The Post Claremont and Pre Morrison era from the X-Men

[TheCape]

This time period was probably the star from many posters here on the X-Men, so i wanted to ask, what are the best and worst things about this era in your opinion (i ask to both fans and no fans of this particular era).

[lurkerforyears]

I was born in 84 and don't like 90s's X-Men very much.

These are the things I like and find good, very good or excellent

Hama Wolverine (90s were the best decade for Wolverine), even in the main book you have some great Wolverine stories, like the first story of Omega Red, who is for me clearly the best xmen character created in the 90s.
PAD's X-Factor
The Age of Apocalypse crossover event
Kelly's Deadpool (when Deadpool became a great character)
The Lobdell Bachallo issues of Generation X
The late 90s (like 97-98) Maverick one shot and 12 issues run

when I think of 90s xmen, most feels quite stagnant to me, Magneto is evil again, a lot of time wasted on "who cares" stories like the identity of Stryfe and Cable, and the cast doesnt really change much unlike the 80s. Most new characters are failed characters (people like Shinobi Shaw, Trevor Fitzroy, Mikhail Rasputin, or Maggot, Adam the X-Treme, Marrow on the heroes side). I would even call Stryfe and Exodus almost failed characters.
The legacy virus story dragged for years, and we still don't know what the prize the Upstarts (all terrible failed characters) were fighting for, was. The Hellions died for that **** story.

[Uncanny X-Man]

I think Scott Lobdell's contribution to the X-mythos is very underrated. He was far from perfect and there's a number of characters he just couldn't write if his life depended on it, but he was also caught between very strict editorial guidelines and an impossible legacy to live up to. But overall Scott often delivered fun, entertaining stories and character work - I think his X-run on Uncanny and associated titles ranged from good to very good mostly, and started to really drop in quality only after Bob Harras stopped being X-editor and got promoted to EiC as successive X-editors weren't as simpatico with Scott.

[TheCape]

I think Scott Lobdell's contribution to the X-mythos is very underrated. He was far from perfect and there's a number of characters he just couldn't write if his life depended on it, but he was also caught between very strict editorial guidelines and an impossible legacy to live up to. But overall Scott often delivered fun, entertaining stories and character work - I think his X-run on Uncanny and associated titles ranged from good to very good mostly, and started to really drop in quality only after Bob Harras stopped being X-editor and got promoted to EiC as successive X-editors weren't as simpatico with Scott.

Interesting, what characther do you think that he couldn't writte well?.

[AbnormallyNormal]

Generation X, Age of Apocalypse, "Joseph", de-emphasis on Prof X, embrace of more gritty antiheroes, more AUs

[HandofPrometheus]

Since I'm here can some give the best runs of this era? I'll be honest and say I skipped this period of the X-men.

[tornshattered]

I've just bought the Road to Onslaught tpbs and I have to say, I am loving them. The characterisation is on point and the writing is much better than half the stuff Marvel is coming out with these days. I love the slightly depressing feeling of the Legacy virus looming, the rising of anti-mutant hatred, very similar to what the gay community experienced in the early 90s.

[Luckystar.]

I really liked the downtime issues, that sense of home and family the X-Men had at the time. We don't have that anymore.

[Tazpocalapse]

My opinion on the Morrison run only. I like that he did infuse a sense of culture among mutants. I would have lked him to delve more into mutant mythos and have focused more on the overall story of the X-men more than individual characters. I would have liked to seen him tap into "invisibles Grant Morrison" and applied that to the X-men. I think a good fit would have been Morrison perhaps being given a Vertigo version of the X-men. I feel his run had good openings but were not gamechangers that others have been able to build on.

[yogaflame]

I think the 90's are actually better than most X-comics since Morrison, but they still pale compared to the Claremont era. At best you had a cohesive yet diverse line, with heavy emphasis on characters' relationships to each other, and flashy art from some of the medium's best pencilers/inkers as digital coloring came on board. At worst it was superfluous and navel-gazing, with cliched T&A, drama, and overwrought military-industrial/political/sci-fi tropes.

X-Men and Uncanny are mixed, but there's some decent stuff here, especially art-wise(I love the early Liquid! coloring, and some of the greats did work here with the pencils/inks). X-Force and Gen X are surprisingly interesting at times. Excalibur is not my favorite, post Claremont, but some little things. X-Factor wasn't that good for me, even PAD's celebrated run. I am no where near as impressed by AoA. Gen Next was the best series, the rest kinda pointless and uninteresting. The character designs are okay, but the whole premise and actual plot arc is crap. X-Men Unlimited had some neat stories, especially towards the beginning. The bit of Wolverine that I've read from this period is mixed. Some truly bad, some nice. I never got into X-Man, can't believe he had such a long run, but I guess in those days, anything with an "X" on the cover could sell. Didn't read much of Cable either.

