Since 2012, which period have you enjoyed most, NOW!, ANAD, or ResurrXion?

[ohsnapulon5000]

Now! Only because Bendis tried to suffice his geeklove for Dazzler and ended up making her a issues the series best sellers.

EDIT: actually screw that, once Astonishing comes out I agree, Resurexion started slow but will finally be the best the line has been since Fraction/Carey.

[CraigTheCylon]

RessurXion eventually gave us Domino so it wins. Simple.



What, you want more words? Fine, here's some words.

On Marvel NOW!: I should probably give this one more credit: Spurrier and Huat's X-Men Legacy is an all-time favourite of mine, and 50% of the 1-2 punch that got me into properly collecting/wasting money on single issues as an adult (the other series was DeConnick's Captain Marvel). Plus Cable & X-Force, when I got back to remembering it existed, was always a delight and duct-taped Dennis Hopeless onto my preferred writers shortlist. And there were other satellite books, which I didn't care for but appreciate they existed. It's just a shame that the overriding image of this era was some brain donor thinking Brian Bendis could handle 2 X-Men ongoings at once successfully. Every time Marvel gave Bendis 2 concurrent books in a franchise, it damaged one or both. It happened when he was balancing New Avengers and Mighty Avengers, it happened with Invincible Iron Man and International Iron Man, and it sure as hell happened here too. Fact is, Bendis had one big idea for his time with the X-Men - the original five are back, what does it mean?? - and that was just about enough of a hook for one series, at a stretch (and god damn did All-New feel like a stretch worthy of Reed Richards sometimes). Meanwhile Uncanny only remained afloat due to the established brand name and the insane quantity of fans who were desperate to see what was going to happen next to edgelord inflamed-penis-costume Cyclops. And if you lived through it, you know the answer was 'practically nothing, for three whole years and change'.

On A.N.A.D.: This is the worst of 3 eras simply because of the utterly barren wasteland where the satellite books used to go. Sure, Laura got her solo title back and that's nice, but if that didn't float your boat, you were stuck with a predictable Logan book and bugger-all else. Meanwhile, the flagships...Jeff Lemire hasn't been shy about laying the blame for Extraordinary on editorial direction, though honestly, from the feel of what he delivered I don't think he was ever the right fit, not for a 'main' X-book anyway. Uncanny was the darling around here, but for me it was where I turned a corner from sorta tolerating Cullen Bunn's work to only ever seeing his weaknesses. His characters were flat, his long-running plots failed to gestate (and the few that actually concluded weren't worth the wait), and most of his story beats felt like over-familiar concepts given the slightest of new paint jobs. That left All-New and, man, thank goodness I'd already decided to stan for Hopeless. Bendis did nothing to make me care about the original 5, but Hopeless changed my outlook altogether, working wonders to actually push these preppy teens forwards and make them feel...well, not boring for a start. Especially the stuff with Bobby trying to sort out his new lifestyle. Great book, but it's pretty telling when the O5 (or O4, anyway) are the highlight of the line.

On ResurrXion: I think we were all pretty happy to see the back of the T-Mist and IvX plot tumour, so RessurXion started with a broadly positive outlook, if memory serves, despite the typical nitpicks of such-and-such not being in a book anymore and all that. Of course, the bloom came off the rose for Gold pretty quick, even without the Adrian Syaf troubles, and Blue left me cold; all the zing! the O5 had picked up under Hopeless got stripped out by Bunn in favour of, yup, dense plotting that went nowhere exciting fast. Teen Bobby went from my like 3rd-favourite X-peep to just another face in the crowd offering nothing but a bad joke per issue faster than my brain could process. But at least we got satellite books again. Iceman, Jean Grey and Generation X were all cut down before their time, but I remain incredibly happy they got to exist, especially Gen X. Why Christina Strain hasn't gotten another Marvel assignment since then is just beyond my understanding. She made Quire sympathetic! That's like lifting Mt. Everest with WORDS. Weapon X has been solid mid-tier murder time fun time from the start, and a genuine thank-you is due to Greg Land for f***ing off after only 4 issues and letting better artists take over. The book doesn't always blow my socks off, but given how little I've cared about any version(s) of Wolverine and Sabretooth since...being born, probably?...Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente have been pretty much drawing blood from a stone (the stone in this case is my heart) (it's fine, it's supposed to look like that). As for the newer wave stuff, there's no way I'd ever read Rogue & Gambit but I'm happy that it got such a cool creative team for the folks who care; X-Men Red had an incredible first issue but feels like it's stepped off the gas in a big way afterward, but it's early days yet; Hunt for Wolverine will likely disappoint in the end but I'm set to buy 2 of the minis nevertheless; I might wind up actually reading Laura's book now that Mariko Tamaki is writing it; and of course Domino happened, which brings us back to the opening point.

