Cut, because although I know at least a handful of people will click through, largely I cannot imagine this is of interest to anyone but myself. :)
Okay, so having read Whedon’s run on ASTONISHING X-MEN (which was by and large all right; liner notes suggest I can’t hold Colossus’s return against him because, unsurprisingly, Marvel asked him to bring him back), I have gone to the internet with grim determination to figure out What To Read Next.
Turns out Whedon’s run, at least, takes place largely outside the rest of the X-Men continuity. This is because 1. Whedon apparently doesn’t like major crossover events (which I can sympathize with) and 2. there were so many delays between issues that it would’ve been really hard to keep up anyway. So it perhaps wasn’t especially useful in terms of X continuity, but Kitty Pryde’s story was…really very good, so I’m glad I read it. I’ve no idea if Warren Ellis’s ASTONISHING is within or without the continuity, but I’ll pick it up when there’s a 12-issue hardback out.
However, starting here did at least give me a place to begin, so it was worth doing. The storyline more or less concurrent to Whedon’s ASTONISHING is HOUSE OF M, which I’ve read parts of. There’s a hardcover out that collects the main X-Men storyline there, so I’ll need to pick that up. Then it’s followed by DECIMATION, DEADLY GENESIS, ENDANGERED SPECIES, MESSIAH COMPLEX (which is in turn followed by the DIVIDED WE STAND storylines, which are apparently none of them an actual major story arc in themselves), and the evidently on-going MESSIAH WAR.
This does not take into account anything with CIVIL WAR, SECRET INVASION, or DARK REIGN, which are all major crossover events that have happened in the past five years, which I will probably try to sort out later. Nor does it deal with the pre-Wedon, pre-HOUSE OF M Grant Morrison run, because although I appreciate many people feel otherwise, Frank Quitely’s art makes my eyes bleed, and I cannot tell one character from another when Chris Bachalo is at the artistic helm. And also because I generally loathed the storylines, so I have no desire to re-visit them. (Besides, I know essentially what happened. Scott did Emma. Sentinel did Genosha. Cassandra Nova did Xavier. Jean died. Again. I think that about sums it up….)
Anyway, so there I am. I do kind of wish I was in the States so I could justify writing off dozens of graphic novels as a business expense…:)