X-Men Giant Sized #1 - In store today

I love to hate the X-Men. It's true. Like so many of us, I grew up reading Chris Claremont's definitive run on the book in the 1980s. The Dark Phoenix Saga was bigger than Star Wars to me.

Later on the X-Men exploded commercially and alot of good followed that. Then came alot of bad. Onslaught was strained, Wolverine was overused, and by the mid 90s the X-Men were unrecognizable.

Nowadays my favorite X book is Uncanny X-Force, written by Rick Remender, before that it was the Kyle / Yost scribed X-Force. This book of course has nothing to do with the abominable X-force of yesteryear. It's in many ways an anti- X-Men book. Conventions are trashed, nothing is sacred. It's exciting the way X-Men comics were when I was a kid.

So anyways...today a book called X-Men Giant Sized #1 is in store. I was interested in it's premise of linking a current story to the original Stan Lee X-Men and in doing so, revealing new secrets of the X-Men that have been buried all these years. Sound like a gimmick? Sure does. What got me was the writer- former X-Force scribe Christopher Yost. I knew it would be a smart book.

Smart it is. The Neo show up to confront the X-Men. Well, kill them really. I always hated the Neo, cause they were just so....neo. Cyclops tried to keep the peace while these overpowered maniacs decide that all mutants must die. This unveils the secret of Cyclops and the original X-Men. Without spoilers, let's just say that the "secret" of the X-Men shows up to defend them, and the Neo are utterly destroyed. Cyclops begins remembering the past secret, courtesy of a memory implant left by Jean Grey, Phoenix, long ago. What shows up to protect the X-Men and all mutants not only wipes the Neo out of existence, but decides now that all homo sapiens must go as well. Thus the start of the current X-Men storyline "From First To Last".

This story will continue into the X-Men monthly series with issue #12. Definately worth checking out if you are reading current X-books or are thinking of getting back into them. And, 100% guaranteed vampire-free!