I went back and looked and really, I only need Marauders and Excalibur to catch up and both of them have a TPB coming out in April that will be cheaper than grabbing the first six issues. (But will I wait that long?)

Hard to tell. I will say that ... man ... I don't want to say it

, but man, I am so up and down on this X stuff and I don't want to (keep) leading you in a direction that you may regret

I am still enjoying Marauders, but not as much as that issue #9 and then the subsequent issues #2 and #3, but I am now at the point where my lack of 90's/00's X stuff is lessening the "fun" a tad. There are, what I can only guess, are tons of references and lots of characters making their way into this world that I have no connection to at all, no idea who they are, and while I can take one or two characters that are new to me, having what seems like an entire universe of "related" X characters leaping out into my head all at once is kinda numbing.
It's weird too as I felt the exact opposite with Strange Academy. All of these new characters hit me as "Oh, I am gonna love learning about these guys", while here, all of these "new to me" characters leave a very dissimilar feeling. Odd, that.
I guess it is the fact that other readers already know about these characters and so they are written in a manner that accommodates that. Maybe? While the new characters are ... well, new

and they are being written in a different way?
Now heck, for all I know some or all of these new X characters are new, but I highly doubt that, based on dialog and things that I have been shown. For example -
and of course there are a lot more people running around that may be very cool to past readers, so that is why I think you will dig this, but at the same time I don't want you to not like it because you don't like some of those very same characters.

I don't know man, just use your own judgement and don't listen to me about anything X related.

That said, I did get a few more in and I am starting to enjoy it again

and hell, I can always use a wiki to let me know who is who, huh?
Marauders #4
Marauders #5
Marauders #6
Marauders #7 - Sadly, I was spoiled by the upcoming cover to issue #11, so please don't try and see that, Jeff

, but I still had a very good, although slight, emotional reaction to some things in the last issue. Not over powering, I don't mean to over sell it, but yeah, even as small as it was I felt just a little, very little, twinge when somethings happened. Pretty good stuff, although I hope the art can settle in. Sometimes I don't enjoy the "Archie" like style of one of the artists (Pennino, I think). I prefer the latest issue's art by Casseli, even compared to that of Lolli, whom I don't mind, but none of the artists are a deal breaker either way.
Only one more issue to go and I will be caught up on this title, although I may (probably will) skim back through issue #9 just to put the period on the sentence.

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Joker: Killer Smile #1
Joker: Killer Smile #2
Joker: Killer Smile #3Excalibur #7Excalibur #8 Marauders #1Marauders #2
Marauders #3Strange Academy #1