Are there any "new classic" X-Men stories?

[CaptainCanada]

I go against the grain and am a bit "ehh" on Whedon's work; the first arc is great, but after that he goes off on some rather strange tangents (and, though this isn't an issue in the collected editions, the publication schedule was horribly dragged out) that don't really have much to do with the X-Men (plus, he started the whole "crap on Professor X" trend that's been going recently, until Mike Carey set to work trying to reverse it).

Grant Morrison's New X-Men has a lot of great stuff; towards the end (mainly the last two arcs) I think he really goes off the rails, but he made by far the most significant additions to the franchise in the last decade or two.

There have been several good Wolverine stories in the last few years (mainly by Mark Millar and Jason Aaron).

Mike Carey's work on X-Men and X-Men: Legacy (soon to transition to another format) gets a lot of fan acclaim, though the latter incarnation is fairly continuity-heavy (it's about Professor X essentially reexamining the history of the X-Men).

"Rise and Fall of the Shiar Empire" and the various follow-ups leading into War of Kings were entertaining.

Craig Kyle and Chris Yost's run on New X-Men (and the two X-23 miniseries that are related to it) was also really great (rebooting that into Young X-Men as part of the post-MC reboot was the biggest mistake made with the books recently); their semi-followup, X-Force, is good, though it has moments of being too grim for its own good (lessened since they added a few peppier characters like Domino).

Matt Fraction's current run on Uncanny X-Men got off to a rocky start, but the second arc ("Lovelorn") was really fun; the main problem is he's saddled with Greg Land drawing it half the time; when Terry Dodson is working on it, it can soar.

X-Men Noir (wtf?)

Out-of-continuity project, as part of a line Marvel's doing that use various characters (X-Men, Spider-Man, Daredevil, Wolverine, so far) in noir settings. X-Men Noir was pretty good, as it was done by the phenomenally talented writer Fred Van Lente, though Dennis Calero's art made it kind of hard to distinguish between characters at times.

 

[Mr Light]

Wolverine Enemy of the State (a 12 issue run by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr) was absolutely amazing. Loved it! I didn't include it since it's not a team book, even though half the entire MarvelU cameos throughout it. It was just epic and great and important and entertaining as hell.

 

[Nick Ryder]

But I don't know if I would still call some of the Morrison stuff "classic" though. The Whedon stuff is pretty good, but then they put Kitty in the giant space bullet and that put the kibosh on the continuation of a less creepy Kitty/Piotr relationship. But then that's what Whedon likes... lol

As for Greg Land, I love his covers, his women are amazingly sexy, but.... they all kinda look the same. Does he use the same model for all of them? I mean pick up any of the X-Men Warsong/Endsong books he did, look at the women, save for Kitty - Emma, Jean and Storm all look like the same woman, except for different hair and skin colors. I do agree that Dodson is pretty good at making attractive and sexy women, but they at least look different, they have a kind of personality. Same with Adam Hughes, I kind of put Hughes and Dodsons in the same corner, they have fairly realistic styles and quirky, personality filled characters.

And I'm still miffed about Ms Marvel, I mean they really made it a point to make her "good" and interesting over the past 5 years and now... gone. Booo.

I declare jihad on JoeQ. Lulululululululu... death to the moron who killed off Carol!

 

[exodus]

No.

Yep. Preach it brother. After Morrison took over the mythology died.

Brotha's & Sista's, put yer hands on the computer screne and allow these vibes of truth too flow thru ya. Say it with me; Hallelujah!!!

 

[NX74205]

I honestly would say that Messiah Complex ranks up there among the classic Xmen stories. It really is pretty good and I have high hopes the upcoming Messiah War arc.

When you talk about stories like the Phoenix/Dark Pheonix Saga, days of Future past and to some extent Age of Apocalypse, those stories are stories that definately defined the Xmen universe and in truth comic book story telling. I mean you can't talk about Xmen without mentioning those stories.

based on that logic, I wouldn't even dare put Joss Wheadon's Astonishing run in that same context,entertaining yes, but they were so far outside the canon and have had no impact on the X universe because of it. That is like saying something like Xmen-noir while a good story deserves to be in that same league. I dunno, but Messiah complex and the upcoming Messiah war have the possibility to add to the overall universe like those other classic X-stories.

While most of the X-books lately have sucked monkey balls, I must say that I like the general direction of the universe. The decision to basically almost wipe out every mutant, definately has altered the vibe of the books and upped the tension and the stakes. Before, the Xmen were fighting for acceptance, now they are fighting for survival. It is a good twist.

Oh and one more thing, Greg Land should be banned from every drawing another comic book character.

 

[Mr Light]

I think the whole endangered persecuted species thing is just taking it way too far. It's too dark and depressing. While the mutants were always persecuted, the X-Men themselves were perfectly happy in their billion dollar mansion with their alien holographic technology... Even when they were "dead" and living with Gateway in Australia they were still having fun.

 

[Nick Ryder]

Well I think the whole M-Day thing was a mistake, at least to keep it running this long. It de-balled some of what made X-Men kinda interesting the random and varied mutants. And yeah it was oh so perfect that the MAIN X-Men kept their powers but random periphery X-Men lost their powers. Yeah... right. I think if they wanted to do a real shake up, have Cyclops and Beast lose their powers, two of the "oldest" X-Men knocked out of the "power"... but I agree the whole storyline has just gotten too depressing. Hell even the HULK didn't want to fight them because "you're bad off enough as it is."

 

[Locutus of Bored]

I am not a big comic book guy, and my knowledge of the X-Men is pretty limited to the 90s FOX cartoon and the recent live-action films. I watched a little bit of Evolution, and I've just started watching the new Wolverine and the X-Men. That said, it is my understanding that the 90s cartoon did the best job adapting the major stories from the comics. But have there been any new "classic" stories that have been told since that show ended?

