Question of the Week: Ok, What the Heck is the Right Order for X-Men Events?

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• I noticed you don't have Regenesis listed here. Is that intentional?

  I started with MU last year and read from Avengers: Disassembled to the beginning of AvX. Decided to go back to House of M and work forward with more X Men. Definitely not regretting it. Just finished Second Coming and enjoyed it SO much. I'm excited to continue.

  Your reading order has been invaluable.

• Thanks Dave for making these guides to help people like me who would have no idea where to start. I used your ultimate universe guide and now going through part 1 of the complete reading guide. By following the complete reading guide will I cover all of the material in the character/team guides?

  • Much of it, but there are cases where the individual characters are more detailed. Working on closing that gap, but if you have a specific character you like, I'd make sure to check out that guide. Enjoy the comics!

• Last night I opened up Remender's Uncanny X-Force # 1 on MU, based on positive reviews here and elsewhere, and got about 8 pages in before I realized this is definitely continuing a narrative from another comic, and is not a jumping on point. When I realized there was a previous related X-Force series from Kyle/Yost, and that that series is launched out of another X-event, and crosses over with even more events as it goes on, it all started to get a bit overwhelming.

  So while I think it's awesome that you made this (and other) reading order guides, I think the unanswered question is: Is it worth it?

  And on a more personal helpful to just to me note: Can Remender's UXF be enjoyed without any of the back story?

  • The Kyle/Yost X-Force is a bit underrated now simply because Remender's was so good. You don't necessarily need it to understand the next run (once you get past the opening, you should be pretty up to speed), but it's a fun series. If you're invested in the X-Men, I'd say go ahead and go back for it.

  • Just to chime in on the "is it worth it?", I think so. Those back to back X-Force series are two of my favorite series Marvel has put out in the last however many years. (I wanted to say ten years, but K/Y X-Force may be older than that.)

    I don't think you need to read other series to jump into K/Y-Force, just know that at the beginning, Cyclops is super serious (no way!) about protecting mutant kind. He puts together X-Force in secret to eliminate the most serious threats to the race. The series is very good, IMO. It does go crossover crazy (Necrosha, Second Coming, Messiah War) after a bit. I love Necrosha, mainly for its use of old New Mutants characters, as well as those left standing from the K/Y New X-Men series. I think I liked Second Coming & Messiah War, but I'll be honest, I can't remember what they were about based on just the name.

    I liked Remender's Uncanny X-Force even more. It's self contained throughout, so need to worry about it being waylaid by crossovers. I don't know that you even need to read K/Y-Force to jump into this series. It carries over the premise -- secret X-Team, extreme threats, extreme measures -- but the team is largely different. From what I can remember, only Wolverine and Archangel are in both books. It would probably be helpful if you've read, or are at least aware of: the Angel bits in Fall of the Mutants, Age of Apocalypse, and parts of Wolverine Origins.

    Great stuff, though. Two of my favorite non-Claremont X-runs.