Skippable X-Men stories

[Mike_Murdock]

I've been trying to read through the 90s X-Men since it's a bit of a gap in my knowledge, but I'm starting to realize how absurd it would be to read everything. However, normally when I ask for reading advice, people try to suggest only the highlights, which is not what I want. Instead, what I'd like is to include anything that has any meaningful value - either it's a good story or it will come up again. That being said, for some of the solo books (Wolverine, Cable, etc.), I do just want the highlights. I thought the easiest way to ask this question would be to list runs of stories and see which ones people say to skip. I'm starting from exactly where I am right now:

Uncanny X-Men
16-349 - Scott Lobdell
350-365 - Steve Seagle
366-380 - Alan Davis/Terry Kavanaugh
381-389 - Chris Claremont
390-393 - Scott Lodbell
394-409 - Joe Casey
410-443 - Chuck Austen
444-471 - Chris Claremont
472-474 - Tony Bedard
475-503 - Ed Brubaker
504-530 - Matt Fraction
531-534 - Matt Fraction/Kieron Gillen
535-544 - Kieron Gillen

Uncanny X-Men Vol. 2 - Kieron Gillen
Uncanny X-Men Vol. 3 - Brian Michael Bendis
Uncanny X-Men 600 - Brian Michael Bendis
Uncanny X-Men Vol. 4 - Cullen Bunn

X-Men Vol. 2
35-45 - Fabian Nicieza
46-50 - Scott Lobdell
51-56 - Mark Waid
57-69 - Scott Lobdell
70-85 - Joe Kelly
86-87 - Fabian Nicieza
88-99 - Alan Davis
100-109 - Chris Claremont
110-113 - Scott Lobdell

New X-Men
114-154 - Grant Morrison
155-156 - Chuck Austen

X-Men Vol. 2
157-164 - Chuck Austen
165 - Chris Claremont
166-187 - Peter Milligan
188-207 - Mike Carey

X-Men Legacy
208-300 - Mike Carey

All-New X-Men
1-41 - Brian Michael Bendis

All-New X-Men Vol. 2
Dennis Hopeless

Astonishing X-Men
1-24 - Joss Whedon
25-35 - Warren Ellis
36-41 - Daniel Way
42 - Christos Gage
43 - James Asmus
44-47 - Greg Pak
48-68 - Marjorie Liu

Extraordinary X-Men - Jeff Lemire
X-Treme X-Men - Chris Claremont

Breaking this up into multiple posts. I'll return with Excalibur, X-Force, X-Factor, and Generation X.

[Mike_Murdock]

Excalibur
81-82 - Scott Lobdell/Todd DeZago
83-103 - Warren Ellis
104-105 - John Arcudi
106-125 - Ben Raab

Excalibur Vol. 2 - Ben Raab
Excalibur Vol. 3 - Chris Claremont

Generation X
1-28 - Scott Lobdell
29-31 - James Robinson
32 - Tom DeFalco
33-47 - Larry Hama
48-62 - Jay Faerber
63-70 - Warren Ellis/Brian Wood
71-75 - Brian Wood

X-Factor
106-111 - Todd DeZago
112-114 - John Francis Moore
115-149 - Howard Mackie

X-Factor Vol. 2 - Jeff Jensen
X-Factor Vol. 3 - Peter David
X-Factor 200-262 - Peter David

X-Force
35-43 - Fabian Nicieza
44-61 - Jeph Loeb
63-100 - John Francis Moore
101 - Joseph Harris
102-109 - Warren Ellis/Ian Edington
110-115 - Ian Edington
116-129 - Peter Milligan

X-Force Vol. 2 - Fabian Nicieza
X-Statix - Peter Milligan
X-Force Vol. 3 - Craig Kyle/Chris Yost
X-Force Vol. 4 - Simon Spurrier
Uncanny X-Force - Rich Remender
Uncanny X-Force Vol. 2 - Sam Humphries

I'll have to come back to Wolverine, Cable, etc.

[WheelchairX]

So, do you want us to tell you what to skip out of all you have listed or just from the 90's?

EDIT: That was a stupid question.

If you want to keep your soul, don't read Chuck Austen Uncanny run because it is unreadable. The only long standing plot point from that is Azazel, who is an actually demon, and the father of Nightcrawler

[yogaflame]

Yeah, you can skip pretty much all of that!

lol

Read Claremont's old school run, Morrison's New X-Men, and Claremont's X-Treme for dessert.

Everything else is optional.

(Lobdell's Uncanny run is pedestrian, but tolerable. Lobdell's Generation Next from AoA is some of his(and Bachelo's) best work, but really off the wall and not in continuity.Their Gen X is serviceable. The rest of Gen X is eh.)

[Bafflement]

Widely agreed-upon advice is to skip Chuck Austen's work.

[Mike_Murdock]

I think that misses the point. There are plenty of stories in those eras people know of and reference. The Legacy virus, for example. The goal is to read more than I skip, not the other way around.

ETA: Regarding Chuck Austen, I understand it's considered terrible, but there are definitely referenced moments, such as the stuff with Northstar. Also, isn't there some Nightcrawler stuff that hasn't been retconned?

[WheelchairX]

I think that misses the point. There are plenty of stories in those eras people know of and reference. The Legacy virus, for example. The goal is to read more than I skip, not the other way around.

ETA: Regarding Chuck Austen, I understand it's considered terrible, but there are definitely referenced moments, such as the stuff with Northstar. Also, isn't there some Nightcrawler stuff that hasn't been retconned?

Yep, Nightcrawler is now half-demon, because his father is Azazel, who is from some demon race.

[The tall man]

Everything by Fraction, worst era ever.

[Mike_Murdock]

Just to be clear, I'm trying more for forgettable runs than bad runs. Bad is fine as long as it's memorably bad - like Angel curing aids bad or whatever.

[Jackraow21]

You can skip everything being published right now honestly. None of it will leave any lasting impact on the X-men brand.

[WheelchairX]

Just to be clear, I'm trying more for forgettable runs than bad runs. Bad is fine as long as it's memorably bad - like Angel curing aids bad or whatever.

Do the issues of Claremont's third run of Uncanny X-Men, where Rachel is convinced she is a dinosaur and so transforms herself into a dinosaur, count as being memorably bad?

[ZNOP]

Grant Morrison's is highly skippable. h, wait... His New X-Men stint was nullified via retcon, heh!

[Anduinel]

Austen's New X-Men run is skippable because it's pretty much just an epilogue to Morrison's work and adds absolutely nothing of value to it.

[Mike_Murdock]

^ Thanks, I'll make a note of that.

Do the issues of Claremont's third run of Uncanny X-Men, where Rachel is convinced she is a dinosaur and so transforms herself into a dinosaur, count as being memorably bad?

That ... sounds like something Chris Claremont would have written. Has it ever been referenced again?

[Arachne]

Skip Loeb's run on X-Force. It was terrible, mostly forgettable and John Francis Moore undid everything ASAP. (The Reignfire story will seem to end on a cliffhanger, but Loeb never really said what happened next, anyway.) Nothing came of Warren Ellis's Counter X X-Force, either. After that the title was shifted to the X-statix team, so you can skip that unless you're a Doop fan.