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Recs to newcomers to X-Men comics for the First Class fans
So, in case you loved X-Men First Class and you want moar and you would be interested in checking out the comics because of that, a little intro on some of the series I've read which are good.
I'm kind of a new convert to comics myself, so my knowledge is narrow, and especially I'm limiting myself to recent-ish (21st century only) comics because they're those I know best, though there's quite a wealth of good stuff in old stories, hopefully someone else might complete my infos. (ETA:![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sandoz_iscariot suggests some in the comments)
Grant Morisson's run on X-Men, usually called New X-Men (#114-154 X-Men)
Dating to the early 00's
I have some very mixed feelings on this run. Otoh it's got some brilliant ideas, especially in term of how it plays up the basic X-Men themes, and has fun writing and gorgeous art and efficient flow. Otoh Morisson has this tendency to sacrifice characterizations to his beautiful ideas in a way that makes me want to bash my head against a wall at times (Magneto especially suffers from some character assassination which was thankfully retconned) and often come across as mean spirited. Still it's a good run overall, and not a bad way to start reading about X-Men. It's a quite wacky and surrealist at times, which I don't personally mind but might not be to the taste of everyone. Features Xavier, Emma, and Beast.
Joss Whedon's run on Astonishing X-Men. (#1-24 Astonishing X-Men)
It builds well from Morisson while also trying to recapturing a more classic vibe, and it's pretty good, profiting from Whedon's gift for writing ensemble dynamics in a fun and witty way. It's fairly separate from comicverse events so easy to get into without bothering with all that mess. Features a little bit of Xavier (being quite badass), and Emma and Beast quite a lot.
New X-Men (Academy X)
If one of the thing you like about X-Men is the whole high school for mutants conceit, you might want to read this. It is divided in two runs, Academy X by Weir & DeFilippis before Decimation (#1-19 + Hellion miniseries), and the run after by Kyle & Yost (#21-46). The former is kind of basic high school drama; and the latter is about giving a lot of poor innocent kids PTSD. Love the characters but it's pretty uneven in terms of stories; so it's rather superfluous. Doesn't feature Xavier or Magneto.
Excalibur v3, by Claremont (#1-14)
If, and only if, the thing you liked about First Class was Xavier and Magneto making a lot of eyesex with one another and you want more of that, specifically, this is the book for you. It's not very good, but boy is it slashy. It deals with some of the consequences from Morisson's run on X-Men, and leads into House of M.
House of M
THE big crossover event that has influenced the most X-Men status quo by bringing on Decimation, in which the large majority of Mutants in the world were suddenly depowered. It's not extremely good, but it's kind of important for that. Also the art is gorgeous; and, if you like melodrama, the stuff dealing with Erik and his family can be appreciated in a kind of epic tragedy way.
House of M - Civil War
Is a miniseries exploring how Magneto rose to power in the House of M alternate reality; it's pretty interesting, and features a little bit of Xavier as well as Erik.
X-Factor v3 by Peter David (starting with the Maddox miniseries; #1-still on going)
Is a very good, kind of Noir series about a detective agency ran by mutants in New York, as the impact of Decimation is being felt. It's got nice ensemble chemistry and witty writing. It doesn't feature Xavier or Erik (at least no more than cameos), but I'm reccing it anyway because of the being good thing, because it mostly does its own thing which makes it easier to get into for newcomers; and because it features a canon gay relationship. Also Darwin features in it for a while, and so does Banshee's daughter.
X-Men by Carey (#188-204)
Deals with one X-Men team led by Rogue. Carey's writing is very good and so is the art, Rogue in it is awesome (if you still remember her fondly from the first movies ^^), Mystique is also in it, and it leads well into the next big X-Men event.
Another series that is really peripheral to X-Men but I love to death is the Cable & Deadpool series (#1-50). It is hilarious and raises some interesting ideas as well; and is the most slashy text I've ever read or watched without technically being canon gay (and it's a very thin technicality). Nothing to do with either Xavier or Magneto though.
Messiah Complex
Is the following big X-Men crossover event. It deals with the birth of the first Mutant baby since Decimation, and the battle for seizing it. It's okay-ish (as far as event goes), and features Xavier a little.
