X-Men - Part 4

[Manic]

This generation of students began with Morrison back in, what, 2001? And yet, they're still sitting in the school. Actually, they've sat in 5 schools now. Maybe it's time to move them on. Take the most popular and do something like what happened to the New Mutants... make them their own team.

I figure if you take Rockslide, Anole, Pixie, Kid Omega, Idy, Evan, and Broo... that's a pretty good team that seams to be fan favorites. There are others I'd throw in, like Mercury, Prodigy, Surge, and Hellion, but the team can't get too big. Maybe have a previous generation student take charge and lead them, someone like Husk or Chamber.

I'd have to agree with that, mostly. I mean, some of the current students can stay at the school like Broo, Idie, and anyone introduced since Wolverine and the Supremes started. But anyone who was a student during the Morrison/Weir-DeFillipis/Kyle-Yost days should probably be leaving to start their own team by now.

The leader would probably end up being Dani Moonstar, though. She's the mentor writers keep coming back to the for these kids.

 

[BoredGuy]

It still has the problem of being pretty much the same as All New X-Men, though. The thing is, All New X-Men has a different premise than any other title because of the original 5. Wolverine & the X-Men just has different students, and not as interesting ones plot-wise. I like most of them (save the new ones, who do nothing for me) but the story possibilities are really there with Jean and Warren and the others.

eh, I guess
I hear what youre sayin, I'm just not 100% convinced All New is going to remain good
it is Bendis, after all

And the 1st year of W&tXM was just so amazing
Holding out hope it returns to glory

 

[Donnie Darko]

Maybe I am weird, but I really don't have any desire to read any of the X-Men books featuring students. I liked Generation X back in the day, but since then, students just haven't appealed to me very much. The concept of Uncanny doesn't really call out to me either. Actually, the only X-Men book I am really interested in right now hasn't even started yet. Maybe since my X-love started in the really early 90s, I am a fan of the two quad approach.

Have a gold team and a blue team, with no overlap. Call it a day. Maybe have a third team/book that is more specialized.

 

[chamber-music]

People hate on 90s X-Men but I liked the fact that there was clearly defined teams with a select number of characters which gave them enough time to develop relationships, character arcs, ect.

You hardly see half the X-Men in most X-books these days and when you do its only for a couple of pages. You also have Wolverine in about four different X-books as well as his solo series, Avengers apperances and whatever other title hew guest appears in.

 

[Manic]

I think it all started after Messiah Complex. Throughout the 2000's, the 2-squad format had been expanded to 3 squads in 3 X-books. Then after Messiah Complex, the editors decided instead of writers drafting characters out of a pool, everyone would be free to use whichever characters were alive. So we went from books that gave facetime to B and C-list characters to everyone wanting to use the same half dozen A-listers.

 

[BoredGuy]

Which was the great thing about the post-schism X-world

You had Uncanny with one group, and W&tXM with another, two clearly defined teams

Then AvX had to come along and f*** that right up

 

[Donnie Darko]

Well, even before that, you still had mixing between Wolverine and the X-Men, Uncanny X-Force, and Astonishing X-Men.

I feel AvX actually could've led to distinct X-teams if they chose to do so. With all of the damage caused by mutants, you either need to kill off or keep Cyclops in prison for a long time. The X-Men form two squads. One is the "PR" team, kind of like Whedon's Astonishing team and Uncanny Avengers. You could even have Havok lead this team, and have more camera-friendly mutants such as Kitty and Angel. They work with the government from time to time and become the "face" of mutant heroes. The other team (which I would have wanted to be lead by Cable) is a little more "militant" (but not EXTREME!!!!!), and they are the globe-trotting, space/time-traveling, extinction-level events team.

 

[JewishHobbit]

Yup. I cannot tell you how bored I was of Cyclops, Emma, Namor, and Magneto by the time Schism roled around. Even Wolverine was fairly dwarfed compared to those four.

I'd have to agree with that, mostly. I mean, some of the current students can stay at the school like Broo, Idie, and anyone introduced since Wolverine and the Supremes started. But anyone who was a student during the Morrison/Weir-DeFillipis/Kyle-Yost days should probably be leaving to start their own team by now.

The leader would probably end up being Dani Moonstar, though. She's the mentor writers keep coming back to the for these kids.

