X-Men: First Class: Where Do I Start?

This summer, the newest installement in the X-Men movie franchise takes flight in X-Men: First Class.

In this new film, director Matthew Vaughn takes Marvel's mutants back to square one to tell about the formation of the team and the fractured friendship between Professor X and Magneto — then known solely by their real names, Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr. Although it takes its name from a recent group of comic book miniseries, the movie's plot borrows liberally from the library of X-men comics that have been published since the 60s. The lead star in the previous X-Men movies Wolverine is nowhere to be found, and remaining pillars — Professor X and Magneto — are far different than their previous movie incarnations. For a long-time comics fan or someone who wants some extra reading in advance or after the movie, it's hard to find complementary comics.

But iFanboy is here to help.

We're taking on the story of X-Men: First Class, digging through the longboxes and bookshelves to find five must-have books for anyone wanting the quintessential look at the stories that inspired the 2011 movie.

X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga: Don't let the name fool you — although this 18-issue collection culminates in the arrival of the Dark Phoenix, the first handful of issues collect the introduction of the Hellfire Club and the White Queen Emma Frost — two of the pivotal pieces of X-Men: First Class. Although the team of X-men facing the Hellfire Club in this comic is different than what's seen in the movie, this is an ideal place to become familiar with the Hellfire Club and Emma Frost.

Emma Frost: In the early 2000s, Marvel took on the then-recent addition to the X-Men and looked at the character's untold origin – before she became a hero, before she was even part of the Hellfire Club. The series shows the transformation of Frost from a frumpy boarding school student into the stiletto-heeled blonde ice queen that appears in the movie and in the current comics. Marvel is putting out Emma Frost The Ultimate Collection in June, but you can also track down the manga-sized collections the publisher released a few years back.

X-Men: The Hellfire Club: This under-rated miniseries turns black the clock on the Hellfire Club back to their origins in the 19th century. What you discover is their deep connections not just to the X-Men but across the Marvel landscape. Although the series was never reprinted or collected as a graphic novel, this four-issue series is worth the time to track it down — especially for art by Charlie Adlard (The Walking Dead).

X-Men: Magneto Testament: Magneto's origin has been told in drips and drabs over the fourty-plus year history of the character, but this recent miniseries by Greg Pak and Carmine Di Giandomenico takes the elements and fashions it into a unique story akin to a mutant version of the film The Pianist. Although X-Men: First Class deals primarily with Magneto as a young adult, there will be significant scenes featuring a adolescent Magneto in the seires. Anothter interesting that is that elements from a planned Magneto origin movie were rolled into the story of X-Men: First Class.

X-Men: First Class: Although the story and team line-up is leaps and bounds from the movie that shares its name, the comic series X-Men: First Class does share the common theme of Charles Xavier guiding an early incarnation of the mutant team. The entire series is out in a series of trades, but the best place to start is Vol. 1 and the storyarc "Tomorrow's Brightest".