At this point Carey's run on X-Men is renamed X-Men Legacy, and starts focusing onto Xavier mostly and does a lot of continuity porn. The first few issues also feature Erik in a pretty awesome way. Latter on the run starts featuring Rogue again a little bit, then more strongly (#226), then Magneto also starts featuring a lot as well from Second Coming on. Recently it had a crossover with the New Mutant series called Age of X which was pretty cool. In the most recent issues since that, Magneto, Xavier and Rogue are all main characters of the series. Sadly (imho) so is the Magneto/Rogue relationship - YMMV - but Carey's writing makes it worth it despite that ship as far as I'm concerned.
The next X-Men event is Utopia, detailing the mutants installing themselves on that island in San Francisco's bay. I liked it.
It's followed by Second Coming, when the new Mutant baby comes back all grown up, which pretty much sets the most recent status quo for X-Men. It's not bad.
Gillen's run on Uncanny X-Men has only just started, but it's first issue (Uncanny X-Men 534.1) is centered on Magneto and is awesome (and delivers a fuck you to the third X-Men movie ^_^). Before him UXM was written by Fraction, of which I've only read a couple of issues which dealt with Magneto, and him joining the X-Men - but tbh, I was very much unimpressed by their writing so I can't in good faith recommend them, even for Erik's sake.
I'm also enjoying Uncanny X-Force which has started a few months ago, and deals with a black op team doing the dirty jobs of going after their enemies before they can attack. (It had a predecessor in the v3 of X-Force, taking place between Messiah Complex and Second Coming which I found grimdark in a bad/ridiculous way; but I know other people liked it).
Also the #5th issue of Generation Hope had some very cute Erik & Charles bickering and might be worth getting just for that ^_^
Outside of X-Men, I'd also like to mention the Young Avengers series; which deal with a group of teens vaguely affiliated with the Avengers doing heroic; and which features two kids who are sorta-kinda Erik's grandsons; one of which is in a canon gay relationship. It's a very good series, fun and adorable. The latest story dealing with them, currently being released , Avengers : the Children's Crusade features Magneto.
Magneto Testament is a miniseries exploring Erik growing up during the Shoah. I haven't read it, but it's supposed to be good - though obviously very depressing, and very much focused on detailing the events of the Holocaust rather than anything related to superheroics and mutants.
I'm kind of a new convert to comics myself, so my knowledge is narrow, and especially I'm limiting myself to recent-ish (21st century only) comics because they're those I know best, though there's quite a wealth of good stuff in old stories, hopefully someone else might complete my infos. (ETA:
sandoz_iscariot suggests some in the comments)Grant Morisson's run on X-Men, usually called New X-Men (#114-154 X-Men)
Dating to the early 00's
I have some very mixed feelings on this run. Otoh it's got some brilliant ideas, especially in term of how it plays up the basic X-Men themes, and has fun writing and gorgeous art and efficient flow. Otoh Morisson has this tendency to sacrifice characterizations to his beautiful ideas in a way that makes me want to bash my head against a wall at times (Magneto especially suffers from some character assassination which was thankfully retconned) and often come across as mean spirited. Still it's a good run overall, and not a bad way to start reading about X-Men. It's a quite wacky and surrealist at times, which I don't personally mind but might not be to the taste of everyone. Features Xavier, Emma, and Beast.
Joss Whedon's run on Astonishing X-Men. (#1-24 Astonishing X-Men)
It builds well from Morisson while also trying to recapturing a more classic vibe, and it's pretty good, profiting from Whedon's gift for writing ensemble dynamics in a fun and witty way. It's fairly separate from comicverse events so easy to get into without bothering with all that mess. Features a little bit of Xavier (being quite badass), and Emma and Beast quite a lot.
New X-Men (Academy X)
If one of the thing you like about X-Men is the whole high school for mutants conceit, you might want to read this. It is divided in two runs, Academy X by Weir & DeFilippis before Decimation (#1-19 + Hellion miniseries), and the run after by Kyle & Yost (#21-46). The former is kind of basic high school drama; and the latter is about giving a lot of poor innocent kids PTSD. Love the characters but it's pretty uneven in terms of stories; so it's rather superfluous. Doesn't feature Xavier or Magneto.
Excalibur v3, by Claremont (#1-14)
If, and only if, the thing you liked about First Class was Xavier and Magneto making a lot of eyesex with one another and you want more of that, specifically, this is the book for you. It's not very good, but boy is it slashy. It deals with some of the consequences from Morisson's run on X-Men, and leads into House of M.
