Reddit reviews Astonishing X-Men By Joss Whedon & John Cassaday Ultimate Collection Book 2

Chronologically, it would look like this:

• New X-Men vol. 1
  
• New X-Men vol. 2
  
• New X-Men vol. 3
  
• Astonishing X-Men Ultimate Collection Book 1
  
• House of M
  
• Astonishing X-Men Ultimate Collection Book 2
  
• Messiah Complex

There are a few different places you can start:

If you HAVE to start from the beginning just read the first 24 issues, you can then skip over to Claremont's era

My recommendation would be to either start with Chris Claremont's 1st era (aka 70's) & 2nd era (aka 80's) on Uncanny X-Men or from 2001-ish (aka modern X-Men) time period onwards onwards. Either way just skip the 90s for now, you can alway go back to that later.

• Claremont's first era (70s): You can buy them HERE and HERE
  
  
• Claremont's second era (80's): You can buy them HERE and HERE
  
  If you want to start with Modern X-Men...
  
  
• ...you can start with Grant Morrison's run on New X-Men which you can buy HERE
  
  
• Joss Whedon's run on Astonishing X-Men start's right where Morrison's New X-Men leaves off and you can buy that HERE and HERE
  
  From there you can get caught up pretty easily if you follow this list in order:
  
  
• House of M (buy here)
  
• Messiah Complex (buy here)
  
• Second Coming(buy here)
  
• Schism (buy here)
  
• Avengers Vs X-Men (buy here)
  
  From there I would move on to the current All-New X-Men and Uncanny X-Men titles:
  
  
• Read all of All-New X-Men (pre Battle of the Atom Crossover) Buy here: VOL 1 & VOL 2 / VOL 3
  
• Read all of Uncanny X-Men (pre Battle of the Atom Crossover) Buy Here: VOL 1 / VOL 2
  
• Read Battle of the atom crossover (buy here)
  
• Catch up with All-New X-Men VOL 4 / TRIAL OF JEAN GREY / VOL 5
  
• Catch up with Uncanny X-Men VOL 3 / VOL 4
  
  Great, now you're all caught up!
  
  PS, the great thing about X-Men is there is a ton of content to explore aside from the main storyline!
  
  
• X-Statix (buy here)
  
• Uncanny X-Force (buy here)
  
• X-Factor (starts with these two: HERE and HERE)
  
• Cable & Deadpool (buy here)
  
• Wolverine & The X-Men (buy here)
  
• Ultimate X-Men (start HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE)
  
  
  ...and much more!
  
  Happy reading! :)

X-Men (1975 - 1981)
Giant Size X-Men #1
Uncanny X-Men #94 - #124
Uncanny X-Men Annual #3
Uncanny X-Men #125 - #138
Uncanny X-Men Annual #4
Uncanny X-Men #139 - #143
Uncanny X-Men Omnibus Vol. 1
Uncanny X-Men Omnibus Vol. 2
Maybe better ways to get this that are more cost effective but this is one option (goes for all the links in this post).

If you know you can't get into comics from the late 70's and early 80's because the writing style bothers you then I would look at either Grant Morrison's New X-Men or Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men.
X-Men (2001 - 2004)
New X-Men #114 - #117
New X-Men Annual 2001
New X-Men #118 - #154
New X-Men Omnibus

X-Men (2004 - 2006)
Astonishing X-Men #1 - #24
Giant-Size Astonishing X-Men #1
Astonishing X-Men Ultimate Collection 1
Astonishing X-Men Ultimate Collection 2

IMO the Claremont, Cockrum, and Byrne stuff is much better then the others and holds up to this day however it was written in a time when you did have to read the comics there are lots of words compared to a modern comic, this bothers some people.

X-Men!

Go to you library and see if they have these (if they don't, get the ISBN numbers from their Amazon page and give those to your librarian. They can get the books on inter-library loan).

The list covers stories from 2001 onward (in order) ;)

• New X-Men by Grant Morrison Ultimate Collection Vol 1, Vol 2, & Vol 3
  
• Astonishing X-Men by Joss Whedon Ultimate Collection Vol 1 & Vol 2
  
• House of M
  
• Messiah Complex, Messiah War, & Second Coming
  
• Avengers vs. X-Men
  
• All-New X-Men by Brian Michael Bendis Vol 1, Vol 2, & Vol 3
  
• Battle of the Atom
  
• All-New X-Men by Brian Michael Bendis Vol 4
  
• All-New X-Men: The Trial of Jean Grey
  
• All-New X-Men by Brian Micahel Bendis Vol 5, Vol 6, & Vol 7
  
• Extraordinary X-Men Vol 1, Vol 2, Vol 3
  
• Death of X
  
• Inhumans vs. X-Men
  
  Any of the first six bullet points would be good starting points, and then after that Extraordinary X-Men would be the starting point nearest to the current comics.
  
