I think it's time we finally, honestly dealt with the legacy of '90s X-Men.

[AdamFTF]

Guys, it’s time. It’s been 20 years. The nostalgia wave has come. The kids who grew up reading that stuff are old enough to be working at Marvel themselves.

It’s time to deal with the ‘90s. I mean, really, honestly deal with them and what their legacy is. What worked. What didn’t work. What wouldn’t work now. What positives we took away from them as readers and what negatives.

What? You don’t believe me. Well, it’ll be clear that the spirit of the ‘90s is alive again soon enough. I’ve noticed there are more storylines from that era coming out in TPB. Fleer is releasing a new set of X-Men trading cards this summer (yes, really). The producers of the Fox X-Men cartoon series have released a book detailing the development of the show. There’s even an artistic trend making the rounds on Twitter with the hashtag #MarvelSwimsuit2018.

But I get it. Amid the highs of popularity, there were some real artistic lows. I’ve been reading the early issues of X-Force for the first time and boy are they rough. But I also read the entirety of Fatal Attractions for the first time and remembered just how deeply affecting stuff like the death of Illyana Rasputin was (sorry Magik fans).

So, let’s deal with what still works and doesn’t work.

For one thing, the storytelling style doesn’t really work anymore. Back then, ‘90s X-Men books played up long running subplots and serialization to the point it was like a daytime soap opera on steroids. Sometimes there would be “mysteries” that would go on for years. It’s just not feasible these days.

What I think does still work: the characters that became prominent at that time. Cable, Domino, Deadpool, Shatterstar, M, Chamber, Husk, Penance, Bishop, Gambit, Jubilee, etc. I think the whole lot of them have potential (yes, even Maggott). Granted, some of them went through some rough spots. Bishop in particular seemed to be all over the place. And Jubilee, God bless her, finally seems to have evolved into a more grown-up character but she sure took one hell of a weird path to get there. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned from looking at the rest of Marvel and the way they’ve revived characters like Star-Lord, Luke Cage and Carol Danvers is that you should never count a character out completely.

But I’d like to know what other folks think. What is the legacy of ‘90s X-Men either good or bad and how do we embrace one over the other?

[TheCape]

I only had a simple request, Cyclops should go back to his 90s costume, don't care if others find the trunks corny, is still far cooler that any of his other uniforms, before and after.

[RoamingGnome8]

I'm not sure that's completely true about the nostalgia though- otherwise I think we would have seen Generation X being a full reunion instead of the living members being mentors. Characters like Marrow, Joseph, or Maggot would also be brought back. Cable would be getting a major push and the costumes would have soooo many pockets.

I feel like it's more Marvel just doesn't know what to do anymore. That's why Gold resembles Claremont, Blue and now Astonishing is all about the original 5, the Phoenix force has been extremely overused the past few years, and Marvel is bringing back books like the Exiles. Instead of doing the work to create new stories and letting characters grow, Marvel is more or less just repeating the same thing and hoping readers don't notice. That's why we've had M-day and then the Inhumans/terrigan mists plot line almost back to back.

I think nostalgia is a symptom of a bigger problem- Marvel doesn't know anymore what to do with the X-Men.

[lurkerforyears]

I don't think there is nostalgia for 90s books.
I do think Marvel thinks the 90s cartoons are the most popular version of the xmen, and may want to make the xmen resemble that.

[AppleJ]

The 90's were the era that I first came in to comics with, so sorry/not sorry, but I sort of dug them and a part of me still does, so yeah, there will always be a huge nostalgia factor there for me and probably many others from that time. Doesn't mean I think they were the best era or best story lines ever written, but can't help having a fondness for them either.

[Omegarogue]

Is that I personally only highlight three things from the 90's, Generation X, and Gambit (which was his best moment, and now he struggles to get away from that stereotype) and The X-Men The animated series, the rest NOT, I'm not afraid to say it, THE COMICS OF THE 90'S I did not like them at all.

By far, and without competition the decade of the 80's is superior, is better portrayed the stories, and the characters better developed, and by far.

So if I miss the comcis with thematic of the 90's ???, hell of course not, not even a little.

[Omegarogue]

I grew up with the comics of the 90's but in what I started to follow the stories of the 80's or before, you realize how bad the comics were in the 90's.

I do not know why you would want to go back to that address, and hopefully not, that this "nostalgia" will only touch some topics here and there, but do not go deep, and want to revive the comics of the 90's, because I think it's the worst time the comics have, at least on the mutant side.

[TheCape]

I grew up with the comcis of the 90's but in what I started to follow the stories of the 80's or before, you realize how bad the comcis were in the 90's.

I do not know why you would want to go back to that address, and hopefully not, that this "nostalgia" will only touch some topics here and there, but do not go deep, and want to revive the comics of the 90's, because I think it's the worst time the comics have, at least on the mutant side.

Don't know man, i still take Nicieza and Lodbell over most of the last 10 years frankly, maybe it wasn't up to everyone taste, but at least you feel a long term plan developing, right now, i think we are jist sort of stumbling in the dark.

