Aside from the first few volumes of Ultimate X-Men, I've never read any X-men stories before. After doing some research, I found that Grant Morrison and Joss Whedon have both written X-Men stories and, as a fan of both of them, these seemed like good places to start. Are they both worth reading? Are they both going to be easy to understand, or should I read some other issues/series to figure out what's going on beforehand? And according to one thing I read, Whedon's Astonishing X-Men is essentially a sequel to Morrison's New X-Men - is that true? And if so, is it important to read Morrison's stuff before Whedon's, or could I read Astonishing X-Men first and come back to read Morrison's New X-Men later? I ask the last part only because my local library has all of Whedon's run, but none of Morrison's. Thanks for any help you can give me!

I would suggest reading Morrison's before Whedon, I loved Morrison's run. A lot of people hated it. As for Whedon's, flawless. If you want some real good x reading, check out some 80 x books. New Mutants, Excalibur, and X-Factor were beyond amazing. Also, check out some Claremont Uncanny's. They are beyond amazing too. I would also suggest that you check out the House of M run, Messiah Complex, and Second Coming.

Most of the X-Men fans loved them. I'm not really a fan but I read them. They were decent.

Loved them. They really helped bring the X-Men into the modern era.

Morrison's New X-Men is my favourite X-Men run.

Morrison's was the shizz nizz.

And to answer your question, I'd suggest picking up Morrison's before you go to Whedon's.

Whedon's X-Men is probably the best non-Claremont X-Men run you'll get.

I would read Morrison's story arcs before Whedon's, but really, it's just that a couple of big events happened during New X-Men that are referenced in Astonishing X-Men, but nothing so crazy that you couldn't catch up without a massive re-read.

Yeah, it's not essential to read, but it's beneficial.

You should read Morrison's run before Joss Whedon's run on "Astonishing X-Men," but I've actually read Joss Whedon's run on "Astonishing X-Men" first before Morrison's run on "New X-Men," so you could read Joss Whedon's run on Astonishing X-Men first and still be able to understand what is going on.

Whedon's run was meant to be the sequel to Morrison's run.

Those two runs are the best X-Men stories ever done, IMO.

Morrisons run was the best, it breathed much needed new life into the X-Men books, it comes before the events of Astonishing as already mentioned

@Gambit1024 said:

Whedon's run was meant to be the sequel to Morrison's run.

Those two runs are the best X-Men stories ever done, IMO.

no way, Cross Time Capers from Excalibur ( Davis/Claremont) rus was the best

Seeing as you're just getting into the X-men I would suggest going onto Marvel.com and subscribe to Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited (you can choose to do it for one month for about $6). This lets you read online almost all of the past x-men stories including New x-men, Astonishiong, Messiah Complex, Utopia, Second Coming and other marvel comics aswell. This will save you a lot of money.

Morrissons run is important and full of great stories but I couldn't stand the artwork. Whedons astonishing X-men picks up where Morrisson left off and IMO is the greatest run on the x-men and in comics in general. The artwork was great aswell so I wholeheartidly recommend that you pick it up.

Seeing as you're just getting into the X-men I would suggest going onto Marvel.com and subscribe to Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited (you can choose to do it for one month for about $6). This lets you read online almost all of the past x-men stories including New x-men, Astonishiong, Messiah Complex, Utopia, Second Coming and other marvel comics aswell. This will save you a lot of money.

Morrissons run is important and full of great stories but I couldn't stand the artwork. Whedons astonishing X-men picks up where Morrisson left off and IMO is the greatest run on the x-men and in comics in general. The artwork was great aswell so I wholeheartidly recommend that you pick it up.

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate all the advice! I'm going to look for Morrison's run before I get to Whedon's Astonishing X-Men, but based on your comments I'm really excited for both of them!

@Dman1366: I'll make sure and look up all of your suggestions as well - I'd heard Claremont's Uncanny X-Men was really good and read a bit about the recent stuff like House of M but I hadn't heard anything about the others you suggested, New Mutants, Excalibur and X-Factor. Looking forward to reading all of those once I'm done!

@Osian2: I hadn't heard about that Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited, but I looked it up and I was blown away by the massive library they had, using that will be way cheaper than buying them all. Thank you SO much!