The Phoenix/Dark Pheonix Saga
Days of Futures Past
The Age of Apocalypse

These, to me, are the big X-Men tales. These are the ones that people tend to talk about, and (especially with the Pheonix) these are the ones that tend to get re-told with every new incarnation of the X-Men universe. Even with this brand new Wolverine X-Men cartoon, they're still telling the same old stories. It's still DoFP, Sentinels, Senator Kelly hates mutants, etc. They're being told in different ways with different players involved, but they're still the same stories that were being told decades ago.

I'm just wondering, have there been any huge/memorable X-Men storylines since these classics were first released? Or do the comics just keep rehashing old stuff?

It's not a comic, but I found Christopher L. Bennett's X-Men novel 'Watchers on the Walls' completely engrossing and a unique story in the X-Men universe, pitting them against a sympathetic alien species that represents a threat to life on Earth through their very biology, thus forcing the mutants to possibly have to destroy a species that like them, can't help who they are.

And I'm not just saying that because he posts here.

 

[darkwing_duck1]

Newer than those originally offered, but not as new as the "current" stuff (which I despise), I'd say:

X-tinction Agenda
Fatal Attractions
Age of Apocalypse
Onslaught

all count as "modern classics"

 

[Hermiod]

Well I think the whole M-Day thing was a mistake, at least to keep it running this long. It de-balled some of what made X-Men kinda interesting the random and varied mutants. And yeah it was oh so perfect that the MAIN X-Men kept their powers but random periphery X-Men lost their powers. Yeah... right. I think if they wanted to do a real shake up, have Cyclops and Beast lose their powers, two of the "oldest" X-Men knocked out of the "power"... but I agree the whole storyline has just gotten too depressing. Hell even the HULK didn't want to fight them because "you're bad off enough as it is."

It's made very clear in one of the Avengers Secret Invasion tie-ins that the Skrull invasion would not have been possible if not for M-Day. Ignoring mutants, Earth has a limited number of people with powers, unique skills or access to exotic technology (as the SHRA would define a superhuman). With mutants numbering in the hundreds of millions, there's no way they could have listed them all and find potential counters to their abilities.

They literally viewed M-Day as a gift from God.

 

[CaptainCanada]

Newer than those originally offered, but not as new as the "current" stuff (which I despise), I'd say:

X-tinction Agenda
Fatal Attractions
Age of Apocalypse
Onslaught

all count as "modern classics"

"Onslaught"? Seriously? If not for "Avengers: The Crossing", that would probably be the worst crossover of in Marvel's history.

 

[Mr Light]

Onslaught was alright, though I suppose the initial promise of coolness didn't quite deliver. Still, when they revealed who/what Onslaught was I thought that was pretty clever. And it was neat to see NYC getting devastated by Sentinels and then the entire Marvel U heroes teaming up together. Maybe it's my selective memory but the X-Titles never crossed over into the mainstream U back then so that was neat to see.

 

[Nick Ryder]

Onslaught was okay, mainly because it led into Heroes Reborn which gave us a nice quasi 616-esque Ultimate line that distilled and reintro'd everyone in less than 3 issues and still came off fresh and new. Honestly Heroes Reborn and Heroes Return were when I REALLY got into stuff like Iron Man and the Avengers. I still consider Iron Man #1-Heroes Return as one of my favorite comics. Same with Avengers #1 from that same month. For me Avengers 1-maaaybe the 40s were a new golden age. Same with Iron Man 1-75

X-Men... Operation Zero Tolerance was okay, if a little overly confusing and muddied. But showed the X-Men stripped down to just their powers and wits, but I hated Maggot. Blegch.

Alright so now that Secret Invasion is over, let's have a reborn Wanda magick everyone's powers back!

 

[darkwing_duck1]

X-Men... Operation Zero Tolerance was okay

Thank you, I'd forgotten that one!

 

[Mr Light]

Zero Tolerance was the first crossover I didn't really care about, and then I stopped collecting soon after that. Bastion was interesting but that was about it. Whatever happened with him anyway?

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Everything from Chuck Austen will be considered classic in a couple of years.


Maybe five or ten.



Maybe twenty.



Fifty?

 

[RoJoHen]

Incidentally, I have only ever read one issue of the X-Men. It was when Onslaught was starting to happen. I think he had taken over Professor X's mind, and Jean Grey was walking around the sewers with Juggernaut.

It seemed kinda like a big deal at the time, but I was maybe 10-12 years old and had no idea what was going on.

 

[CaptainCanada]

As for Greg Land, I love his covers, his women are amazingly sexy, but.... they all kinda look the same. Does he use the same model for all of them?

He uses different models for all of them; his "art" is just a collage of images from magazines and pornos. That's why his female characters both look the same and have no fixed look.

 

[Nick Ryder]

Yeah I've noticed that too... they don't really seem to be looking at what they should be looking at, and seem far too "posed", I mean I can totally understand for a cover, sure, he's a great cover artist, even a poster artist, but for a whole book... ehhhhh... I hate to admit it, but I think then I focus more on the dialogue than just the pictures, since they really are fairly meaningless... even though his women ARE smoking hot. But maybe TOO smoking hot.

 

[NX74205]

The amount of love for 90s era Xmen comics here is surprising. I thought that those books were universally reviled, especially Onslaught and the Heroes Reborn stuff. Ah well, I'm glad someone enjoyed those books, but for me those books are the reason I swore off comic books for a while. I didn't start reading again until the Avengers Disassembled stuff and House of M.