The X-Cellent Era Of X-Books 2021

[Adam-X]

So - we all come from different ages and enjoy different things about the X-Books.

I freely admit, a few years back, I was angry at how the X-Books had turned out. These characters were all strangers to me. The art was a style I often didn't enjoy - and it led to eventually dropping all of the X-Books I'd been collecting for over 40 years. (All of my comics, really - but the X-Books took up the largest section of my collection).

However, I don't know when - I turned a corner, and I saw that folks were enjoying the X-Books immensely these days. And I realized, the books had changed to adapt. Similar, no doubt - to when it changed from being Cyclops, Jean, Iceman, Beast and Angel - to giving us Wolverine, Storm, Colossus, Banshee, etc.

And I understood - I shouldn't be angry. The books changed because the market changed. I simply hadn't changed with them.

So I'd love to hear everyone's favorite X-Book(s) - name, as many as you want.
Everyone's favorite character(s) - name as many as you want.
And everyone's favorite X-Stories - name as many as you want.

And if you're so inclined - say why each of these sparked a favorite. Perhaps we can all come to see and appreciate one another's opinions, no matter how different they may be!

[Devaishwarya]

Eventhough I re-read those early years with a more critical eye, now...with regards to the writing technique...My favourite books/era is undoubtedly The 80's- UXM, XF, Excalibur and NM...right up until X-Men #1 (while I still read and collected throughout the 90's into the 2000's and didn't completely drop out until Fraction started the Utopia era...the fire had started to diminish by early '92)

I LOVED all the characters and stories of that era.

Now...in HiX-Man has turned my dim, cold x-embers into an Inferno with this new Krakoa era. With my favourite books being HoX/PoX, Marauders, X-Men, NM, Hellions and SWORD and all the characters there-in.

[cranger]

I saw this earlier but did not have time to post, thankfully it got bumped. I'll get right to it.

Favourite X-Book was OG X-Factor. Particularly the Simonson era. I don't know if there was a reason other than it was the first comic I bought off the spinner rack (along with Classic X-Men and maybe New Mutants). It just drew me right in and hooked me. Honorable mentions to OG Excalibur and Generation Hope for sparking interests, for completely different reasons.

While that run has most of my favourite moments and is my standard for comic book writing, my favourite stories were actually a lot of the Dark Phoenix Saga and the two issue Days of Future Past. I can probably name some others that stood out, but nothing in the league of those two. Oddly enough I did not really care all that much for Uncanny at first. I mostly bought it because it shared the Fall of the Mutants banner and then tied in again with Inferno.

My favourite character is easily Cyclops. Out of the newer characters, Hope would be the one I was most interested in, and I still like a good Cable story.

[gonnagiveittoya]

One of the things that got me into comics as a kid was all the Marvel Essential collections of stuff like FF and X-Men

[Cane_danko]

I started reading at 7yo with the x-cutioner song. I had no idea what was going on or who the characters were but i loved it and ate it up. Back then, they sold comics at walmart and convenience stores so i would always pick up xmen and uncanny xmen. If i could afford it, i would grab a xforce or gen x or whatever other x book there was available. Fast forward to late 90’s, the books kind of dropped off but the age of apocalypse and onslaught sagas were awesome for me because by then i had friends who read the books too and we would just speculate as the events went on as to what would happen etc. I stopped reading around like 97 or 98 because i had a lot going on with sports and stuff. Then grant morrison’s run came out and my buddies who did not read comics or xmen were all about it so i decided to pick up some of the books and i did not like it at all at the time. It felt to different from what i liked about the xmen. I have more an appreciation for it now seeing all the foundations morrison laid and how he reinvented xmen for the new millennium. Its not my favorite or anything but i do think i was overly critical of it. I think all hardcore fans go through this at some point with one run or another. I guess its just our own expectations on what the xmen should be and when writers shake that up it can be a bit jarring but yeah its not always about us. If it is bringing in new fans and keeping the xmen relevant i think its worth taking a step back and just trying to get some enjoyment out of it. Sometimes thats not possible as some writers or artists won’t vibe with us. In those cases, i feel its okay to just stop reading for a while then let that excitement build naturally and come back later when the next thing is going on and see if that does it for you.

