Graphic SF Reader Hellfire club machinations, Colossus vs Juggernaut and Lifedeath. All very good. Oh yeah, and John Romita Jr. Did I say John Romita Jr. The way Wolverine manipulates Colossus into getting his arse kicked because it will be good for him psychologically is very amusing, if not good for the surrounding property and its integriy.
Graphic Novel junkie Ok, ok, I should say comic book junkie, because that's what they were called when I first started reading them some decades ago. This whole series of Essential X-men books are a fun read unless you get bogged down in details. I never did, I just enjoyed reading them. This is a great book. Enjoy
Oh, the 80s... Some interesting story arcs and character development! You really get a feel for Nightcrawler, Colossus, Kitty, and Storm. Also, who knew that Charles Xavier was such the ladies' man? At some point, though the series of events takes a turn for the bizarre, and this volume doesn't cover some of the special cross-over series (the Secret Wars, Kitty and Logan mini-series), so it can be kind of confusing. Overall, a must-read for anyone who's read even one Essential X-Men volume!
good, but...... i love x men have done for years probably always will and this is a good collection of stories...the lifedeath stuff about storm is good, forge (one of my favourite characters)gets introduced, wolverine is his usual self, magneto makes an apearance as a good guy....generally theres a lot of good
but...
its maybe just before this time but man do these comics become grim and miserable...i know its a bit old fashioned but sometimes a nice little bit of escapism would be nice rather than mutant angst over and over...i mean hell does anyone actually break a smile during the whole book?? as mentioned before theres a lot of other stuff going on such as secret wars and new mutants so a lot of plots just seem to go awol by the next story....
it is a good collection of stories...but...its not got the same classic status as Byrne era or Jim Lee era....
recommended cautiously
This is *NOT* God Loves, Man Kills Like Lewis Kapell says in his review, this is Essential X-Men volume 5, which does NOT contain "God Loves, Man Kills", which most of these reviews seem to be focusing on. The Essential X-Men books are black & white reprints of the Uncanny X-Men starting with Chris Claremont's first issue.
I enjoyed this, but not as much as the previous volumes. There's nothing remotely as strong as the Dark Pheonix saga, and nothing terribly important seems to happen (with the exception of Ororro's continuing mid-life crisis). This seems to be around the time Marvel started doing crossovers and "event" type comics, as apparently both Secret Wars 1 AND 2 took place during the time the issues in this volume were printed, along with several mini-series, and the launch of the New Mutants comic. The result is that it starts feeling disjointed (like a lot of the modern X-Men stuff does). Some of the most important events that are taking place in these character's lives aren't actually in this book, but rather in the spin-offs, specials, etc., which is very annoying. As an example, early in the book Kitty is on her own, and confronted by Emma Frost (who's supposed to be in a coma) at the end of an issue. It's a perfect cliffhanger...that's never actually resolved in this book, it took place in New Mutants apparently. Instead this book has what seems like a far less interesting story.
Some of the other stories are pretty lame (especially towards the end of the book)-I've more than had my fill of the sewer-dwelling Morlocks, and certainly didn't need to see them take up a big chunk of the book, nor did I need a cross over with the Power Pack... There's almost no time spent on Scott Summer's or his new wife (who just happens to look like Jean), and overall it just doesn't feel like much important happened here. On top of that, Amazon seems to have raised their price on it since I bought it. If you're reading through the X-Men issues from the beginning, it's worth getting this too, but it's not the greatest point to start at, and it's not up to par with the earlier volumes. Hopefully volume 6 (if there ever is a volume 6) will be better.
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