[JasonEsta]

Lobdell and Nicieza era was legit. The Stryfe story was great. They just messed up by having Canle be the real Nathan Summers.

AoA was legendary.

Nate Grey crossing over was a great decision. No Askani crap and no techno virus holding down an all time powerful teen mutant who dudnt trust the names in charge of this world's X men.

The original Joseph story with Sister Maria was one of the best books from the late 90s. Uncanny 327.

When Gambit got exposed for being a coward and Rogue left him to die was one of the most comical endings ever. Kudos Scott Lobdell.

Dark Beast taking Havok off X factor was a good shake up because Summers very boring at the time.

Pete Wisdom SUCKED. Lol@them having good girl Kitty laying down with this sorry excuse for a character.

In X men 53, when Onslaught showed Jean that Xavier wanted to have sex with her at 16 was one of the best heel moments in comic history.

The Magneto War ended perfectly. Rogue ONCE again nearly heeling on the X men to protect Magneto, Magneto taking over Genosha, Joseph finished, and the X men/FF/Avengers couldnt do a damn thing about it.

[Uncanny X-Man]

Interesting, what characther do you think that he couldn't writte well?.

Storm and Psylocke immediately come to mind. He really struggled writing Ororo and clearly had no interest at all in Betts.

[Sam Robards, Comic Fan]

Oh, the '90s. I started reading with Uncanny X-Men 298, so this decade does hold some nostalgic value to me; however, it definitely has its flaws.

On the plus side, Nicieza and Lobdell are extremely underrated, and that they did as well as they did with the huge amount of editorial interference they faced is nothing short of awesome. Seagle had loads of potential, but editorial strong-arming caused him to leave the book prematurely.

Age of Apocalypse is still widely regarded as one of the all-time best X-stories, and with good reason. It's got a compelling hook, had creative teams that were going on all cylinders and was incredibly well-structured, especially considering the short amount of lead time they had on it.

The books generally had fantastic art: Jim Lee, Andy Kubert (still one of my faves), Adam Kubert, Carlos Pacheco, Chris Bachalo, Joe Madureira, Alan Davis, Jae Lee, Joe Quesada, Greg Capullo, Brandon Peterson, the list goes on.

The rosters and costumes were also very consistent: you didn't have different teams being swapped in and out every couple issues like we do nowadays. They also kept the Lee costumes for basically the entire decade, which is a miracle in its own right.

I prefer the first half of the decade to the second, as things pretty much peaked with AoA. So if you stick to the Nicieza and Lobdell stuff, you should be in good shape. I temporarily dropped outta comics after Onslaught (mostly due to lack of access to an LCS), coming back during Alan Davis's run on X-Men toward the end of the decade, but I did go back and get the post-OZT Seagle stuff that had the O5 hanging out in Alaska, which was really good despite being pretty short.

[Hush]

I think like any X-Men era, the post Claremont and pre Morrison era had some good things and some awful things but at first it wasn't that bad. The main problem was the Editorial Interference that completely messed up some stories.

But things really did get ugly for the X-Men towards the end of the 90s and the begining of the 2000s unfortunately.

But if I have to choose the best X-Titles from this era :

Team Books :

- Uncanny X-Men/X-Men until AOA by Lobdell & Nicieza (not bad as a whole except for the Magneto regression, the Kwanon/Psylocke story and that Legacy's virus plotline that went on too long)

- Uncanny X-Men/X-Men by Kelly and Seagle

- X-Factor by Peter David

- X-Force by John Francis Moore

- Excalibur by Alan Davis

- Generation X by Lobdell/Bachalo

- New Warriors by Nicieza


Solo Books :

- Wolverine : Hama's run, Warren Ellis's run, the short Dezago story with the Wendigo and the Steve Skroce run

- Cable : Robinson/Casey/Ladronn run and the Weinberg run. But if you really like the character you should also try the Cable/Soldier X serie by Tischman and Macan and the Cable/Deadpool serie (I know it was released during the Morrison's era but I had to mention it lol)

- Deadpool : Joe Kelly's run and the Circle Chase mini by Nicieza

- Gambit by Nicieza

- The adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix by Lobdell & the Further Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix by Milligan


Events :

- Age of Apocalypse

- X-Cutioner's song

- Fatal attractions

- Phalanx Covenant

[Triniking1234]

The 90s had some good events compared to what we've gotten these days: X-Cutioner's Song, Fatal Attractions, Age of Apocalypse, Onslaught, Operation: Zero Tolerance, The Twelve. I think my favourite books were X-Men v.2, Wolverine and X-Force.

X-Factor had Forge, Mystique and Sabretooth in it at one point though; that was horrid.