Rating: 
Summary: Missing pages? Good but not great (a la Claremont)
Review: I agree somewhat with the reviewer who asked if pages were missing. I thought the first 3 comics in this collection were quite amazing, but then the series begins to stumble. F.Q. is replaced by someone else whose art is not quite as refined, but aside from that, the story, specifically in the fourth issue, is garbled and confusing. After that, the comics are up and down from issue to issue. Overall, the first three issues were spectacular and then hit-or-miss. I suggest checking this out, and I'll probably check out Volume 2, but if it's as inconsistent, I'm done. As for the comparison to Chris Claremont, there really is no comparison. Claremont's run with Byrne was mind-blowingly amazing. Without Byrne, it was nearly as good. If Morrison can attain a level of consistency, time will tell if he deserves his name in the same sentence as Claremont.
Rating: 
Summary: The Definitive X-Men
Review: I first read the issues collected here a couple years ago, and I was stunned by both Grant Morrison's writing and Frank Quitely's art. Morrison did something most writers hadn't even dreamed of doing: he made the X-Men exciting, vital, angry, and imperiled. He brought shock and heat and urgency, making the team feel like a must-read for the first time in years. And Mr. Quitely, who's art works even better here than in "The Authority", is one of the premiere artists, bringing his unique style to a classic team and rewarding his fans with overflowing riches and glory. So when I decided I wanted to start collecting the TPB editions instead of the single pamphlets, it was a no-brainer that I would start with Morrison's run on the X-Men (which will hopefully continue forever). But an amazing thing happened when I read the collected edition. I ended up liking the storyline more than I did originally. In the monthly serial format, I got a sense of the magnitude of what Morrison was doing, but it wasn't until I read the collected arc that I saw how intricately he wove clues and omens into every scene, building detail upon detail until the final result is devastating. Chris Claremont (both alone and with John Byrne) will always be considered the master of the X-Men, the man who brought life, love, and feeling into one of Stan Lee's most compelling creations. But I think Grant Morrison will end up being the writer who took the X-Men and pushed them to the highest pinnacle possible. As for the story itself? Well, millions of mutants die, people are betrayed, Charles Xavier appears on national television to admit he's a mutant, the Beast is violently beaten by his own student, and that's just a few of the things that take place while Grant Morrison makes good on the promise that the Marvel Universe will never be the same again.
Rating:
Summary: Breath-taking
Review: I guess most of the reviews here have described the sypnosis, so I'll skip that. This is the first arc of the New X-Men series, and it was obvious much effort was put in to make it great. To a certain extent, it did. A very refreshing read away from the rather stale Uncanny X-Men, and having Emma Frost joined the X-Men was a really bold move. The artwork was fantastic. Several portions of this did not have dialouge, but the effects were brought across as good. The New X-Men combined classic story-base with some modern story-telling that fully explores the possibilites presented by the term "graphic novel.". A highly recommended read.
Rating:
Summary: Morrison and Quietely bring back the ol' Marvel style
Review: I have to say that this collection of stories is better than most of the series I have seen of late. Especially the first one with the explosion and destruction of many mutant citizens. The characters seem to be fresher and more realistic. It was like reading the story boards for the next X-Men feature film.
Too bad Morrison and Quitely won't have a long term run on this title. Remember Curt Swan's art on Superman and how long he stayed with the title? X-Men needs these guys on the title for at least five years to revive them to new heights again. It's like the old magic with Lee and Jack Kirby have returned again! I should add that Clearmont and Byrne revived the title again in the late seventies...and don't forget artist Dave Cockrum......although Morrison and Quitely have a style all their own; they have been reborn with a new vision of substance and ol' Marvel Magic.
Rating: 
Summary: X-tremely disappointing
Review: I should start off by saying I'm not an X-men aficionado. This is the first comic series I've every read with an 'X' in the title. However, I've read some of Grant Morrison's other work, the first Invisibles compilation and Batman: Arkham Asylum. The man is an absolute genius, and an absolute lunatic! He maniacal intelligence usually makes for a delightful read. I had also recently seen the X2, and thought it was even better than the first. So, I figured with the combination of Morrison and the great characters I'd seen in the movie, how could I go wrong? Well, a few clever jokes aside, this was just a bunch of underdeveloped characters running around killing each other. I just might be unused to the speed at which these types of comics advance their plots, but I saw none of Morrison's cleverness. I found some of his darkness here, but instead of being subtle and chilling, it was overblown and silly. The movie was had been silly, too, but just silly enough for you to be able to enjoy it. Sigh--I guess I'm just not X-fan material.
Rating:
Summary: One of their best stories
Review: I've read the story before it came as a TPB and i loved it.
