You owe it to yourself to read Whedon and Cassaday's run on Astonishing X-Men. Nowadays, Astonishing is sort of the "meh" book, but when those guys were on it, it was phenomenal. 24 issues and two giant-sized issues of excellence. Cyclops is awesome as the leader, Kitty and Emma have an interesting dynamic between them, Beast and Colossus have some great Deadpan Snarker lines, and Wolverine is awesome without being overused or stealing the focus.
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In my opinion you will not be disappointed in either Morrison's run or New Mutants v2, except for perhaps the fact both were subject to a rather cruel Reset Button later on. You can't go wrong with Gillen's run, either, though that's the end of the story (Morrison's is the beginning).
edited 21st Apr '13 2:16:29 PM by HamburgerTime
Late to the party, but I thought it might be useful to warn you about the X-Men chronology. You might have already noticed, but there are many X-Men books, and, sometimes, there is a great deal of interaction between them. In fact, a few of the supporting books barely make sense without reading the main books. So, if you plan to binge the whole thing eventually, you likely want to read them all more or less at the same time, in chronological order*.
Another problem is that it is not obvious to know which book succeeded which. For example, the next "New X-Men" book after Morrison's is actually a continuation of New Mutants.
Anyway, good luck. A lot of people critique but, personally, I am a fan of the last decade of the X Men. After House Of M, it got its own Myth Arc and clear direction, which gave the impression the story was actually going somewhere. Sure, it had its flaws, but most big super hero comics just seem to be randomly going from one story to the next, unless it is one big run written by a single author. The fact X-Men was following a single direction through a decade in the hands of multiple authors* is actually a very cool thing, to me.
Well, I've already started the binging. I first tried to start with Claremont's original return-run on Adjectiveless and Uncanny; the key word being 'try'. I read the first issue of Uncanny, and the first third of Adjectiveless, before just giving up. I don't know; maybe it was too slow; maybe after having just finished a 16+ year run by the same guy, I wasn't in the mood for the same ol', same ol'. Something about it all just wrote me off his second run before even finishing two issues, though from what I've heard, I can't be blamed for that, because that run is supposed to suck.
After that though, I went back to the original plan; start with Grant Morrision's New X-Men, and Claremont's X-Treme Men. And let me tell you, after having gotten through the first half of each run in less then two weeks, I couldn't ask for more.
X-treme X-Men somehow manages to hit all the right notes from the get-go, unlike his previous 'Main' run; I suppose part of that is that he was no longer writing the 'main' X-book of the time, (2001-2004,) so he didn't have to deal with stuff he might have had to otherwise. Because of this, it's more like his first five years on his original run, with less focus on 'The Mutant Problem', (as I like to call it,) and more on just having a variety of fun adventures, though with the characters still being at the center of it all. All in all, it's a really fun read, though it's not the only X-book that was published at the time...
Then there's Grant's Morrison's run, and so far, it defies every single expectation I had for it. In the same way Claremont broke new ground for the X-Men, Morrison is doing the same here, but in his own distinct way, and the results (so far,) are nothing short of amazing. However, at the same time, while it's great in many areas, it also isn't very 'fun', but Claremont's 'X-treme' balances that out nicely. All in all, it's a great duo of books, and the only thing that makes them better is that I'm just about get to New Mutants v2, and can start reading that too! (I also ordered the 'Age of Apocalypse' Omnibus, so I'll read that when I get a chance.) Seriously, I think I made the right move in skipping a decade, (aside from David's X-Factor, which I've read,) because this is just some great stuff.
...Still though, there is one X-book I've so far avoided like the plague; Uncanny X-Men. The reason for this is that everything I've heard about it tells me that the 2001-2004 period is supposed to be a steaming pile of crap that one wouldn't want to touch with a 20-ft halberd, so I've been avoiding it thus far. Anyone who wants to answer; is is really that bad, or is it just over-exaggerated?
I actually started reading X-Men shortly after Morrison run have ended here in Brazil so I am not the best person to answer that question. However, I believe you are talking about Chuck Austen run, right? If so, yeah, it is bad.
