A simple X-men question.

Vincent Grayson

What order is everything in? Barring the Ultimate line, I've only read some New X-Men, and Astonishing, and I'm trying to get other trades that've been good, but have been unable to find a useful source that lists what order all the various books go in...can anyone give me a hand?

SatanIsMyMotor

They all run concurrently but focus on different teams.
Uncanny has a more traditional team focus.
X-Men is a little more of a special ops book I find. It focuses on a different team than UXM.
New X-Men focuses on the students at the Xavier school.
Astonishing is a core X-Men team and probably has the most "classic" team. It is also more character driven than the rest of the titles.

The best way to look at it is to not think of the "X-Men" as a team. The X-Men are instead a giant grouping of mutants that form smaller units which are focused on in the various books.

edit: and also, there is no such thing as a "simple" X-Men question.

robosagogo

You mean what order each issues takes place in on the timeline of X-Men events? I think that's the sort of thing only fans with keen eyes, a fair amount of disposable income, and several days to kill can decide upon.

Vincent Grayson

robosagogo wrote:

You mean what order each issues takes place in on the timeline of X-Men events? I think that's the sort of thing only fans with keen eyes, a fair amount of disposable income, and several days to kill can decide upon.

Oh. Well, damn. I mean, I know I've heard people say that Astonishing is definitely after New X-Men, and I got the impression that the events of House of M take place sometime in-between, but even those are hard to figure out, because there's no volume number on the trades.

GABBO GABBO GABBO

Vincent Grayson wrote:

robosagogo wrote:

You mean what order each issues takes place in on the timeline of X-Men events? I think that's the sort of thing only fans with keen eyes, a fair amount of disposable income, and several days to kill can decide upon.

Oh. Well, damn. I mean, I know I've heard people say that Astonishing is definitely after New X-Men, and I got the impression that the events of House of M take place sometime in-between, but even those are hard to figure out, because there's no volume number on the trades.

Well, there are two series that bear the title "New X-Men."
One was the relaunch of X-Men as New X-Men back in 2000 when Grant Morrison took over. The other is "New X-Men Academy" which is a completely different book, about the next generation of X-Men.

Morrison's New X-Men definitely takes place before Whedon's Astonishing.

Vincent Grayson

Manifest wrote:

Vincent Grayson wrote:

robosagogo wrote:

You mean what order each issues takes place in on the timeline of X-Men events? I think that's the sort of thing only fans with keen eyes, a fair amount of disposable income, and several days to kill can decide upon.

Oh. Well, damn. I mean, I know I've heard people say that Astonishing is definitely after New X-Men, and I got the impression that the events of House of M take place sometime in-between, but even those are hard to figure out, because there's no volume number on the trades.

Well, there are two series that bear the title "New X-Men."
One was the relaunch of X-Men as New X-Men back in 2000 when Grant Morrison took over. The other is "New X-Men Academy" which is a completely different book, about the next generation of X-Men.

Morrison's New X-Men definitely takes place before Whedon's Astonishing.

Yeah, that's the one I'm talking about, and IIRC, the one that's coming out, all compiled into one massive volume next month, right? I know I'll be picking that up.

wwtMask

If it helps you at all, I think the recent story arc in New X-Men (Academy) takes place concurrently with Civil War X-Men #1..

Beyond that, Astonishing is definitely ahead of the other books. I think Uncanny is also slightly ahead, but it doesn't matter overly much because that team is in space. X-Factor and "Adjectiveless" X-Men are probably concurrent and Wolverine is only slightly behind them because of the whole Civil War related arc. I'm not sure about New Excalibur. Did I leave any X books out?

Briareos

Also, we don't have a definitive answer as to when Astonishing X-Men occurs in the overall continuity. Some speculate that the whole story is post-Civil War, but it deals with SHIELD in a way that might not be possible post-Civil War. There's really no way the story could take place during the Civil War. And if it took place before the Civil War, things about the X-Men would be different than what we've seen so far during Civil War.

I think even Whedon has confessed that he isn't positive about the timeline.

What was known as New X-Men when Grant Morrison was writing it, is now just X-Men, I believe. The current New X-Men title is an extension of The New Mutants, X-Force, and New X-Men Academy. Uncanny X-Men is, to my mind, the main book, with the main stories about the classic-style X-Men team (although minus a lot of the classic characters).

Ultimate X-Men is a completely different Universe.

Conditional_Axe

The first arc of Astonishing X-Men, Gifted, definitely occurs before House of M, because Colossus is in the first issue of House of M. Danger also occurs before M-Day, since the students aren't depowered. Torn takes place after HoM and probably before Civil War, and Unstoppable looks like it's going to take place immediately following Torn.

What is now the adjectiveless X-Men book was retitled New X-Men when Grant Morrison wrote it. It's still following the numeration from the Claremont/Lee relaunch of the book in the 90s, which may be more of what the OP is looking for. Morrison's run leads into Astonishing pretty directly.

