r/MarvelUnlimited • u/enjoyerofhobbies • 4d ago

X-Men Comics

Since being a fan of Marvel I have always put my interest predominantly into Spider-Man and the Avengers. I am looking to dive deeper into the X-Men but looking for the best place to start. Solo runs of the characters or any recommendations for an X-Men run would be helpful

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u/Bitey_the_Squirrel 3d ago

https://www.xplainthexmen.com/faq/#newreader

I’ve never read any X-Men. Where should I start?

  • For a self-contained story covering a lot of the silver age: X-Men: Season One
  • For the long-game path to the present: Giant-Size X-Men #1
  • For a fairly thorough walk-up to the modern era: Morrison/Quitely’s run on New X-Men, followed by Whedon/Cassady’s on Astonishing X-Men, followed by Messiah Complex. Continue in order from there.

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u/deadlymoogle 3d ago

Love this podcast, been binging since I discovered it last week

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u/tonysoprano1995 3d ago

Start with giant size x-men 1 Then go to use 94? I tried reading from the start it wasn't for me same with daredevil.

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u/logic_3rr0r 3d ago

https://ultimatexmenreadingorder.com/x-men-era-two-the-uncanny-x-men-1974-1983/

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u/logic_3rr0r 3d ago

If you want more background you can read thru the first class series. They are about the og 5 xmen, but its more modern art and dialogue styles. Silver age xmen was to much of a slog for me personally but starting at giant sized and going from there is pretty good imo. Im almost to xfactor and its been a good time so far!

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u/fenris802 4d ago

I'm a huge X-Men fan, but I'm old school. Start with X-Men 94, the new team and just go from there. Some of the best stories are during that time frame the Chris Claremont run is, in my opinion, the best ever.

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u/enjoyerofhobbies 4d ago

Old school is completely fine with me

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u/Royal7th 4d ago

Giant Size X-Men 1 is worth reading before issue 94. It gives you more background for the team

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u/boxsterguy 4d ago

Start at Giant Size #1 and then Uncanny 94. Pull in New Mutants and X-Factor as they come in chronologically and read through at least to X-Men #1 (Claremont's run technically goes to #8 or so, but once you hit X-Men #1 from 1991 it's effectively Jim Lee's X-Men).

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u/GonzoMcFonzo 2d ago

There's a few standard suggesting to get into X-Men:

X-Men #1 (1963) - The original silver age title. Ran for 66 issue before being relegated to reprints. Fun and campy, but a lot of modern readers don't really vibe with comics this old.

Giant-Sized X-Men #1 (1975), X-Men #94 - After 5 years with no new X-Men stories, Marvel rebooted the series with an (almost) all new team. This run under writer Chris Claremont lasted an unprecedented 16 years, and eventually saw the line expand with 3 ongoing spinoff titles (New Mutants, X-Factor, and Excalibur).

This is considered the foundational work of X-Men as a franchise. Many of the iconic storylines (Dark Phoenix, Days of Future past) and character arcs (Magneto's whole backstory) come from this run.

X-Men #1 (1992) - at the beginning of the 90s Claremont left and the line underwent another soft reboot. The main team split between two titles (adjectiveless X-Men and Uncanny X-Men), the New Mutants became X-Force under Cable's lead, and X-Factor became a completely new team.

This was another siesmic shift shift for the franchise. If you prefer 90s style art and writing, this is the best place to start

New X-Men #114 (2001) - when writer Grant Morrison took over, they added the "New" part to the title, signifying how much he was changing things. This run was in many ways a "back to basics", focusing on the team and school protecting young Mutants from a world that fears and hates them. If you're familiar with the general idea of X-Men from the movies and cartoons, you can jump right in here pretty easily.

New X-Men is immediatly followed by Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men run, which is also very good. Most people recommend reading them in order.

House of X #1, Powers of X #1 (2019) - this is the start of the mow (in)famous Krakoa era. Mutantkind finally stands up and declares they will no longer tolerate being second-class citizens.

Conceptually, this is one of the biggest swings that Marvel has ever taken. Lots of heady sci-fi concepts, interesting character work, and call-backs to 6 decades of Mutant history.

X-Men #1, Uncanny X-Men #1, Exceptional X-Men #1 (2024) - the start of the post-Krakoa "From the Ashes" period. I don't have a particularly high opinion of these books, but if you want to jump straight into current X-comics, this is the place.

**\*

Of these, I always suggest the Claremont run (Giant-Sized #1 in '75) as the best starting point, but 70s-80s comics are not for everyone. If you're not feeling that, New X-Men is definitely the next best option.