It was not exactly unreadable for me, at the time, but the stories were weak at best. And almost all were simply ignored latter on*. The main problem, from what I can remember, is the weak characterization. It didn't bother me much at the time, as I was very young to the X Men comics, but, thinking back, I believe pretty much everyone was acting a little "off".
But, oh, well, again, I am not a reliable source for that. This was from when I had just started reading comics. I barely can remember any of it. I was just buying 'cause I like the X Men, but these weren't even the stories I was looking forward the most when I bought them*.
2001 was OK. Scott Lobdell finished his good run. Then Joe Casey did some good work with Chamber, giving him an interesting and well-handled romance with pop star Sugar Kane. Then in 2002 he did the X-Corps arc, which was OK.
It was October 2002 when Chuck Austen took over. And, man, fuck that run. Chuck Austen sucked. He sucked so hard that he blew.
X-Men X-Pert, my blog where I talk about X-Men comics.So. I've just gotten to early 2006, post House of M. I also finished the Whedon run; yes, it ran to 2008, but with the beginning of the third arc, the run didn't actually catch a break until the end, as the third arc just immediately segued into the fourth, and I just kept on reading until the end. (Not to mention, the sequed arcs+the delays means that, by the time Astonishing ends, Civil War still hasn't happened yet.) It was very good. Nothing ground-breaking, but that's not a problem. It's just very well written, very well drawn, and very fun. Props.
That said, I do have a couple of questions. 1.I know Kitty's supposed to come back off The Bus at some point, but when is that supposed to be? 2.Doing my research, is seems that New Excalibur has started by now. Do I need to have read the previous Excalibur series to understand this one, (because I didn't read it,) or is actually worth a read? I don't like spending time on X-books I don't consider necessary, or at least not now; that's why I skipped out both Wolverine's solo series, as well as the first Excalibur series. But, as I'm getting closer to the Present, I'm wondering if I should give New Exalibur a look-through. Any thoughts?
Oh, and am I the only one who though Peter Milligan's Havok was acting out of character? Compared to previous iterations of him, such as under Claremont, or Peter David, he's supposed to a competent, dependable, and upbeat man, who, when he's actually leading, (and this, I got from P.D's X-Factor v1 run,) is also a smart, charismatic leader that his teammates can look up to. Milligan's Havok just comes across as a stuffy douche; he's like what some fans imagine Cyclops to be. (Of course, I didn't even touch Chuck Austen's run, so his Havok might have been even worse...)
I may be mistaken, as I haven't read it myself, but I believe the first Excalibur is actually fairly important to the franchise. Maybe not plot wise, but in characterization.
The 2rd series * is a bit different amnd has no relation with the original series. It is focused on Genosha, Xavier and Magneto. Most of its plot threads were eventually forgotten, I believe, but considering it deals with 2 of the most important characters of the franchise, I think you might want to take a look.
As for the New Excalibur itself, I think it is safe to ignore if you want. But if you don't wish to, it uses a similar cast to the first series, so you will probably want to check that one first. There is a crossover with Exiles at some point, btw.
edited 18th May '13 2:57:24 PM by Heatth
The first Excalibur series was awesome, for the most part. Just a really fun series. New Excalibur was strictly OK. Has some good stuff, but nothing really ground-breaking.
X-Men X-Pert, my blog where I talk about X-Men comics.

Hello there. Anyway, some of you may remember me asking a week or two ago about Peter David's X-Factor v3. At the time, after nearly finishing up a massive Archive Binge through Avengers, I wanted to take a break from reading through an entire franchise for a while. But, after just finishing Avengers X-Men, I've changed my mind. Sort of. I've actually already read through much of Claremont's run, so I'll finish up that first, but afterwards, I think I'll skip the 90's, (with the exception of Age of Apocalypse, which I've heard very good things about,) and go right to the 00's. I'm thinking of starting with Grant Morrison's New X-Men, and Claremont's X-treme X-men, and maybe New Mutants v2 also, but I'd like to hear some other thoughts on this. What are the X-Runs and titles of the last decade (and of the last few years up to Marvel Now,) that are worth (or necessary) checking out, and which ones should I avoid like the plague? (I'm already wary of Chuck Austen, having already heard about his run...) So, please, just give me your thoughts, and tell me what you think.
edited 21st Apr '13 2:20:34 PM by kkhohoho