49 of 53 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A magnificent volume. At over sixty bucks, it still feels like a bargain., June 30, 2006
This review is from: Uncanny X-Men Omnibus (v. 1) (Hardcover)
I just finished reading this amazing compendium.
These X-Men comics represented the absolute best that comics could be in their day. And in many ways, they're the best ever.
I remember reading these issues as if it were yesterday. I instantly loved this team, these characters. They were visually stimulating, thanks to Dave Cockrum's outstanding designs, and were as three-dimensional as any fictional character in any medium - novel, film...anything.
When John Byrne took over, the entire fan community knew they were witnessing something special in comics. There was a desperate wait for those next issues to come out. The previous months' books were read and re-read until that shiny new tome appeared on the rack. "X-Men" was the first book you'd read when you got home, if you didn't read it in the car while your mom drove.
These stories approached myth for us. They resonated. They stuck.
Nearly thirty years later I'm still amazed. As a young kid, I simply was sucked into the breathless, epic storytelling, the seemingly infinite small details tucked into every panel or every plot point, the comedy, the tragedy...
...and the artwork that defines this book to this day.
These are the definitive X-Men.
We are re-introduced to some old friends, like Cyclops and Jean Grey, and find some new ones, like Nightcrawler, Colossus and especially Wolverine. In that Giant-Size X-Men number one, that beautiful fat introduction to this world, we all fell in love with so much of the X-Universe immediately. Re-reading this after so much time allows me to appreciate the artistry of the collaborators, but it also makes clear that when current X-comics get "good", they're getting "good" like THESE stories.
Man-oh-man...remember these stories? The return of the sentinels? Jean becoming Phoenix? Magneto coming back? The Savage Land? Arcade? Proteus? That whole space opera business with Princess Lilandra and the Starjammers? Alpha Flight?
If these words mean nothing to you, they will after you read this book. And you'll never forget them. Just ask the other group of people, who, after reading that list, have a huge grin plastered across their face, as they fondly remember some of the best, beloved moments of their comic-reading life.
Back to physical book itself. It's big and a bit unwieldy. It's a doorstop, for sure.
But the reproductions are beautiful, the art crisply and colorfully done. The binding is more stable than you would imagine, given that there are over 800 pages. The covers are pristine, and the inclusion of the letter columns is key.
They provide perspective and setting. You see how ground-breaking these stories were, just by reading the fan reactions. This really does take you back.
As a one-stop-shopping way to introduce yourself to the modern X-Men, you cannot do any better.
You should be forewarned, however, that these tales lead directly into the story arcs of The Hellfire Club and The Dark Phoenix Saga, both considered high-water marks in the history of comics. This is like watching "The Godfather', but not "The Godfather, Part 2." You'll need to seek them out (there are trades available) and you'll be SO glad you did.
Finally, Marvel should be commended for putting this sort of collection out there for us. These are books any comics fan would LOVE own and read and re-read, and to have them all in one place...in one book...is really a treat.
At sixty-plus bucks, it feels like a bargain. That's saying something...
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20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Worth every penny., October 12, 2006
This review is from: Uncanny X-Men Omnibus (v. 1) (Hardcover)
If you are undecided about whether or not to buy this book, if you love the X-Men but you've already bought and read some of this material before in previous reprint editions, and you're just not sure if it's worth plunking down almost 70 bucks for another reprint... well, that's exactly where I was before I went ahead and ordered this thing, and let me tell you, I am so glad I gave in.
Trust me, if you are an X-Men fan, this book is an absolute treasure. One that you should definitely not pass up... one that you will definitely regret having passed up ten or fifteen years from now when it's (quite possibly) no longer in print.
The production quality is excellent here, it's printed on nice paper, the colors look great, and at the end there's a short but fascinating section of "behind the scenes" material, including character designs, promotional artwork that was originally published in other sources outside the X-Men comic itself, a gallery of all the Art Adams cover illustrations from the 1980's "Classic X-Men" series, sketches showing rejected costume and character designs, not to mention text by Chris Claremont.
To put it in a nutshell, The Uncanny X-Men Omnibus is the comic book equivelant of a special edition director's cut DVD of your favorite movie, with extra features.
The only bad thing about this book is that it is incredibly addictive. Since I got it, I've been reading one chapter every evening... which is great... but the next day, while trying to focus on my pencil-pushing desk job, I keep finding myself distracted by an eagerness to go home, just so I can hunker down on the couch and read another chapter. I'm thirty four years old and I have a good job. I should be above this sort of behavior. But The X-Men Omnibus has devolved my brain back to my Junior High School self, just dying to get out of school each day, so I can go home and read comic books! It's kinda scary.
But I'm loving every minute of it, and if you are an X-Men fan, I have no doubt you will, also. I only hope Marvel will publish an X-Men Omnibus Volume 2. I would love to see the rest of the John Byrne issues and, (oh man!) the Paul Smith issues collected in another volume like this. Wow. Just get it, you will be happy you did.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The golden age of the X-Men, January 3, 2007
This review is from: Uncanny X-Men Omnibus (v. 1) (Hardcover)
When Stan Lee and Jack Kirby originally created the X-Men, the title was far from being one of the best received to come out of Marvel. Nevertheless, when a new interest was found of the series, the X-Men lived again, thanks to writer Chris Claremont and artist Dave Cockrum. The first thing they did? Revitalize the whole team. With Professor Xavier and Cyclops the only X-Men not captured by a monstrous island, Xavier recruits a whole new international team of mutants to save his old students. Here, we are introduced to fan favorites like Colossus, Nightcrawler, and Storm; while Wolverine (originally created by Len Wein in the pages of the Incredible Hulk) joins as well, as well as others such as Thunderbird, Sunfire, and Banshee to boot. This new team of X-Men didn't get along with one another, which was a nice touch of Claremont's writing, adding a never before seen inner-group conflict, mainly focusing around the love triange between Cyclops, Jean Grey, and Wolverine. Later on in this massive volume, the team gets thinned out, and that's where it really takes off in later issues. And who could forget the monumental events to come from the Claremont/Cockrum/Byrne (who would later join as artist) era? From the return of Magneto to Jean's transformation into the Phoenix, the Uncanny X-Men Omnibus is an absolute must own for older X-Men fans who don't own any of the previously released trades and cherish their old comics. The colors look better than ever, and while the dialogue may be dated, Claremont's then edgy storytelling still manages to pack a punch. Though some of the best stories to come from the Claremont reign aren't here (Dark Phoenix Saga, Days of Future Past), make no mistake that this Uncanny X-Men Omnibus is some of the best bang for your buck you'll ever find, period.
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