Starting at Uncanny #248: What is going on?

[Jade88]

Ok so I've started collecting X-Men issues starting at 248, Jim Lee's debut issue. It just feels right, and I love the cover.

Can I get a briefing of sorts in what I need to know jumping in here. What's up with the roster at this point? Who are the key villians?

I would really appreciate any info that would make jumping in here easier.

[HomoSuperior]

Ok so I've started collecting X-Men issues starting at 248, Jim Lee's debut issue. It just feels right, and I love the cover. Can I get a briefing of sorts in what I need to know jumping in here. What's up with the roster at this point? Who are the key villians? I would really appreciate any info that would make jumping in here easier.

Welcome. Where to begin? We’re gonna need a big wall and a lot of yarn for that chart.

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Maybe pick up the “Grand Design” series.
Marvel tried to plot X-men history in a straightforward manner.
Glosses over a lot, but...

[Ricochet Rita]

Wow, you really chose an odd issue to start with. It's a big turning point in last 80's run, the end of what's known as 'Outback Era' (when X-Men exiled themselves in Australia) and the beginning of the 'grim & gritty' style. Legendary 'X-Godfather' Chris Claremont is writing his last stand-alone scripts, many characters quit now (Longshot and Storm, Rogue did it in previous issue) and throught next issues, it's kind of a stampede. The end of the innocence.

I guess Shadow King is a key villain from now on. As for X-Men, you're gonna follow them separately for a while.

[Jade88]

Wow, you really chose an odd issue to start with. It's a big turning point in last 80's run, the end of what's known as 'Outback Era' (when X-Men exiled themselves in Australia) and the beginning of the 'grim & gritty' style. Legendary 'X-Godfather' Chris Claremont is writing his last stand-alone scripts, many characters quit now (Longshot and Storm, Rogue did it in previous issue) and throught next issues, it's kind of a stampede. The end of the innocence.

I guess Shadow King is a key villain from now on. As for X-Men, you're gonna follow them separately for a while.

I can tell it's a strange place to start, but I've committed. I can always go back, and l will.

Storm doesn't so much quit.... well you know the issue.

Why is everybody quiting or going away? The Longshot tjignwas weird. Wolverine is off on his own I assume. Where are Beast and Cyclops?

Nanny is strange, and I assume just a plot to device for that ending?

[Criticalfan]

It's basically:
Blow up the team, making no roster at all (Claremont had kinda done every other type of story before this, so it was new to him), and then slowly put the toys back in the toybox for the next era.

Beast and Cyclops are in the other X-team, X-Factor, at this point, and they only meet the X-Men in crossovers until issue 281.

[TheCape]

I can tell it's a strange place to start, but I've committed. I can always go back, and l will.

Storm doesn't so much quit.... well you know the issue.

Why is everybody quiting or going away? The Longshot tjignwas weird. Wolverine is off on his own I assume. Where are Beast and Cyclops?

Nanny is strange, and I assume just a plot to device for that ending?

That was when Wolverine finally got his own solo series, he was in Madripoor while all this was happening, when he came back he got an unpleasant surprise.

[Ricochet Rita]

Why is everybody quiting or going away?

In a (splendid) nutshell, this:

It's basically:
Blow up the team, making no roster at all (Claremont had kinda done every other type of story before this, so it was new to him), and then slowly put the toys back in the toybox for the next era.

The Longshot tjignwas weird.

Yep. Mix usual Longshot's weirdness, Gateway's aboriginal Dreamtime and Claremont's fixation with oneiric scenes, then you get this. Editorially, the purpose was to throw Longshot off the X-Men to give him his own Graphic Novel/title (by Ann Nocenti & Art Adams), but the project got stuck on the way.

[HomoSuperior]

I can tell it's a strange place to start, but I've committed. I can always go back, and l will.

Storm doesn't so much quit.... well you know the issue.

Why is everybody quiting or going away? The Longshot tjignwas weird. Nanny is strange, and I assume just a plot to device for that ending?

I think people were quitting/going away because Claremont always planned for there to be a natural rotation. Cyclops would marry Madeline, have a kid and move to Alaska.

Yeah, Nanny and Orphanmaker were weird and random. An evil egg w/its childish killer cybernetic sidekick. If plot device, I’m not sure what they resolved or who they appealed to. But sure Marvel, here’s my $1.25.

[HomoSuperior]

Editorially, the purpose was to throw Longshot off the X-Men to give him his own Graphic Novel/title (by Ann Nocenti & Art Adams), but the project got stuck on the way.

IIRC — Longshot was its own limited series, that had nothing to do with X-men, before the character was added to the X-men. At the time, I remember loving the Longshot series because it was world-building, mysterious with some pop culture cautionary tales, and it introduced Art Adams talents. But then Longshot somehow wound up an X-man, Spiral joined the brotherhood, and Mojo became the new Arcade.

[GeneTitan]

I would go back a bit and start reading in the late 220’s/early 230’s for the end of “Fall Of The Mutants.” That way you get the intro to the Siege Perilous and The Outback era. There are also some cool solo Magik/Colossus and Longshot stories that give you some nice character development.