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Where in the name of christ do you start Xmen comics?
- Thread starter Zushin
- Start date
Transmutation of liquids, walking on water, resurrection powers, laser eyes... Jesus definitely sounds like a mutant to me.
Laser eyes? Well now you just sound silly!
excelsiorlef
Member
The cartoon fucks up every comic book storyline...
Also literally anyone not saying read Giant Sized X_Men #1 and then Claremont is fooling you, that , especially Claremont, is the definitive X-Men run... without at least a basis of it you're missing out
water_wendi
Water is not wet!
Giant Size X-Men #1
Escape Goat
Member
Anything by Chuck Austen. Always Chuck.
zero tolerance, lol. such shit. The buildup was so good (of course, Nicieza was there) and the execution..yesh
To answer the OP, start with the trade paperbacks to get an idea of the characters involved.
By the way: I wouldn't recommend reading ANY Marvel comic events like House of M, Secret War, etc if it's not in trade paperback format.
To get the whole story you have to jump from X-Men to Uncanny X-Men to New Mutants to X-Force then back to Uncanny then to Deadpool. Fuck that. Just get the trade paperback, it's like the tl;dr; of the event.
By the way: I wouldn't recommend reading ANY Marvel comic events like House of M, Secret War, etc if it's not in trade paperback format.
To get the whole story you have to jump from X-Men to Uncanny X-Men to New Mutants to X-Force then back to Uncanny then to Deadpool. Fuck that. Just get the trade paperback, it's like the tl;dr; of the event.
BlackBanditSho
Member
I was an X-men fan for 20 years. The Claremont run remains my favorite run in all of comics. Dont start with Claremont. Just watch the movies and forget that it exists. Read Morrison or Whedon or Astonishing.
Im not a fan of modern X-men at all, but theres no point in confusing you. If you read the old stuff, everything from the relationships and how the characters interact and talk to each other and how they relate to the world might as well be alien in the post Morrison X world.
Pick up one of the newer recommended trades but dont read ANY of the Claremont essential X-men books. Ever. Its like two different universes.
Closest example can think of is Gundam if you were ever into Anime. Its either you like Original Century stuff BEFORE all of the Gundam Wing and other reimagining happened, or you like the OG universe. No middle ground.
Welcome to the X-men. Hope you survive.
Im not a fan of modern X-men at all, but theres no point in confusing you. If you read the old stuff, everything from the relationships and how the characters interact and talk to each other and how they relate to the world might as well be alien in the post Morrison X world.
Pick up one of the newer recommended trades but dont read ANY of the Claremont essential X-men books. Ever. Its like two different universes.
Closest example can think of is Gundam if you were ever into Anime. Its either you like Original Century stuff BEFORE all of the Gundam Wing and other reimagining happened, or you like the OG universe. No middle ground.
Welcome to the X-men. Hope you survive.
excelsiorlef
Member
dont listen to the anti Claremont brigade and go for it. Chris has been total shit only when they dragged his arse back from retirement to write these godawf Wolverine stories in the early 2000s
excelsiorlef
Member
Claremont... it's the definitive run. They still mine it for the movies 30 years later
Grant Morrison's New X-Men, followed by Astonishing X-Men (Whedon) is fantastic. I'd only read the Dark Phoenix Saga before that and I was fine, you don't need any prior knowledge to follow those arcs. It is recommended to read New X-Men before Astonishing, but not required. Also loved Uncanny X-Force (Rick Remender), also easy to get into.
BlackBanditSho
Member
This is blasphemy
Let me be super clear. The Claremont X-Men is the only X-men as far as I'm concerned. The John Byrne, Scott Lobdell, Chuck Austin, two Joes, Morrison, all the new writers since (except Ed Brubaker, that was the ONLY time i thought the books had a worthy writer)...they were all terrible and just mined the old Claremont mythos to various shitty degrees.
The editorial teams during the Claremont run were excellent. By Claremont X-Men, I mean everything including the New Mutants, Wolverine, X-Factor, and even Power Pack. Those years feel so completely alien from what's currently being passed off as X-Men (or has been for the past decade) that I wouldn't even recommend they read the old stuff. The fans are different, the characters are different, the philosophies and storytelling techniques are different...it's just not good. But if you're going to continue to read the new stuff, then you might as well jump in at a point where the consistency begins.
