For the series of American reprint books, see Essential Marvel Comics

Essential Marvel Comics

Essential Marvel is a line of American comic book reprints. It consists in a series of black-and-white paperbacks containing about 20-30 issues of mostly Silver Age or Bronze Age Marvel comic book reprints each...

.

Essential X-Men is a 76-page comic book published by Panini Comics

Panini Comics

Panini Comics is an Italian comic book publisher. A division of Panini Group, best known for their collectible stickers, it is headquartered in Modena, Italy...

 UK, as part of their Collectors' Edition range. Beginning in 1995, the title reprints Marvel US's

Marvel Comics

Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...

 range of X-Men

X-Men

The X-Men are a superhero team in the . They were created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, and first appeared in The X-Men #1...

 comics; three per issue. The comic is produced on higher quality paper than the US originals, and the covers are composed of card, which helps to preserve the comic. Also unlike the US originals, advertisements are kept to a minimum, with most simply promoting the other comics in the Collectors' Edition range or Marvel DVDs or video games. The comics it reprints are generally about two years behind comics in the US. It retails at the price of £2.95

Over the course of its 15 year history, Essential X-Men has reprinted many key events in the X-Men's history including the Age of Apocalypse

Age of Apocalypse

"Age of Apocalypse" is a 1995 - 1996 comic book crossover storyline published in the X-Men franchise of books by Marvel Comics. The Age of Apocalypse briefly replaced the universe of Earth-616, although it was later retconned as having occurred in the alternate universe of Earth-295, it had...

 and Onslaught

Onslaught (comics)

Onslaught is a fictional character that appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character first appeared in X-Man #15 , and was co-created by writers Scott Lobdell, Mark Waid, and artist Andy Kubert....

 sagas as well as more recently Grant Morrison

Grant Morrison

Grant Morrison is a Scottish comic book writer, playwright and occultist. He is known for his nonlinear narratives and counter-cultural leanings, as well as his successful runs on titles like Animal Man, Doom Patrol, JLA, The Invisibles, New X-Men, Fantastic Four, All-Star Superman, and...

's run. Currently it is reprinting Peter Milligan

Peter Milligan

Peter Milligan born in London, a British writer, best known for his comic book, film and television work.-Early career:Milligan started his comic career with short stories for 2000 AD in the early 1980s. By 1986, Milligan had his first ongoing strip in 2000AD called Bad Company, with artists Brett...

 and Salvador Larroca

Salvador Larroca

Salvador Larroca is a Spanish comic book artist, primarily known for his work on various X-Men titles.-Early life:Salvador Larroca was born and raised in Valencia, Spain.-Career:...

's run on X-Men. Unlike other Collector's Editions that Panini Comics

Panini Comics

Panini Comics is an Italian comic book publisher. A division of Panini Group, best known for their collectible stickers, it is headquartered in Modena, Italy...

 publishes, Essential X-Men rarely reprints the classic stories. This is because in the US, the X-Men have multiple comics and in order not to fall behind the other Collector Edition's in terms of continuity there is no room to print classic stories.

At the end of 2007, Essential X-Men became the title to host the House Of M

House of M

House of M is an eight-issue comic book limited series and crossover storyline published by Marvel Comics in 2005. Written by Brian Michael Bendis and illustrated by Olivier Coipel, its first issue debuted in June 2005 as a follow-up to the events of the Planet X and Avengers Disassembled...

 event starting at issue #160 and ending with the release of issue #163 on 20 March 2008.

A new volume began in January 2010 with the storyline X-Men: Divided We Stand

X-Men: Divided We Stand

"X-Men: Divided We Stand" is a 2008 comic book storyline published by Marvel Comics as a follow-up storyline to the "Messiah Complex" story arc. The story started with the issues of the X-Men-related titles cover dated April 2008. This included: The Uncanny X-Men; Wolverine vol. 3; X-Factor vol. 3;...

.