Uncanny X-Men #108 - 143 | Claremont & Byrne

[IMJ]

Obviously this was one of the great runs in all of comic book history. It revitalized the X-Men, and the content from these books have been directly drawn upon across almost all of the X-Men movies and through other forms of media too.

Byrne's pencils and linework are truly classic here too, and Claremont really puts these characters through a series of poignant stories. It's like they aligned the ship in a character-driven direction for the first time in the history of the title with this run. There's so much significant stuff that goes on throughout this entire run, but three of my favorites are:

Uncanny X-Men #129 | an X-Men book analogous to books like Iron Man #55 & Strange Tales #135
Uncanny x-Men #133 | that iconic Wolverine cover and what I think might be the first solo Wolverine story told
Uncanny X-Men #141 | another slew of 1sts here, as well as the start of Days of Future Past, which is such a legendary story in comic history that it's shocking to find that it was nothing more than a 2-issue arc. Nowadays, editorial would've pushed this book into a 6 to 12 issue event just to reprint it as a large trade down the road.

This run was also voted by readers of CBR as the number 2 comic book run of all time here. It was beat out by Gaiman's Sandman, which is hard for me to believe, but I've never read the Sandman run to be honest.

[nycjadie]

These are some of my favorite books. Just sold a few copies of these. The direct versions of these are much harder to find than the newsstands, although high grade newsstand is pretty good too.

[StarBrand]

I've read part of this run, but it's been so long. I guess I need to see if I can pick it up in collected editions.

[superman-prime]

i picked up the hcs a while back amazing run for sure

[Tony_H]

This run and the Perez/Byrne era of Avengers got me hooked on buying monthly comics when I was in grade- and middle-school. I bought 111 off a rotating rack at a convenience store and began a subscribing a short time later. I remember a bunch of these arriving at the house (often rolled up and banged up) in brown paper mailers. I lost interest at 140 and didn't get monthlies of 141 or 142...the change of a kid's whim!

Gaiman's Sandman was fantastic, and he kept the quality of that book high for a long time. It's not unjustly voted #1, I'd say.

[GGSAE]

I have both runs and it’s on my to read list. Ironically I just picked up a small collection two days ago that had 150 or so Xmen starting around 128 (plus about 5 silver age). I’m surprised how cheap you can find some of these books....


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[grendeljd]

Love this era too, and I just re-read them all earlier this year! I think the only Byrne issue I am currently missing is #112, I've been after a good copy of it for years.


Amazing that you can name your top three favourite moments from this era IMJ, all of them really great & solid choices, and yet there's still the whole rest of the Dark Phoenix saga in the mix as well!

My top three favourites of this era are

1) Days Of Future Past 141-142
2) the Proteus saga 125-128
3) Alpha Flight 1st full appearance & battle in Calgary 120-121

Honorable mention to the entire Dark Phoenix story, Kitty Pride's solo fight against the demon in #143 & the circus sideshow issue #111 - the cover alone is a top favourite of mine.

[superman-prime]

days of future is amazing is a little sad its so short

[grendeljd]

days of future is amazing is a little sad its so short

I agree with you & IMJ on that - the story has grown to such a legendary status within the greater framework of the Xmen's history & potentially dark future, it's kind of jarring that this story was actually so short!

[IMJ]

days of future is amazing is a little sad its so short

I agree with you & IMJ on that - the story has grown to such a legendary status within the greater framework of the Xmen's history & potentially dark future, it's kind of jarring that this story was actually so short!

I've always considered that arc that Silvestri drew a few years back (it was a gorgeous book), to be a bit of a sequel to Days of Future Past. But then again, the X-Men have a history of weird, time-traveling dark futures with the involvement of Cable, Bishop and I tthhinnnnkkkk.... was it Collossus? Who turned out to be Bishop's X-traitor? That story dragged on for so long after Bishop was introduced that I fell out of it.