And before some of you think I'm just old man ranting, I wouldn't say the same about most other Marvel books. They've changed but they've improved and maintained the essence of the book. Even Spider-man, which I really never liked under Dan Slott, still retained the core of the character. He just changed it for a different audience. I can respect that and bowed out.
But what happened with X-men? There's just no way that book could survive the amount of editorial upheaval and writers who either never got it, or wanted to put their own stamp on the book to the extent that it changed it dramatically, or creators who simply outright didn't like CC's years and wanted to disrupt crap for the sake of it. CC was no saint. His comeback writing STUNK.
But like i said earlier, had Ed Brubaker stayed on the book, tonally it was affectionate of the CC era, but had new ideas and style that Brubaker offered. None of the other writers had that, or, like Whedon, were so slavish to an older era but who's ideas just didn't work for me.
So yeah, I'm saying skip everything Claremont did because it's not relevant and muddies the waters. Just skip it, or TOTALLY embrace it but don't expect the recent stuff to make a lick of sense nor have the intimacy of the old books.
As far as I'm concerned, for CC fans of that era, other than the movies and TV, the X-Men are DEAD.
Sweet Bellic
Member
It was 1975, but otherwise this guy knows what the fuck he's talking about. The Claremont run was X-men at its best and had my favorite team roster too (Cyclops, Wolverine, Storm, Nightcralwer, Colossus, and Banshee... with occasionally appearances by Jean Grey and Beast). Start with this one and just keep going. Strongly recommend all 5 volumes.
Morrision's New X-men is my next favorite run. It just brought a lot of depth and characterization to the X-men, making Cyclops, Jean Grey, Emma Frost remarkably introspective, interesting characters, as opposed to it being all about Wolverine.
I was going of memory, I didn't realise how well everyone else remembers it.
I call shenanigans because your example didn't use Kitty Pryde
lol maybe
Age of Apocalypse will always be the daddy. Jim Lee era designs wil always be my X-men, I don't care how many movies or redesigns they do. Oh and Cat-Beast can fuck off.
BlackBanditSho
Member
Basically YES. OR, the opposite might happen. the style of writing and storytelling is so different that if you read the new stuff, the old stuff will seem weird.
I'm saying that the shift in tone and style to what people are reading today took nearly 30 years. Claremont stopped writing X-men regularly in 1991. Let's call that 'Old Claremont'.
That era of stories and tone has pretty much become the backbone of the fox franchise.
To put this bluntly, the Claremont Era of X-Men comics is widely considered some of the best, most influential superhero comics in the medium. It was THAT good, and I reread it all the time. We're talking about an era where sci-fi (which he mined regularly) was at its most outrageous and experimental (70's-90's), we had indies like Elfquest (also top tier storytelling which CC was a fan of), Marvel was, frankly at it's editorial peak with teams that worked in a way that Marvel wouldn't see again for years, and we had a company unafraid to tackle issues and allow the characters to change and grow organically. That's just not what mainstream big publisher comics are today. Better or worse.
Also, X-men had the benefit of having the same creative voices (not just CC) on the book for decades. It was a different time that just can't be replicated. The only thing close to it was probably early Ultimate Marvel.
So YES, I'm saying exactly that. The OG CC run was THAT good. But it won't make a lick of sense with ANY of the new stuff anymore because that's just the nature of modern Marvel. If you're enjoying the Fox X-Universe, you're getting a good idea of what OG CC was and that's probably all you need if you're determined to follow the new comics.
Otherwise, the old stuff is worthless for NEW FANS. Just read the new stuff and look forward to whatever Marvel has planned. It could be exciting, All new, and All different.
At this point, it has to be. The old stuff has been pillaged to the point of being comedy.
Gonna give my vote to Whedon/Cassaday's Astonishing X-Men run. Easy to get into. Writing and art is great. Plus I really like the team. At the very least you should buy Gifted, which contains the first 6 issues. The arc was praised by many and even won a Will Eisner Award.
EDIT; OP if you have Amazon Prime you can read Gifted for free, digitally.
EDIT; OP if you have Amazon Prime you can read Gifted for free, digitally.
Steeped in a Sea of Games
Member
Around 4 years ago, I decided to read every single x-men and x-men related comic ever made. I read a few comics every night and read all issues and tie-ins for major marvel events.
I just finished Original Sin. Funny thing about X-Men is that almost everything in the entire publishing history gets a callback at some point. Good luck!
I just finished Original Sin. Funny thing about X-Men is that almost everything in the entire publishing history gets a callback at some point. Good luck!
You monster.......
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