After reading Marvels recently I've decided to start reading some Marvel comics and I wanted to start with something the most familiar to me: X-Men. I started doing research on where to begin. Considering there are next to no reboots or retcons in Marvel that I can find on the surface (or at least as definitive as DC's New 52 reboot) almost all of X-Men's continuity can be traced back to Stan Lee/Jack Kirby's original '63 run onward. It has been suggested to me that since I know the basis of the X-Men that I should simply pick up at a more recent point in the story through TPBs and the like instead of going back to the start.

But I have a very serious issue with not starting from the beginning. Even if I start from the beginning of an arc, as long as I know that something came before it everything I'm reading will be nagging me to go back to the origin and start over. My other reason for reading X-Men in its entirety is also for the fact that there is so much to read. I want to be able to read these stories in order for a long while.

My plan is to find TPBs, graphic novels and as many collections of these stories as I can without having to buy the individual comics while still maintaining the chronology of the story and its continuity. I have found a very detailed chronology on http://crushingkrisis.com/collecting-x-men-comic-books-as-graphic-novels/x-men-reading-order-guide/ blog that details (apparently) the exact order in which each story should be read. But my question is would reading things in this order (from the timeline's start to finish) be more interesting or idealistic to reading things in their printed order?

I suppose this questions could also be asked of any comic book series ever written but, I still wanted the opinion of others from this forum on what matters when starting a series from start to finish. Any and all opinions are welcome, I simply need some insight and perception before moving forward with purchases.

@helmholtz: hey.

I started reading X-men back in '92, and went in both directions from there, but a few years ago, I finally got around to reading every X-men comic from the beginning, and in my honest opinion, it was really hard.

Stan Lee and the other writers of the 60's seemed to play really fast and loose with just about everything from characterization to what the X-men were actually about thematically. Some of it's really funny, especially if you know enough about how the characters develop over time to see what they started from, but most of it doesn't really stand out as very good. It can be really funny, but it can also be really hard on the head. I had to force myself to read most of it, and much of it I wouldn't have bothered with if I hadn't got the books for free, so I honestly can't recommend paying to read most of that period.

It does get better and easier to take after the X-men were relaunched in '75, but it doesn't really start to get good until the end of the 70's, and even then, it's mostly pretty standard silver-age superhero stuff until the start of the Proteus story in issue 125.

Basically, depending on how thorough you want to be, I'd say get some cheap reprints of the first few issues from '63 (by the end of issue 18, Xavier, the X-men, Magneto, the Brotherhood, the Juggernaut, the Sentinals, and most characters that would survive the 60's have been introduced), then skip to either issue 50 (to 66 to see the introduction of Polaris, Havok, Sauron, and Sunfire before the book becomes reprints), or just skip right on to Giant-Size X-Men #1 - Deadly Genesis and continue from issue 94.

hope that helps. And good luck!

@oldnightcrawler: thank you.

This is very insightful and I appreciate your response. I've wanted to be as thorough as possible but I understand that a comic collection this vast is extremely expensive, I'm now trying to figure out how to go about obtaining it all. I noticed Marvel Digital Unlimited has a ton of the original Uncanny run, do you have any experience with that service? I do prefer having everything in paper but for the price it would be well worth it as a temporary fix for X-Men.

I'll probably take your advice though, considering so many other people have shared the same sentiment about the earliest issues. Are there any spin-off or parallel books that you enjoyed as well? I really wanted to read Excalibur, X-Men Vol 2(including Morrison's run), and potentially X-Factor for the Cyclops continuity

@helmholtz: haha! you're welcome.

I've never used any online services for comics, all of my experience comes from years (decades, actually) of digging through long boxes and a few lucky run ins with pirates.

I really enjoyed the original Excalibur series when it first started, with Claremont and Davis. The original X-factor is basically as much a part of the X-men's story as the main series, but it's pretty hot and cold for me personally.

X-men vol.2 is great up fun up until around Onslaught, and I'm pretty fond of the Uncanny issues from that period too. Morrison's new X-men is pretty interesting, though I preferred the first half to the later stuff, myself.

Whedon and Cassaday's Astonishing X-men, from 2004 is really great all the way through (issues 1-24, + Giant-Size Astonishing X-Men #1 - Gone), so I highly recommend it.

anyway, feel free to message me if you have any more questions. And good luck!

if you want to read some major story arcs. check out one of my list called X-Men reccomendations. it a list of Major X-Men stories arc.