X-Men: First Class 1

My step son is beginning to like comic books. We asked around for some good ideas and this one was recommended as a good first comic book. He has really enjoyed it.

So, I blind purchased this and the first volume without knowing they were 'all ages' titles, so I was a little taken aback when they arrived but honestly, they are great for just picking up and reading a chapter here and there. You will instantly love the classic characters and the art is consistently great. The size is smaller than normal trades but you can't beat the price on these, especially if you're afraid your kids are going to destroy them. 4 stars!

Sometimes we forget that comics were originally intended for kids. Jeff Parker and Roger Cruz remind of that in the best way. After years of lamenting the fact that the comics market is long in the tooth and fearing a total fan base extinction, X-Men First Class bring us back to what's best about a young mind's view of the world, a young, idealistic, wondering mind that is experiencing those first steps out into a bigger world, into the real world with its real cares instead of imagined ones. This collection is the perfect blend of action, teenage-style navigation of relationships, measuring oneself against older adults seen as chosen or unwanted mentors, etc. I especially liked the unique blend of stories bringing in characters unusual to the X-Men storyline: The Lizard, Thor and the Vanir, Doctor Strange, the Scarlet Witch, etc. It was quite intriguing. I'm glad I can read a comic and just truly enjoy it again; it was a lot like watching a Saturday cartoon over and over. And that's a good thing. Marko Djurdevic's covers were astoundingly fantastic and will give children a hint of what so-called "real" art is all about; no matter what age you are, you know amazing work when you see it, and Marko's covers are definitely that. Yet some complaint other readers have had (that they felt misled by these covers, that the covers somehow implied deeper, more adult-themed stories than the, in my opinion wonderfully juvenile types of stories they actually found .I found it all very refreshing. Roger Cruz has mastered his own, unique style, and Jeff Parker was able to write stories for kids without making you feel dumb, stupid, or empty while reading them. The stories were good, the characters were real, and the situations involved kept me reading this to the end. I cannot say that about all the so-called better comics that friends have tried to pass off to me as more intellectually highbrow fare. Go into X-Men First Class with a dignified childlike mind, and I promise that you'll be glad you did. Who says you can't go back home again? This was just like Saturday morning watching cartoons, waiting for Mom to bring a plate of cookies and cocoa (or milk)!

not what I thought it would be. its ok

IF i bought it and its rated 4 or 5 STARS then YOU should WATCH it or READ it. and if your don't end up liking it then you have no sense of good movies so i really don't know how found any of these amazing products

Worth the read..

This book is an interesting collection as it contains writer Jeff Parker's top five favorite stories of the eight issues he wrote for the first X-Men: First Class mini-series, so this book contains Issues 1, 2, 4,5, 7 and a selection from the Annual. The X-Men are a challenging to get into. There are so many characters, so many different versions of the team, it's hard to find how to get in. This book takes readers to the beginning-sort of-where there was only Professor Xavier and his five X-Men: Cyclops, Beast, Iceman, Jean Grey, and Angel. In many ways, this is similar to the Untold Tales of Spider-man concept from t 1990s which provided untold tales from Spider-man earliest except rather than taking readers back to the 1960s and giving that sort of feel, this book has the X-men's first adventures taking place in the then-present day. Parker has the X-men meeting up with Doc Connor of Spider-man, Doctor Strange, and Thor. These stories are good. I think Parker makes them quite a bit more likable than they were the original stories, but I don't feel I ever really gained a lot of insight on to anyone except for Warren in Issue 7 plus most of the stories didn't have any sense of scale or real interest in the battles faced. Still, no issue was bad. The characters were fun. I liked the idea in Issue 2 of Scott and Jean being forced to take time off as the rest of the team wrestled with the Lizard. Issue 7 is my favorite as Warren has been absent from class while Professor Xavier's been away and Quicksilver is out looking for his sister, The Scarlet Witch. The two events are tied together. The book explores Quicksilver's behavior which was meant to be protective in the Silver Age, but comes off as a bit controlling to modern readers. The story's got a great sense of fun and humor, just as Parker would later show on Batman '66 and Flash Gordon. The short from the special deserves some praise. In it, Beast and Iceman go to the Museum of Curiosities to investigate a signal of mutant life. It's a very fun story with some surprising twists. The rest of the book is fine and if you're a fan of Parker's other work, you'll like this too.

Nothing great about this. The art work was pretty good, but the stories were bland so I was left with a 'is that it?' This is not a keeper.As the other review said, this bears no connection to the film.