Twenty-four issues-worth of X-Men adventures from the late 70s and early 80s. Including the Dark Phoenix Saga and Days of Future Past, this book sees the X-Men face foes such as Arcade, Proteus, Alpha Flight, D'spayre and the Hellfire Club, as well as introducing characters like Kitty Pryde, Emma Frost and Dazzler.This book constitutes what is probably the most important X-Men run of all time and has both Chris Claremont and John Byrne at the top of their game. The episodic adventures of previou...

Well, these things are huge, so it always takes me a while to get through them. Plus,I can't read at work much anymore because down time has become unheard of.Much like the first volume, I am impressed by the large over arching storylines and bored by the ones that are contained in a single comic. If it's not continued, it's almost worthless. Kitty Pryde's been introduced, and I'm not a fan. However, in reading these comics, a person can easily see why Wolverine got so popular. He really does ju...

Basically this is the best run of the X-Men in my opinion. Mostly because of the culmination of the Phoenix story, but you've also got Days of Future Past, which is probably the most important story in the future direction of the title. Done and redone to death in varying aspects. It also has the Proteus story. This collection also marks the ending of John Byrne's run as artist for the book. It will be hard to go back to Dave Cockrum... But Byrne wanted to do some writing, so he got to go over t...

One of the most important and significant runs in comic book history !! We're talking the Proteus saga - emergence of the Hellfire Club - the Dark Phoenix Saga - the disbanding of Alpha Flight - the Days of Future Past. What can one say about the debutants, here's just some of them - Proteus, Hellfire Club Inner Circle, Sebastian Shaw, Donald Pierce, White Queen (Emma Frost), Black Queen, Kitty Pryde, Dazzler, Dark Phoenix, Days of Future Past reality!!! On top of all that is the incredible char...

4.5 stars. A few issues of filler here and there but, for the most part, Claremont takes the X-Men into the 1980s with a bang. Notable first appearances: Kitty Pryde, The Hellfire Club (including first appearances by members Emma Frost and Sabastian Shaw), Dazzler, Dark Phoenix, Proteus/Mutant X, and Pyro. Also includes the classic stories "Dark Phoenix Saga" and "Days of Future Past".

Its incredible that this one book contains the quality of stories that it does. The hunt for Mutant X. The Dark Phoenix Saga. Cyclops leaving the X-Men (?). Days of Future Past. This was truly a great time to be an X-Men fan. The hunt for the reality shifting Mutant X/Proteus is probably my favorite X-Men story of all time. Tons of tension as the body count rises only to get battles that are absolutely crazy as reality literally gets flipped inside-out. I was a little disappointed that they didn...

This is perhaps THE most iconic story in the entire history of the X-Men. I read it as a kid, "The Dark Phoenix Saga" collected in a trade. It was interesting but a bit hard to follow, as a kid, disconnected from the rest of Claremont's run. Reading it now, for the first time, in the context of his legendary run? It was fantastic. I particularly liked reading "The Phoenix Saga" first and then seeing how it led to "The Dark Phoenix Saga" later. I will admit it is a bit of an abrupt shift, to see

Yeah, this volume was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G from the Dark Phoenix to the Hellfire Club to the arrival of Kitty Pryde, it was a massive big book that transported me back to my mid-teens. These were no longer the childish storylines & artwork of even a few years prior. This was John Byrne revitalizing a once-dormant title & taking us along for a wild ride in doing so. I vividly remember Kitty's clash with the Geiger Alien-like creature & being scared for her as a fellow teen. It was around this time that

THERE ARE 3 BOOKS THAT COVER THE X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST MATERIAL. THIS IS ONLY ONE OF THE THREE NECESSARY TO UNDERSTAND THE WHOLE STORY LINE (for my own personal reference to keep from getting them confused, because two of the titles are EXACTLY the same, the third is similar), this is the third book I review of the three: THE BOOK: The collected issues for this Marvel title include the following: X-Men issues 120-141; The Uncanny X-Men issues 142-144; and The X-Men Annual numbers 3-4. The n...

Comfort comics reading, almost entirely in pamphlet form (except for Dark Phoenix, which I'll review separately.) A couple of observations:1) This is where I started to like Wolverine and also about the last time I liked Wolverine. Claremont and Byrne do a good job of starting to peel back the mystery and adding nuance. Sadly, after this, I just associate the character with overexposure.2) Man, wasn't the introduction of Kitty Pryde great? I love the early issues with her ("Demon" and "Days of F...

This collection has some of the best and engaging classic Claremont X-Men stories, including Days of Future Past and some of the Phoenix Saga stories. I enjoyed reading this immensely.

More classic stories, with some five star art by John Byrne, who's truly remarkable in these issues. Sadly, while Claremont is still a few years away from giving himself completely over to his stylistic excesses, he's still too verbose in these issues, with much more dialogue than is necessary.

To write the Proteus story, the Dark Phoenix Saga, and Days of Future Past while also creating Kitty Pryde, Dazzler, and Mystique in two years is pretty impressive feat.

Highkey wish there were more buddy-adventures with Cyclops and Man-Thing

Great.

Giant-Size X-Men #1 and the comics reprinted in the first volume of Essential X-Men kicked off a new era for the now classic superhero team and this volume seals the deal.

By now everybody on the planet must be familiar with the X-Men. Three big Hollywood movies and countless comic books plus TV cartoons span nearly three decades.But what really happened to Jean Grey when she turned into power incarnate as the Dark Phoenix? I’m not talking the Cartoon TV version, or the major motion picture. I’m talking the “real” story as it happened in the comic books way back when.If you read this collected volume, Essential X-Men Vol. 2, of black and white X-Men comics, compri...

The first thing that really stood out for me in this book was the art work. I’ve always been aware of John Byrne, but until now I hadn’t read anything by him. After reading this collection I can see why he is held in such high regards. The art work in here is fantastic. Everything about it is firing on all cylinders. It’s that crisp, but not hyper-stylized artwork I love in super-hero comics. I enjoy these Essential collections because they are printed in black in white, giving you a chance to

A vast improvement on the completely random first collection, this is far more cohesive in terms of plot. The majority of issues deal with the progression of Jean Grey from Phoenix, to the Black Queen to the Dark Phoenix and detail her tragic death. We also get the introduction of Kitty Pryde (Sprite) and Dazzler, although she leaves after one adventure. The majority of stories are classic X-Men fayre, fun, but ultimately forgettable, although I am rather fond of super-villain Arcade and his mur...

So I finally got to read the famouse Dark Phoenix saga. I can imagine how awesome this must have been 30 years ago. Even nowadays, it's good and interesting reading. The story arcs before it were not that good but after Jean Grey demise Kitty Pryde appeared. As a huge manga fan I really appreciated the addition of this cute loli character to X-men team. ^_^ Moreover, the story arc with Kitty from future was really interesting. This book is really an essential piece of comic history. With so many...