Secret Invasion: X-Men Books in Order

This is Mike Carey's corner of the larger Secret Invasion event, focused on the X-Men at the point when the team has relocated to San Francisco. That setup matters because the mutant community is already trying to build something fragile and public in a world that rarely trusts them. When the Skrull invasion reaches their doorstep, it stops being somebody else's crossover problem.

The appeal here is pressure.

Carey writes event comics best when they force character and politics into the same room, and that is what happens here. The X-Men are dealing with an outside attack, but also with questions of identity, infiltration, and how a persecuted group responds when another shape-shifting force comes to town pretending to be victims, allies, or both. The action is superhero-sized, but the tension lands because the mutant status quo is already unstable.

If you are reading Carey's X-Men material, this mini-series works as a sharp, focused detour that still feels tied to his larger run.