X-Men Doing Anything Interesting These Days?

[Felon]

Like a lot of fanboys who grew up int eighties, I went from casual reader to hardcore collector due to Chris Clairemont's X-Men. For all the hassles the X-Men went through, at its core the comic was about a bunch of misfits who formed a family. It had heart. But other the years, the series became increasingly grim and nihilistic.

Every time I tried to get back in, they'd start layering massacre upon massacre. The sentinells wiping out Genosha, buses full of kids getting blown up, and a mutant concentration camp that ended (once the writers got tired of it) not with the prisoners' liberation, but with another stinking massacre that nobody had to answer for. It seems like the X-Men just became spectators to one atrocity after another, and barely manage to save anyone.

Did the whole Messiah Complex storyline actually do anything for the series? Do the X-Men actually do any superhero work anymore, or do they continue to simply eke an existence by staving off one attempt to annihilate them after another?

 

[Relique du Madde]

Did the whole Messiah Complex storyline actually do anything for the series? Do the X-Men actually do any superhero work anymore, or do they continue to simply eke an existence by staving off one attempt to annihilate them after another?

Unfortunately at the end of Messiah Complex all the xmen squads were dissolved, and the institute was reduced to a big hole in the ground (again) and professor x was killed (for all of one issue).

Cyclops (who must be a skrull) has been slowly being reforming different Xmen squads... BUT he has been making them act like assassination/hitman squads and has been targeting Former X-men, people who pissed him off in the past, and people who attacked the x-men. Which is stupid since even though the mutant population is now somewhere in the 170s he would rather off everyone except those who kiss his ass since he's afraid of anyone else besides him being the leader of the future mutant population.

Right now the only X-men who are actually acting like heroes are those members who decided to join the initiative. But hopefully, once Uncanny XMen 500 comes out that will all change.

 

[Staffan]

I had a thought the other day that the X-Men could use a Brand New Day thingy of their own. OK, not the "deal with the devil retcon" bit, but a return to the great days of yore. Back before the Mutant Massacre, Fall of the Mutants, and all that stuff. Back before the Summers/Grey family tree became non-euclidian.

 

[megamania]

We'll have to see what "Secret Invasion" brings. Anything is possible at this point thanks to Bendis (I'm not sure if this is good or not) and Joe.

Maybe Scarlet Witch will redesign everything again. It did seem odd that she only mainly messed with the Avengers and of all people Spider-man. She should have redesigned X-Men and the mutants in general.


Such is life.

 

[Staffan]

Maybe Scarlet Witch will redesign everything again. It did seem odd that she only mainly messed with the Avengers and of all people Spider-man. She should have redesigned X-Men and the mutants in general.

I'd say depowering 99% of all mutants counts as redesigning the mutants in general, especially since plenty of X storylines since then have revolved around this.

Not that it exactly put a brighter spin on the X-men...

 

[Silver Moon]

And on the X-Men movie front, no X-Men Four but we will have both a Magneto prequel and a solo Wolverine (also with Gambit).

On a related note, word is that Jessica Alba has agreed to do an Invisible Woman solo film.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Messiah CompleX was actually very good, though it did require some backstory to 'get' sadly. At this point, most of the X titles are in flux, still picking up after those events and getting into what's next. Uncanny seems to be the most "X-men like" of the books, if that makes any sense.

The best, though, is still Astonishing X-Men, with Whedon writing and his arc finally coming to an end in a month or so. If you haven't read any of it, I'd very much recommend it. Great stuff.

And on the Clairemont front, he's actually going to be doing a new series, I believe its called GenNext, with some new mutants. How it fits into continuity I do not know, but it definitely has my interest.

 

[Felon]

I'd say depowering 99% of all mutants counts as redesigning the mutants in general, especially since plenty of X storylines since then have revolved around this.

Well, except that they copped out and the so-called decimation left pretty much every well-known mutant untouched, right? Even the handful of exceptions like Polaris that were de-powered mostly wound up getting their powers back in short order.

 

[Felon]

The best, though, is still Astonishing X-Men, with Whedon writing and his arc finally coming to an end in a month or so. If you haven't read any of it, I'd very much recommend it. Great stuff.

Yeah, I read some of those in Marvel's Digital Comics section. He actually made the observation himself that the X-men had become somewhat moot as superheroes. What's the point of being a superhero if all you do is sit around and wait for someone to uncork some atrocity on you?

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

Don't bother. There's nothing worth trying to get back into X-Men at this point. Sales have been dropping steadily too and if you watch the net it seems a lot of former X-Men collectors have been leaving Marvel cause of the changes over the past several years.

Whedon has been like a death knell for so many comics. I hope his pretentious "I'll give you what you need cause the fans don't know" hind end gets canned and blacklisted.