plaidbrarian's review
4.0
As the franchise expanded in the late 80s and 90s, the X-Men franchise grew pretty bloated, but back in the early days, when there was just the one book to follow, it was really something. The exposition gets a little heavy-handed... okay, fine, you're basically beaten over the head with information that is clearly already being displayed for you in the artwork... but if you can get past that, what you're left with is probably the best soap opera to never be televised. The X-Men were originally considered the one great failure of the original Marvel Age, but the path to their phenomenondom (phenomenonhood?) starts here in the hands of Len Wein, Chris Claremont, Dave Cockrum, and John Byrne. A bit slow to start, but you can tell they're already building to something fun.
plaidbrarian's review against another edition
5.0
The bulk of this book is taken up with the latter half of the Chris Claremont/John Byrne X-Men run, and this is where things really start kicking into high gear. Proteus, The Hellfire Club, Dark Phoenix, Days of Future Past, Kitty Pryde, Dazzler in full disco mode... a lot of important introductions and events in X-Men lore happen here. If you're going to read just one of these, this is the one to read.
toadsoup's review against another edition
5.0
Highkey wish there were more buddy-adventures with Cyclops and Man-Thing
art_cart_ron's review against another edition
4.0
What you may not know, true believers, is that the X-Men are the most widely read and profitable characters in the history of the medium - and it's all due to the efforts of Chris Claremont. For 17 years he nurtured this garden, and several that sprang from the same seeds - only to culminate in selling the (still!) best selling issue of a comic in all time, and to be unceremoniously dumped by the company less than two months later. His creations, their lives, loves, histories, and potential left in the hands of a few artists and an editor in chief who played solely to the stockholders.
Within 5 years, Marvel went bankrupt.
The whole scene is a tragic stranger-than-fiction drama with no happy ending, and an ongoing struggle to bring the characters back to their former glory. There have been really good runs - but nothing that compares to the intricate world-building Claremont nurtured. Today, possibly - with the return of multi-media rights, and with Marvel investing in one of their best writers to handle the line (it's not a comic, it's a family of comics) - good things are happening, but you need about 60.00 a month to follow it fully.
Flash back, now, to the beginning - and the shiny quarter that allowed you to participate every month.
Claremont took over the nearly-dead property after years of stagnation. He had the talents of Dave Cockrum and John Byrne at hand. He didn't single-handedly create the "new" X-Men, but in most senses - he did. Growing their stories and characters from the humble beginnings of Giant-Size X-Men #1 and Lein Wein's thumbnail sketches of the cast.
I didn't go to 5 stars, b/c Marvel's "Essential" line is notoriously sloppy. Thankfully, all the content is there (sans color - a significant absence) - but the design and layout is pretty sad. The cover art is... poor (the choice to not use images by the actual creators is a bizarre one). But it's cheap to buy these newsprint phonebooks - and there's a lot of value in there. I still recommend buying color prints - the best choices being the original process-colored editions. Get Classic X-Men reprints to save some dough - they even have slick back-up stories written fresh for the series by Claremont himself.
Each volume of Essential X-Men really does live up to its name, with Claremont at the helm. The book hits its truest stride halfway through Vol. 2 - but this book doesn't have any duds. Okay - Eric the Red kinda sucks, and there's a filler issue wedged into the works - but for the most part this is 26 solid issues of some of the most important comics there are.
Also - we learn Wolverine's name is Logan from a leprechaun. Praise the comic gods.
Within 5 years, Marvel went bankrupt.
The whole scene is a tragic stranger-than-fiction drama with no happy ending, and an ongoing struggle to bring the characters back to their former glory. There have been really good runs - but nothing that compares to the intricate world-building Claremont nurtured. Today, possibly - with the return of multi-media rights, and with Marvel investing in one of their best writers to handle the line (it's not a comic, it's a family of comics) - good things are happening, but you need about 60.00 a month to follow it fully.
Flash back, now, to the beginning - and the shiny quarter that allowed you to participate every month.
Claremont took over the nearly-dead property after years of stagnation. He had the talents of Dave Cockrum and John Byrne at hand. He didn't single-handedly create the "new" X-Men, but in most senses - he did. Growing their stories and characters from the humble beginnings of Giant-Size X-Men #1 and Lein Wein's thumbnail sketches of the cast.
I didn't go to 5 stars, b/c Marvel's "Essential" line is notoriously sloppy. Thankfully, all the content is there (sans color - a significant absence) - but the design and layout is pretty sad. The cover art is... poor (the choice to not use images by the actual creators is a bizarre one). But it's cheap to buy these newsprint phonebooks - and there's a lot of value in there. I still recommend buying color prints - the best choices being the original process-colored editions. Get Classic X-Men reprints to save some dough - they even have slick back-up stories written fresh for the series by Claremont himself.
Each volume of Essential X-Men really does live up to its name, with Claremont at the helm. The book hits its truest stride halfway through Vol. 2 - but this book doesn't have any duds. Okay - Eric the Red kinda sucks, and there's a filler issue wedged into the works - but for the most part this is 26 solid issues of some of the most important comics there are.
Also - we learn Wolverine's name is Logan from a leprechaun. Praise the comic gods.
sarahbotreads's review against another edition
4.0
So I stole this book from my boyfriend and read it in one day. I'm not the best comic book reader (I tend to focus on the words, not the pictures), but I have been an X-Men fan since I watched the cartoons back in the day, so this was really fun. It starts not at the VERY beginning of X-Men, but with the Krakoa story that introduced the "new" X-Men (Storm, Nightcrawler, etc). Some of the language is a little dated, but that just makes it funnier, and I really feel like I got a +3 to my nerd cred now that I have it under my belt.
P.S. Peter bought volumes 2 and 3 today, so I have more mutant adventures to read!
P.S. Peter bought volumes 2 and 3 today, so I have more mutant adventures to read!
reginaexmachina's review against another edition
3.0
I gave this three stars because it's X-Men and considering how old this is it could have been terrible. I did however find it to be not as good as I'd hoped and I did quite a lot of skimming.
familyguy026's review against another edition
4.0
Pretty good. Unwritten rule in comics that if you are driving anywhere, your vehicle must blow up. Which it did. In eight straight issues.
Also, can we not kill off the only Indigenous member of the X-Men for feels? Kind of insensitive.
(Not a review, but my phone autocorrected 'kill' to 'lol' and now I'm going to put it in the freezer and hide in my bathroom)
Also, can we not kill off the only Indigenous member of the X-Men for feels? Kind of insensitive.
(Not a review, but my phone autocorrected 'kill' to 'lol' and now I'm going to put it in the freezer and hide in my bathroom)
birdmanseven's review against another edition
3.0
If this volume has taught me anything, it's that I'm not a huge X-Men fan. I'm glad I read it; I enjoyed aspects of it, but I doubt I will be going for volume II. I felt like it was missing a central character and was a little too fragmented to work as an ensemble story.
I discuss this series in more detail in this episode of the All the Books Show Podcast https://soundcloud.com/allthebooks/episode-198-x-men
I discuss this series in more detail in this episode of the All the Books Show Podcast https://soundcloud.com/allthebooks/episode-198-x-men
jessimuhka's review against another edition
2.0
I think I'm used to more modern comics, written for an older audience. There was so much describing what was happening and recapping that it got kind of slow and boring. Also it just kind of randomly dropped off, not at any real break in story line.