[Dante Milton]

I didn't like the flagship titles for any of these periods. Actually, the last flagship book I enjoyed was probably Morrison's run, unless you count Carey's X-Men and Legacy runs.

NOW: Spurrier's Legacy and X-Force, PAD's ANXF, Liu's Astonishing were good.

ANAD: Hopeless' ANXM was the only X-book I liked during that period.

RessurXion: Gen-X, Iceman, Jean Grey, Red, Rouge and Gambit, New Mutants were/are enjoyable. So I guess RessurXion "wins".

[mugiwara]

Definitely NOW.
Spurrier's Legacy and X-Force, as well as the Spider-Man & the X-Men mini, are the last X-titles I really enjoyed.

(although Domino and Cable are quite good, right now)

[K7P5V]

I voted for NOW! ...mostly because of the artists. In the beginning, the writing was very interesting to read (both the dialogue and how everything was set-up were quite memorable).

[Tazirai]

Now, for dumb reasons, because you didn't ive us a none category.

Hint: In any future polls give us a none of the above option.

[ChronoRogue]

Putting it like that... it's kinda depressing how long it's been since I've enjoyed the main titles. All my enjoyment has been with short-lived satellite books and minis. /sigh

To answer the main question, the best of the worst (era's) is probably Resurrection? NOW had Astonishing though which I can appreciate.

[Heroine Addict]

Gotta say, THIS:

... was a MAJOR factor for me, tipping the scales in ResurrXion's favor, versus NOW!

[Heroine Addict]

Also...

[Heroine Addict]

AND:

... the CLINCHER?

[Grey]

Have to go with NOW.

It was my first time ever reading comic books and it was the 05 that did it for me. It’ll always have a special place in my heart.

[MarvelMaster616]

I've really enjoyed both RessurXion and NOW! I think both eras have been very well-done, but if I had to choose, I would go with RessurXion. I think the early days of the NOW! era were very strong, but they somewhat faltered after a while. ResurrXion had moments like that too, but for the most part, I think it remained more consistent.

[AbnormallyNormal]

NOW! got my vote. It was cool how the same writer had two flagships that allowed for decent strategizing.

AllNewXFactor rocked. The neo O5 always were meh but they were handled decently under the writer who came up with them at least, that person had actual ideas on how to use them.

I liked the Uncanny team of that era.

ANAD era sucked except for Uncanny

This era is OK , inbetween the other two eras probably a bit better than half way though. BLUE is very strong, RED seems good so far. GOLD has been meh but not nearly as horrible as Extraordinary was. (Or Amazing from NOW!). Generation X was great, really great. Way better than Wolverine and the XMen was or Spiderman and the XMen.

[Supernature]

NOW! was an era of interesting premises that never reached their full potential or overstayed their welcome. Some interesting ideas here and there, some good stories in the satellite books but ultimately it all felt frustrating as the big promises were never delivered.

ANAD was utterly abysmal. Extraordinary remains the most pedestrian excuse for a flagship I've ever read. Just the flattest, blandest, most boring, most mediocre stuff. I could not believe it. The book I was most invested in during that period was Bunn's Uncanny and even that was nothing to write home about. It felt like a series of acceptable B plots for an ancillary X-Book. Just okay. All-New was entirely unecessarry. Everything was gloomy yet there was barely any depth. This was the worst era. The worst!

ResurrXion is marginally better than ANAD. The flagship is terrible, like a trainwreck I can't quite look away from (which is preferable to bland Extraordinary imho), Blue's quality varies wildly from issue to issue, etc etc... but the overall direction is a bit better. No stupid forced interactions with the Inhumans or pointlessly dour storylines. Still the franchise could be so much better...

[Wiccan]

2012-2015 tbh... At that time, the books felt like they had a direction. They were all somewhat connected. When you read UXM and ANXM, it felt like pieces of the same puzzle. I miss that connectivity. And, even though Bendis fucked up at the ending and things went nowhere, his ideas were exciting at first.


Ressurxion brought us Jean back though... But I keep thinking about how much better and more impactful that return would have been had it happened during Bendis era.