Is anyone else disappointed with the X-Men Red team?

[The Mary Janes]

I'm thinking this is mostly an attempt to sever Jean from her long standing ties and create a quasi-new character. I could have sworn that a number of posters have been asking for Jean to be distanced from her closest friends since the event was announced. I'm not in favor of it personally as I think Jean's ties to her closest teammates are a huge part of who she is a character. She doesn't seem to me to be a direct translation of late 90's\early 00's Jean. We'll know for sure that's case if Marvel alters her memories and\or personality significantly.

I'm so against this, but I think you're right. People have been saying that she should be different. For some reason they think she relies too much on Scott, Logan, Emma, etc. for her character. I don't think that waters her character down one bit. If anything, it means she was the heart of the team and connected to most people, especially the important members. I think that adds a lot of character to her, but it sucks ass that they're going a different direction with her now. I hated time-displaced Jean for being so on-the-nose about "I'M DIFFERENT NOW". Eugh.

[Vegeta]

Nightcrawler seems like a weird choice, I honestly don't remember much interaction between the two. Jean was either dead or Kurt was overseas as part of Excalibur, or just not on the team (New X-Men).

Maybe they are trying to create new bonds between cast members, and decided Kurt and Jean is a pairing worth exploring as opposed to the usual teammates (Cyclops, Storm, Logan, Iceman, etc.)?

[oldscottsummers]

Namor should be in jail.
Elf-Fish carries out mass murder and destruction for decades
declared war on the entire planet
nearly destroyed the planet in the process
Namor is disgasting. A 90 years old elf king with the mental age of a teenager, and no one to call him out on his immaturity.
Why marvel pushing Quentin, namor into our asses? They better fit as villains. If they were villains, I would respect them.
Brat Quentin should be in jail too. Because of his stupidity, Sofia died.
I hope this useless duplicate wolverine will die. I dont want to see fugly Nightcrawler in the team. I'm not interested in the new character. There are so many characters lying around in limbo

[Wiccan]

I'm still not going to pass judgement until we find out who the last "fan favorite" team member is. I just would've hoped that one of Jean's close friends would be on the team with her...as would make sense since she'll have just come back to life. I was actually shocked that Bobby wasn't part of the lineup...especially considering the up in the air longevity of his solo book.

AFAIK we have 2 more members, one of them is Gambit and Rogue, neither of them are that close with Jean tbh. Then we have one more, who I think it's probably gonna be a more minor character tham Gambit. I can't help but be pissed that they have one of the Gold members doing double duty but it isn't Storm(or Rachel, but that I wasn't actually expecting).

[ExodusCloak]

Nightcrawler seems like a weird choice, I honestly don't remember much interaction between the two. Jean was either dead or Kurt was overseas as part of Excalibur, or just not on the team (New X-Men).

Maybe they are trying to create new bonds between cast members, and decided Kurt and Jean is a pairing worth exploring as opposed to the usual teammates (Cyclops, Storm, Logan, Iceman, etc.)?

Unless she's purposely choosing a team to challenge her. Nightcrawlers comments towards the Phoenix in the Dark Phoenix Saga were scathing he called Xeroxcopy a Nazi.

[The Mary Janes]

AFAIK we have 2 more members, one of them is Gambit and Rogue, neither of them are that close with Jean tbh. Then we have one more, who I think it's probably gonna be a more minor character tham Gambit. I can't help but be pissed that they have one of the Gold members doing double duty but it isn't Storm(or Rachel, but that I wasn't actually expecting).

Seriously, Storm is so useless in Gold. It should've been her.

[Ulfhammer]

I'm so against this, but I think you're right. People have been saying that she should be different. For some reason they think she relies too much on Scott, Logan, Emma, etc. for her character. I don't think that waters her character down one bit. If anything, it means she was the heart of the team and connected to most people, especially the important members. I think that adds a lot of character to her, but it sucks ass that they're going a different direction with her now. I hated time-displaced Jean for being so on-the-nose about "I'M DIFFERENT NOW". Eugh.

Agreed. Jeen functionally filled the "Jean goes a different direction" role already. Marvel is making a mistake if they think changing Jean one iota will be either popular or successful. That said we really don't know what her story is yet. Maybe she recovers her memories and personality slowing over time, which would actually make sense if she was living a normal life and found out she's a hero, a cosmic force and died multiple times.

[Ulfhammer]

Nightcrawler seems like a weird choice, I honestly don't remember much interaction between the two. Jean was either dead or Kurt was overseas as part of Excalibur, or just not on the team (New X-Men).

Maybe they are trying to create new bonds between cast members, and decided Kurt and Jean is a pairing worth exploring as opposed to the usual teammates (Cyclops, Storm, Logan, Iceman, etc.)?