I can agree to that. With the exception of Broo, Evan, and Kid Gladiator... and Transonic to some small extent... I've not really cared about any of the students introduced since Kyle & Yost's run. Graymalkin and Ink were decent but not great. Cipher was pointless. The Generation Hope kids weren't really all that great. I liked Transonic and Zero but Zero's dead. I feel like they belong more in the modern generation anyway.

For me, go back to the last Kyle & Yost team, or some varient of it. That's when the book was hitting it's high, before Marvel relaunched it as Young X-Men and it lost it's audience.

Rockslide, Anole, Hellion, Prodigy, Elixer, Gentle, Dust, Surge, Mercury, and Pixie. That was a pretty awesome team, though a little on the large side. Get rid of 2 or 3 and make them their own team. Build them from the ground up against the Marvel Universe and see what happens. I wouldn't suggest Danielle Moonstar as the leader, though, because then it'll feel like "been there, done that". Maybe someone not X-Men related, or at least not X-Student related. Maybe take this team and have them led by someone like Luke Cage, Iron Fist, or Justice.

 

[JewishHobbit]

Well, even before that, you still had mixing between Wolverine and the X-Men, Uncanny X-Force, and Astonishing X-Men.

There was mixing but at least there were distinct differences. There were the Utopia side of things (Uncanny X-Men, New Mutants, Generation Hope... which were all separate characters save Hope) and the Westchester side of things (Wolverine & the X-Men, Astonishing X-Men, and X-Men Legacy... which only really elaped Wolverine, Deathbird, and Iceman between two of the books). And then adjectiveless X-Men and Uncanny X-Force met in the middle including characters from both sides.

 

[Manic]

I can agree to that. With the exception of Broo, Evan, and Kid Gladiator... and Transonic to some small extent... I've not really cared about any of the students introduced since Kyle & Yost's run. Graymalkin and Ink were decent but not great. Cipher was pointless. The Generation Hope kids weren't really all that great. I liked Transonic and Zero but Zero's dead. I feel like they belong more in the modern generation anyway.

For me, go back to the last Kyle & Yost team, or some varient of it. That's when the book was hitting it's high, before Marvel relaunched it as Young X-Men and it lost it's audience.

Rockslide, Anole, Hellion, Prodigy, Elixer, Gentle, Dust, Surge, Mercury, and Pixie. That was a pretty awesome team, though a little on the large side. Get rid of 2 or 3 and make them their own team. Build them from the ground up against the Marvel Universe and see what happens. I wouldn't suggest Danielle Moonstar as the leader, though, because then it'll feel like "been there, done that". Maybe someone not X-Men related, or at least not X-Student related. Maybe take this team and have them led by someone like Luke Cage, Iron Fist, or Justice.

That sounds pretty cool. Maybe drop Hellion (we don't need to read him constantly whining about his lack of hands).

I'd like to see someone create a unique new role for Elixir, though (should anyone ever remember he exists). I feel like Kyle & Yost over-powered him when they were writing. The ability to heal people was fine. Killing and hurting people with a touch was fine. But once the Stepfords gave him all of Beast's medical and biology knowledge, things went too far. Now he's capable of giving people benign or malignant tumors at will, and he once brought Prodigy back from the dead by growing him a new heart. Now the only way to insert drama and the threat of death into an X-Men story is for him to conveniently always be absent, which is probably why he was completely written out of the X-Men after Necrosha.

 

[chamber-music]

Cyclops was the boss in Uncanny X-Men issue 3.

 

[DarknessOfDeath]

I love X-Men!!!!!! Is this the place for me?

 

[JewishHobbit]

It Is!!!!

As much as I like Bendis and All New X-Men, I am just not feeling Uncanny X-Men. To me, his Uncanny X-Men is to his adjectiveless Avengers. All the big players are there but the story just isn't as good and he seems to find difficulty finding their voices. Also, Bachalo's art is killing the story. He's alright some of the time, on certain books, but this is not one of those books. His style doesn't fit the story in my opinion.

I do like Bendis' Cyclops, and I liked the Eva girl from this issue, but so far that's all the book has going for it in my opinion.


That said, I liked it more than Wolverine & the X-Men this week. What the heck happened to Aaron on this book? He launched it with furocity and it was amazing... and then it's just been falling to the point of being, possibly, the worst X-Men book of the bunch. I'm struggling to stay on the title until the Hellfire Club Saga starts, as that sounds interesting to me.

 

[DarknessOfDeath]

I haven't read any of the other x-men comics...the only ones I have are Endsong and Warsong...though I prefer Endsong because it had Jean in it.