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate all the advice! I'm going to look for Morrison's run before I get to Whedon's Astonishing X-Men, but based on your comments I'm really excited for both of them!

@Dman1366: I'll make sure and look up all of your suggestions as well - I'd heard Claremont's Uncanny X-Men was really good and read a bit about the recent stuff like House of M but I hadn't heard anything about the others you suggested, New Mutants, Excalibur and X-Factor. Looking forward to reading all of those once I'm done!

@Osian2: I hadn't heard about that Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited, but I looked it up and I was blown away by the massive library they had, using that will be way cheaper than buying them all. Thank you SO much!

@Dman1366 said:

@Gambit1024 said:

Whedon's run was meant to be the sequel to Morrison's run.

Those two runs are the best X-Men stories ever done, IMO.

no way, Cross Time Capers from Excalibur ( Davis/Claremont) rus was the best

Were those from the days where comic book characters would say exactly what they're doing as they're doing them? Because I can't stand those stories...

@Ewan17 said:

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate all the advice! I'm going to look for Morrison's run before I get to Whedon's Astonishing X-Men, but based on your comments I'm really excited for both of them!

@Dman1366: I'll make sure and look up all of your suggestions as well - I'd heard Claremont's Uncanny X-Men was really good and read a bit about the recent stuff like House of M but I hadn't heard anything about the others you suggested, New Mutants, Excalibur and X-Factor. Looking forward to reading all of those once I'm done!

@Osian2: I hadn't heard about that Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited, but I looked it up and I was blown away by the massive library they had, using that will be way cheaper than buying them all. Thank you SO much!

You're welcome. They update their library every week also so there's always something new.

morrisons run was sh!t incarnate with horrible art. whedon was awesome.

Whedon's story lines and antagonists didn't do as much for me, but he understood the characters well. I loved Morrison's run, my only gripe being with where he took Magneto... he erased the shades of gray that made him one of the strongest characters in all of comicdom. Other than that great run, the other run I would add to these is Claremont's run, from about 1986 to 1991. A lot of famous, seminal story lines in there.

@Ewan17 said:

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate all the advice! I'm going to look for Morrison's run before I get to Whedon's Astonishing X-Men, but based on your comments I'm really excited for both of them!

@Dman1366: I'll make sure and look up all of your suggestions as well - I'd heard Claremont's Uncanny X-Men was really good and read a bit about the recent stuff like House of M but I hadn't heard anything about the others you suggested, New Mutants, Excalibur and X-Factor. Looking forward to reading all of those once I'm done!

@Osian2: I hadn't heard about that Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited, but I looked it up and I was blown away by the massive library they had, using that will be way cheaper than buying them all. Thank you SO much!

no problem man, i think you would LOVE Excalibur. (1st series)

@KainScion: cool

i dont like morrisons new x-men he killed off jean grey the heart of the x-men with xavier being the soul and scott being the brain....i like wheldon because his run was more darker and edger

i dont like bendis either he made it seem babyish

by the way why did they hint scarlet witch would fight hope in avx 0 but it was nothing but two stories about hope and scarlett witch feeling left out and misunderstood?????

I really liked Morrison's run he really dived into the problems that mutants faced, and his character dynamic was amazing. Whedon's first 8 issues were his best after that I felt let down, at least he understood characters, and their relationships.

@hopesummersforthefuture: Why the hell did you want to spoil jean's death in the new x-men? i was thinking of picking it up, but because of that massive spoiler i might just skip morrisons run and pick up the astonishing x-men instead, how do you guys have fun while knowing in the back of your head that a specific character dies? makes it so much less entertaining to read

@ClumzyDragon: Jean died 12 years ago, this thread is also 4 years old, how is it a spoiler that Jean is dead. It's not a spoiler that Rihanna didn't marry Jay_Z

@del_torro: well this thread started because op hadn't read and wanted to know which series to read first, which is why i came here as well, so don't you think its pretty stupid to spoil a part of the story, knowing that op hasn't read either series? (TWD SPOILERS) its like when someone asks if they should read or watch the walking dead, and someone replies with 'its alright, but i hated that they killed off glenn'