They were close once, but I think you have to go back to bronze age UXM issues to see it. Honestly she was pretty close with everyone at one point or another. Crying on Jean's shoulder (literally or figuratively) is a rite of passage for the x-men.

[Wiccan]

The fact that Nightcrawler is the closest person to Jean on this book just shows how tragic that lineup is.

[Soulsword323]

Nightcrawler reflecting on the impact of Jean's death in Uncanny X-Men 139. I always loved this moment, and it makes it clear that Jean meant something to Nightcrawler, even if they weren't show together too frequently. Don't know why he would be opposed or have ill will towards Jean.

[Sutekh]

There has never been an X-lineup (or Avengers lineup, or Justice League lineup, for that matter) that I was 100% a fan of. Even if a lineup has a couple of favorites, it's also going to have some characters I don't like, and a few that I just don't care about. That's life. I can go on and on about how much I loved the New X-Men, or PAD's X-Factor, for instance, and yet Rockslide and Siryn never really stoked my fire.

Same with this lineup. I love that Gentle, of the New X-Men is getting a shot. Nightcrawler's one of my favorite mutant heroes. And Namor and Gentle on the same team? There's some drama, potentially, which would be far more interesting than if it were two characters that *didn't* have any baked-in reason to clash (or had to be written horribly out of character to butt heads, creating faux drama that makes everyone look assy).

[LoganAlpha30X33]

Maybe this team has a limited time engagement kind of thing where the series will only last like 12 issues and then the rosters get shuffled and such, leading to a crossover, as for Siryn Nicieza's days of writing her made me love the character, PAD just used her to make Jamie look good...

[Sundowhn]

Okay, the story remains to be seen, but I see some purpose in this.

As far as marketing goes, over the past few years, Marvel has launched multiple solos. Aside from Magneto (I'm lumping him into semi-bad guy territory for the purpose of this comparison) Laura, Nightcrawler and Jeen solos have sold the strongest, in that order, with all the others hitting in the mid-teens. (If Gambit gets thrown in later, his sales were about on par with Nightcrawler's, I believe.) In short, they have at least moderate appeal just on their own. Laura took over the Wolverine title, but even sales for X-23 were good and Nightcrawler sold without any of the strong supporting cast that his previous solo had. For that matter, before Uncanny, Namor was a solo act, was he not?

Second, they've taken three popular characters, each one from a different generation of fans. Jean is old school, Nightcrawler is ANAD era, and Laura is the younger generation. (Again, if Gambit is eventually added, that'll throw in 90's readers.) That's a smart move, and the first of its kind. It acknowledges the fan base going back to the beginning.

Third, they're hitting movie fans, potentially. Jean and Nightcrawler were in Apocalypse opposite one another, and are cast together in the new Phoenix movie. Laura is the next movie Wolverine, by the ending of the last movie.

If Marvel is smart, those three will be the core of the team, and writers will slowly develop the relative unknowns of the cast and the one new character, for readers. (That's basically what happened with the original Excalibur run. Captain Britain, Nightcrawler and Kitty had some weight, whereas Rachel and Megan were lesser known supporting.) If they aren't so smart, they'll go the route of Gold and former Uncanny, where everyone but the lead is supporting, and the book will probably tank pretty quick.



From a story standpoint, they've been careful to not put in either of Jean's major love interests, (yet). She'll start off being defined entirely for herself, not as the woman in a love triangle, used to develop two other characters. However, we do have Laura, so it'll be interesting to see how she and Jean play off of one another. Same with Nightcrawler and Laura, given that, arguably, the original Wolverine was closest or had the strongest ties to Jean and Kurt. I expect Laura to be pretty pivotal in this.
I think it's deliberate that Jean has not been close to any of the cast before. Those stories have already been told.

Jean and Kurt have some common ground. They've both been dubbed as the "heart" of the X-Men, and both were killed off and their deaths used to develop other characters. They're both back from the dead and learning to deal with it -- Kurt without a soul, and who knows what's in store for Jean. It may be along similar lines as far as her paying a hefty price for her return.

So yeah, I see some method to the perceived madness.

[The Mary Janes]

Okay, the story remains to be seen, but I see some purpose in this.

As far as marketing goes, over the past few years, Marvel has launched multiple solos. Aside from Magneto (I'm lumping him into semi-bad guy territory for the purpose of this comparison) Laura, Nightcrawler and Jeen solos have sold the strongest, in that order, with all the others hitting in the mid-teens. (If Gambit gets thrown in later, his sales were about on par with Nightcrawler's, I believe.) In short, they have at least moderate appeal just on their own. Laura took over the Wolverine title, but even sales for X-23 were good and Nightcrawler sold without any of the strong supporting cast that his previous solo had. For that matter, before Uncanny, Namor was a solo act, was he not?

