I let #xrecs fall by the wayside, but this is a good day to revive it.
MAGNETO TESTAMENT isn't a superhero story. It's a Holocaust narrative, and it's brutal. If you only ever read one X-Men comic, it should be this one.
The afterward also points out that for too many people, Magneto's backstory is their first exposure to the Holocaust. That's fucked up. Talk to your kids. Talk to their teachers about their curriculum. Make sure they know.
X-Rec #4 is FALLEN ANGELS, a spectacularly entertaining miniseries starring a few x-kids and a couple of superheroic lobsters. When Sunspot accidentally hurts his BFF Cannonball, he realizes he has NO CHOICE but to become a villain. He runs away, gets into a Fagin situation with the Vanisher (whose wardrobe is 😖), and has INTENSE ADVENTURES.
Bonus: no one has ever been as thoroughly 14 years old as Sunspot in FALLEN ANGELS. NO ONE. #xrecs
X-Rec #3 is ALL-NEW X-MEN, the series that got me back into the team after a looooong time away. Beast brings all five original X-Men forward in time for Reasons, then can't figure out how to send them back. Time travel shenanigans ensue, plus teenage angst, plus bottled water and burger jokes, plus Morally Dubious Jean Grey. It's great.
No previous x-knowledge required, because none of the X-Men ever shuts up about their past woes. #xrecs
X-Rec #2 can only be ALL-NEW WOLVERINE, the further adventures of Laura Kinney. She gets a new codename, a SUPER-AMAZING LITTLE SISTER/CLONE NAMED GABBY, an actual wolverine sidekick, and a whole mess of new problems to superheroically solve.
Writer Tom Taylor does build on stuff established in Laura's earlier appearances (including X-23), but there's enough context that you can leap straight into this awesome series. #xrecs
I've got a loooooong list of series I trot out when people ask me where they can possibly start with the X-Men, and I realized I haven't shared very many of these X-Recs on Litsy.
I'm gonna remedy that over the next few weeks.
X-23's my absolute go-to. It's about a girl who was raised as a weapon and must now figure out how to be a person. Laura appeared in two miniseries before this, but her first solo series mostly stands alone. #xrecs
