Recommended 80s X Book Runs and other X-Questions

[Sain]

As the title says, anyone have any? I find myself going backwards when reading XMEN lately because the current lines, for the most part, are a turnoff. I'm reading The OG New Mutants which i am loving, and every since reading 88's She Hulk a few months ago I fell in love with John Byrne's art. I see from time to time that his name is brought up in drawing xmen back then too, so any of his books are welcome too.

Also, while I'm here. Anyone wonder why they continutally update certain character costumes while others stay wildly dated? For instance Magneto, Havok, and Jubilee. I'm pretty much over their current looks which aren't really brought with a new spin. X characters are all about personality when it comes to suits, so I understand, but this is diffrent. It almost seems liek they are scared and run back to default.

Also Also, are there any XMEN costume charts/infographics other than wolverine? It would be awesome if there was a dedicated site or person that made X-Evolution infographics.

[SchismOfMadroces]

http://www.uncannyxmen.net has character spotlights that feature costume progressions. I haven't been there in ages, so I don't know how current they are, though.

[CRaymond]

Here’s a fairly innocuous question:

1. What was the circumstance that drove the X-Men to choose to relocate to the Australian Outback?

[pandafarmer]

I've been re-reading the entire X-Book run this year and I can put together a nice "layman's" overview. Sadly don't have the time right now, but watch for something hopefully today or Monday.

As for costumes, I think that they sometimes get burned when they go too out of the box with costumes. New Mutants is actually a great example. Whenever they tried to give us something different than the training unis, it didn't go well. Heck, Magik only just recently got a more permanent option and then they go and throw her back in the old school look for Dead Souls.

[Rover]

I think the most important X-book of the 80s would be Uncanny X-Men with arcs like the Dark Phoenix Saga, Days of Future Past, and crossovers like Secret Wars, Inferno, Mutant Massacre and Fall of the Mutants in the late 80s. Byrne worked worked on Dark Phoenix and Days of Future Past.

The 80s also had Classic X-Men reprinting older stories with some pages from Uncanny added for continuity. This could be interesting if you want to read all the older stuff.

I personally love X-Factor that started in the 80s and highly recommend it. And if you're a Wolverine fan, his first limited series was in the early 80s and it was relaunched at the end of the 80s. I also remember reading a limited Nightcrawler series from the mid-80s. I thought it was fun but might not be interesting unless you're a fan of the character.

If you want more stuff from John Bryne, I think he worked on Alpha Flight during the 80s. I've never checked it out so I don't know if it's good or not.

This page has a really good summary of all the important events, Claremont's work on the X-books during the 80s, and info about when new characters appeared: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/comics/xboo...section-4.html

Also, while I'm here. Anyone wonder why they continutally update certain character costumes while others stay wildly dated? For instance Magneto, Havok, and Jubilee. I'm pretty much over their current looks which aren't really brought with a new spin. X characters are all about personality when it comes to suits, so I understand, but this is different. It almost seems liek they are scared and run back to default.

Also Also, are there any XMEN costume charts/infographics other than wolverine? It would be awesome if there was a dedicated site or person that made X-Evolution infographics.

I think the costume has to do with how much of a part the costume has in making the character recognizable. Facial features change a lot from one artist to another so they can't always expect readers to recognize characters based on this. The more unique a character design is, the easier it is to create a new costume for them.

Some characters can go through costumes and even wear normal clothes and still be recognizable because of really unique character design. I'm thinking about Mystique's skin, Wolverine's hair, and claws Bishop's tattoo or even Cyclops' visor. On the other hand, characters like Jubilee, Magneto, Kitty Pryde, etc don't have any characteristics that 'jump out' at the reader other than their costume. I'm not saying they shouldn't update the costumes, I'm saying it's a lot trickier to change a costume when it's the main element of the character design.

[Cyke is Slim]

80's X-Factor by Louise Simonson, highly recommended. The X-Factor issues in Fall of the Mutants featured the best villain in Apocalypse, the Jean/Scott stuff is legendary and this run made the O5 work really well. Plus the drama involving Cyke is sooo good!

[Kuwagaton]

Aside from 1982's Wolverine, there is more Claremont in his 1988 series, as well as a follow up arc written and drawn by Byrne. Larry Hama and Peter David also had some great stories to take the whole thing into the 90s.

Here’s a fairly innocuous question:

1. What was the circumstance that drove the X-Men to choose to relocate to the Australian Outback?

That plays out in Fall of the Mutants, which has its own trade. I think it's my favorite Uncanny arc. It might not be bad to go in cold, but the subplots that built in went for about 20 or 30 issues prior. The epic collection, "The Gift" and the Mutant Massacre storylines are ideal prerequisites.

[Triniking1234]

Here’s a fairly innocuous question:

1. What was the circumstance that drove the X-Men to choose to relocate to the Australian Outback?

The Fall of the Mutants storyline. Good stuff and it leads into my favourite story-arc: Inferno.

[CRaymond]

Aside from 1982's Wolverine, there is more Claremont in his 1988 series, as well as a follow up arc written and drawn by Byrne. Larry Hama and Peter David also had some great stories to take the whole thing into the 90s.



That plays out in Fall of the Mutants, which has its own trade. I think it's my favorite Uncanny arc. It might not be bad to go in cold, but the subplots that built in went for about 20 or 30 issues prior. The epic collection, "The Gift" and the Mutant Massacre storylines are ideal prerequisites.

The Fall of the Mutants storyline. Good stuff and it leads into my favourite story-arc: Inferno.

Yeah I know it's during that time that they die in Dallas and are reborn invisible to machines. I was hoping someone would say something like: Wolverine found out he bought real estate in rural Queensland, or Storm just decided one day. There's plenty of places the X-Men could've gone to hide out. The Outback is a very specific and very unusual location, given the American centricity of the characters and stories.

[Askani's Flame]

Yeah I know it's during that time that they die in Dallas and are reborn invisible to machines. I was hoping someone would say something like: Wolverine found out he bought real estate in rural Queensland, or Storm just decided one day. There's plenty of places the X-Men could've gone to hide out. The Outback is a very specific and very unusual location, given the American centricity of the characters and stories.

I'm pretty sure that once they were revived they interrupted a Reaver robbery or attack. Freeing Gateway and getting the Seige Perilous, they decide to operate out of the Reaver's Outback base so they aren't discovered by friends/family/the world.