I am full of comic book suggestions. I love to give them, and I know figuring out where to start can be overwhelming. Good thing: Marvel has revamped a lot of their lines so it’s become very, very easy to jump in. I’ll talk about the easiest way to jump in at the end. BEWARE THIS WILL BE LONG! 

I mostly read X-Men (sometimes Avengers Academy or Young Avengers, since it focuses on younger superheroes). So my suggestions will be based on X-Men comics. If you’re not into X-Men, the best series I can suggest would be Runaways, which is fantastic and the characters have shown up again in a series called Avengers Arena (which is pretty much Hunger Games…this might not be satisfying if you don’t know some of the characters prior to reading, so I wouldn’t suggest starting with it). 

Runaways: You can start with Volume 1 and continue on, Volume 2, 3, etc. It’s about a group of teenagers who realize they all have something in common, their parents are villains! It’s really awesome. 

Now if you want to read X-Men, this is where things get a little tricky. There are multiple lines in Earth 616, but which ones do you actually read? And how do you even follow them? Luckily they’re all compiled into trade paperbacks unless you’ve caught up to the current comics which are published issue-by-issue. This can be a little pricey, which is why I subscribe to Marvel digital comics online. Specifically Marvel Unlimited – It’s different than just buying digital. It’s a subscription so you pay either monthly or annually. Marvel Unlimited has a huge database of comics, but it’s also about 6 months behind the current lines. If you’re a new comic reader, it’d take you probably forever to catch up, so Marvel Unlimited is for you. (UPDATE: There is also Comixology which now offers a subscription that includes Marvel, DC, Image Comics, and others publishers!)

I haven’t read many comics before 2000 – what I have read of the older comics was for college (I was an English major and took a comic book course). I totally prefer 2000 - current time because it’s just what I’ve read most – so most of my suggests won’t contain older comics. 

I also gravitate towards the younger mutants, so my biggest and grandest and ultimate suggestion: start with New Mutants Volume 1 and work your way up. For me, this was so satisfying. It’s a great jumping off point because Marvel introduces you to generations of mutants in a way that’s very, very easy to understand for someone coming in knowing very little. You’ll also grow attached to many, many mutants too. 

New Mutants / New X-Men (Reading Order): The New Mutants (Dani Moonstar, Cannonball, etc) are one generation above the New X-Men (Hellion, Pixie, etc) and they teach the New X-Men at the school. Cyclops is the headmaster! What?! Awesome, right? However, during this time Marvel did something a little strange and stopped calling it New X-Men and reverted back to New Mutants. It’s one reason why comics can be a bit hard to follow.  

This is the reading order. It’s YEARS of comics, so think of each volume like 1 full novel. It won’t take you as long to read though. By reading here and onward, your reading experience will be the best. You won’t miss any major crossover events, and you’ll have a really good understanding of what’s happened in X-Men history by the time you read the comics being published now.

(FOR INFO TO NEW MUTANTS & NEW X-MEN SCROLL DOWN TO NEXT TOPIC - I also detail issues-by-issues so it’ll be easy for you to follow where to go next, no matter how you read them, by paperback or by Marvel Unlimited.)
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• New Mutants Vol. 1: Back to School - this’ll introduce you to the generation that were once taught by Cyclops but now become the teachers. Aka Dani Moonstar and company. If you can’t find this comic, it’s totally possible to just start at Vol. 2. I know this one is hard to find. 

• New Mutants Vol. 2 

• New X-Men: Academy X Vol. 1: Choosing Sides - now you’re going to meet new students for the VERY FIRST time. These are the first time these mutants ever appear in the whole universe (it’s a special moment and you’ll grow to love most of them - like a love triangle between a girl who can’t control her pheromones, a guy who has the power to heal and a guy who has the power to kill.)

• New X-Men: Academy X Vol. 2: Haunted

• New X-Men: Hellions

• New X-Men: Academy X Vol. 3: X-Posed

• House of M: New X-Men - (House of M) this is a major crossover event and important to the entire world, which means that it ties into ALL of the lines that are happening simultaneously just focusing on different characters (like Uncanny X-Men) so you should read the one that has all of the issues. If you read them digitally, usually they’ll tell you which issue comes next and where you can find it. But these are worth buying in paperback. The artists change from different issues so it may be jarring your first time reading a crossover event, but it’s worth it. (Personally House of M is not my favorite bc it focuses more on the original sets of X-Men and at this time, I grew really fond of the new ones, but it changes everything and is super important – to where I’d say it’s not optional) - note: when reading giant crossover events, you’ll want to read the ENTIRE volume, not just the New X-Men comics or whatever comics pertain to your line. Crossovers mean that multiple lines are integrated together. Think of it like The Flash & Arrow on tv integrating during 2 episodes. You’d need to watch both The Flash & Arrow for the crossover to make sense. Same goes for shows like Chicago PD & Chicago Fire crossover events. So for comics, you can’t just read House of M: New X-Men, you have to read the entire trade paperback (or all the issues in the order that they tell you, if you’re reading digital - the easiest place to find the order is by looking at Amazon’s trade paperback and they’ll tell you which issues are in the pb and usually in the right order). It’ll be about 170 pages or so. Usually single issues are around 18-23 pages.

