It’s about that time to switch it up!
Though it hasn’t been that long since I posted one of these, I’d actually had that configuration for a few weeks beforehand. This time, I’ll try and stay on top, posting these closer to when I rejigger the setup. At most, I’ll do these once a month for however long I’m interested in writing them. Here are a few new pieces I added!
Thanks to a leak of the latest Marvel Preview, we got an advanced look of 45 new Marvel Comics titles that will launch as part of All-New, All Different Marvel. This will take place after the Secret Wars crossover event completes in the summer. Lots to say, so we’ll break it out into different franchises. First up, X-Men!
Fans looking to close the book on the Marvel Now edition of the X-Men are going to have to wait a while. Brian Michael Bendis, the writer of Uncanny X-Men and All New X-Men confirmed on his Tumblr page that Uncanny X-Men #600 has been delayed from May to October 2015 for “editorial and commercial reasons”. Besides the obvious time difference, there are other, more scummy reasons why this delay sucks.
I’ve fallen on some hard times financially and have chosen to cut back on comics. Here’s my plan for how to get my fix without breaking the bank!
For a franchise with its roots deeply implanted in the world of comic books, there are a plethora of other ways that one could discover the X-Men. I, for one, first fell in love with Marvel’s mutants through the still-excellent 90s cartoon. It’s fair to presume that many others were won over by the widly-popular live-action movies. Beyond that, you could have easily discovered them through many other means, such as their toys or appearances in video games. At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if a large portion of X-Men fans have never experienced the source material.
Maybe you’re one of those people. Up until earlier this year, I was one of those people. Where the heck do you start? X-Men as a comic book franchise spans over 50 years, dozens of comic lines and probably thousands of characters. Furthermore, the franchise is well-known for being one of the most self-referential and convoluted, as characters travel through time, fall in and out of love with each other, or die and come back to life repeatedly. Even now, if you ask anyone reading the current X-Men comics if Jean Grey is alive, the answer you will get back will probably make your head spin.
I am by no means an expert, but I think I’ve read enough bits and pieces throughout their history to make some recommendations to new readers. This list of reading material presented in chronological order to give you context for where they all fit within the greater continuity. However, I don’t necessarily recommend reading X-Men that way for a number of reasons that I’ll explain as I go. For now, below is my list of 8 good places to start reading the X-Men!
In this debut episode, I discuss the process I took to getting into comics, which wasn’t very long ago. If you’re intimidated by how large the medium is and don’t know where to start, this episode might be the nudge you need to finally jump in. Let me know if you’d be interested in more comic book content in this format!
Buy All-New X-Men Volume 1: Yesterday’s X-Men Now From Amazon.com
Still reeling from the chaotic events that took place during the Battle of the Atom, the time-displaced X-Men and Kitty Pryde complete their side switch in All New X-Men Vol. 4: All Different. They don’t get much time to settle down though, as a distress call from Florida takes them to a modern X-Men member in need and the evolution of a past threat.
Sporting a ridiculously long title, All-New X-Men/Indestructible Hulk/Superior Spider-Man: The Arms of the Octopus is a three-part special starring…yeah, I’m not going to list them all off again. I can’t speak for how they fit within the continuities of Hulk and Spider-Man, but this does fit within the All New X-Men timeline after issue #11. Our mutant blasts from the past take a trip to Times Square that’s rudely interrupted by a young Doctor Octopus. Did he somehow make the jump to the present day too? Spider-Man and Hulk get involved to put down this menace.
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Following the X-Men universe across hundreds of characters, dozens of comic lines and a continuity that is frequently muddled with through time travel and other weird plot twists has never been easy. Even with the recent Marvel Now relaunches of most of the X-Men comics, things quickly got messy after Beast brought the original X-Men from the past to talk some sense into the present day X-Men who have gone off the reservation. This revelation has been a major plot point for many of the X-Men series’ in play, which all come to ahead in X-Men: Battle of the Atom.
I’ve been reading Marvel Now’s All New X-men, Uncanny X-Men and X-Men over the last few months, and I’ve reached the point where they all converge in X-Men: Battle of the Atom. This crossover event happens across all three of the X-Men books that I’m currently reading, as well as Wolverine and the X-Men, which is one I haven’t tried yet. These issues are not included as part of of their respective trade paperback sets, but you can get them all in one hardcover or trade paperback compilation.
In Third Person 