Online comics resources

I haven’t collected comics in about a decade now, but used it used to be an all-consuming obsession in my early childhood and all through my teens. I thought about getting back into it, but a decade’s a lot of comics to get up with. Can anyone recommend any online resources for the major Marvel titles, specifically the X-titles? I’m looking specifically for sites detailing a year-by-year (if not issue-by-issue) history. From browsing through the latest issues on the shelf and taking a look at all the unfamiliar characters I’m obviously seriously out of the loop.

Jeremy Ulrey

Try http://www.uncannyxmen.net

They’ve got a pretty good review section for individual issues.

As another one-time reader to Marvel who’s just recently come back after being driven off by the crap decisions of the 90’s, let me recommend the first couple of Weapon X TPBs (Frank Tieri writing) for darkness and guts. How much you can get into it might depend on how much of a comic-geek you were in earlier years – the cast is mostly B-string characters, but at least they die with satisfying regularity.

The new Wolverine series (Rucka, though he’s leaving soon) is good for an old favorite that needs minimal re-introduction and it’s only up to issue #7 so it shouldn’t be hard to find the back-issues if you like it.

New Mutants vol 2 for a series that’s largely character development with a moderate dose of teenage angst and it’s only on issue #7 as well. There are some characters from NM vol 1 involved as teachers, but it mostly handles an all-new cast of students at Xavier’s, so there’s little to worry about in the way of story-baggage.

X-Treme X-Men (Claremont writing) isn’t bad, but they’re in the middle of an arc right now, so it might be a little hard to figure out what’s going up. The cast, though, is by and large recognizable…Gambit, Storm, Rogue, Bishop, Cannonball, and Kitty Pryde, I think. There’s some odd woman named Sage on there too, but I know squat about her.

New X-Men is supposed to be good, but it’s so chock-full of Grant Morrison’s OCs – as well as being on the downswing of an arc itself – that it’s likely the hardest of the 3 X-titles to get into if you’ve been gone for a bit. Morrison is supposed to be leaving soon – with issue #150, I believe, so it might be a good idea to jump on board at #151.

Uncanny X-Men (Chuck Austen writing) is pure poison right now. The characters are 2D, the art is uneven at best, and the stories are worm-infested excretions from the bowels of the last dysenteric leper in hell. Try not to pick up any books that have been exposed to UXM #411 up on through the present. If you must, disenfect them before reading. The quality on the book…just isn’t very good right now. shudder

Erm…sorry. Went off on a tagent there. Hope the link helps.

Suzene

http://www.comicbookresources.com/ for a more general interest comic site.

The Unofficial Handbook of the Marvel Universe.

Some of the bios aren’t up to date, but they’re detailed and contains plenty of spoilers.

Or you could get the ‘Ultimate X-Men’ series, which kicks off fresh at year zero with no plot baggage.