What should I read before EXM?

I read EXM #1 and #2 and I feel like I'm clearly missing some background. I lapsed during Secret Wars. I have recently caught up on that mini-series, but I didn't touch the spin-offs. Nor have I read anything Inhumans. I also did read UXM #600 and there seems a big gap between that issue and EXM and the new UXM.

I don't really understand why the Terrigen Mist is only an issue now when that happen so long ago in Infinity. Apparently lots of mutants have died such as [spoil]Cyclops[/spoil], who seemed fine in UXM 600, which is why I feel like I'm missing something I should've read.

You're not missing anything. There's at least a 16 month Gap between EXM 1 and UXM 600. And the writers seem to want to take their sweet time with letting us know what happened.

Thanks! Ah, one of those "one year later" kind of things. I'm guessing this applies to the whole MU? I haven't read anything else post-Secret Wars yet.

Don't read anything before EXM or else you'll already have read EXM.

[QUOTE=ou·tré;1860057]Don't read anything before EXM or else you'll already have read EXM.[/QUOTE]

Better yet, don't read anything before it or you'd better shoot your expectations to Hell cuz it won't live up to what came before it.

Read Claremont run instead (again if you already did). You can thank me later.

[QUOTE=Magneto;1860614]Read Claremont run instead (again if you already did). You can thank me later.[/QUOTE]

My question was already answered, but we can turn this thread into suggestions of previous runs of XM related titles.

I've never finished Claremont's first run. I don't quite remember where I quit. Definitely after Days of the Future Past. In some sort of Brood story, I think. The '75 to '80 stuff was fantastic, probably my favorite XM. I did enjoy his Forever stuff, though it wasn't especially memorable as I don't remember much of it now. I also like Morrison's work, but that's hugely in indebted to Claremont since it was essentially the '75 to '80 revisited (kind of like the new Star Wars).

In more recent time, I've been a bigger fan of the X-Force titles than the XM contemporaries. Particularly Yost & Craig and Remender. I didn't particularly care for Bendis, despite enjoying a lot of his Avengers material, so Remender's Uncanny Avengers was the XM related stuff I enjoyed most in the last few years. Except Axis. Let's forget that. I feel off after that and I haven't finished UA.

Really? I assumed that there was some massive ending in 600 then this continued from that....

Yeah, you don't really need to read anything beforehand to understand it. But the Old Man Logan series might be worth checking out just to see how he showed up here (naked, confused and displaced after Secret Wars rebooted everything) and ultimately ended up where Storm finds him at the end of EXM #1. The first arc is addressing that now and is pretty darn good IMO.

[QUOTE=onoturtle;1862946]My question was already answered, but we can turn this thread into suggestions of previous runs of XM related titles.
[/QUOTE]

This thread has some suggestions too [url]http://community.comicbookresources.com/showthread.php?71784-What-are-the-best-stories-or-complete-runs-from-across-the-entire-X-universe[/url]

[QUOTE=-PT-;1863106]Really? I assumed that there was some massive ending in 600 then this continued from that....[/QUOTE]

600 was just an overhyped overpriced issue that neither answered anything of the dangling plot points in Bendis' run, set up anything of the X-Men's current status quo or connected to what Hickman had set up in Time Runs Out with the X-Men. It was in no way even worth the delay (which to this day makes no sense).