X-Men comics - rants

[Nellisir]

OK, I confess. Post-Regenesis, I no longer understand the difference between X-Men, Astonishing X-Men, and Uncanny X-Men.

Wolverine and the X-Men: This I get. It's the one that's giving me serious Generation X flashbacks. I mean, if that's not Mondo in the last few panels, I'm going to weep. And Bamphs? Seriously?

New Mutants: <sigh> This is like the comic of anti-character development. Cypher back from the dead? Kinda awesome. I loved Cypher. And now, thank you Abnett, we're back to Cypher the useless. Warlock the questionable. Sunspot the almost cardboard cutout. Magma the actual cardboard cutout. Nate "I Don't Need A Shirt" Grey is cranky that he's not a god anymore. I guess all the brainpower goes into giving Dani good lines. Argh. I love this comic. It was the first one I ever bought. Please get better.

X-Factor: I read this every once in a while, but....is Peter David just collecting characters for fun? Is there some kind of record at stake? Pip the Troll? Argh. And yes, I used to like Longshot too, but every time I pick up this book he sounds like a nitwit.

Generation Hope: Only bought a few issues. have no opinion, except that Hope just annoys me now. She could be interesting in the future; they don't seem to have abandoned all the mystery around her. There were several mentions of her "unusual" connection/control over her recruits during Regenesis.

X-Force: Rocks. 'Nuff said.

I think the mutant team closest to Xavier's dream is the New Mutants. It was interesting to see them take, in essence, a 3rd path, neither Cyclops or Wolverine, and one that was arguably the closest to the essence of X-Men. I think all the characters on this team have a lot of potential, and it'd be nice to see it explored. It's happened occasionally, and I think Abnett is aware of it (based on comments issued from Dani's mouth), so..... Some interaction between the original students and the new students would be good. Also some members, or regular appearances, by characters that weren't originally a New Mutant. There's a weird dynamic that other "student" mutants advance to X-Men, but the New Mutants never do. (Warpath, Husk, M, Chamber, Armor, Jubilee, Elixir...I think I'm forgetting a couple.)

 

[Deuce Traveler]

I don't think Marvel knows what to do with its mutants, nor is there any sort of long term vision. First, it started to kill them off in the Extinction Agenda because there were too many characters. Then it brought a bunch back. Then it got rid of them again after House of M in order to streamline the number of characters. Now they are bringing them back again.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

There was a time when DC and Marvel was makeing quite a bit from me. Today I am 99% DC. However I really want to get back into xmen.

In the 90's I was reading all the x titles. I loved it, then, but I stoped reading most books about 2002. Then I came back to DC through all the crisisses of the last few years. I tried to read the hope story line, but could not get into it. The vampire story didn't grab me eaither.


Some of my friends and I have discused the whole problem, and we think it is pretty funny, but the problem is X men was too good. Let me explain.

Character growth is a double edged sword. As the characters grow they change (like we all do, I know I am not the same guy I was 10 years ago) but as they do, they get farther from where they started. In the books things need to be exagerated, and as things get farther and farther things just get out of hand.


One of my friends is "Sick of the whole people hate mutants thing" but without the world hateing and fearing them, are they the xmen?

One of my friends is "Feed up with villans and heros switching places" but at this point how can you fault almost any villian switching when we except all the horrid things main cast did?

See Comics are a victome of there own success. the reasons they lasted so long was they never really were coutniuty police in the old days. Super man was rebooted 100 times inbetween 1930something and 1985... but the one now falls under such a microscope.

Stories can only last so long. Books end, Movies end, TV shows end, Legends end...
BUT how do comics end?

Ultimates was supose to make this work, but even it jumped up and changed everything.





I really want to read about Xmen who are the line against evil mutants. Defending a world that hates and fears them. I want them to have to stop the bad guys, and be hunted by giant purple robots. I want them to be founded by charles Xavier who is a good man who is confied to his wheel cheer, and the most powrful telepath on earth. I want the field team to be Lead by "I can't belive he isn't a boy scout" Cyclops. I want the team to include funny, and series characters. I even want a few 'bad boys' with a heart, be it the theif gambit, or the ronnin samarir bazerker logan...

 

[GreyLord]

I was pretty faithful in reading X-men up until the 2000s. House of M was pretty good, but then the writing went to hell in a handbasket. The art was okay, but the storylines really didn't make sense and jumped around a LOT. Manifest Destiny is about as far as I got...and really just lost complete interest.

I think the bigger thing was that writing was good, then it got better and then it peaked around the late 90s, then started to fall around 2000.

In addition, as you said, some of the characters had gotten to the point of the ultimate fate they could reach. Cyclops and Jean Grey Married, they should have retired them out of comics at that point except for an occasional cameo.

I hated that they thought that Jean should have stayed dead and so they killed her again...in Wolverine's arm no less. Then had Scott go after Emma...

Things like that basically started to kill the entire X-men thing for me as they basically screwed up some of the basic core identity items that each X-men had.

Ultimates was actually pretty awesome and a great idea...wish they had something more like that which sticks and gets big. The entire setting really needs a big reboot to the start again.

 

[Nellisir]

In some ways, alot of recent stuff has worked for me. Cyclops is the leader, and he's the leader he's always supposed to have been. He's very, very good. I like Emma Frost. Her long-running motivation hasn't been as a hero, but a teacher. That remains.

Storm mostly seems haughty, and aloof. Not as engaged as she should be.
Colossus is just messed up.
Magik is also messed up, but is aware of it. I think she know she's a badly broken toy who wants to be a real girl. She's arguably the most tragic. The eternal smuggness of Kitty annoys me.

too tired to keep writing this