[jwatson]

Honestly i think i like every X-character. I move pretty much with the story and every x-character for the most part has had their villain arc so i think about it like One life to Live of something. Yes vicki held Dorian captive in a basement but wasn't it entertaining, isn't the town saying she's better now. lol. So i can dislike a character in a story but i think i've liked all the x-men i've encountered while reading. But my top 5 are Storm, Jean, Cyclops, Polaris,Rogue

Stories that really stand out to me.

- Operation Zero Tolerance: My heart was pumping through it, Pacheo art was on point and i just loved the team at the time.

- Onslaught: Jean in that room when she found out who Onslaught was. Joe Mad killing it on the art when the avengers and the x-men meet up.

-Rogue Storm was a personal favorite and made Doom a fave as well. I get his logic honestly.

-The pre onslaught issue specifically stands out in my mind, i remember them fighting the Doomsday looking creature and actually drew a tattoo for someone of the scene with Storm confronting legion. I also remember

-imagery wise the page of the X-men returning and Storm floating over them always stuck with me.

-X-men classic #2 the back up story with Storm and Jean where Storm lashed out because she thought Jean read her mind. She was scared to follow Jean who was chasing a theif into a tunnel. I just thought it was a really great moment between the two and something you rarely get to see in comics.

I could go on and on. lol

[Cane_danko]

Honestly i think i like every X-character. I move pretty much with the story and every x-character for the most part has had their villain arc so i think about it like One life to Live of something. Yes vicki held Dorian captive in a basement but wasn't it entertaining, isn't the town saying she's better now. lol. So i can dislike a character in a story but i think i've liked all the x-men i've encountered while reading. But my top 5 are Storm, Jean, Cyclops, Polaris,Rogue

Stories that really stand out to me.

- Operation Zero Tolerance: My heart was pumping through it, Pacheo art was on point and i just loved the team at the time.

- Onslaught: Jean in that room when she found out who Onslaught was. Joe Mad killing it on the art when the avengers and the x-men meet up.

-Rogue Storm was a personal favorite and made Doom a fave as well. I get his logic honestly.

-The pre onslaught issue specifically stands out in my mind, i remember them fighting the Doomsday looking creature and actually drew a tattoo for someone of the scene with Storm confronting legion. I also remember

-imagery wise the page of the X-men returning and Storm floating over them always stuck with me.

-X-men classic #2 the back up story with Storm and Jean where Storm lashed out because she thought Jean read her mind. She was scared to follow Jean who was chasing a theif into a tunnel. I just thought it was a really great moment between the two and something you rarely get to see in comics.

I could go on and on. lol

I love joe mad as well! Honestly, there is so much in the 90’s era that is underrated. I can understand why as it was not as consistent as other eras but it was a great time to be an xmen fan

[charliehustle415]

I am a 90's kid and the cartoon, got me hooked.

I love the 90's Jim Lee era, I was so young that I had no idea who the writers or artists were - I just loved the art and bombast.

As I grew up I checked in on AoA, but things really kicked in high gear during the Morrison Era and now I am at a fever pitch.

I think the thing that awakened my *ahem* "boyhood" was the Marvel Illustrated X-Men spread with Psylocke

I think if Jim Lee never came to the X-Men I would never had gotten into the comics period.

My personal favorite X-Character is and forever will be Scott.

Favorite title New X-Men with HoX/Pox coming in close second.

There's so much more I can say

[Hizashi]

I grew up watching reruns of the 90's X-Men cartoon, which I remember actually unsettled/scared me sometimes.

I didn't start picking up comics regularly, at a comic shop, until 2016 but I did read collected trades all throughout middle and high school.

I read Morrison's New X-Men to completion first, which is still among my favorite books to this day, warts and all. Since I was around 9 when the run concluded, I definitely wasn't in the fandom to live through all of the drama.