Second, they've taken three popular characters, each one from a different generation of fans. Jean is old school, Nightcrawler is ANAD era, and Laura is the younger generation. (Again, if Gambit is eventually added, that'll throw in 90's readers.) That's a smart move, and the first of its kind. It acknowledges the fan base going back to the beginning.

Third, they're hitting movie fans, potentially. Jean and Nightcrawler were in Apocalypse opposite one another, and are cast together in the new Phoenix movie. Laura is the next movie Wolverine, by the ending of the last movie.

If Marvel is smart, those three will be the core of the team, and writers will slowly develop the relative unknowns of the cast and the one new character, for readers. (That's basically what happened with the original Excalibur run. Captain Britain, Nightcrawler and Kitty had some weight, whereas Rachel and Megan were lesser known supporting.) If they aren't so smart, they'll go the route of Gold and former Uncanny, where everyone but the lead is supporting, and the book will probably tank pretty quick.



From a story standpoint, they've been careful to not put in either of Jean's major love interests, (yet). She'll start off being defined entirely for herself, not as the woman in a love triangle, used to develop two other characters. However, we do have Laura, so it'll be interesting to see how she and Jean play off of one another. Same with Nightcrawler and Laura, given that, arguably, the original Wolverine was closest or had the strongest ties to Jean and Kurt. I expect Laura to be pretty pivotal in this.
I think it's deliberate that Jean has not been close to any of the cast before. Those stories have already been told.

Jean and Kurt have some common ground. They've both been dubbed as the "heart" of the X-Men, and both were killed off and their deaths used to develop other characters. They're both back from the dead and learning to deal with it -- Kurt without a soul, and who knows what's in store for Jean. It may be along similar lines as far as her paying a hefty price for her return.

So yeah, I see some method to the perceived madness.

This was a good read. It's slightly reassuring now, so maybe the book was some potential.

[Ulfhammer]

Okay, the story remains to be seen, but I see some purpose in this.

As far as marketing goes, over the past few years, Marvel has launched multiple solos. Aside from Magneto (I'm lumping him into semi-bad guy territory for the purpose of this comparison) Laura, Nightcrawler and Jeen solos have sold the strongest, in that order, with all the others hitting in the mid-teens. (If Gambit gets thrown in later, his sales were about on par with Nightcrawler's, I believe.) In short, they have at least moderate appeal just on their own. Laura took over the Wolverine title, but even sales for X-23 were good and Nightcrawler sold without any of the strong supporting cast that his previous solo had. For that matter, before Uncanny, Namor was a solo act, was he not?

Second, they've taken three popular characters, each one from a different generation of fan. Jean is old school, Nightcrawler is ANAD era, and Laura is the younger generation. (Again, if Gambit is eventually added, that'll throw in 90's readers.) That's a smart move, and the first of its kind. It acknowledges the fan base going back to the beginning.

Third, they're hitting movie fans, potentially. Jean and Nightcrawler were in Apocalypse opposite one another, and are cast together in the new Phoenix movie. Laura is the next movie Wolverine, by the ending of the last movie.

If Marvel is smart, those three will be the core of the team, and writers will slowly develop the relative unknowns of the cast and the one new character, for readers. (That's basically what happened with the original Excalibur run. Captain Britain, Nightcrawler and Kitty had some weight, whereas Rachel and Megan were lesser known supporting.) If they aren't so smart, they'll go the route of Gold and former Uncanny, where everyone but the lead is supporting, and the book will probably tank pretty quick.



From a story standpoint, they've been careful to not put in either of Jean's major love interests, (yet). She'll start off being defined entirely for herself, not as the woman in a love triangle, used to develop two other characters. However, we do have Laura, so it'll be interesting to see how she and Jean play off of one another. Same with Nightcrawler and Laura, given that, arguably, the original Wolverine was closest or had the strongest ties to Jean and Kurt. I expect Laura to be pretty pivotal in this. I think it's deliberate that she's not been close to any of the cast before. Those stories have already been told.

Jean and Kurt have some common ground. They've both been dubbed as the "heart" of the X-Men, and both were killed off and their deaths used to develop other characters. They're both back from the dead and learning to deal with it -- Kurt without a soul, and who knows what's in store for Jean. It may be along similar lines as far as her paying a hefty price for her return.

So yeah, I see some method to the perceived madness.

I get the part about keeping Scott and Logan away (not difficult as they're both effectively dead) but I would have liked to see Cable or Rachel in the mix. Again, if they're looking to sever Jean's closest ties, at least in the near term, this team does that effectively. I'd agree with posters predicting a 12-20 issue run that likely morphs into Uncanny in early 2019 where I think the a-team will see a reunion. Givent the shifts in management recently, all plans beyond 6 months out are probably in a huge amount of flux. If Breevort\Paniccia get shuffled we'll know for sure. I predict Breevort will be the next to leave but I'm not sure how much direct control he has over the x-office.