Started reading from Uncanny 1 back in May. First time reading any comics and I’m 42. I’m up to issue 202 now. I’m really enjoying seeing the source material for all of the tv/movies I’ve seen over the years. I literally just bought Life-Death II (saw it behind you) yesterday from a comic shop since I really enjoyed it when I read it.
How ya doing? Came over from Comics Are Dope's video on Comic Channels. I have also ran into this sometimes when people ask for starting point recommendations. Especially if it's an old title that has had many iterations thus many different flavors, pin pointing a specific jumping on point can be tough. Unless there's a new number one. Jump on the number one 😅. For me though just give me some old school Claremont 😁.
I started reading around the late 80s, just random comics I’d get from the store when I went with my grandma. I don’t think I got around to going back to the first X-Men comic until my early 20s, but I will say that I enjoyed seeing how these characters started as rough drafts that could’ve gone a number of directions and got molded into the characters they became by the late 80s. What ideas got discarded pretty quickly *cough* ProfessorXwantingJean *cough*, and what ideas became seldom-used powers, like Magneto’s low-level telepathy, and what things stuck of course. Or Beast who went from pretty much just a guy from New York with the accent and all to a brainiac (I think that turnaround was pretty fast, wasn’t it?). Anyway, fascinating stuff.
I think the All-New X-Men from 2015 is a good starting point (Hopeless and Bagley). It isnt overwhelming with history or a large cast of characters and it focuses on one X-man as the center of the story. I think if you read that series you will get a basic understanding of the X-men up until then. The art (style) is dated is the only problem. X-Men Gold also has some good things about it as well but makes a better coming back to X-men point. I recommend Bendis Marvel comics to no one.
Great breakdown 👍🏻. Those super terrible years for x-men is when Marvel was fielding with Fox. The main 616 Wolverine is dead during that period as well.
I didn't like the use of wide panels in the Astonishing X-Men. I think it was actually a major visual shift in comics creation that isn't talked about enough.