I then read plenty of old-school X-Men, Lee and Claremont, completely out of order, and I couldn't tell you what story I have or haven't read unless I have the book in front of me. I was plenty confused when I picked up Ultimate X-Men sometime in middle-school, so I finally consulted the internet.

Eventually I read Whedon's Astonishing X-Men and loved that too. I also read DoFP, GLMK, which are still among my favorite stories.

When I started a pull list in 2016, none of the X-Books appealed to me, especially since Scott was on sabbatical - it wasn't until X-Men Red that I added an X-Book to my pull list. Unfortunately, I was thoroughly disappointed by that book. Then came the laughable interim-flagship Uncanny X-Men and now here we are.

Scott Summers is and will always be my favorite X-Man, I always picked him in any videogame where he was playable (X-Men Legends and Marvel vs Capcom series, plus a game on the Sega I lost forever ago). That being said, I did like Wolverine, who didn't? But also Storm, especially as I got older and could appreciate her as Scott's peer, Nightcrawler, Cable, Jean, Psylocke, and Colossus were cool to me when I was getting into the X-Men.

Gun to my head if I had to pick a single favorite story it would be God Loves, Man Kills but a really good contemporary book was Marvel Snapshots: X-Men.

[charliehustle415]

One of the things that got me into comics as a kid was all the Marvel Essential collections of stuff like FF and X-Men

I would give my left nut to find the older copies of the X-Men Essentials without having to pay an arm and a leg for it

[sunofdarkchild]

Favorite books - Claremont's Uncanny and New Mutants, Zeb Wells' New Mutants
Favorite character - Magik, my favorite character in comics period
Favorite X-Stories - Magik: Storm and Illyana, Demon Bear Saga, Age of Apocalypse

I grew up reading my dad's old Marvel comics from the 80s, which I loved. I didn't get the comics which were coming out at the time because whenever I tried them out they were much worse than the older comics we had in the house, not just the X-Men, but Iron Man, Spider-Man, the Avengers, and Fantastic 4 as well. It was all trash compared to the comics which had come out before I was born. When I was old enough to need my own computer to do my schoolwork I discovered through the internet that my favorite character from those old comics had come back and so I found a reason to get into comics again, and the Wells New Mutants was good enough to keep me around. It's no exaggeration to say that if Marvel hadn't brought Magik back I wouldn't be reading anything from either them or DC today.

[jwatson]

I would give my left nut to find the older copies of the X-Men Essentials without having to pay an arm and a leg for it

Those things are beautiful. One of the few books i will never get rid of. I love seeing it in black and white. I have the xmen vol 1 and 2 and a fantastic four one. I was so mad i left them in the attic in ct and then forgot them my last visit. lol

[gonnagiveittoya]

I would give my left nut to find the older copies of the X-Men Essentials without having to pay an arm and a leg for it

I got them through my local library, fwiw

[Hizashi]

Uncanny X-Men Vol 2 No 4 by Kieron Gillen and Brandon Peterson was a fantastic one-shot, it's my friend's favorite single-issue story. He doesn't regularly read comics, but that issue convinced him to start collecting trades. It's just a great story and has a good moment between Cyclops and Storm.

Astonishing X-Men: Exalted is another great story, it reminds the readers that Scott is a hero through and through and Howlett and Shadow are cool. And I've been meaning to read X-Treme X-Men for the longest time.

[Sandmans_Raven]

I also got into the X-Men in the 90s. Gambit and Rogue are my two favorites and I loved TAS. I also love the Claremont/Lee era, but that's mostly eye candy for me.

I'm very happy that Gambit has had a lot of solos, but Nicieza's is a classic and Asmus/Mann's run is what helped me get back into comics.

I wish Rogue has more/better solos, but I think Carey did a solid job with Legacy and it was cool to read her as an Avenger. And I'm really hoping Duggan does her justice in X-Men.

In addition, I feel very lucky that Rogue/Gambit fans like me have gotten 2 different series by Kelly Thompson. Loved both of them and would really like her to write them again in the future.