S/D X-Men Runs

thanks!

Jonathan Hickman's House of X/Powers of X is outstanding, and we're not even halfway through yet.
These Xavier Files annotations are pretty fun to read, I'll definitely be keeping up every issue.
https://www.polygon.com/2019/8/23/20829772/x-men-marvel-powers-of-x-3-spoilers-references-easter-eggs-theories

Would someone not very versed in X-lore enjoy them, do you think? They sound intriguing, but I don't want to be constantly checking footnotes to understand it all.

Most likely, yes, I think. Though it's insanely detailed, the story on its own is pretty follow-able so far. You don't need to read footnotes to understand it, it just adds to the enjoyment and excitement to understand more of the references.

Also it's (sort of? hard to say right now) a reboot/retcon story. It doesn't undo everything that's happened since the beginning of X-Men times, but tries to re-contextualize it, and you see some of those events through new eyes.

I agree the run is excellent so far first time I’ve been excited for new x issues in many many years

Cheers, might have to take the plunge.

i've only seen the first couple issues. seemed wild and awesome and full of potential. it may seem bonkers overwhelming with new concepts and new takes on familiar characters, but my friend who's been keeping up with stuff more regularly assures me that this is NOT a case of it assuming i know a ton of weird continuity from the last fifteen years - - - it's just throwing a whole ton of new things at you, sorta like the start of Grant Morrison's run in the early 2000s. for what it's worth!

Would someone not very versed in X-lore enjoy them, do you think? They sound intriguing, but I don't want to be constantly checking footnotes to understand it all

My partner's been reading them - she knows the characters from the movies mostly, but she digs it and found it really easy to follow.

Hickman likes to make the reader sweat and work out the connections between things, CONSTANTLY, but it's a much more forgiving sort of complexity than "you need to know every character from the past 43 years of continuity, even the bad bits". I got a similar feeling when I read Gene Wolfe for the first time earlier in the year.

Re reading the HOX/POX hardback over the last day or two.

Really, really good stuff all around. I wish there were a way to read the story going forward in some summarized form though instead of collecting like 12 books per month for years

I’ve picked up some singles here and there but ultimately realized I’d rather wait for *significant* collected arcs.

I started collecting them all the X-titles for the first year of that run, but you're right, like 80% of it is spaced out incredibly. there are interesting setups for almost every series but most of them feel totally unnecessary. Winnowed it down to just core X-Men and Marauders. If anyone else thinks the other titles are worthwhile, let me know.

They introduced so many new titles even AFTER Dawn of X that I gave up trying to catch them all. Like is Ewing's SWORD worth it?

You can read the collected X of Swords next which is a decent story, pushing some of the elements introduced in Hox/PoX regarding Arakko/Krakoa and Apocalypse. The following events (Hellfire Gala/Trial of Magneto and Inferno) are just getting started now.

Another note that is that Marvel IS surprisingly - with six months backlog time - collecting the entirely of the X-Men titles in chronological order in various trades, previously Dawn of X (16 volumes) currently Reign of X (up to 3, expected to go to 11). Kinda hoping someday they'll all just be super cheap on Comixology or something.

While I have enjoyed some of these extended storyline type runs, criminy that is like $300+ bucks to read one huge story.

Everything melting down into this stuff is why I pretty much gave up on the weekly habit. Too much...

Nhex, thanks!

I’ll probably wait until the inevitable reboot of the line before really diving into those volumes. Volume form is how I’ve followed say, Saga - it requires some patience but then again there’s no shortage of things to be distracted by.

earlnash, by and large I’m with you. I can’t imagine buying, whatever, 10-15 titles a month like I did when I was 13. For reasons discussed exhaustively everywhere, it isn’t worth it: decompression, the flashiness of art/pages post-1991 or so, etc etc

Much of my comics money goes to comics or collections pre-1992 or so

I could not keep up on Batman at all. It used to be like 2-3 issues a month and DC said f'k it - they want Batman we will give them Batman a few years ago and it was like 10-12 issues a month.

X-men is some serious major nerd commitment. Read a bit of the big late model runs but it's just too dense at this point for me. Definitely need a scorecard to keep track of the multiple versions of characters and all the wacky changes and I cannot imagine what a Hickman deconstruction would be like.

Last i saw, MOST of the X-runs are available in Marvel Unlimited if you have a tablet and/or are comfortable reading at your computer
https://www.marvel.com/unlimited

that's true, a good option for the price
I wish Marvel Unlimited was better at multi-title collections and crossover reading order. though maybe they've improved, I haven't used it in a few years

Just checked - they're only 3 months behind now? Maybe I should just give up on print, most of my floppies are Marvel

there's any numbers of reading order guides online of course
https://comicbookreadingorders.com/marvel/events/

Hickman’s runs are so long I need to pause and get a breather, and then I forget everything and start again.

I read the first issues hickman’s monthly (agree marauders was the only other dece title, although xforce (!) was fun). But then the pandemic and having a toddler happened and I have a year and a half of deliveries from my comic book store to catch up on. Is any of it as good as hoxpox was?

Nope, unfortunately, but I feel like it might pick up on the way out. Also, he's leaving Marvel soon to do that Substack thing, so this era won't be as long as his other projects.

I followed but unsubscribed from his substack– it’s like all the boring texty bits Hickman puts in his book run rampant

Also substack is evil of course

Did anyone make it to the end/read the last issue? I lost track of Krakoa ages ago, it has seemed like a messy ending that hasn't really played to AE and KG's strengths, and that sapped my interest in finishing Hickman's run.

I have the lot but still haven't even started it, lol.

Perversely, I just started re-reading the immediate (initial) post-Claremont era. No, I don't know why. Alan Davis's solo run on Excalibur (that initial nine-issue storyline, at least) is still very near the top of the all-time X-book heap, and I expect Peter David's inaugural X-Force stint to hold up. The rest, well...

His second run on X-Factor is also decent for a few years

I haven't followed X-Men since the 80s, but I do have the House of X/Powers of X hardcover book and liked it well enough although I wouldn't say I completely understood it all. What should I read next? Preferably something collected in book format so I don't have to chase down lots of stuff.

The Grant Morrison run is a classic that works well a single, discrete story. Peter David's short X-Factor run from the early 90s is also fun.

The rest of the Hickman run is collected, but is a bit of a comedown after HOXPOX. After Hickman leaves, Gerry Duggan takes over to finish the story, quite poorly. Al Ewing and Kieron Gillen also had decently reviewed X books that just finished, but I haven't read them - they're a bit too wrapped up in ongoing continuity for my liking.

I read the Krakoa arc here and there but never with any consistency. The beginning mini-series are fascinating as a story, and a few other early issues really sparked, but there was, for lack of a better word, “too much product” to keep up with.

I think it will actually hold up better over time as people drop all the random minis and not so great runs (looking at you adjectiveless X-Men). They probably won't do a massive Omnibus set with all 700 issues or whatever it is, but people will probably remember selectively pick the good arcs, like HoX/PoX, X of Swords, X Lives/Deaths of Wolverine, all the Ewing stuff (SWORD/X-Men Red) and the Gillen stuff (Immortal X-Men, Eternals/AXE, Sins of Sinister). The more mediocre series and events like the Hellfire Galas, Inferno, Trial of Magneto, etc. will be read by completists. Stuff like Marauders that started out super promising and fizzled out.

Maybe the Percy runs will also be liked, since it's the most cohesive storyline and fairly self-contained between Wolverine and X-Force + Wolverine's event; though a little too grim for my taste, they go really far with making Beast a complete maniac