I found some help at UncannyXmen. It said about the three different groups:
Uncanny X-men
X-men
Acadamy X
Then there's the new Ultimate Universe (I don't like the look of Gambit in it and he's my fav. character)
I may get get X-men, and follow that team as that's got Gambit, Rogue and Wolverene (who seems to be in all of them...and soon the new avengers)
difference in XMEN titles
I used to read XMEN occasionlly. I am reading a few XMEN novels now but I want to get into XMEN comics again. One thing I never understood is what is the difference between all the XMEN titles i.e Uncanny, Astonishing, XMEN, etc. Which should I start getting to get involved with the storylines. Thanks.
Uncanny X-Men are a group of planet wide mutant police, led by Storm with Nightcrawler, Sage, Bishop, Racheal Summers, Cannonball and Wolverine on the team. Written by Chris Claremont, if you previously enjoyed his stuff, check it out, if you didn't, I'd stay away, or only check it out occasionally.
X-Men are a group of mutant adventurer's. Havok, Polaris, Juggernaut, Wolverine, Gambit, Rogue, Xorn and Iceman are on the team. They seem to go after and battle any mutant terrorist cells, and try to diffuse armed situations. They have a touch of super-heroism and maybe a smattering of black ops, but unlike the Uncanny title, their team doesn't have any sort of official sanction for world police action, they're mutants taking care of mutants, or mutants taking care of regular joes when bad mutants attack. Written by Chuck Austen, so it gets soap opera-y and often times convoluted as heck. Check it out if you want to, but his barrels of negative reviews stave off most people. New writer Peter Milligan coming on board soon, he did great stuff with X-Statix, so hopefully he can smoothe out this one.
Last but not least. Astonishing X-Men. A group of mutant superheroes who want to go out and help public relations by just going out into the world and saving people. Avengers--but with a prerequisite of an X-gene. Members are Cyclops, Wolverine, Emma Frost, Beast, Shadowcat and Lockheed. With another person introduced, but unsure whether he'll be sticking around. Written by Joss Whedon, and recieving rave reviews, this is a great title, and I'd suggest you pick this up if you want to get back into X-Men comics. It's only going into issue 5, so you can scrounge around and start from the very beginning.
I like to go to the shop. It's also cheaper where I live, no shipping and handling (as you get online), and because of my state's laws there are no taxes on periodicals. It also depends on the kind of shops you have around. I have a nice clean one, that keeps most titles in stock, has great backstock along with a full array of other books and amenities. If you have some sort of dark seedy filth covered place, with a 700 lb. hard as nails Jabba the Hutt behind the counter, I would probably subscribe online.
For online subscribing, there's always the official sites themselves. Marvel.com has a good subscription program with some good discounts. Check out Milehighcomics.com and Diamondcomics.com as well.