Help? No idea what to read

[Flight]

I started with X-Men #47 (second series) when I was 11 years old before the days of the internet, which is a random story about the x-babies and I'm still reading, so just jump in anywhere to be honest and you'll pick it up in no time.

[Guac]

So New X-Men into Astonishing X-Men. Thanks all. And they are good comics? As good as Ultimate X-Men?

new X-Men by morrison is great and a good entry point, astonishing is a good, accessible follow-up with occasional moments of cruddity.

for a sense of the mythos, the John Byrne-Chris Claremont era of 'uncanny x-men' is the gold standard, the best parts have been collected repeatedly, and are still relevant.

since the 90s there's often been two primary x-men series' going concurrently, and sometimes determining which one is the 'main' series is just a matter of quality and personal preference. right now the two titles are "all-new x-men" and "uncanny x-men" and both are written by the same author and have frequently overlapping stories, so neither is more 'important,' but also are built on a fair amount of background knowledge, so would be strange to go into blind.

It's not nearly so easy to "jump in" to anything these days, nor is there any pressing need to, current stuff isn't worth a rush. "Uncanny x-men vol. 2" might be a good place to get a sense of modern dynamics and circumstances, and is pretty solid apart rom that, I think.

Reading big events may be the easiest way to 'catch up' but aren't necessary, and most events just aren't that great from a pure narrative perspective (too many authors, repetitive themes).

Overall, I'd suggest New X-Men - Astonishing X-Men (at elast through the Warren Ellis run), then because Warren Ellis is boss go read transmetropolitan and give x-men a break. Then the Byrne-Claremont uncanny material. After that, depends on if you want to read "classics" or contemporary stuff. by then maybe just follow up on charcters you've found you've liked.

[Magneto]

Classic (Claremont):

Giant Size X-Men #1
Dark Phoenix Saga
Days of Future Past
God Loves, Man Kills
Mutant Massacre

Then:

Fatal Attractions
Age of Apocalypse

New X-Men
Astonishing X-Men by Whedon

Messiah Complex
Messiah War
Second Coming
Uncanny X-Men by Kieron Gillen

[Tazpocalapse]

Yeah it depends on how far back you wanna go. You can start with Uncanny X-men # 94 and read from there. Satelite X-books like X-factor and New Mutants also are books that might interest you.From there you can check out Excalibur, X-force, X-men and Generation X, besides X-men none of the satelite X-books have to be read except for certain cross-over and tie-in issues. Astonishing and New X-men are also books you might wanna check out.Enjoy.

[Fifolet]

You should start with Claremont. Always. If you read Morrison and Whedon first, you'll miss some of the excitement they generated by playing with elements from Claremont's run. Claremont is essential. It's the foundation of pretty much everything else.

However, if you want to really start at the beginning, there's the X-MEN EPIC COLLECTION: CHILDREN OF THE ATOM TPB coming out now. It reprints the first 23 issues. It feels dated but it's still an interesting read and you can see the introduction of some major characters (Magneto, Scarlet Witch, Blob, Quicksilver, Juggernaut, the Sentinels...). It's 520 pages for 35 bucks, which i think it's a pretty good deal, comparing with what i paid for the Masterworks edition.
And if you like those issues and care to read more stories taking place in the same time period with the O5 but done recently, you could try the X-Men First Class. I'm not sure it's considered canon, but i don't care. They're pretty good.

Ok, so now you get to the golden age of the X-Men. Giant-Size X-Men #1 and Uncanny X-Men #94 forward.
There are a couple of ways to go about this. You could go for trades only for the most popular story arcs, but as far as i know currently you can't get a complete run that way. So your best bet is a mix of trades and back issues. I can tell you what i did. I bought the CLASSIC X-MEN issues. These are reprints of Uncanny X-Men #94 through #206 if i'm not mistaken. They are considerably cheaper than the actual Uncanny X-Men back issues and they feature a cool back-up story, at least in the first few issues that add to the original stories and characters.

At around #109 you want to get WEAPON X: ORIGIN OF WOLVERINE TPB.

Also at around the same time, you want to check Captain Britain because it lays a lot of work for Excalibur and i strongly suggest you pick that title up. Plus, it's fucking Alan Moore and Alan Davis being awesome. There are a few options here. There are Marvel and Panini editions. I have vol. 4 and 5 of the Panini editions and they're very nice.

After #128, you get the Dark Phoenix Saga TPB and the Days of Future Past TPB

After those, back to Uncanny back issues or Classic X-Men. Along the way you might want to pick up MARVEL TEAM-UP 100, SPIDER-WOMAN 37 and 38, but they're not really necessary. I do suggest you pick up MARVEL FANFARE 1-4. It's a good tale with the X-Men and i believe there's a trade of it now.

After #166 you want to try New Mutants. You can pick it up in trades - New Mutants Classic and read it alongside the main title.
At around this time you need God Loves, Man Kills. Also the wolverine mini, and Magik limited series. Trades or reprints are available for all of these.
Further along you get the KITTY PRYDE AND WOLVERINE. I wouldn't call it essential, but it's pretty good and there's a trade.