[superman-prime]

was that the one with nightcrallers everywhere and the wolf guy running things if so it was solid for sure

[ShadowTuga]

Some of the comics that made me a fan of this art. I can't actually explain how much of an impact the X-Men were over the portuguese-speaking world (well, at least us and Brazil ); the love that oozes from the letters' pages of these comics is genuine, and this was when DC was viewed as a sort of "old man's comics" publisher (the New Teen Titans would change that perception 180º).
We were reading stories from characters around the world, who had bickering and in-fighting and family ties and OF COURSE, AMAZING visuals. I loved the X-Men duds - I hated the black leather jackets' look of the movies. HATED IT.

My fav 3 stories are the Proteus stuff with Moira, the DPS and a tie between DOFP and the issue with Kitty escaping aBrood N'Garai all by herself on Christmas. And Arcade and Dazzler. The Proletarian. The Alpha stuff- they were actually pretty big around here, for a canadian group of b listers. ALL of it. All.

Seriously, this run was HOT, HOT, HOT around those first 3 years.

One of my fav pages of the run is when Beast is carrying Jean on the snow (1st page, #114). It is so *SQUEE* good. The drops on Hank's fur, the way that he nobly carries his friend, with that semblance. So good.

I also have to thank the popularity of the X-Men that resulted in the crossover between the mutants and the titans- that book made me a DC comics fan, despite being written and drawn by Marvel peeps of the time. But its HUGE, HUGE success changed the publishing plans of Abril, the distributor/translator/etc: the Titans became the first DC title to be a monthly, among ALL Marvel series. Not even the Trinity had ongoings. Nada.

This 3 year run of the X-Men is got to be always top 3 comic book superhero stuff. It changed the game. And it still holds, so strong. I love rereading these every now and then.

edit - brainfart. N'garai demon vs Kitty, not a Brood.

[grendeljd]

days of future is amazing is a little sad its so short

I agree with you & IMJ on that - the story has grown to such a legendary status within the greater framework of the Xmen's history & potentially dark future, it's kind of jarring that this story was actually so short!

I've always considered that arc that Silvestri drew a few years back (it was a gorgeous book), to be a bit of a sequel to Days of Future Past. But then again, the X-Men have a history of weird, time-traveling dark futures with the involvement of Cable, Bishop and I tthhinnnnkkkk.... was it Collossus? Who turned out to be Bishop's X-traitor? That story dragged on for so long after Bishop was introduced that I fell out of it.

I think the Silvestri arc you are referring to is the "Here Comes Tomorrow" arc in New X-Men 151-154, written by Grant Morrison. Loved that story!!! Scary that it actually came out in 2004... thats already too long ago.

Personally, I put the entire Morrison run [114-154] right up alongside the Claremont era as the best Xmen stuff ever written. Taking this quote from Wikipedia, its crazy how much cool stuff happened that still has lasting effects to this day in the xmen world;

Some of the more long-lasting changes occurred during Morrison's run. The secondary mutation of Beast resembles a lion-like creature rather than his former ape-like appearance. Emma Frost was introduced as a member of the team. The ties between Jean Grey and the Phoenix (retconning the retcon) were revisited and the death of Phoenix occurs in Morrison's run. The school expanded from simply a training center to a legitimate school with dozens of mutant students, a story idea that was first explored in the X-Men film. One of the more controversial events of New X-Men happened in issue #115 when the island of Genosha and its inhabitants, including Magneto, were completely destroyed. This set the tone that dominated the rest of Morrison's tenure on the book.[1]

[grendeljd]

Shadowtuga, those reprint books look really cool!!

