Which 90s X-books are actually worth reading?

[K7P5V]

depowered mutant Maverick had a 12 issues run of a solo in 1998 thats pretty good

Agreed. I love how Jim Cheung came out of obscurity and became a big-time, superstar artist.

the only 90s books that were good for many years are XFactor with PAD and Hama Wolverine. Also Kelly's Deadpool if you consider it an XBook. Obviously Age of Apocalypse is a must.

Agreed. Or even Sam Kieth's Blood Hungry, which was also written by PAD.

[Zero Hunter]

As much as people like to bag on X-Force to me it was always a pretty good book. Yeah it did start a little too "90's" when Liefeld was the main force, but from issue 1 Fabian Nicieza was scripting Liefeld's plots. When Nicieza took over writing fully the book was really good. To me the best runs are Fabian Nicieza (issues 13-43) and John Francis Moore (issues 63-100).

The Jeph Loeb run (issues 44-61) is very hit or miss with me, and I hated that the first thing he did was "graduate" Cannonball to the X-Men. The whole point of X-Force was they were the outsiders doing their own thing away from the other X-teams, and Loeb came in and the very first thing he did was scrap that and made X-Force just junior X-Men in training again like they were when they were the New Mutants.

The less said about the horrible Warren Ellis Counter X run the better. The book just became a place for Ellis to use his pet character Pete Wisdom and the rest of the cast all became background characters to him.

[PoorStudent]

If you like Generation X, check out Generation Next too. It's part of the AOA run, but is self contained. I think it's four issues, but has a really good and dark ending(IMO).
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[Rivka]

The AGE OF APOCALYPSE--the entire collection of books including the alpha and omega issues--produced some of the best comic books of the 1990s from any franchise, by any company.

I also vote for the J.F. Moore X-FORCE run. Sophisticated, heart-felt, and fun. The X-Men the way I like them, trying to be normal humans, on a road trip, in a world that hates and fears them.

Warren Ellis' EXCALIBUR run.

Lobdell reached his height in the UNCANNY X-MEN 290s through #303.

Nicieza's adjectiveless X-MEN before the AoA started were good; his run started with #12.

But the greatest run of X-Men comics of all, in the 90s, was Peter David's X-FACTOR. It started in 1991, with Stroman and Quesada art. Simply the best there is, again the X-Men the way I like them, dealing with the real world. Like a Tom Clancy novel meets mutant superheroes. When they got into a fight, they were injured, and had to heal from their injuries in the hospital. When there was heartbreak and misunderstanding, the emotions were dealt with through several cycles of stories. (Remember Rahne had a crush on Havok for most of that time, while Havok was in a steady relationship with Polaris, and Quicksilver was just himself, getting on everyone's nerves.) David left in 1993--I think he got tired of Big Event crossovers derailing his stories since he set his stories around the characters--the unique characters and their interactions--and not the other way around (with plug-and-play mutants to fit the editorially directed storyline). It was especially galling when Brevoort stamped his feet (nya nya my character, my character) and took Pietro away from the book.

[Cerridwen]

Adventure of Cyclops and Phoenix

[teapartyofthedead]

The AGE OF APOCALYPSE--the entire collection of books including the alpha and omega issues--produced some of the best comic books of the 1990s from any franchise, by any company.

I also vote for the J.F. Moore X-FORCE run. Sophisticated, heart-felt, and fun. The X-Men the way I like them, trying to be normal humans, on a road trip, in a world that hates and fears them.

Warren Ellis' EXCALIBUR run.

Lobdell reached his height in the UNCANNY X-MEN 290s through #303.

Nicieza's adjectiveless X-MEN before the AoA started where good; his run started with #12.

But the greatest run of X-Men comics of all, in the 90s, was Peter David's X-FACTOR. It started in 1991, with Stroman and Quesada art. Simply the best there is, again the X-Men the way I like them, dealing with the real world. Like a Tom Clancy novel meets mutant superheroes. When they got into a fight, they were injured, and had to heal from their injuries in the hospital. When there was heartbreak and misunderstanding, the emotions were dealt with through several cycles of stories. (Remember Rahne had a crush on Havok for most of that time, while Havok was in a steady relationship with Polaris, and Quicksilver was just himself, getting on everyone's nerves.) David left in 1993--I think he got tired of Big Event crossovers derailing his stories since he set his stories around the characters--the unique characters and their interactions--and not the other way around (with plug-and-play mutants to fit the editorially directed storyline). It was especially galling when Brevoort stamped his feet (nya nya my character, my character) and took Pietro away from the book.

Agreed with the bolded, and especially the last. When will Pietro be freed from the Avengers office?

[Pav]

I liked the most forgotten of all X-books, Bishop: the Last X-Man. Solid twelve issues of Bishop in a different kind of desolate future.

-Pav, who misses the Giants and the Kith...

[bkart1978]

I liked the most forgotten of all X-books, Bishop: the Last X-Man. Solid twelve issues of Bishop in a different kind of desolate future.

-Pav, who misses the Giants and the Kith...

I loved that Bishop run; great early Georges Jeanty art; same with the aforementioned Maverick solo with Jim Cheung.

Folks mentioned a few of them, but I actually really enjoyed a lot of the 90's miniseries (off the top of my head the Warren Ellis/Pacheco Starjammers, the Rogue, Gambit, Bishop and Storm minis, Cyclops & Phoenix, Askani'Son, and even that weird Gambit and Wolverine one by Loeb/Sale).

Seagle/Kelly X-Men was great too!

[Ricochet Rita]

I don't know to what extent people in this thread know about a work entitled 'Adastra in Africa'.

It was meant to be the third and last part of 'Lifedeath', although -as far as I know- it was entirely made (art & words) by Barry Windsor-Smith, without Claremont's direct involvement.

Due to some ideological issues, Marvel refused to approve it, so the story was finally published by Fantagraphics in 1999. Given that BWS couldn't use a character who was property of another company, he simply swapped it for one of his own characters who resembled Storm: Princess Adastra, from 'Young GODS'. Everything else remained exactly the same, so you can perfectly read it as 'Lifedeath III' just trading 'Adastra' for 'Ororo' and ignoring the fact that her ears are pointed.

I strongly encourage this reading. It's beautiful.

[powerpax]

AoA, especially Generation Next
Alan Davis and Warren Ellis Excalibur
Fabian Nicieza and Capullo/Daniel's X-Force, mostly?
Waid and early Onslaught
Peter David's X-Factor
Larry Hama's Wolverine
Jeph Loeb's X-Force, with caveats

Not much else. Scott Lobdell and Nicieza's runs on the main books creatively bankrupted the franchise even when it was more popular than ever.

[Dark-Jacket]

I'd keep away from Warren Ellis on mainstream comics

[powerpax]

I'd keep away from Warren Ellis on mainstream comics

Nah. 10chara

[Dark-Jacket]

Personnal taste but I found his run on Excalibur awful.
Kitty getting a relation with self insert, Crazy Colossus, unintesresting stories, villains and a very cynical take on a so far bright team.

[Rivka]

Agreed with the bolded, and especially the last. When will Pietro be freed from the Avengers office?

He's not even a mutant any more. The ultimate middle-finger directed at any hopes of his return to the X-Books.

[Vegan Daddy]

Rise of Apocalypse