Your choices:


Era 1: the original class

Era 2: the all-new, all-different Claremont/Byrne/Cockrum years

Era 3: Paul Smith years, through to Cyclops' departure, including the introduction of the New Mutants and X-Factor, up to the Mutant Massacre

Era 4: post MM, introduction of Excalibur, Australia years, up to the launch of X-Men and X-Force #1 in '91

Era 5: the 90's, rotating casts with the permanent crossover approach between the 2 core books and all of the satellite books

Era 6: present-day, New X-Men (Morrison), Uncanny X-Men (Casey/Austen), X-treme (Claremont)
[This message was edited Fri Feb 28 23:08:12 PST 2003 by AaronUnlimited]

I choose #4. This is when I got into them. But besides that, I liked seeing them adrift in the world, on the lam and letting the world think they were dead, having no real goal, observing the interesting choices they made, and seeing the team basically fall apart only to regroup and get back to basics in time for #5.

I loved the idea of them working so totally underground and being based in the Australian outback. Marc Silvestri's art style captured that ruggedness perfectly, and the arrival of Jim Lee at the end of this era launched them from the most popular comic book around to a mainstream success. Of course, that ruined the book in later years, but it was fun while it was happening.

aaron

Christopher said:

that's what i figured... that this thread would sink pretty damn fast. or get threadjacked by 2the9s, Battier, and their ilk


thanks though

AaronUnlimited said:

better me than the jackers...

Christopher said:

have i told you lately that i still love ya? been a long time, i think.

AaronUnlimited said:

no you havent i was starting to feel unsexy and getting that not so fresh feeling! !

AaronUnlimited said:

I'm by no means an expert, but I pick Era 3. The X titles were experiencing a resurgence and Marvel was on the dawn of experimenting with a slew of new mutants, storylines, etc. But it was still before all the melodrama of Era 4 (although I love X-calibur)

By the way, who's your favorite X-man, and how would you cast the sequel film?

Lammastide said:

it changes all the time. Magneto and Dark Phoenix have generally been my overall favorites.

i'm really loving what Claremont is doing with Sage right now.

i'd really love to see the Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club in the 3rd movie.

i'd cast:

Shaw/Black King: Gene Hackman
Emma/White Queen: Madonna or Nicole Kidman
Tessa/Sage: Catherine Zeta Jones, mabye.

My memory is fuzzy Aaron... what era was the one with the big cross-comic story "X-Tinction Agenda" and X-Factor... probably #3 right? I'd probably veer towards classic Xmen and #3 then so...

Lammastide said:

Mine is predictable... Wolverine. I think Weapon X could be made into a decent movie

ian said:

X-Tinction agenda was toward the tail-end of #4.

it was kind of the regrouping, after the team had been scattered to the wind. everyone came back together and X-Factor came back into the fold. it was the first step toward the launch of the new X-Men #1.

my favorite era as well, though i like the earlier part of the era as well, after they "died" in Dallas fighting the Adversary.

ian said:

that would be great. the first movie kind of set that up as a possibility.

Weapon X was a great story. i just hope they leave out the recent ORIGIN mbackground, the merchant-ivory style "origin" mini-series marvel whipped up, by committe, for Wolverine's childhood before Hollywood could get to it.

It's a tie between the Byrne era (Death of Dark Phoenix!)and the Paul Smith era for me.

Christopher said:

althom trys not to laugh out loud

Erm... I liked The Age of Apocolapse ones...

I'd have to say Era 5. That's when I first started reading it. Even tho the story lines really didn't make sense all the time . One of my fave storylines/crossovers of that time was the 'Age Of Apocolypse'

It's a just a sentimental thing, I guess.

AaronUnlimited said:

Hmmm, for me it breaks down like this:

1. Era 2: What laid the groundwork for all that came after! You can't beat The Dark Phoenix saga, Wolverine taking on the Hellfire Club single handed, or Nightcrawler facing off against Arcade.

2. Era 4: Cool stuff during the whole "Seige Perilous" time period! Plus, we got to know Psyloche, Dazzler (in her post-disco incarnation) and Longshot!

3. Era 6: Grant Morrison is doing INCREDIBLE stuff! Casey is shaking up "Uncanny", and the Ultimate book gives a fresh look for old and new fans alike

4. Era 3: Big shakeups of the staus quo made this a fun period, but the titles did seem quite adrift for a while, with no clear direction.

5. Era 1: Not nearly as exciting as later stuff, but it did introduce all of the elements that would allow future creators to really go wild.

6. Era 5: My least favorite period. What started off with great promise (Jim Lee's X-Men) degenerated into "multi-crossovers with variant covers polly-bagged with multiple different trading cards ad naseum". Marvel knew they had a cash cow, and wanted to milk it for all it was worth. The result was a whole lot of X titles with very little substance whatsoever. Oh sure, the cover was a groovy cardstock with a hologram and foil lettering, but the story within was about as thin as you could get. Truly, a sad time period for Marvel, and especially the X-Men.

ian said:

Well, you're gonna get your wish. Hugh Jackman, in addition to already being signed for a third "X" movie, has just signed on to do a Wolverine movie that will explore the Weapon X storyline. Apparently, the new film sets all of that up, but we won't see the full scope of it until the Wolvie film. Tyler Mane has also signed up to reprise Sabretooth, so it definitely has promise! Personally, I'm excited about it, since it will give them the chance to really explore the Weapon X arc,while freeing up the other X films to flesh out the other characters.

Nikster said:

AOA was one bright spot in the otherwise dire 90's.

AaronUnlimited said:

why thank you dear. but don't you mean what I'M doing with him?

Essentially 1990-1992. Also, I absolutely loved the "Age Of Apocalypse" in 1994 or 1995 (I forget).

Oh, and sign me up for Wolverine right now!

for me, it's a toss up between eras 2 and 3.

storm is and always will be my favorite character. not the "halle berry" storm. i didn't like how they portrayed her as a pouting, beauty queen

sparxxxtresss said:

i agree. totally miscast. i wish they'd gone with the bad-ass mohawked Storm for the movie. the personality, anyway. maybe not the mohawk

Sage said:

of course. forgive me?

Everything from issue #94 to the "Days of Future Past" storyline. Everything after that paled in comparison.

Personally, I've always found Wolverine terribly boring. He's raw, murderous and comes from an undetermined background, which is attractive to most angst-ridden male youths, so I can understand his popularity. But I've never caught onto him.

My faves have been Storm, Phoenix and (don't laugh) Banshee, and I think (and hope) the 2nd and 3rd movies will revolve heavily around Jean Grey's evolution to Phoenix as much as Wolvie's Weapon X background. Jean was a total joke in the first movie.

By the way... I WANT MARVEL TO DO SOMETHING ELSE WITH ALPHA FLIGHT!!!

Lammastide said:

he wasn't always that way. up through his first mini-series (but before he became the "guest-star of the week" in basically any book that needed a sales boost), he was written as a fairly complex character.

it wasn't until after he was overexposed and too many writers were getting their hooks in him that he became a muddled mess. the characterization that you describe above is what most of the hack writers used for shorthand so they didn't have to deal with the complexities that Claremont had given him.

AaronUnlimited said:

Iman would have been my choice to play Storm. I've never agreed with 90% of the choices people list (like Grace Jones? Storm isn't manly! Angela Bassett? Not exotic enough). Berry was definitely miscast, no doubt about it.