[SpiderClops]

I only had a simple request, Cyclops should go back to his 90s costume, don't care if others find the trunks corny, is still far cooler that any of his other uniforms, before and after.

An updated modernized 90's costume, I'd like. But no trunks. That time is long gone.

[TheCape]

An updated modernized 90's costume, I'd like. But no trunks. That time is long gone.

I could live with that.

[Kurtdarkholme]

Huge pass on any of the main characters ‘90s uniforms returning*especially Cyclops and Storm (her new look in Red is pretty nice, but Jean in the throwback needs help). There were tons of interesting characters and some of the events were good, and once Marvel started bringing in artists that were different (Bachalo, Pacheco,Capullo, Jae Lee etc) and moved away from the past things got better.

[Dementia5]

The 90’s were THE era for me. X-men Blue/Gold, Generation X, early X-Force, OZT, Phalanx Covenant, AoA, TAS, etc. were the summit of the X-perience for me. I’ve read stuff from before and after, but it just doesn’t capture my excitement in nearly the same way. So yeah, I’m extremely nostalgic for the 90’s.

[Fokken]

The 90’s were THE era for me. X-men Blue/Gold, Generation X, early X-Force, OZT, Phalanx Covenant, AoA, TAS, etc. were the summit of the X-perience for me. I’ve read stuff from before and after, but it just doesn’t capture my excitement in nearly the same way. So yeah, I’m extremely nostalgic for the 90’s.

I think its important to acknowledge and embrace our respective age brackets at the time, as well as our respective exposure to the genre, because experiencing something NEW and FRESH dramatically affects how we consume and digest that material and informs how we evaluate the advancement and continuation of that mythos that first drew us in. The magic and sparkle of that initial immersion is a borderline hypnotic and intoxicating experience that is challenging to recapture the longer we commit ourselves to the medium. Of course, every person's mileage will vary on that front. SOME readers will cling to what was (O5 vs All New) while others will foster and rekindle those connective emotions with similar future experiences (New Mutants vs. Generation X, for example, and so on and so forth).

I for one still get swoony remembering how I felt when the faced with an issue of Age of Apocalypse, introducing Magneto's X-Men, and I still get mild butterflies in my stomach when I recall reading those first few pages of Generation X #1 when Paige is confronted by Jubilee on her morning jog. Its all relative but its also this really incredible MAGIC that connects so many of us in a weirdly fundamental way and I think my tangent just took a weirdly emotional turn so I should probably stop typing before I wet my keyboard.

[Hush]

I only had a simple request, Cyclops should go back to his 90s costume, don't care if others find the trunks corny, is still far cooler that any of his other uniforms, before and after.

An updated modernized 90's costume, I'd like. But no trunks. That time is long gone.

It's the hood that bother me, the Astonishing X-Men costume without it would be perfect

[Sam Robards, Comic Fan]

There was a lotta good and a lotta bad in the '90s when it came to the X-Men.

The Good

• Mainstream attention and a presence at Marvel that capitalized on it
• Writers: say what you will now, but Fabian Nicieza and Scott Lobdell were really solid, and Larry Hama continued to kill it on Wolverine's solo. Never read much of Excalibur or Generation X, so I can't speak to those
• Art: Andy Kubert, Joe Madureira, Carlos Pacheco, Chris Bachalo, Brandon Peterson, Jae Lee, Greg Capullo, Adam Kubert. Need I say more?
• Age of Apocalypse: easily one of the best X-stories ever written
• Stable team rosters and costumes: each writer that came in and worked with the characters they had, maintaining a consistent feel throughout the books regardless of who was writing them. Nowadays, it seems like every new writer comes in, makes a new team, gives everyone new costumes, fails to capitalize on the potential of said team and then leaves after a year, which leads to...
• Creative stability (at least in the first half of the decade: after the Image desertion of Liefeld, Silvestri and Lee, the teams, especially the writers, were locked in for a good 4-5 years, helping the books maintain a consistent level of quality

The Bad

• Art: Liefeld, mainly, but even good artists found themselves giving in to the worst of '90s artistic indulgences (pouches, shoulder pads, no feet, over-the-top violence, flash over storytelling, etc.)
• Editorial: I know it's hard to argue with results, but you can't say that editorial interference didn't run rampant at this point in the X-Men's history, often kneecapping or endlessly drawing out plot points for no reason at all. And editorial interference caused the premature end of several promising runs (mostly Seagle's)
• Age of Apocalypse fallout: AoA was the height of the X-Men in the '90s, and it was all downhill from there. Onslaught tried to be AoA 2.0 but fell flat, and nothing else after that was as good or felt as grand as AoA did (I never read Operation: Zero Tolerance, but have heard mixed reviews at best)

So while the '90s is a mixed bag, I still like more than I don't. I don't know that we'll ever see the X-Men be so prominent (both inside and outside the comics) again, but it was sure fun while it lasted.