At around #193 you get X-MEN AND ALPHA FLIGHT #1&2
At around #198 you get Longshot mini

After this point trades become more available. But things become also more chaotic with more titles. Let's see if i have the courage to go on.
X-Men: Ghosts TPB
At around #200 X-Factor launches. The original series is not loved by everyone. It diminished a lot of what went on in the Dark Phoenix Saga, and it was a bit inconsistent in quality, but it's too important to miss it if you're serious about your X-Men. By now you know where you stand and whether you need it or not. I don't think there are trades of this so you'll need Avengers #263, Fantastic Four #286 and then the X-Factor Back issues, which shouldn't be that expensive or hard to get.
X-Men: Mutant Massacre TPB and the crossover era begins.
X-Men: Fall of the Mutants TPB
X-Men: Inferno TPB
In between you need back issues to complete the runs of the titles.
Somewhere you also want FANTASTIC FOUR VS. THE X-MEN 1-4 and X-MEN VS. THE AVENGERS 1-4. I can't tell you if there are trades of this and i can't recall where they fit (i know it's after massacre and i believe it's before Fall).

After the Fall of the Mutants, i strongly suggest Excalibur. It's a gem of a title for the most part until Davis leaves (#66 or 67).

At some point New Mutants ends and X-Force begins. I suggest you follow it. It gets better after a rocky start.

And i don't have the strength to go any further lol. I'll let someone else fill in the post-Claremont era, which is still pretty good until the late 90s. I would skip that and go straight to Morrison and Whedon and up.

[ExodusCloak]

The most current jumping on point would be after AvX. Or AvX and after. It's a horrible read at the moment and not have to read hundreds of issues that's where you should start.

The next jumping on point before that would be Uncanny X-Men 500.

I think before that would be The Day after M.

Before that would be Joss Whedons Astonishing X-Men

And before that Morrisons X-Men.

[BlitheringToot]

I would agree that Morrison's run is a good starting point and segues into Whedon's Astonishing ... but honestly, you could still skip it and dive right into Astonishing. It's fairly straightforward, self-contained and manages to be a "back-to-basics" approach that still feels minty-fresh. Morrison's run is W-E-I-R-D, with moments of brilliance offset by moments of "but ... but why? And for that matter ... what?"

Then I'd go back to the "All-New, All Different" era and work from there. The Claremont/Cockrum stuff is great. The Claremont/Byrne stuff gets a little weird, but Days of Future Past and the Dark Phoenix Saga are the highlights. #150 where the X-Men take on Magneto yet again is one of my all-time favorite issues. And a lot of the '80s stuff is great, although Longshot and mohawk Storm are pretty silly. "From the Ashes," "Fall of the Mutants," "Mutant Massacre" and "Inferno" are high points, and there's some excellent art by Marc Silvestri and later Jim Lee. Read the graphic novel "God Loves, Man Kills." for sure. And no comic collection is complete without at least one version of 1991's "X-Men" #1. Really, the first 12 issues or so are worth having. After that, individual results may vary.

[Dog]

If I were a new reader, I don't think I'd find advice without issue numbers very helpful.

[Valeficent]

Uncanny X-Men #94-280
New Mutants #1-54
Excalibur #1-50

Skip the rest.

[Anduinel]

If you're not in a terrible hurry, you could wait a few months until after the big Secret Wars event hits. Odds are the X-Books will get a shake up that'll make for a decent jumping on point.

[Gray Lensman]

If you want to get an idea of the dynamics of the O5 without dealing with 60's style storytelling I'd suggest X-Men: First Class (which has nothing to do with the movie besides a title). It's a fun comic, and such things should be encouraged. There is also a Joe Casey/Steve Rude series about them coming together which is very good (Children of the Atom).

[Billy Batson]

X-Force/X-Statix by Milligan & Allred. Collected in one omnibus that you can get for a cheap price on InStockTrades.

[JackalsIII]

With Secret Wars coming up, and promising to change everything, I would say wait until Uncanny 600, and see if you like the direction that title is about to take.

My vote is for Uncanny once the Will and Testament arc is over.

Do any characters especially stand out to you, that would make recommendations easier.

[Grey]

Back issues of what? Uncanny X-Men? Starting from where? I have really no idea.

When I first got into reading the xmen I had the same issue. When I asked what to read, people would say things like "read back issues" or use other jargon that new comic book readers don't understand. Or they'll say "start with <insert book>" as if you know what that means or how to find it in a comic book store full of titles. It's confusing when you're a new reader. Especially if you're new to comics altogether. People will answer you with jargon that seems to make sense to them but makes no sense to a newbie.

Anyway, my question for you before I reccomended any starting points would be, do you have any favorite characters? And are you looking to get caught up to speed on the current x-books, or are you trying to read some of the older stories of the xmen?

[Grey]

If I were a new reader, I don't think I'd find advice without issue numbers very helpful.

My point exactly. Veteran readers are very bad at looking at this from a newbie's perspective. Book titles or "soandso's run" are worthless advice when you have no idea what to do with the information.