House of M
THE big crossover event that has influenced the most X-Men status quo by bringing on Decimation, in which the large majority of Mutants in the world were suddenly depowered. It's not extremely good, but it's kind of important for that. Also the art is gorgeous; and, if you like melodrama, the stuff dealing with Erik and his family can be appreciated in a kind of epic tragedy way.
House of M - Civil War
Is a miniseries exploring how Magneto rose to power in the House of M alternate reality; it's pretty interesting, and features a little bit of Xavier as well as Erik.
X-Factor v3 by Peter David (starting with the Maddox miniseries; #1-still on going)
Is a very good, kind of Noir series about a detective agency ran by mutants in New York, as the impact of Decimation is being felt. It's got nice ensemble chemistry and witty writing. It doesn't feature Xavier or Erik (at least no more than cameos), but I'm reccing it anyway because of the being good thing, because it mostly does its own thing which makes it easier to get into for newcomers; and because it features a canon gay relationship. Also Darwin features in it for a while, and so does Banshee's daughter.
X-Men by Carey (#188-204)
Deals with one X-Men team led by Rogue. Carey's writing is very good and so is the art, Rogue in it is awesome (if you still remember her fondly from the first movies ^^), Mystique is also in it, and it leads well into the next big X-Men event.
Another series that is really peripheral to X-Men but I love to death is the Cable & Deadpool series (#1-50). It is hilarious and raises some interesting ideas as well; and is the most slashy text I've ever read or watched without technically being canon gay (and it's a very thin technicality). Nothing to do with either Xavier or Magneto though.
Messiah Complex
Is the following big X-Men crossover event. It deals with the birth of the first Mutant baby since Decimation, and the battle for seizing it. It's okay-ish (as far as event goes), and features Xavier a little.
At this point Carey's run on X-Men is renamed X-Men Legacy, and starts focusing onto Xavier mostly and does a lot of continuity porn. The first few issues also feature Erik in a pretty awesome way. Latter on the run starts featuring Rogue again a little bit, then more strongly (#226), then Magneto also starts featuring a lot as well from Second Coming on. Recently it had a crossover with the New Mutant series called Age of X which was pretty cool. In the most recent issues since that, Magneto, Xavier and Rogue are all main characters of the series. Sadly (imho) so is the Magneto/Rogue relationship - YMMV - but Carey's writing makes it worth it despite that ship as far as I'm concerned.
The next X-Men event is Utopia, detailing the mutants installing themselves on that island in San Francisco's bay. I liked it.
It's followed by Second Coming, when the new Mutant baby comes back all grown up, which pretty much sets the most recent status quo for X-Men. It's not bad.
Gillen's run on Uncanny X-Men has only just started, but it's first issue (Uncanny X-Men 534.1) is centered on Magneto and is awesome (and delivers a fuck you to the third X-Men movie ^_^). Before him UXM was written by Fraction, of which I've only read a couple of issues which dealt with Magneto, and him joining the X-Men - but tbh, I was very much unimpressed by their writing so I can't in good faith recommend them, even for Erik's sake.
I'm also enjoying Uncanny X-Force which has started a few months ago, and deals with a black op team doing the dirty jobs of going after their enemies before they can attack. (It had a predecessor in the v3 of X-Force, taking place between Messiah Complex and Second Coming which I found grimdark in a bad/ridiculous way; but I know other people liked it).
Also the #5th issue of Generation Hope had some very cute Erik & Charles bickering and might be worth getting just for that ^_^
Outside of X-Men, I'd also like to mention the Young Avengers series; which deal with a group of teens vaguely affiliated with the Avengers doing heroic; and which features two kids who are sorta-kinda Erik's grandsons; one of which is in a canon gay relationship. It's a very good series, fun and adorable. The latest story dealing with them, currently being released , Avengers : the Children's Crusade features Magneto.
Magneto Testament is a miniseries exploring Erik growing up during the Shoah. I haven't read it, but it's supposed to be good - though obviously very depressing, and very much focused on detailing the events of the Holocaust rather than anything related to superheroics and mutants.
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I mean, the rest of it is true enough and this is a really good newbie guide to the current X-books, but I could never have condensed my thoughts into a paragraph like that and I appreciate it.
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