What The X-men lacked in the last few years is one good story ,an original plot (clermont did a great job with x-trem but his last x-men stories lacked somthing). the story brings us in a trobled time for the x-men. Cyclop has beed separeted from Apocalips, beast form had manifested into a new strange one ,Jean suffer from Scott's straeng mood after all he's been through' don't forget they just prevented a war and Logan is still logan.
Be prepered to meet new uniforms new vilians and a new world (supposedly without Magneto)
Rating:
Summary: The X-Men books can exist without Claremont!
Review: Much to the dismay of the anal retentive fanboys who dwell in the yesteryear, there is life after Claremont! Hats off to Morrison for revitalising the personas of the X-Men cast members and making these characters interesting again.
The script contains the right dose of intrigue, adventure and relevance as to why Professor Charles Xavier created the X-Men. Grant Morrison shows that he respects the past but does not sickeningly dwell in it like a broken vinyl record. His imagination and writing skill is propelling the X-Men forward which is what this series demands to make it relevant again besides making it the forerunner in the super-hero genre. Morrison breathes new life into these characters. His dialogue is refreshing and he allows the penciller to convey emotion, thought and expression without clogging the panels with useless text that condescendingly baby sits the reader as to what is depicted. The pacing is absolutely flawless and includes a praiseworthy blend of sarcasm, humour, intensity and character interaction. Morrison's debauched imagination, ideas and concepts is what the X-Men series craved to make us stop longing for the "good ol' days" of Claremont and Byrne.
The opening page featuring Cyclops' dialogue and depiction of Wolverine wreaking carnage boldly announces Morrison's arrival on the book. He clearly and concisely explains the raison d'être of the X-Men without insulting the intelligence of old and new readers. Morrison's take on Wolverine is quite refreshing. He has injected a hilarious sense of wit to his persona that finally strays from the boring gloom'n'doom tone which interminably smothered the X-Men titles for years.
Finally, there is a genuine reason to buy X-Men. Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely are doing what prior creators have failed to do in the last decade; make the title entertaining again! From the opening pages to the facial expressions depicting Cassandra Nova's evil glee, Emma Frost's frigid attitude and Jean Grey's convulsions, Quitely's style is going to leave its mark on the series in the same manner that John Byrne, Marc Silvestri and Jim Lee did on Uncanny X-Men. Quitely's art is bigger than life. The panels are daring and beautifully detailed. His sense of storytelling and skills of the sequential art will undoubtedly give the reader a true sense of cinematic tempo that is required to make the X-Men titles a visual success.
Grant Morrison's writing skill, imagination and ability has long been proven to me on series such as The Invisibles, Animal Man and JLA. Finally, X-Men will revolt and shock those who resist solid artistic change just as it will be a Godsend to readers who want to see it progress beyond the stagnate boundaries that the books were imprisoned in for the last decade. Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely are exactly what this franchise needed to not only recapture its past glory but propel it forward to that segment of the audience that craves bold entertainment. This creative team is finally bringing back the excitement that the X-Men books once stood for.
Rating:
Summary: This is much too good to be anything but a vivid,fitfuldream
Review: Ok. I will skip all of the usual praise and adulation that the vast majority of us constant readers tend to spout upon writing these reviews, if they can be truly called reviews at all. There are a multitude of things that i could say, but i won't waste anyone's time by putting my entire thought pattern down here. I will say only what is most important, and that is that this version of the X-men is the best i have ever read. Period. That is to say, after the Claremont/Byrne period. I mean, you can't say X-men without thinking of what they did for the title and characters, not to mention the history. For those of us that're reading this and have not bothered to read these stories, these newer ones i mean, well, it would be a wise thing to get to it. The characterization is the best i have ever read. The characters themsleves.........they don't come any better or more real than this. That's a true statment. It is. The status quo is shattered beyond belief and the villians.........they are truly monstrous. They kill. They maim. The twist the xworld inside and out and inside again, and the best part of it all? It means everything to these books. What happens in the book, these stories, matters now. There are things being done here that have never EVER been done anywhere else. I won't say anything else, but to read the books. Trust me, they will make you, force you, to rethink everything you ever thought couldn't go on in the Marvel Universe or anywhere for that matter
This has been a review from Hawksmoor./.
Yes. For those of you that read comics, that's where i got it from, alright.