[superman-prime]

ya it was great all and all those 4 issues were pretty and well written

[ShadowTuga]

I also second JD about Morrison. It is the second best thing ever that happened to the franchise. Even with leather *SQUEE* jackets. First, the stories were really simple to follow if you were new, and if you were a well read X-Men reader- mindblown. The stuff with Emma and Cyclops is the best "relationship stuff" when it comes to the gang. Emma. I loved her when she was this super-hot lady with crazy mental powers who could get really kinky. The line where she said she made a guy experience his lunch going up and down through his inners.. damn, lady! Bada**!
You gotta love Beak, of course, the epythome of "ugly mutant". The Beast arc was also amazing, personal stuff, but sort of above this all, 2 (1?) great characters came out of it. Xorn (how messed up was the reveal?! ) and my man Fantomex. I am a legit Fantomex fanboy. And with Morrison he was *SQUEE* dope- my fav arc is of course, "Assault on Weapon Plus".

Cassandra Nova, Angel- the girl, Quentin, Beak, Dust, and the 2 I prev. mentioned were characters that came to stay and became instant fan-favourites.

After Morrison, IMHO the 3rd and 4th spots for the X-Mount Rushmore of scribes would be Remender (I can't stress enough how Great his Uncanny X-Force series was; The Dark Angel Saga has got to be on eof the best superhero comics of this century, like easily; only downside- it is a bit confusing for newbies with all the alternate reality stuff and AoA characters, but F*** it is awesome; you can't helpt to vote AoA Nightcrawler and AoA Iceman's feud as just awesome comics); then, Joss Whedon- his Astonishing run riffed directly from Morrison, it actually is a true follow-up of sorts, but going in other directions. And it's Whedon- so strong, young female characters had to be forefront- in this case, Kitty is Da Woman.

With Kieron Gillen coming real close (his 20 issue run was severely brought down by the AvX crossover, but the stand alone arcs, when read with UXF and Wolverine & the X-Men by Jason Aaron are nothing short of excellent. Not exaggerating, I have read a ton of X-books and this run is severely, criminally underated as of today.

[grendeljd]

Well, the discussion in this thread has inspired me to go after that last Byrne issue I was missing - pulled the trigger on an eBay listing & now I've got 'em all

Now I just need another 7 issues between 94-106 to complete my Claremont era run (although am I mistaken in thinking that Len Wein wrote #94? Or did he just write Giant Size #1?). Top of that list is #101... I don't know if I could ever afford a #94 at this point, and #101 is almost getting to that point as well.

[grendeljd]

I also second JD about Morrison. It is the second best thing ever that happened to the franchise. Even with leather *SQUEE* jackets. First, the stories were really simple to follow if you were new, and if you were a well read X-Men reader- mindblown. The stuff with Emma and Cyclops is the best "relationship stuff" when it comes to the gang. Emma. I loved her when she was this super-hot lady with crazy mental powers who could get really kinky. The line where she said she made a guy experience his lunch going up and down through his inners.. damn, lady! Bada**!
You gotta love Beak, of course, the epythome of "ugly mutant". The Beast arc was also amazing, personal stuff, but sort of above this all, 2 (1?) great characters came out of it. Xorn (how messed up was the reveal?! ) and my man Fantomex. I am a legit Fantomex fanboy. And with Morrison he was *SQUEE* dope- my fav arc is of course, "Assault on Weapon Plus".

Cassandra Nova, Angel- the girl, Quentin, Beak, Dust, and the 2 I prev. mentioned were characters that came to stay and became instant fan-favourites.

After Morrison, IMHO the 3rd and 4th spots for the X-Mount Rushmore of scribes would be Remender (I can't stress enough how Great his Uncanny X-Force series was; The Dark Angel Saga has got to be on eof the best superhero comics of this century, like easily; only downside- it is a bit confusing for newbies with all the alternate reality stuff and AoA characters, but F*** it is awesome; you can't helpt to vote AoA Nightcrawler and AoA Iceman's feud as just awesome comics); then, Joss Whedon- his Astonishing run riffed directly from Morrison, it actually is a true follow-up of sorts, but going in other directions. And it's Whedon- so strong, young female characters had to be forefront- in this case, Kitty is Da Woman.

With Kieron Gillen coming real close (his 20 issue run was severely brought down by the AvX crossover, but the stand alone arcs, when read with UXF and Wolverine & the X-Men by Jason Aaron are nothing short of excellent. Not exaggerating, I have read a ton of X-books and this run is severely, criminally underated as of today.

