Are you a X-MEN fan or a X-MAN fan?

[2nd line g]

AWESOME!!! Claremont is the best place to start, IMHO. When I started reading X-Men in the 80's, he was writing the team. He's definitely my favorite writer to ever touch this team.

Why do you think that no one has been able to match what he did as far as writing? At least that’s the consensus I get here. Also do you collect the actual books or read digitally?

[2nd line g]

don't miss out on Claremont's New Mutants. Especially the issues with art by a guy with a difficult Polish surname, Sienciewikz, something like that
It's arguably better than his Uncanny XMen. NM drops in quality greatly when he leaves.

I’ll check it out for sure. Thanks!

[Shadowcat99]

Why do you think that no one has been able to match what he did as far as writing? At least that’s the consensus I get here. Also do you collect the actual books or read digitally?

I collect the actual books.

As for Claremont, I think he’s just a very talented writer that really understood each character and their voices. Plus, he knows how to slowly build story. Sometimes you didn’t even see what he was planning until the story exploded and your jaw would hit the ground. The build up to the Dark Phoenix saga was amazing and because the Internet didn’t exist, the story was kept a secret. We had no clue what was going to happen until it actually happened. Writers don’t have that luxury anymore. Also, back then, Claremont had years and years on the X-Men, so he could take his time really developing stories and characters. Writers today are lucky to get a year or two on a book and during that time they have to do crossovers AND tie into whatever large scale Marvel event is going on, so they don’t have the luxury of building long term story or quality character development anymore. It’s a very different time in comics right now. Now that Marvel doesn’t have a big event planned in the near future, Bunn and Guggenheim have been allowed some of that old school freedom in their books and I’m loving it. I hope we’ll see more of this in the future with X-Men Red, Avengers, etc.

[sunofdarkchild]

I like many of the X-Men, but I'm really only around for 1-3 characters and am indifferent to most of the cast.

[Will J.]

I like only a few of the characters, but on any given day, I like to think a writer can make me a fan of one I don't. Conversely, a writer can also turn me off of a character.

That being said, if the writing's good enough, I can enjoy a book that doesn't feature my favorites or uses them sparingly. Charles Soule's AXM is proof of that. Not enough Archangel for my liking, but I enjoy the book as a whole. Same holds true for Domino over in Weapon X, though that's helped by my loving the hell out of Pak's work on Action Comics for DC.

[Magik]

I liked the X-Men before i know Magik so I'm a X-Men fan.

[Ulfhammer]

I've come to realize I'm mostly a fan of the ANAD\OG 5 team. Only a couple of characters created after them have drawn and kept my interest. Since then consistantly poor writing has shrunk even that group down to about four mutants I'm interested in reading about, three of which were dead as of a few months ago.... so not a great time for me personally as an x-men fan.

[Sam Robards, Comic Fan]

I'm definitely an X-Men fan. I buy the core books almost without fail, regardless of the roster (budget pending). Sure, I have my favorites, but there's never been a time when I've looked at a roster and said, "Screw that book."

So yeah, all about the X-Men.

[Criticalfan]

Why do you think that no one has been able to match what he did as far as writing?

All the narration boxes and thought balloons that they can't use nowadays. The opposite of decompressed.
He worked with all-time great artists, who got things across better that way too.

[wano]

Why do you think that no one has been able to match what he did as far as writing? At least that’s the consensus I get here. Also do you collect the actual books or read digitally?

He didn't had lot to live up to considering the O5 weren't that popular, he's mostly the only cook in the kitchen, he had full creative freedom and time to develop everything and he could play with every character he liked and had the luxury to get rid of characters he didn't wanted to use without REEEEEEEE from the fans.
Anyone who accepts to write the flagship X title will have to :
-Deal with huge continuity he didn't even made
-Live up to Claremont comparisons
-Deal with stuff that happens in side books
-Deal with changes to characters that happen in other books
-Internet backlash
-Lots of restrictions on what character to use and not use
-Story restrictions

So if anyone thinks writing something like Claremont did is possible in current times that person doesn't understand modern comics.

[Nick Miller]

I like all the Xmen

I’m a fan of the concept first and foremost

[DungeonmasterJim]

In my younger days I would've said X-men fan when the team was Storm, Colossus, Rogue, Wolverine and the original X-Men. These days I'm an X-Man fan. I simply don't care for many of the newer X-Men.

[Wind Rider]

X-Man fan. Storm fan above all but I do like/love other X-Men (especially Psylocke, Nightcrawler, Rogue, Magik, Bishop, pre-DoW Logan and Gambit) and will get books they are feature in.

[ChildOfTheAtom]

Wonder how everyone is feeling going into the new status quo this month. Since the roster is changing are you going to get Uncanny?

[Gambit, King of Thieves]

I like a lot of them, but not all.