That time a guy at my local comic shop told me to skip all the Claremont X-Men and only read the Jim Lee issues

I trusted him and burned through 12 issues in an afternoon, then realized I missed 16 years of story that made the whole Dark Phoenix saga actually hit hard and now I'm doubling back like an idiot, anyone else get bad jumping-on-point advice from a shop employee?

2 comments

2 Comments

luna5191mo ago

Heard from a podcast that Claremont basically invented the modern X-Men voice, like all the soap opera drama and character depth. Skipping that is like watching only the action scenes from a movie and pretending you got the whole story. Jim Lee's art is flashy but those stories lean so hard on what Claremont built. Did you ever go back and read the Brood Saga or the Morlock stuff?

holly_williams1mo ago

Showed up to the shop the next week with the same guy and asked why he left out the Phoenix stuff. He shrugged and said "those are the good drawings." I spent the next month tracking down back issues of Uncanny 130-138 on eBay for triple cover price. Learned my lesson though. Now I just nod at whatever the comic shop guy says and make my own bad decisions.