What do you like about the X-men?

[wano]

I am pretty sure that X-men is more than just a comic to many of us, some of use grew reading their comics and watching them on TV, seeing them face grief, win, lose, but ultimately rise up and face the challenge to protect the world that hates them and fears 'em. So I ask, what aspect of the franchise do you enjoy more, or brings you back every time to the X-books, X-men cartoons, or this very forum.

1. The characters and their interactions: What's a franchise without strong and lasting characters that build relationships over the years? With more than 50 years X-men has a wide character cast with interwoven relationships forged through fire and sweat, are those character and their relationships bringing you back every time?

2. Specific character: Every franchise has great character, some would say they're as big as the franchise itself, perhaps you love storm as the most powerful X woman, Jean as the Phoenix of death and rebirth, wolverine as the best there is, or Cyclops the prime leader and first X-man, or I could keep going... It means there's one specific character that you love and always brings you back.

3. Superheroics: What's a huge franchise like X-men without epic voyages, great battles, non stop action and over the top fights against almighty foes? Do you perhaps enjoy the X-men as superheroes first and foremost?

4. Minority / LGBT+ / Outcast metaphor: Self explanatory, X-men when written correctly works as a analogue (although imperfect) for disenfranchised races of our real society, maybe LGBT+ folks that come from different communities/societies and finds a place that welcomes them as they are, or just a kid that felt alone in his school and the X-men made him feel that there's always a place for you.

5. The Community/Fans: Large part of enjoying a hobby is interacting with the people that share it. Even if our fandom has certain reputation for being particularly passionate about our comics and beloved characters, we keep coming back every time to meet with new fans, chat with the ones we've known for a while, and remember those that are gone for several reasons.

6. X-Women: For a franchise named X-men, it features some of the better developed superheroines. One could argue they're the heart of the X-men and their presence can turn a bland book into a great one, their power turn a losing battle into an absolute victory, and their beauty illuminate every page they're in.

7. Team magneto: I've always considered the possibility that despite being a franchise that has it's roots in ideas of acceptance, it has developed the duality of Xavier v Magneto, and because of that some might want to see mutants triumph over humanity altogether, not by slaughter, but by imposing dominion over a race that hates them and fears them.

[Dementia5]

Where’s the “all of the above” option?

[Sundowhn]

Four of the seven options

[Wiccan]

Characters and interactions/Specific character/Minority metaphor/The X-Women all apply I guess.

I like the superheroics too, of course, as I read other Marvel comics too. But that's the thing, any other Marvel/DC comics have this, so I wouldn't count as a reason why I love the X-Men the most in particular.

[Disciple of Redd]

Mainly the X-Women and the aptitude for social metaphors, but I also appreciate the presences of Wolverine, Beast, and Gambit alot.

[phoenixzero23]

All of the above

[wano]

No love for the community , even team magneto has more supporters

[phoenixzero23]

No love for the community , even team magneto has more supporters

X-fans are really, really passionate but that love is not always expressed in the best ways. everybody fights for the stupiest things all the time like the spotlight, shipping, power levels, etc.

[Tycon]

-POC/LGBT+/Disabilities/Religious Representation and Metaphors

-Magnetooooooooo

-X-Women (ofc)

-Characters & their Interactions

tbh i could read an X-Men book that had no action in it w/ the right cast, artist, & writer.

[akiresu_]

I'm torn on the community. It's a real love/hate thing. There's so much bad faith and ingenuity thrown around that I have to take breaks from coming to these forums just to remember that I do enjoy reading X-Men and I'm not only still reading because of some masochistic social contract.


And what Tycon said. Action and superheroics mean very little to me in this franchise. What I love are the character interactions, the developments and the agendas. Representation and metaphor is a big thing too, it's what makes the series compelling and distinct, though I do think the line needs some revolutionary writer to come in, shake things up a bit and update mutants for the modern day.

[Wiccan]

No love for the community , even team magneto has more supporters

Lol, I mean... Think about how crazy people get here when it comes to Storm, Cyclops, Jott vs Scemma(ft Jean/Logan)...

[wano]

Lol, I mean... Think about how crazy people get here when it comes to Storm, Cyclops, Jott vs Scemma(ft Jean/Logan)...

Guilty of all charges, on my defense I try to contain it to specific threads

[lurkerforyears]

The thing I like most about the X-Men is the huge cast of C and D list characters they have, that are nevertheless good characters.

I think that the X-Men like could potentially be greater in sales than all of Image comics (but Marvel would never let it grow so much, since it would be a very serious problem for the shared Marvel universe)

I also never saw the X-Men as superheroes.

[The Ray]

I like how they are all Eskimo brothers and sisters.

[AbnormallyNormal]

Minority Metaphor - kind of the core appeal I would think

Team Magneto - to me this is broader and also relates to sort of Wolverine-type stories and characters. Basically displaying ethical ambiguity. it also ties into the outcast metaphor. Since the X-Men stories often have readers questioning whether mainstream society is truly always correct or not in what they do, or is it possible that some groups might be "ahead of their time" and civil disobedience / breaking laws can be warranted. The whole idea of, getting readers to question Law vs Morality is very very important and liberating I feel. And just sort of the whole like, even the "villains" within X-men lore have ended up getting complexified and so fleshed out that some of them end up turning into allies over time. That is good writing and it gets people to think and actually have to judge what is right wrong and all that and realize it's partly subjective.

X-Women - this kind of ties into the minority metaphor as well, as in a big part of X-Lore is that the female characters tend to be *AT LEAST* as powerful/useful/interesting as the males, if not actually MORE SO. Which also ties into the Community or fandom, and how the X-fandom tends to be more welcoming/inclusive and have a better gender balance than many other comic fandoms.