• New X-Men: Childhood’s End, Vol. 1

• New X-Men: Childhood’s End, Vol. 2: Crusade

• New X-Men: Childhood’s End, Vol. 3: Nimrod

• New X-Men: Childhood’s End, Vol. 4: Mercury Falling

• New X-Men: Childhood’s End, Vol. 5: Quest for Magik

• (NOTE) – by this point you should’ve read New X-Men Issues 20 - 43 before the next huge crossover event below.  

• X-Men: Messiah Complex - my absolute favorite crossover event ever. It’s brilliant.

• New Mutants: Return of Legion - now we focus back on the older generation with Dani Moonstar and company.

• New Mutants: Necrosha - this is part of a crossover event. 

• X-Necrosha - more from the Necrosha crossover event. 

• X-Men: Second Coming - this is one of my favorites and talks about the same issues that Messiah Complex did. This was the first crossover event I ever read. I was completely and totally confused, but when I went back and reread it after going in the order above, I understood everything :) The importance of going in order! 

• New Mutants: Fall of the New Mutants - I LOVE this one. It’s really the last big event for New Mutants. They have a lot of single issues after this, which you can find on Marvel Unlimited and go from there. Then the line sadly ends :( 

Age of X is another crossover event that’s pretty much like an alternate universe. It has no big impact on any of the characters, so this is really up to you whether or not you want to read this one. 

Next comes another crossover event: X-Men Schism. It basically just tells you which X-Men are going to side with Wolverine and who will side with Cyclops for AvX (see below). P.S. I really liked this one! Almost more than AvX, so even though it could be optional, I’d say it gives you great insight before going into AvX. 

You can read Avengers vs. X-Men next which is a HUGE crossover event and everything after it really just revamped all the marvel lines. Expect lots of action and less character development, but what happens in AvX leads to all lines getting revamped (and the end of New Mutants lines). So it’s pretty important to read, kind of like House of M. 

If you’re just like, I want to read about Cyclops, Jean Grey, and Kitty Pryde and not worry about all that other stuff from up above. Then New Mutants / New X-Men might not be for you. Those comics focus on lesser-known mutants that really aren’t on any movie screens. So you’ll want to start with the NEWEST X-Men stuff (Marvel Now), which is the easiest to jump into and where Krista began reading. 

All New X-Men: Start with Volume 1 and continue on to Volume 2, etc. - I really like this series, and Uncanny X-Men (2013) ties into it – and Uncanny gives you a different perspective on the happenings in All-New X-Men. Both are great to read side-by-side. All New X-Men & Uncanny will reference events that happened throughout the X-Men timeline, which is why it’s better to start at the beginning. Do you have to? Nope. It’s easy to start here or maybe even right at AvX – Marvel revamped the whole universe just for that reason, so you can pick this up and not be lost.

Others that are really easy to jump into without reading anything from above… (You can literally start with any of these titles below. They’ll make complete sense without reading anything else because they introduce you to the characters for the first time.)

X-23: start with Innocence Lost volume and then Target X – this is Laura Kinney’s origins, who’s part of the New X-Men. She’s awesome, badass, and this series will make you cry. You can read it at anytime. Be careful because Marjorie Liu picks up this series (titled the same) but Laura is older so it’s not her origins but following X-23 after the events of Second Coming. I’d suggest reading the big X-Men line that I listed up above and then you can move onto and Marjorie Liu’s X-23 series. 

Avengers Academy: Volume 1 and on. It has a great premise and some of the characters end up in Avengers Arena (the Hunger Games premise thing) and so it’s great to read before reading that one. 

Young Avengers (2005): Volume 1. This is soooo good. Like really, really good. It has two young teenage boys who actually fall in love. It’s adorable. 
Runaways can be included to this list! It’s a great comic to start, completely addicting and a total fan favorite. 

Those are my suggestions. I didn’t link everything, but you can find all the paperbacks by typing in the titles into Amazon. Like I said, if you’re confused at all and feel overwhelmed, the easiest place to get the feel for comics is simply All New X-Men. The New Mutants / New X-Men may be the most confusing, but it’s the most rewarding because the stories and characters are just so damn good and it’ll take you through years of X-Men history.

I hope you do end up reading something. And if you do, don’t hesitate to chat with me about them! If you want really new stuff, you might want to send us an ask. Comics are constantly evolving and starting over after big events, so by the time you jump in, All-New X-Men might be much older than it is when I originally posted this. 

UPDATE: Okay, I have to include these photos, which I found online which are the squadrons for New X-Men: Academy X (the beginning) where they introduce all these new characters like Hellion and company. Basically they’re split up into 5 squads with one “advisor” who is an older X-Men (like Emma Frost, Dani Moonstar, etc), and it’s just all good school yard cliques and fun. (Click the link to see the image: Alphas Squadron, The Paragons, The Corsairs, The New Mutants, The Hellions. 

Even though New Mutants squad is clearly going to be the “favorites” they do show tons of character development with the other squads, especially with Pixie, Hellion, Loa, Anole, the Cuckoos, Indra, Wither, Dust, Mercury, and Rockslide. 

This is what sold me on New X-Men and why I was so giddy all the way through.