Giant Size X-Men #1 (1975)
Chosen by me from my shelves because sadly Len Wein, writer and editor of this comic, and many more, died very recently.
One of the most influential issues of a Marvel comic ever.
The usual Marvel notes were there, squabbling heroes, spending as much time arguing with each other as fighting the big bad, an overwrought purple prose style that whilst perhaps very dated is charming in it's own way, a sense of turning over the past and bringing in the new (if the internet existed back then i'm pretty sure these upstart x-men would be raked over the coals of hell for daring to replace the originals - minus beast who is mentioned as being elsewhere).
The whole issue moves super fast introducing 7 new, or new to the X team, characters in quick succesion before they go off to fight a giant mutant energy fed living island. Which gets blasted into space by magnetic powers opening a molten core powered explosion causing gravity to cease. Or something. it's pretty bonkers. And great.
The new characters are all drawn from diverse backgrounds, a far cry from the WASPish original 5.
This is sometimes uncomfortable - Thunderbird and Storm are a little charicature but allows for an interesting, more pointed spin on X-Men's 'protecting a world that fears them' biz.
An era defining super-hero tale with excellent art from the reliable Dave Cockrum, giving everyone distinct mostly cool costumes (Banshee's perhaps falls a touch too much towards the goofy, like his faith and begorra accent quirks).
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