 

[JewishHobbit]

Endsong was great, Warsong was a bit wierd.

I've been reading X-Men since the early 90s and have read nearly their entire history, including offshoots and oneshots and all that jazz. I love the X-Men, but they're just a bit too oversaturated right now.

All New X-Men is the best X-Book at the moment (in my opinion).

Wolverine & the X-Men's first year was fantastic but it's been going downhill since then.

Uncanny X-Men was good under Gillen, before it relaunched post-AvX. I'm just not enjoying Bendis' take on it right now, though it has time to impress me.

I dropped Astonishing X-Men a while ago because it just felt like the Northstar relationship comic. I like the writer but I lost interest. Some around here really like it, though.

Adjectiveless X-Men was bad by the time it ended. The relaunch sounds promising though. I'm eager to get the first issue, if it wasn't already pushed back a month and a half.

 

[DarknessOfDeath]

Oh. I feel like I missed out on a lot of stuff regarding x-men. *pouts harder*

 

[Manic]

Chris Bachalo is an artist I think would be better suited to a talking-heads comic than an action comic. I've never been able to decipher his fight scenes. He might also want to look into simplifying his backgrounds so his characters don't blend into them.

 

[JewishHobbit]

Oh. I feel like I missed out on a lot of stuff regarding x-men. *pouts harder*

50 years of it... but that just makes the hunt for back issues and trades all the more fun If you ever need help with read-orders (being that all the canceling and relaunching makes it hard for new readers to go backwards) just ask. Most of us have been reading for years.

Chris Bachalo is an artist I think would be better suited to a talking-heads comic than an action comic. I've never been able to decipher his fight scenes.

He drew some Bendis Avengers talking head issues and they weren't very good either. His style of character-designs are just bad for the X-Men. He worked decently on Wolverine & the X-Men because the title wasn't taking itself seriously. His newer stuff just doesn't work with much, in my opinion. The look and feel of Uncanny X-Men really should have been done similar to his older Generation X style, back when there was a very serious, dark feel to his work. Now it's all cartoony and bouncy and big... and it just doesn't work.

And yes, his action sequences are typically a mess. Whatever happened to the Chris Bachalo who drew Generation X 1-17. Those issues were gorgeous. He drifted a bit from that but then came back during his short time on Uncanny X-Men. That was good. Then he just sorta lost his mind. It makes me wonder if he has siezure hands or something.

 

[chamber-music]

Bachalo's art doesn't bother me that much. I prefer Bachelo's original less mess style.
I wonder why he changed it.

It does feel like the quality dipped on Wolverine & the X-Men.

 

[JewishHobbit]

My guess is that it dipped because Aaron became more invested in Thor: God of Thunder. If that's the case then it shows, as X-Men's declined and Thor has been amazing.

 

[Mad Ones]

I loved the last issue of Uncanny X-men. It might be my favourite single issue in Marvel Now so far. I felt like all my frustrations over the hypocrisy and arrogance of the Avengers in AvX were finally being vented. This issue shows why Cyclops is more of a hero than ever, even if people try to vilify him. He is simply my favourite character in comics right now. period. And I thought it would be Teen Jean!

So yeah, really good issue for Cyclops fans. I'm sure Avengers fans would hate it because they came across as totalitarian and dickish. I like the Avengers books, but I can't stand it when they make appearances in other places for some reason. Bendis is getting way better at writing Emma since she had some good lines, and even though she can't control her telepathy she's still a powerful ally to Cyclops. Magik had some moments too (magikbus ). Other than Eva, I'm really not feeling any of the students.

Spoiler

I'm happy Magneto isn't a traitor.

I agree that Wolverine and the X-men has dropped in quality. I have had to force myself to read it ever since the circus arc.

 

[DarknessOfDeath]

Any good x-men graphic novels out there? I really liked Endsong and I enjoyed the graphics - not so much with Warsong... I like really good graphics.

 

[spideyboy_1111]

graphic novels are just comics compiled into books... so it's not like they're a unique category.

im sure there's a list of great story arcs out there that you can get gathered in book form

 

[Donnie Darko]

If you want an X-Men story, especially one featuring Jean Grey, Dark Phoenix Saga is the way to go.

 

[Hawkingbird]

Any good x-men graphic novels out there? I really liked Endsong and I enjoyed the graphics - not so much with Warsong... I like really good graphics.

I would start buying the big stories chronologically, starting from First Class.