Dude, you've been a much more loyal Xmen reader than me - I completely agree with you on the Whedon/Cassady Astonishing Xmen being another top notch run. I've never read anything written by Remender or Gillen though. I gave up on Xmen entirely when they cancelled the original title at 544, (and only got suckered into picking up the "special" #600 issue when it came out).

I mostly found it ridiculously infuriating when they started the excessive reboot/relaunch era where they also thought it was a cool idea to start swapping adjectives around on the titles too. Uncanny X-Force?! No thanks!!

[lorddunlow]

I'm reading this run right now and loving it. This and the ASM run in the other thread are some of my favorite comics.

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[superman-prime]

if half of all comics could be half as good as the 2 runs listed id be a happy camper

[myron]

if half of all comics could be half as good as the 2 runs listed id be a happy camper

What supes said...

[maraxusofkeld]

I also second JD about Morrison. It is the second best thing ever that happened to the franchise. Even with leather *SQUEE* jackets. First, the stories were really simple to follow if you were new, and if you were a well read X-Men reader- mindblown. The stuff with Emma and Cyclops is the best "relationship stuff" when it comes to the gang. Emma. I loved her when she was this super-hot lady with crazy mental powers who could get really kinky. The line where she said she made a guy experience his lunch going up and down through his inners.. damn, lady! Bada**!
You gotta love Beak, of course, the epythome of "ugly mutant". The Beast arc was also amazing, personal stuff, but sort of above this all, 2 (1?) great characters came out of it. Xorn (how messed up was the reveal?! ) and my man Fantomex. I am a legit Fantomex fanboy. And with Morrison he was *SQUEE* dope- my fav arc is of course, "Assault on Weapon Plus".

Cassandra Nova, Angel- the girl, Quentin, Beak, Dust, and the 2 I prev. mentioned were characters that came to stay and became instant fan-favourites.

After Morrison, IMHO the 3rd and 4th spots for the X-Mount Rushmore of scribes would be Remender (I can't stress enough how Great his Uncanny X-Force series was; The Dark Angel Saga has got to be on eof the best superhero comics of this century, like easily; only downside- it is a bit confusing for newbies with all the alternate reality stuff and AoA characters, but F*** it is awesome; you can't helpt to vote AoA Nightcrawler and AoA Iceman's feud as just awesome comics); then, Joss Whedon- his Astonishing run riffed directly from Morrison, it actually is a true follow-up of sorts, but going in other directions. And it's Whedon- so strong, young female characters had to be forefront- in this case, Kitty is Da Woman.

With Kieron Gillen coming real close (his 20 issue run was severely brought down by the AvX crossover, but the stand alone arcs, when read with UXF and Wolverine & the X-Men by Jason Aaron are nothing short of excellent. Not exaggerating, I have read a ton of X-books and this run is severely, criminally underated as of today.

I couldn't have said this better myself. I loved all the new characters Morrison created. When he brought Magneto back disguised as Xorn was amazing.

[kevinbastos]

For me, these WERE comics. Everything else paled in comparison.

I still remember hopping into the comic store as a kid, and rifling through the back issues to find another to fill the run in.

That was 30 years ago. But I can remember filling in the last few in that run, too.

[ShadowTuga]

One of the most iconic moments of this run, imho.
I love this issue (117, debut of Shadow King), and this particular sequence (after a tremendous "psi-war" between these 2) is just awesome comics. This doesn't need any words if one is reading the story.

[ShadowTuga]

Double post, sorry, but I'm currently rerererere....reading these and just wanted to give my 2 cents about one "little" detail:
Wolverine and Colossus' moment in the DM (issue 122), when Logan SNIKTed the controls and just risked his neck (granted, adamantium skeleton would help) in order to make Colossus' snap out of his emo period..Pure Wolverine. Pure Colossus.
It's unbelievable how good and rereadable this series is in 2018. Timeless stuff.