  Or, if you don't want a bunch of back issues check out current issues of X-Men Gold and X-Men Blue!

You can also go back to the semi-recent past, when the X-Men more-or-less entered the contemporary era, at the beginning of what's essentially been one big story.

• Grant Morrison's NEW X-MEN One of the best X-runs of all time: the team takes on threat after threat, mostly new villains. Some of the most imaginative yet faithful X-Men comics you'll ever read. I really can't praise it highly enough. (Available as an omnibus, or in 3 big paperbacks: 1, 2, 3.)[Cast: Xavier, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast, Wolverine, Emma Frost]
  
  
• Joss Whedon's ASTONISHING X-MEN Following up Morrison's run, Whedon does a great run that's less ambitious than Morrison's run, but just as classic. Available in two big paperbacks: 1, 2.
  
  
• Brian Bendis' Avengers Disassembled / House of M In his very first story on Avengers, Brian Bendis changes everything for the mutants of the Marvel Universe. I don't want to give much away, but this seriously affected every X-story that followed. That was and still is a HUGE deal. Part One: Avengers Disassembled , Part Two: House of M.
  
  
• Ed Brubaker & Matt Fraction's UNCANNY X-MEN The story moves into the main X-titles at this point, led by Brubaker and Fraction's UNCANNY. In a series of crossovers, the mutants deal with the fallout from the end of HOUSE OF M.
  
  
• Messiah Complex
  
• Fraction, V1. (Manifest Destiny)
  
• Fraction, V2. (Utopia / Nation X)
  
• Fraction, V3. (The Five Lights)
  
• Second Coming
  
  
• Jason Aaron & Kieron Gillen's REGENESIS Following the Second Coming crossover, Fraction steps down and Kieron Gillen takes over the monthly book, leading up to another big event for the X-Men.
  
  
• Breaking Point
  
• Fear Itself
  
• Schism
  
  From here on out, for the first time in a while, we have two main X-Books: Gillen's UNCANNY X-MEN and Aaron's WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN.
  
  
• Gillen's Uncanny, Vol. 1 Sinister
  
• Gillen's Uncanny, Vol. 2 Tabula Rasa
  
• Aaron's Wolverine and the X-Men, Vol. 1 Welcome to the X-Men
  
• Aaron's Wolverine and the X-Men, Vol. 2 Mutatis Mutandis
  
  And now, all the plotlines that have been bubbling up for almost a decade come together in the big finale...
  
  
• Avengers vs. X-Men
  
• Gillen's Uncanny, Vol. 3 AvX, Book One
  
• Gillen's Uncanny, Vol. 4 AvX, Book Two
  
• Aaron's WatXM, Vol. 3 AvX Book One
  
• Aaron's WatXM, Vol. 4 AvX Book Two
  
• AvX: Consequences
  
  With another new beginning, the X-Books enter the newest status quo: Marvel Now! Almost everything gets a new #1 and a new creative team. (These are the books I outlined in the previous reply.)
  

I would recommend the Omnivore Editions of Chew by John Layman, it's funny as fuck and has wonderful cartoonish art also the the Joss Whedon run on Astonishing X-men has two resonably priced omnibus Book 1 and Book 2 if you like the X-Men

The recent "Uncanny X-Men" reboot has been pretty great as well in my opinion. I've liked it much more than Wolverine and the X-Men.

I do agree with everyone here that Astonishing X-Men is your best bet, however.

6 Issue each TPB -

Volume 1 - Gifted #'s 1-6

Volume 2 - Dangerous #'s 7-12

Volume 3 - Torn #'s 13-18

Volume 4 - Unstoppable #'s 18-24 + Annual # 1

12 Issue each TPB -

Volume 1 #1-12

Volume 2 # 13-24 + Annual # 1

Full Collection Hardcover

Omnibus Entire Whedon run #'s 1-24 + Annual # 1

Book 1 has the Wolverine claw... Book 2, uhh.... I believe it has a collage of X-men flying up? I can't remember. Let me see if I can find it on amazon for you.

EDIT: http://www.amazon.com/Astonishing-Whedon-Cassaday-Ultimate-Collection/dp/0785161953/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1341839809&sr=8-1&keywords=astonishing+x-men+book+2

>Joss Whedon's run [on X-Men]

Do these two books (one, two) compromise his entire run, or is there more?