Starting Era #4: X-Factor

The first part of the Uncanny X-Reading will take me from November 1985 to May 1989. By this point in my life, I am reading X-Men comics regularly (particularly after Uncanny X-Men #191), but it isn't until Uncanny X-Men #211 that I become a dedicated fan. I start reading the New Mutants and X-Factor, and I begin buying a few key issues with my limited budget. I eventually fill the gaps much later in life. I purchase most of my comics from the Stars and Stripes Bookstore, but I go to my first comic shop near Cannery Row in Monterrey.

There is a lot of turmoil and change in my life during this period. I start the era as an insecure 15 year old Sophomore at Nuernberg American High School. We moved to El Paso, Texas during the second half of my Senior year where I graduated from Austin High School. We then move to Monterrey, California, and I find a part-time job at the AAFES Burger King as I try to enlist in the United States Army. I eventually pass the physical and successfully complete Basic Training at Fort Dix, New Jersey. This entire period of my life is marked with the normal angst, anger and confusion most teenagers work through as they navigate high school and enter the work force. 

I will be reading the following issues over the next few months: New Mutants #35-74, Uncanny X-Men #199-243, X-Factor #1-40 and X-Terminators (Limited Series). The reading will be chronicled in 16 or 19 posts since I am not sure if I am going to break Fall of the Mutants and Inferno into multiple parts or read them as single stories.

Uncanny X-Men: Ghosts (199-209)

New Mutants Classic, Vol. 5 (35-40)

X-Factor (1-8)

New Mutants Classic, Vol. 6 (41-47)
X-Men Crossover Event: Mutant Massacre

New Mutants Classic, Vol. 7 (48-54)

Uncanny X-Men (215-219)

X-Factor (12-17)

X-Men Crossover Event: Fall of the Mutants

New Mutants (62-66)

Uncanny X-Men (228-231)

X-Men Vs. the Brood -- Day of Wrath (232-234)

Uncanny X-Men (235-238)

New Mutants (67-70)

X-Factor (27-32)

X-Men Crossover Event: Inferno