X-Men: Apocalypse - May 27, 2016

[RIDDICK]

 

[karamazov80]

eh I loved the civil war comic book, don't see what's so bad about it. ANYYWHOOO for those who prefer to talk about the x-men, I've been looking for a nice thick trade to read as I just finished the first part of age of apocalypse and wanted a different story to read (a complete one that I could actually finish without buying 100 books) and after doing some googling I picked up the messiah complex. Really enjoying it so far, the art is really striking. Is there anything I should know before continuing reading?

One of the problems, particularly with comics from before the 2000s, is that stories weren't written to be "consumed" as discrete, separate stories. Usually there was overlap from one storyline to another, as all comics apart from mini-series and anthology comics (like Marvel Comics Presents) were ongoing. Having said that, as I mentioned to Khev earlier, if you want the best of the X-Men, I would start with the Claremont/Cockrum/Byrne stuff from the mid-70s through early '80s. Any "Dark Phoenix Saga" collection may be a good place for you to go, but the better solution is to pick up all the Marvel Masterworks editions including that run. Then, I would go onto the Lee and Kirby stuff from the early '60s. Following that, I would go to stuff that followed the John Byrne X-Men run (Claremont was still pretty heavily involved through the '80s) and Excalibur. There are a lot of those with heavy nostalgia for the stuff from the early '90s (when the biggest selling comic of all time Khev alluded to was released), but those aren't really great compared to the stuff that came before. I can't speak to much of anything past that point, though Alan Davis came back a handful of times and did some great work in the late '90s/2000s.

 

[Sweet Rabbit]

That "pretty crappy comic" is Marvel's highest selling book ever that everyone and their mother knows about. Its a story in Marvel lore as powerful and recognizable as the Infinity Gauntlet.

For a person who seems to love these comics, I don't understand how you're in complete agreement with a film studio like Disney (one more time, its a film studio) completely wasting the premise of something like Civil War in a Cap film that barely resembles the comic, even if you didn't care for it.

It only sold so many because Marvel printed 50 different covers for each issue

 

[karamazov80]

That probably also explains the popularity of X-Men 1 from '91. It had, what, 4 different covers? Plus one that was a gatefold of the whole thing?

I, sadly, still have the rare "platinum" Spiderman number 1, still bagged somewhere.

 

[bboy]

thank you! I saw the dark phoenix saga and was tempted to pick it up. I had two reasons I didn't 1) Ive seen the story played out so many times (the original cartoon, a couple of other cartoons, and x3) and 2) the book was so damn small. I started reading some of the Claremont stuff, mostly just god loves man kills, I just cant seem to find a good size collection to start with in the comic shops. Unfortunately I don't see my msyelf going around buying the individual issues as its too expensive and time consuming. I'm really just looking for an x-men book with the core team, not another dimension team, or future team, and black ops team just the x-men yaknow. Ill have to go back and look for more Claremont stuff.

 

[Sweet Rabbit]

That probably also explains the popularity of X-Men 1 from '91. It had, what, 4 different covers? Plus one that was a gatefold of the whole thing?

I, sadly, still have the rare "platinum" Spiderman number 1, still bagged somewhere.

The big 2 are getting bad for variants again that's for sure

 

[Victοr]

thank you! I saw the dark phoenix saga and was tempted to pick it up. I had two reasons I didn't 1) Ive seen the story played out so many times (the original cartoon, a couple of other cartoons, and x3) and 2) the book was so damn small. I started reading some of the Claremont stuff, mostly just god loves man kills, I just cant seem to find a good size collection to start with in the comic shops. Unfortunately I don't see my msyelf going around buying the individual issues as its too expensive and time consuming. I'm really just looking for an x-men book with the core team, not another dimension team, or future team, and black ops team just the x-men yaknow. Ill have to go back and look for more Claremont stuff.

Not strictly X-Men, but I'd also recommend:

-Remender's Uncanny X-Force
-Morrison's New X-Men
-PAD's All-New X-Factor (the whole run is great, but it goes ways back, so you can just pick up the most recent vol)
-Spurrier's X-Men Legacy

 

[SNIKT1950]

Really wish Marvel Masterworks had covered X-Factor.

The collected volumes of the first runs are only available in underwhelming black and white.

 

[Sweet Rabbit]

thank you! I saw the dark phoenix saga and was tempted to pick it up. I had two reasons I didn't 1) Ive seen the story played out so many times (the original cartoon, a couple of other cartoons, and x3) and 2) the book was so damn small. I started reading some of the Claremont stuff, mostly just god loves man kills, I just cant seem to find a good size collection to start with in the comic shops. Unfortunately I don't see my msyelf going around buying the individual issues as its too expensive and time consuming. I'm really just looking for an x-men book with the core team, not another dimension team, or future team, and black ops team just the x-men yaknow. Ill have to go back and look for more Claremont stuff.

