Silver Age

Superman in the Pre-Crisis Era – Guide to Collecting Golden Age, Silver Age, & Bronze Age Superman (1939) #1-423 (1939 – 1986)

Action Comics in the Pre-Crisis Era – Guide to Collecting Golden Age, Silver Age, & Bronze Age Action Comics (1938) #1-583 (1938 – 1986)

Updated: Guide to Silver Age X-Men

February 10, 2023 by krisis

I’m excited to share this much-needed guide refresh, especially in the wake of yesterday’s broadcast with Near Mint Condition – which included a key omnibus this page was missing! Welcome back to my uncanny Guide to Silver Age X-Men – covering every major collection format for Uncanny X-Men (1963) #1-66, their hiatus years guest appearances, and modern “Hidden Years” stories inserted into that period!

Guide to Silver Age X-Men

My Guide to Silver Age X-Men hasn’t had a significant update since 2016, although I did stop by to add a few Epic Collections in the past seven years.

Fortunately, the landscape of Silver Age X-Men collections hasn’t shifted too much since the introduction of the Epic line. Yet, there are still new collections to add to the guide. The big news has been the recent initiation of a new line of paperback “Mighty Marvel Masterworks,” plus the recent announcement of an omnibus of John Byrne’s retcon insert series, X-Men: The Hidden Years. There have also been a number of reprinted books along the way, including both classic omnibuses, and they’ve all been added explicitly to the guide.

I added those new collections, as well as gave the guide a facelift to bring it in line with my newer style guides. That means it now includes publishing years, full ISBNs, and links to buy and read digitally.

Many folks don’t hold this Silver Age run in high regard past the initial handful of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby issues. However, I think a lot of it is worth reading for modern X-Men fans. In particular, I’d suggest reading issues #1-6 to see Namor and Magneto’s first meeting, issues #12-13 for Juggernaut’s first story, and issue #14-16 for the first Sentinels story – as well as some of the Roy Thomas and Neal Adams material from issues #56-66.

This Guide to Silver Age X-Men update is just the first of many X-Men guide updates to come, which have been the most-demanded updates from Patrons and the general public alike. I hear you! There are now over 200 guide pages to update, but the X-Men guides will always be the closest to my heart and I know that’s true for many of you as well.

Crushing Comics, S01E07 – Silver Age X-Men Omnibus, Vol. 2

November 7, 2017 by krisis

Today I unwrap a book I was incredibly excited to open back in 2011 because it was the first time I ever had access to this Silver Age material!

Want to start from the beginning? Here’s the complete Season 1 playlist of Crushing Comics.

Episode 6 features the Silver Age X-Men Omnibus, Vol. 2 (Amazon/eBay), which is covered in the Guide to Silver Age X-Men.

X-Men Reading Order Guide – Era #1: Original X-Men

A reading order for stories starting with X-Men #1 in September 1963 and prior to Giant-Size X-Men #1 in May 1975. A part of Crushing Krisis’s Collecting X-Men: A Definitive Guide. Last updated March 2021.

Era #0: Before X-Men X-Men Reading Order Guide Era #2: Second Genesis

What does Era #1: Original X-Men include?

This era of the X-Men Reading Order is focused on Silver Age X-Men. That includes all of their original Silver Age stories from Uncanny X-Men (1963) #1-66, their “gap years” of guest appearances prior to Giant-Size X-Men in 1975, and stories later inserted into the period (like Emma Frost and X-Men: The Hidden Years).

X-titles released in this era:

Uncanny X-Men (1963) #1-66 (issues #67-93 & Annual 1-2 are reprints) – see Uncanny X-Men #1-93 – The Silver Age
Namor in Tales to Astonish and Namor, The Sub-Mariner – see Guide to Namor
Magneto in various guest appearances – see Magneto
Beast in Amazing Adventures #11-18 – see X-Men Ongoing Series

Later X-titles set in this era:

Emma Frost #1-18 – see X-Men Ongoing Series
Professor Xavier and the X-Men (1995) #1-18 – see X-Men Ongoing Series
Wolverine in Marvel Comics Presents (1988) #72-84 and various other post-adamantium pre-X-Men appearances. See Wolverine
X-Men: First Class (various) – see X-Men Ongoing Series
X-Men: The Hidden Years (1999) #1-22 – see X-Men Ongoing Series
Various back-up stories from X-Men Classic (1986)– see X-Men Ongoing Series

Notes:

X-Men (1963) is often colloquially referred to as Uncanny X-Men (1963) even though the title did not officially pick up the “Uncanny” adjective until issue #142. That is my convention on Crushing Comics, as it’s all one volume of the same ongoing series.
I treat any Wolverine story that is after he gains his Adamantium in the Weapon X program as being effectively a Silver Age story that occurred in parallel to Silver Age X-Men, thus they appear in this era of the guide.
However, I do not cover every Wolverine story in the X-Men Reading Order – only the major ones! See Guide to Wolverine for a reading order of every Wolverine appearance.