial nature and how the world saw him. Beast's life over the years was never easy, especially as humanity further victimized mutants, changing him.

Beast was given the head of the Krakoan black ops division, and his pragmatism, driven by a desire to protect his people at all costs, drove him to terrible excesses. Beast embraced his namesake when he purchased a captured Wolverine at an exclusive auction house and murdered him. Beast then resurrected Wolverine with Krakoan biotech to make him a murder machine once again. Wolverine as a living weapon is nothing new, but one of his own friends doing it to him is a betrayal of the highest order, making this blood-stained story a dark chapter in X-Men history.

23 Avengers: Twilight Takes Readers To A Dark Future For Earth's Mightiest Heroes

It's been a while since readers got a dystopian Avengers story, but Avengers: Twilight is scratching that itch magnificently. The story occurs in the future after an event called H-Day when Ultron and the Red Skull launch a brutal attack and kill most of the Avengers. The public turns against the heroes in the aftermath, and the survivors retire. A man claiming to be related to Edwin Jarvis and the son of Iron Man and the Wasp are given control over the US's superhero forces by the government, and the country becomes more of a police state than ever before.

Captain America lives in retirement, the supersoldier serum having given out, but he soon decides that the country needs the Sentinel of Liberty again. Avengers: Twilight revolves around the heroes' rebellion against the powers that be, as Cap recruits the surviving Avengers to overthrow Jarvis and Stark. Avengers: Twilight is the best Avengers story in ages, and it never skimps on darkness. Zdarsky uses aspects of modern political discourse to show a world gone over to fascism, and Acuña's gorgeous art strikes just the right balance of darkness, taking readers on a ride through a future that doesn't seem all that far away.

22 Sins Of Sinister Is Dark Multiversal Madness Like Only The X-Men Could Provide

Readers have seen many dark X-Men teams, but few match the terrible timeline from the Sins of Sinister event. Sinister had been secretly building power and interfering with Krakoan resurrection as a member of the Krakoan Quiet Council, placing genes of his own making into the library used to create new bodies for dead mutants. Sins Of Sinister #1 saw Sinister take control of the Quiet Council after killing multiple members and getting them to vote to allow humans to be resurrected with the Krakoan protocols. This allowed Sinister to take control of the world, ending threats to his rule with ruthless efficiency.

Immoral X-Men, Nightcrawlers, and Storm And The Brotherhood Of Mutants took readers through this dark timeline, the first issues taking place ten years after Sins Of Sinister #1, the second issue a hundred years later, and the third a thousand, with Sins Of Sinister: Dominion #1 bringing it all to an apocalyptic ending. Readers were drawn into a dystopian eugenics-based empire as Sinister realized the huge mistake he made trying to become a Dominion. This story kept things as dark as possible and ended in a holocaust of proportions rarely seen in comics.

21 X-Men (Vol. 6) #25 Saw Kate Pryde Murder Multiple People And Hide It

Fall Of X kicked off with the brutal X-Men: The Hellfire Gala (2023) #1, but that was only the beginning of the bloodshed. That issue saw Kate Pryde fall through one of Orchis's suborned gates to the Israeli Krakoan embassy, where Orchis troops surrounded her. X-Men (Vol. 6) #25 showcased the beginning of the surviving X-Men's resistance against Orchis and revealed how Kate Pryde survived being surrounded by overwhelming odds at the embassy.

The ninja-trained Kate slaughtered them all, using a combination of her ninja skills and phasing powers to kill the troops before they could harm her or warn the rest of Orchis that she had survived. Then, to cover up her moment of mass murder, she phased them into the roof of the embassy. Kate Pryde was always the younger sister of the X-Men before growing into a confident hero and leader, so to see her brutally murder her opponents in the name of expediency and survival was a dark moment in the history of the character and the X-Men.

20 The Dark Phoenix Saga Changed The X-Men Forever

When most fans think of the 1980s, they imagine that the true maturation of the comic industry took place in 1985, with books like Watchmen, Squadron Supreme, and The Dark Knight Returns. However, an argument can be made that Uncanny X-Men was doing mature superheroes since the late '70s. The best example of this is the brilliant classic, The Dark Phoenix Saga. The story of the Dark Phoenix's rise and the X-Men battle to save their friends is much darker and more mature than it gets credit for.