Rating:
Summary: Sleek, Vibrant and Very Adult: New X-Men
Review: The word I thought of in reading Quitely and Morrison's version of the X-men was "dense." As in "the work exhibited some density": every frame and every sentence played an important role in the development of the story. There wasn't much, if any, creative waste, if i can phrase it that way. Another word I thought of was "beautiful": Quitely's lines and Morrison's words stand separately and work together both, forming a very clean, excitingly fluid story reminiscent of some of John Byrne's or Neal Adams's best work. It's some very good comic story telling. I would recommend the collection to any fan of detailed comic art and mature writing. Thank you. Roland
Rating:
Summary: New X-Men = Old X-Men (which is a good thing)
Review: The X-Men, as you may know, have had a long and winding trip through history, but they've never stood at a more exciting place than where they are right now. Pre-1991, it was pretty simple; there was Uncanny X-Men, and that's about it (oh sure, you can count New Mutants and somesuch if you want, but they weren't proper X-Men...). By 1991, Jim Lee and Chris Claremont had added so many new characters, that a spin-off series, simply called X-Men, was created. Throughout the past ten or twelve years, these two series have taken readers to a variety of places, some good, some bad. But one thing that has surprised everyone is the number and amount of spin-off mini- and maxi-series that have been derived from the two dominant X-Men titles, and not all of them have been worth reading. In fact, over the last few years of the nineties, it was getting to the point where *none* of the X-Men titles were really worth reading (debatable, but with a limited amount of time on your hands, true...). Then came along the Ultimate X-Men, Marvel's second Ultimate title (after flagship character Spidey, of course) which featured a retelling of the X-Men story from day one, but with a modern setting and new takes on many of the characters and classic themes. Ultimate X-Men quickly became recommended reading, as well as the best X-book out there, hands down. Enter Grant Morrison. Hail Morrison as savior of the X-Men. With both the X-Men title and the Uncanny X-Men seeming stale and self-absorbed in light of Ultimate X-Men's success and creative simplicity, Marvel wisely decided to seriously revamp their two flagship X-titles, and the result is this book. While Uncanny X-Men stayed Uncanny, the X-Men became "New X-Men" to distinguish the point where amazing writer Grant Morrison took over. Uncanny adapted as well, changing which characters it would use to accomodate the stars of New X-Men (with the slight exception of Wolverine, who's basically allowed to be wherever he wants whenever, because he's that cool...). With New X-Men, Morrison strips down the team to five core members, and three of them are of the original five X-Men (Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast), which is VERY cool. Also in the mix are Wolvie and Emma Frost, the White Queen of the Hellfire Club. Boy, I sure remember when she hated the X-Men... That's the coolest thing about the X-Men: their enemies aren't cardboard cut-outs, but real people (well, sort of) whose opinions and emotions develop with experience. These five, led by Professor X, are functioning as "semi-permanent" staff at the X-Mansion (and subsequently teachers at Xavier's School for the Gifted) while the "away team" (which includes the two other original X-Men, Iceman and Angel, as well as fan-fave Nightcrawler) can be seen in action in the Uncanny X-Men. So far, the action is better at the school. The story is a thriller; there's a new hyper-enemy who presents a greater threat than the X-Men have ever seen (again), and we learn new things about Professor X with each development. It's development itself that makes Grant Morrison such a great writer for the X-Men, because as the stakes get higher, the former moralities and simple-minded worldviews of some of the X-Men (mostly Scott, Jean and Charles Xavier himself) are challenged and blown away by Wolverine and Emma Frost, their new vicious enemy, and the changing world itself. Be prepared for some decisive action you may not have expected from such peace-loving mutants (Xavier with a gun?). But despite the innovations over comic-book ethics and one-dimensional characters that Morrison makes, this is really a return to form for the X-Men, which is a good thing. The main problem with the X-Men is the fact that there's so many of them, and all the spin-offs and cameo appearances and team-roster changes can get annoying. Morrison picked a solid stay-at-home team, highlighting the 3 original characters who really would function close to Prof X and adding some spice with Wolverine and the White Queen. It's Morrison's ability to focus on personal interaction that makes these 5 X-Men (does Emma Frost, the White Queen, formerly of Hellfire Club fame really count as an X-Man? I have a feeling that she doesn't consider herself one...) work so well together. The art is AMAZING. Personally, Frank Quitely's 3-dimensional sense in each panel makes this some of the best comic art ever, and stand-in Ethan van Sciver (and later Igor Kordley) make fine replacements, albeit each with a very different style than Quitely. In summary, if you know anything about the X-Men, start reading this book now, even if you don't like what you've read before. If you're completely unfamiliar with the X-Men, this can make a great place to start, but be prepared not to understand all the past-references the characters make from time to time, but if you're an astute reader, you don't need to understand everything they mention to still be able to pick up the action and drama between the characters. If you want a completely fresh start, try Ultimate X-Men, but beware that those characters are in a separate universe than these, so don't cross your wires when you come back to reading this book, as you will eventually if you are interested in the X-Men at ALL. This Trade collects issues #114-117, as well as a really cool 2001 annual which includes Domino (remember her?) as a main character. Overall, a highly enjoyable read, and you must pick up the next two trade paperback collections as well... As for Uncanny, I say skip it. X-treme X-Men, however, is worth reading once you've devoured these New X-Men books and want to read about some of the other X-Men (ever wondered what happened to Storm, Rogue, Bishop, etc?, check out X-treme, plus Claremont's writing it!)
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