Try Amazon, there might be some trades on there. Original issues are pretty much out for most people weather it be by price or availability

 

[Sweet Rabbit]

Not strictly X-Men, but I'd also recommend:

-Remender's Uncanny X-Force
-Morrison's New X-Men
-PAD's All-New X-Factor (the whole run is great, but it goes ways back, so you can just pick up the most recent vol)
-Spurrier's X-Men Legacy

Loved New X-Men

 

[karamazov80]

Even with the Dark Phoenix saga, it wasn't written as a discrete story meant to be turned into a TPB as every story is in Marvel nowadays just about. So that's a bit of an artificial separation of certain issues of the comic from that time. But, this one has 10 issues from that period, and so it would give you some great reading, that culminates in the showdown between the X-Men (with Phoenix) and the Shi'ar Imperial Guard, and the aftermath. Very shortly after this was another fairly well known X-Men Story--Days of Future Past, though it actually only spanned 2 issues of the comic.

https://www.amazon.com/X-Men-Dark-P...eywords=dark phoenix saga&tag=viglink20786-20

 

[Victοr]

Loved New X-Men

Now, here's the most important question: Thoughts on Fantomex?

 

[Khev]

That probably also explains the popularity of X-Men 1 from '91. It had, what, 4 different covers? Plus one that was a gatefold of the whole thing?

I, sadly, still have the rare "platinum" Spiderman number 1, still bagged somewhere.

Yeah, that's pretty much how all those 1,000,000+ sellers made their big bucks, multiple covers and then people buying multiple copies of each cover. I mean, you can't just buy all the X-Men #1 variants right, better get three of *each* variant because you don't know which will be the most sought after down the line. 8,000,000 copies later and none of them are worth the paper they're printed on. But that's how the new Star Wars #1 did such big numbers what with the 67 variants or however many it had.

 

[Khev]

Not strictly X-Men, but I'd also recommend:

-Remender's Uncanny X-Force
-Morrison's New X-Men
-PAD's All-New X-Factor (the whole run is great, but it goes ways back, so you can just pick up the most recent vol)
-Spurrier's X-Men Legacy

Not gonna lie, I delved into the first 6 or 7 issues of Uncanny Avengers and really liked them. And damn that new Hydra Cap series for having some of the best art EVER in a Cap book.

 

[karamazov80]

Really wish Marvel Masterworks had covered X-Factor.

The collected volumes of the first runs are only available in underwhelming black and white.

I agree with that (even though, apart from the Walter Simonson stuff, those comics aren't that great), and also wish the post-Byrne Uncanny stuff was more fleshed out and easy to find in the Masterworks catalog.

 

[Victοr]

Not gonna lie, I delved into the first 6 or 7 issues of Uncanny X-Men and really liked them. And damn that new Hydra Cap series for having some of the best art EVER in a Cap book.

You mean Uncanny X-Force? Because none of these writers ever did an Uncanny X-Men book. But yeah, Remender, when he's goot, he's goood. I actually liked his Cap run, truth be told. It sounded pretty awful, you know, with Dimension Z and the like, but it was great. As for HYDRA-Cap, wich is written by Spencer, I can only say...



EDIT: Just saw your edited post. yeah, Remender's UA was sooo good.

 

[Khev]

If I were to give an award for "best written mainstream superhero book" I'd go with Byrne's run on The Fantastic Four and Moore's Swamp Thing.

 

[SNIKT1950]

I agree with that (even though, apart from the Walter Simonson stuff, those comics aren't that great), and also wish the post-Byrne Uncanny stuff was more fleshed out and easy to find in the Masterworks catalog.

That first Apocalypse arc is great. I just hate having to read the issues individually. I also tend to lend books out to people and I just can't do that with individual issues.

 

[Khev]

You mean Uncanny X-Force?

Wasn't it Uncanny Avengers? I'm talking about the one where Cap and Thor team up with a couple of X-Men and the Red Skull uses Xavier's brain to gain telepathic powers. And are you saying that you're liking HYDRA Cap?

 

[Victοr]

If I were to give an award for "best written mainstream superhero book" I'd go with Byrne's run on The Fantastic Four and Moore's Swamp Thing.

I wouldn't call Swamp-Thing mainstream though. Personally, I'd probably go with Fraction's Invincible Iron Man. It's just so.Damn.Great...