Leila Anani's Reviews > Essential X-Men, Vol. 2

A vast improvement on the completely random first collection, this is far more cohesive in terms of plot. The majority of issues deal with the progression of Jean Grey from Phoenix, to the Black Queen to the Dark Phoenix and detail her tragic death. We also get the introduction of Kitty Pryde (Sprite) and Dazzler, although she leaves after one adventure.

The majority of stories are classic X-Men fayre, fun, but ultimately forgettable, although I am rather fond of super-villain Arcade and his murderworld arc. The one stand out story is "Days of Future Past!" which remains one of my all time favourite x-men stories. Magneto, Mystique and the evil mutants kill anti-mutant Politian senator Kelley, setting off a chain of events that start a human mutant war. With all but a handful of x-men left alive, Kitty time travels back in time, possesses her former self and engages the x-men to prevent the tragic future from coming to pass. Absolutely superb story with lots of sentinel action.

As the title of this collection states - Essential for any X-Men collection and thoroughly enjoyable though other than the days of future past arc, not amazing. Lovely classic x-men artwork and its nice to see a fair bit of Angel, who didn't get much of a look in in the last volume.