x-men foundation

[greymedallia]

i've enjoyed the x-men to an extent for a good 10 years...i've read some comics and seen most of the t.v. show episodes....seeing the movies has resparked my interest, though....however, i only have a scattered base of knowledge with not really any of it coming in a coherent form because i've never really gotten to see any sub-story fully unfold...for example i know that sabretooth is wolverine's father, that rogue obtained her power's by stealing them from miss marvel, that cable and strife are the same person, etc.....

but i'm wondering where i would start if i wanted to get a good foundation of basic x-men storylines....some topics that interest me are bishop, the origin/death of apocalypse, the creation and conversion to evil of phoenix...can anyone give me some help?

[Best Looking Boy]

They are good about having a lot of good storylines collected into easy to find graphic novels.
You can buy the Dark Phoenix Saga at one of your local bookstores.
If you like the movie you can get God Loves Man Kills also, should be relatively cheap since it's a short one.
Mutant Massacre is another good storyline. Most don't really involve much past knowledge.
Any Claremont/Lee X-Men comic is great fun, that's what i started with. They probably have a compliation of all the early run on the X-Men book.
All the new books are in the same format too. Ultimate X-Men is kind of like the movie and doesn't require any past knowledge.

Oh yeah and the best Bishop stories are the Age of Apocalypse books. Those require absolutely no past knowledge if you can find all the books. Wonderful art and story. Very different and creative.

[greymedallia]

Originally posted by Best Looking Boy

Oh yeah and the best Bishop stories are the Age of Apocalypse books. Those require absolutely no past knowledge if you can find all the books. Wonderful art and story. Very different and creative.

does this ******* the story behind apocalypse too?

[Best Looking Boy]

Nah it's an alternate timeline story. It's kind of self-contained. It's like what would happen if Xavier was killed in the past by his son Legion and Magneto took up the cause. It's really cool and different for a set of x-books. They redid every title and each one had it's own set of 4 books. The names were kind of corny, umm Amazing X-Men, Astonishing X-Men, Generation Next, X-Calibre, i forget the others. Well in this world it's basically just Apocalypse has turned the world to shit and the X-Men trying to defeat him and Bishop from the normal reality gets trapped here and has to set things straight to restore the world to it's less bleak state in his own reality.
As far as good Apocalypse story lines I don't know. Pretty much most of all the Apocalypse stories are kind of boring. They were mostly contained to early X-Factor books. You can probably find a lot of these books at your local Half Price Books. Most of the Apocalypse ********** stories are kind of half cocked.

[dishpan]

Originally posted by Best Looking Boy
They are good about having a lot of good storylines collected into easy to find graphic novels.

thats a good list to start with. there are just so many xmen stories. i havent read an xmen comic in like ten years, but i read both the claremont\lee run and the AoA books when they originally came out. i went to the comic store for free books yesterday and i looked at the xmen collections (the movie sparked my interest), but all they had were these black and white ones. i would love to pick up some good ones that dont require you to know much backstory. you seem to know a lot about this, maybe you can recommend some on amazon.com? thanks
dan

[dishpan]

Originally posted by greymedallia
for example i know that sabretooth is wolverine's father

?!

[Debaser]

http://www.marveldirectory.com/

just look up any character and it'll tell you everything.

[Debaser]

Originally posted by greymedallia
i know that sabretooth is wolverine's father

actually that's not true. it was rumored, but disproven....

[Nimrod's Son]

Originally posted by greymedallia
i'cable and strife are the same person

You're 1 for 3. Stryfe is a clone of Cable that went insane. They aren't the same person.

[dishpan]

here are two of the recent ones i am looking at getting from amazon. has anyone read them?

new xmen, by grant morrison and frank quitely
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...=ATVPDKIKX0DER


xtreme xmen, by chris claremont and salvador larroca
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...=ATVPDKIKX0DER

thanks
dan

[Best Looking Boy]

Ultimate X-Men: Vol. 1
This is good stuff, requires no back-ground. More along the lines of the movie.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...glance&s=books

[Read these two together
X-Men - From the Ashes
These are the issues before Inferno I think.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...glance&s=books

X-Men - Inferno
Really cool storyline, if you like Mr.Sinister and want some back-ground on the whole Cyclops mess check it out.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...glance&s=books
]

X-Men - Mutant Massacre
Pretty depressing, dark stuff. Read if you're interested in Wolverine/Sabertooth action and Mr. Sinister.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...glance&s=books

X-Men - Visionaries: Jim Lee
They have his run on uncanny x-men here, it's on sale and is still in print. I highly recommend this one. 274 is one of my favorite issues.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...glance&s=books

X-Men - Days of Future Past
Classic storyline, essential and easy to start with because it's a pretty self-contained story.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...glance&s=books

[dishpan]

Originally posted by Best Looking Boy
X-Men - Visionaries: Jim Lee
They have his run on uncanny x-men here, it's on sale and is still in print. I highly recommend this one. 274 is one of my favorite issues.

awesome. i ended up ordering that, xtreme xmen, and new xmen. those all supposedly have the best xmen writers and artists so i am excited. i hope i'm not too lost! =)
dan