I've said this on a couple of occassions in the past, but I really think that how much you enjoy the stories really depends on the historical context in which you first read them. If you read the original X-men stories today, as an adult with a fairly sophisticated comic-reading background, it's difficult to really enjoy the stories because you're comparing their relative simplicity with the much more complex stories and more detailed artwork. We didn't get the latter until the Thomas/Adams run prior to the book going to reprints.

My context with the original X-Men series was reading it as a 7 to 11 year old between 1976 and 1980. I loved the stories because they spoke to the kid/teen in me, and I didn't need any kind of complex story to entertain me (heck, parts of the story didn't even need to make sense!). X-Men spoke to me in the same way that the Human Torch and Spider-man did - teen-agers (not much older than me) born with powers, and set in places close to where I lived (Long Island)!

Having read those stories as a kid, when I re-read them in MM form today I get a great sense of nostalgia. Yes, I can see the flaws with my adult eyes, but they don't bother me enough to spoil the experience. Adults and present-day comic readers who read these stories for the first time may have a hard time getting over the flaws or the vast divide between old and new comics. . .