From the battle against the Hellfire Club, which is all started because of Mastermind's mental manipulations of Phoenix, to the X-Men facing off against their best friend to Dark Phoenix killing billions to the sacrifice of the Phoenix to save all creation, The Dark Phoenix Saga is very, very dark. Claremont was always sneaking mature material into Uncanny X-Men, and The Dark Phoenix Saga proved no different.

19 "The Night Gwen Stacy Died" Changed Spider-Man History

Spider-Man is the ultimate hard-luck hero, but for years, all of that was rather simple. Spider-Man would have money problems and girl troubles, the same as the readers. However, things took a turn for the dark in The Amazing Spider-Man #121-122, where Peter Parker found out his worst enemy had taken his girlfriend. Spider-Man went to save her, a battle that ended with the Wall-Crawler accidentally killing the woman he loved.

A brutal fight followed as Spider-Man took out his rage on Green Goblin. "The Night Gwen Stacy" died was a turning point for Spider-Man. Spider-Man's love life always contains drama, but this story took that to another level. Superhero girlfriends get kidnapped a lot, but they are rarely killed. When they are, they are especially not killed by the heroes themselves. This story exemplifies Marvel injecting dark drama into its books long before such things were cool.

18 Weapon X Is A Tale Of Dark Science And Blood

Wolverine has a lot of very dark stories, but "Weapon X" takes the cake. This story was serialized in Marvel Comics Presents from issues #72-84 and finally told readers the story of the Weapon X Program that had changed Wolverine forever. The issue is told largely through narration as the scientists of the Program begin their experimentation on the man called Logan. However, a living weapon can't be controlled, and Wolverine breaks free and slaughters everyone in his way.

"Weapon X" is a classic story that often gets left out of the conversation about the darkest comics. However, at its core, this is a story about a person being made into a weapon and then the brutal slaughter that begins. "Weapon X" is as dark as they come, and it's sometimes easy to forget that over thirty years later.

17 The Incredible Hulk -1 Revealed A Terrible Episode From Bruce Banner's Past

In the late '90s, Marvel pulled out the "Minus One" month. Every Marvel book that dropped that month received a -1 issue, which occurred at some point before the Silver Age began in the Marvel Universe. That idea is intriguing, but it wasn't always used well. However, one book that did an amazing job is The Incredible Hulk. This was towards the end of Peter David's classic run when the writer teamed with Adam Kubert. The two gave readers a dark nugget from Bruce Banner's past.

This issue depicted Brian Banner being released from the asylum he was held in after he'd killed Bruce's mother. Brian is taken in by his son, whom he once bullied and abused, and the old cycle starts up again. However, this time, Bruce isn't having it, and everything comes to a head at the gravesite of Bruce's mom, where a fight between the two Banners turns deadly. Bruce Banner's past is full of terrible moments, and this issue digs into that. It's extremely dark, revealing that Bruce Banner's rage was born long before the gamma radiation opened the Green Door.

16 X-Men: The Hellfire Gala (2023) #1 Destroyed The Krakoa Era In Brutal Fashion

The X-Men's Krakoa Era has been the best the X-Men have been since Grant Morrison left the title in the early '00s. What made them work so well was how they found a way to tell unique stories, changing the tenor of mutant stories from dark and hopeless — the main storytelling device from 2005 to 2019 — and making life for mutants almost perfect. However, all good things end, and X-Men: The Hellfire Gala (2023) #1 finds the darkest way to ruin their paradise.

X-Men: The Hellfire Gala (2023) introduces a new team of X-Men, only to slaughter them all by dropping a wisecracking Nimrod on them. Jean Grey and Iceman get stabbed with poisoned knives, and Professor X is forced to telepathically send every mutant through Orchis-suborned Krakoan gates. It's a dark and bloody tale that takes the hope of the Krakoa era and replaces it with the doom and gloom that Marvel has used in its mutant stories for nearly twenty years.

15 Hulk: The End Was A Picture Of The Green Goliath At The End Of His Life