Uncanny X-men

[abrahamsamable]

Recently, I have found my way back to my childhood/teenage love of X-men.

Thanks in part to the iFanboy podcast and listening to discussons on Uncanny and Astonishing X-Men, but also thanks to TIVO (actually DVR) giving me the ability to recored the old x-men cartoon along with the newer ones. X-men Evolution, X-men, and Wolverine and The X-men.

Seeing as my comic book knowledge is limited, I trolled the intronet a bit and tried to find a X-men reading order or comprehinsive list of the most important story arcs so i could get a decent handle on the X-men universe.
All I found where a lot of dead links.

I don't want to jump into the past 2 to 3 years of x-men stories without a good understanding of the history of the characters I am reading about, so hopefully there is a list that one of uses knows about, or someone can fill me in on where the best place to start is and what to avoid. Keeping in mind I love the history, I'm not looking to just jump into the universe without knowledge of it. I have done this back tracking before on my own with other characters, but one characters history is a lot easier to follow than a teams history. Hopefully there are some wise and loyal X-men fans out there who wouldn't mind schooling an ignorant upstart.

[racemccloud]

First of all, I'd say read Joss Whedon's "Astonishing X-Men". It stands alone, and it's fantastic, and the characters are all pretty old-school, so you should have no problem getting yourself up to speed.

Secondly, in regards to current continuity... are you looking to get back issues/trades, or do you just want to jump in week-to-week and get a sort of "where are they now" update? Because you can probably just do that in Wikipedia... although if you're looking to jump in on back issues... you should probably at least start at the "Messiah Complex" crossover.

Anyone else?

[johnferrigno]

You could just pick up the Essential X-Men tpbs. Vol 1 starts with Giant Size X-Men, introducing the "new" team, and goes from there. Some great stories in the first 2 volumes.

[racemccloud]

You could just pick up the Essential X-Men tpbs. Vol 1 starts with Giant Size X-Men, introducing the "new" team, and goes from there. Some great stories in the first 2 volumes.

Wait... I don't think he's talking about going back THAT far. Is you?

[euchre0]

I love the X-Men, but I'd say the most recent years have been mostly forgettable. I don't mean that in a purely negative way, more of a mediocre way. It hasn't been bad enough to drop, but not really good enough for me to really recommend to anyone not already very interested. I think this vibe is validated in that even the X-Books seem to move on and forget about the recent years.

3 or 4 years ago, it turned out that Cyclops had a long lost brother, named Vulcan, who was back, crazy and wanting to kill Xavier and the X-Men. Then Vulcan went into outer space and remains there now doing crazy space things, but not bothering the X-Men.

Then a mutant baby was born, which was a big deal because there aren't any more mutants being born. Cable was keeping the baby safe and the bad guys who wanted her didn't get her. Then Cable took the baby to the future and the X-Men seemed to forget about this momentarily monumental event.

Also, the X-Men moved to San Francisco.

Currently, the X-Men are fighting with Norman Osborn and his Dark Avengers.

That's about all you need to know; just jump in!

[johnferrigno]

Wait... I don't think he's talking about going back THAT far. Is you?

He said he wanted a good understanding on the history of the characters. Those stories from the 70s set the stage for everything that came before. Plus, unlike the last 20 years of X-men books, they were actually good. :)

[abrahamsamable]

Essential X-Men tpbs., i think that is what i was looking for, something with a good portion of the history without having to read all the fluff.

[johnferrigno]

Essential X-Men tpbs., i think that is what i was looking for, something with a good portion of the history without having to read all the fluff.

I have the first 3 volumes. It introduces all the "main stay" X-men (Storm, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Wolverine [kinda], Banshee) and fleshes out a lot of the early characters, especially Cyclops. Great stuff. The introduction of the new team, the first battles ith magneto, Juggernaught and Black Tom Cassady, the Shiar stuff, the Dark Phoenix Saga, Days of Future Past, battles with Alpha Flight, trips into Hell, trips into space, Arcade, Dr. Doom, the Savage Land, etc. you can't ask for better X-men stories. plus, the John Byrne art is excellent. To me, he was the definitive X-men artist.