Vincent Grayson

Conditional_Axe wrote:

The first arc of Astonishing X-Men, Gifted, definitely occurs before House of M, because Colossus is in the first issue of House of M. Danger also occurs before M-Day, since the students aren't depowered. Torn takes place after HoM and probably before Civil War, and Unstoppable looks like it's going to take place immediately following Torn.

What is now the adjectiveless X-Men book was retitled New X-Men when Grant Morrison wrote it. It's still following the numeration from the Claremont/Lee relaunch of the book in the 90s, which may be more of what the OP is looking for. Morrison's run leads into Astonishing pretty directly.

Ok, so grabbing the "omnibus" when it comes out should get me up to speed? Is House of M worth picking up?

Servo

my favorite simple x-men question is 'what's up with this cable dude?'

Malkor

I always kind of wondered if the writers had a meeting and discussed the general storyline of the books they are working on or if they just did their own thing and an editor just tweaked it so things aren't drastically conflicting.

Conditional_Axe

Vincent Grayson wrote:

Conditional_Axe wrote:

The first arc of Astonishing X-Men, Gifted, definitely occurs before House of M, because Colossus is in the first issue of House of M. Danger also occurs before M-Day, since the students aren't depowered. Torn takes place after HoM and probably before Civil War, and Unstoppable looks like it's going to take place immediately following Torn.

What is now the adjectiveless X-Men book was retitled New X-Men when Grant Morrison wrote it. It's still following the numeration from the Claremont/Lee relaunch of the book in the 90s, which may be more of what the OP is looking for. Morrison's run leads into Astonishing pretty directly.

Ok, so grabbing the "omnibus" when it comes out should get me up to speed? Is House of M worth picking up?

YMMV, honestly. There are 4 really good issues, but it's an 8 issue series and one of the really good issues is actually the tie-in issue of The Pulse. It's not bad, but it's hella decompressed and poorly paced in spots. I haven't read it back-to-back, though, so it may be better in trade. What it sets up is better than the story it tells.

The omnibus is in fact a great jumping on point, as it kind of relaunches the x-franchise. Uncanny relaunched at the same time with Joe Casey, and it's worth avoiding Uncanny entirely until this current story started.

Conditional_Axe

Malkor wrote:

I always kind of wondered if the writers had a meeting and discussed the general storyline of the books they are working on or if they just did their own thing and an editor just tweaked it so things aren't drastically conflicting.

The latter. I think that back in the day, when it was really only Claremont, Byrne, and Louise Simonson mucking around with the X-Characters, it was a lot cleaner. Too many cooks nowadays, and the editors are more concerned with not stepping on the creators' toes, it seems.

fightinfilipino

the Wolverine: Origins storyline really mucks things up, doesn't it?

blackranger3d

Ah snap
I always thought Astonishing X-men was a totally different continuum.

Conditional_Axe

fightinfilipino wrote:

the Wolverine: Origins storyline really mucks things up, doesn't it?

not if you ignore that the book even exists.

I honestly haven't been reading it. I like Wolverine, and I liked Daniel Way's Hulk story, so I gave it a shot for a few issues, and it was really just not good.

Sentry

Wolverine= Good, bordering on freaking awesome.

Wolverine: Origins= Affront to man and god... seriously?? a magic sword?? I thought Wolverine was from Canada, not fucking Narnia. And oh, hey, lets give him a [spoiler:b5fb92e5a2] son! [/spoiler:b5fb92e5a2]. That isn't hack writing or cliched at all. and, to top it all off, lets just get someone to draw it so awfully, a child would be embarrassed to color over it...


/rant

GABBO GABBO GABBO

I really like Wolverine Origins. It's filling in quite a few gaps in his history.

Sentry

meh... I would love to have the gaps filled... but I hate the execution. And I'm sorry I keep bringing it up, but the art is just... I mean, it's almost criminally bad. I can see it being good in something else, but for Wolverine it just doesn't work.

I dunno... there's a lot of contrivances and nonsensical crap in this run... maybe it will improve.

Briareos

I've been liking regular old Wolverine lately with the Vendetta line. I might keep picking it up for a couple months to see if that kind of quality continues.

Hensler

I didnt hate Origins untill the recent Chris North issue. Whoever that fucker they wrote in this book was, he ain't the Maverick that's been my favorite X-character for years.

SpeedySwaf

So, is "Origins" a continuation/retcon of the "Origin" miniseries?

Speaking of the latter, what was the general consensus on it? I personally liked it, but I'm not a big X-Men reader and wasn't sure how it affected the timeline of the series...

Hensler

SpeedySwaf wrote:

So, is "Origins" a continuation/retcon of the "Origin" miniseries?

Speaking of the latter, what was the general consensus on it? I personally liked it, but I'm not a big X-Men reader and wasn't sure how it affected the timeline of the series...

Origins is more of a continuation of Origin than a retcon. It's basically Wolverine having flashbacks to adventures in his now remembered past while having adventures in his poorly written present.

Hensler

Also - I dont like the title of this thread. Is it even possible to ask a simple X-Men question anymore?

awesome_andy

We went over this.

And Vincent buy esseentials, they're cheap and contain alot of x-men for your dollar.