I never did read Age of Apocalypse. Part of it is just the cost to read all the books, and why I held off on Onslaught for awhile until I happened to get it as a present.

I've actually read Nation X already. Necrosha again, was a matter of cost and deciding to wait for the paperback over buying the hardcover.

Finished X-Necrosha. Not as epic as I thought it would be, and for the first time reading modern X-Men stories I thought I really got a bunch of characters that I didn't know anything about. Disappointed that the Selene story is really only in the first 1/3rd of the book during X-Force, and the rest of it just happens to be whatever the hell was going on in the other X-titles at the time. I did enjoy the little Deadpool bit at the end though.

Curse of the Mutants is in my Gold Box... anyone have any opinions on that?

Pretty meh. First issue had a pretty good moment / idea, but the rest of the storyline was pretty standard / unsurprising / predictable.

Yeah, I ended up buying it and it was pretty boring. I thought the story would be a bit more interesting with higher stakes, but it just ran through the paces with a generic bad guy and felt rushed. Blade ended up pretty worthless too.

Yeah, it really wasn't that great of a story. This new X-men ongoing is pretty worthless.

Either I missed the trade the first time around, or they just take a really long time to come out with non HCs, but I finally read Second Coming... and it was great! I mean, it would have driven me crazy if I was collecting stuff month to month, because they jumped around between multiple titles at whim, but I guess that's just like an old-school crossover. I did think some stuff happened too fast (Kitty doesn't even react to one of the deaths, unless it's in yet another book), and they did tend to throw everything and the kitchen sink in there as far as bad guys, but still enjoyable. Even the side story trade, Revelations, had some decent stories, even if the art wasn't as good (but as an x-factor fan, it drives me nuts that they collect parts of x-factor in this trade, and, I assume, nowhere else).

I also like that in the inside covers, they have a list of trades and which issues and storylines each one covers.

However, with x-necrosha and the vampires and the "canceling" of Uncanny and whatever else, am I fair to assume that the x-titles are again mired in mediocrity, or is there something worth picking up? I've heard great things about X-Force, and seeing the old team back together again (with Cipher), plus what looks to be decent art, gives me some interest in New Mutants. Any advice?

I had picked up the Uncanny X-Force hardcovers and found them enjoyable. The first one I really loved, the second one was just ok.

I've read the first two issues of Schism and found them... boring. For what is supposed to be a big story leading up to an X-Men split between Cyclops and Wolverine, not much has happened.

I got x-tinction agenda in my last DCBS shipment...I read the first arc in it today. It might just be because the outback X-men were MY X-men (I was 11-12yo at the time), but a lazy Sunday afternoon, reading the comics that I used to, but it was awesome. I really need to find time to read a couple more of the collected HCs I've picked up from that era.

I went back and read the trades that deal with X-23's origin (Innocence Lost and Target X) and enjoyed them both quite a bit. I grew interested in her character after her role in X-Force during all the Messiah Complex-War-Second Coming story lines. Her stuff was pretty interesting and a fun and exciting read, although the Kimura character seemed to come out of nowhere.

I'm going to stick with her and pick up the two hardcovers that are out recently, The Killing Dream and the one with Daken. They seemed to be reviewed positively.

Have to admit that I couldn't resist this

Is that a skin or something? That is pretty sweet.

Yeah, a skin seemed appropriate for that Greg Land costume.

It's funny. I was paging through a PB Masterworks at an LCS the other day and spotted the Colosso story (issue 22) that I had read long ago and decided I wanted to read it again. The question then became of course Masterworks or Essentials? I thought if I only wanted that one story, I should go MW, but I could get the beginning of the run for the same price with Essentials. I decided on Essentials and put one in my shopping cart then happened to wander over to my largely unsorted collection and find E1 neatly sorted among my other X-books!

I read the Colosso/Count Nefaria story and the first issue and started flipping through the rest. I find it odd that so much of this I never read. I thought I'd read most of the '60s Marvel early runs, like at least the first several issues of each major franchise, but it appears that I never did so for the X-Men, either many years ago when I read the others or in the last few years (the way this Essential was sorted, I'm sure I've owned it for a while). I had read the Blob origin story, but the introduction of Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch were new to me. There's a lot of significant stuff in here that I just missed out on so I'll have to catch up on it. It's fun to find something new and unread. One glimpse of Mastermind skulking around in an overcoat, though, made me think of Jason Wyngarde and how I'd prefer to be reading the Claremont-Byrne run.

I'm just starting my dive into X-men too. Almost done with Uncanny Masterworks V1 and was planning to go to the Dark Phoenix Saga next, but it looks like there is a pretty big jump there. Should I try to track down the other Masterworks volumes first, or will I be OK just jumping ahead?

I'm really liking everything so far, just finished My Brother, My Enemy.

It really depends on how much you want to get invested in it (meaning time, but I guess that can mean money too). It appears that the Dark Phoenix saga happens in Masterworks 5 so you'd have a few of them to pick up before you get there.

For my money, this is one of the great runs in comics, and I think it'd have more impact if you read it all the way through, especially if you're enjoying it now. That said, I myself missed a number of issues in the middle there. I'm sure there are other X-perts here who have a more informed opinion.

Oh, and I also recommend reading past the Dark Phoenix storyline--some good stuff there.

Thanks.

I just got to then End of 1 and of course it ended on a cliff hanger, so I'll definitely be looking for #2. It looks like those ones are going to be much harder to find on the cheap though, so I may have to just bite the bullet. I'm thinking I want to go back a little now too, there seems to be a lot of references to the older stuff, and I'd like to read up more about the Sentinels and Steven Lang at least. Oh I wish I would have gotten in on the Omnibus or DVD that used to be available.

This conversation got me interested in checking my collection, and I have MW1-3 I think the first two are TPBs from back when only Barnes & Noble had them, and #3 was on of the ancient HCs that were consecutively numbered across the whole line, not by series (I think this spine # was 24). I should read them sometime. I also have one of the ancient Dark Phoenix TPBs, which I've read many times.

I wish there were cheaper options but a few of them are on TPB at least.

If you decide your OCD is forcing you to make those books match, I'll take them off your hands.

Too bad it looks like #4 doesn't come out in paperback until next year.

Ha ha, I'm not OCD enough to feel compelled to rebuy things just so they match

Anyone read Schism? I was pretty disappointed with everything; took too long to build up to Cylcops and Wolverine actually going at it, and padded with all sorts of stuff I didn't care about (Quire, the kids) and the actual split wasn't as interesting as I hoped.

I liked Schism once they fought, but agree it was going nowhere fast. The X books have floundered for me since Second Coming ended. I miss everything feeling so desperate, and the new X-Force isnt as good as the previous.

Yeah, Second Coming (and X-force leading into it) was great, then they kind of lost me, but I am interested in seeing the different teams, so I hope post-Schism has at least one good title coming out of it.

I have been reading different titles on and off since a little before Messiah Complex…I thought the Brubaker issues were really good and the initial move to SF was awesome. Second Coming was good, but I agree, since them…

That said, I have enjoyed the current arch in X-men Legacy, and the evolution of the meaning of the title…maybe I just like Havok and Rogue.

I read the Regenesis one shot, it isn’t worth the $4…just an explanation of why each chose their sides, if anyone wants a recap, Id be happy to save you the $$ in a spoiler.

Spoil away.

I haven't read X-Men since Claremont was dumped the third time. I look at the previews and it just isn't the X-Men that I grew up on or something I'd even be interested in reading.

The Regenesis oneshot was a great read. Well written and was a great setup for the new status quo. Id definetly reccomend it