Ultimate X-Men

Ever since Giant-Sized X-Men #1 hit the stands back in 1975, the X-Men have gone on to become a comic and pop culture phenomena with no signs of slowing down. Toys, video games, TV Shows, and now three major Hollywood films have cemented the X-Men as still the reigning kings of the comic book universe. Adding to the mega-blitz of promotion is the newly revised and expanded edition of DK's X-Men, The Ultimate Guide now in its third edition, updated right through the latest feature film, "X-Men: The Last Stand". The book begins by taking a decade -by-decade look at the team including its very inauspicious start in the 1960's. Stan Lee's introduction provides some insight on how the team and name was developed but in the early days it was a rough go. The book was near cancellation throughout the 60's, bolstered only by the now legendary issues drawn by Jim Steranko and Neal Adams. Bios of the major heroes and villains are including describing their powers and histories and their changing looks throughout the years. One of the most interesting features are the diagrams of Xavier's mansion and the danger room. An entire two page spread is dedicated to the Sentinels, showing the different series' of the robotic villains. The 1970's started the X-Men boom when writer Chris Claremont and artist Dave Cockrum took over the title on issue #94. But it was the new team that excited fans, made up of various ethnic groups from all over the world: Wolverine, Storm, Colossus, Banshee, Sunfire, Thunderbird, etc...The X-Men craze was on! This chapter again covers all of these new heroes as well as allies such as Alpha Flight, the Imperial Guard, and the Starjammers. The 80's saw the X-Men continue to gain in popularity, becoming the best-selling comic title. Knowing they had a good thing Marvel decided more was better so this decade brought us X-Factor, The New Mutants, Alpha Flight, and Excalibur, as well as Wolverine getting his own solo title. The Ultimate Guide covers all of these spin-offs in great detail as well as even more new characters like Rogue, Mystique, Psylocke, Sabretooth, Dazzler, and Longshot. By the 1990's the X-Men excess was at an all-time high. Marvel gave fans even more new group and solo titles such as X-Force, Generation X, Cable, Bishop, Gambit, and Deadpool. The guide concludes its look at the comics with the years 2000 - 2005 with such titles as Wolverine Origin and Ultimate X-Men series. Finally the book covers the animated X-Men TV show (alas, no episode guide) and a look at all three of the feature films including pictures from X-Men: The Last Stand. While I am a long time fan, even I learned quite a few things from the book, particularly about the silver age period. It's very well-written, not the least bit fannish or self-promoting. The images in the book are fantastic and reprinted beautifully in this large, overs-sized hardcover edition. At $25 it's also a great deal, considering the book's quality. This

I haven't read the book, but I can tell you this: I can't keep it on the shelf of our middle school library! I'm ordering two more copies.

Well Im not gonna sit here and lie to ya...this book does OMIT alot of facts and probably leaves important stories out here and there but this is a good book if you want to grasp and embrace the extrodnairy precious idealogy that has help shape and define our fav Mutants. The Marvel universe has x-panded that I am cursed on to only following certain charcters, this book helps fill in the gaps of the other reamaning charcters and their life threating tramas. Your never going to get ALL the X-facts straight unless you have read all the comics..until then, in my opinion, this is a cool that will kind you threw the halls of the x-mansion to Asteriod M and leave you craving for more.

Ultimate X-men is the book for all X-Men fans! It contains info on pretty much every X-Man there is, as well as popular (and not so popular) villains as well. Along with it comes screenshots from the movie and how they made it. Also, for each X-Man (and villian) that starred in the movie, the book gives a description of what he/ she does in the movie! I truly reccommend this book to all X-men fans, and people who are just getting started to learn about the all popular X-Men.

This book is a must for anyone who ever read the X-men and saw the movie an wanted to learn more about the characters and history. True...it does have everything a die hard X-men ( Comic book) would want, but covers enough the story line and characters that it will not confuse the newer reader.I'm sure the author and publisher struggled with the fact that they wanted a complete history of the X-men but also wanted the book to be affordable for the average consumer.Yes, I fan of the X-men would pay $50-100 for a complete history, but would a young child? Would you Mom and Dad fork over $50 dollars when you were a kid for a comic book based book?They also made the book very user friendly for people of all ages. The children in my life will be fasinated with the images in the book and its is my hope that this will prompt them to attempt to read the book.I think they made a great comprise and created a Must have book for any X-men fan.