How have your X-opinions changed?

[pandafarmer]

I grew up with the 80's books, took a break in the 90's, jumped back in during the 00's, took a break after Kitty was trapped in a bullet, jumped back in last year and with the advent of Marvel Unlimited started to read all the X-books from scratch to connect all the dots for the years I was gone and catch up on side issues/series I might of ignored or missed while I was a physical book reader (and broke kid). I haven't finished everything yet, but I'm getting to a place where I'm satisfied with my history lesson and have found that there are opinions I had formed about certain X-series/characters that were based on what little I knew about them.

So this question is... what opinions about certain X-books or characters have changed since you had first read them to today after revisiting? Whether it be lack of context, "growing up," seeing a character in a new light, or reading something new to you that expanded your opinion about something... what was the most noticeable changes of opinion you have faced while reading X-Men?

EVENTS THAT I LOVE NOW:
- Outback X-Men was something I never quite "got" as a kid. With broader context it was neat seeing how they worked around the plot points. I was so focused on the New Mutants and Excalibur at the time I never even knew that X-Factor / Uncanny had this huge blow out during the Inferno mini-series.
- X-Statik - When I was younger I thought it was stupid looking and "what was wrong with the old X-Force?" For me however with context I actually found this to be a highlight of this era of books. In fact I couldn't help but think about how relevant the book still was in this reality tv era of entertainment and enjoyed the goofiness of it. Anyone else think they could make this into a fantastic tv show/Guardians of the Galaxy style comedic X-film?
- Genosha - I never quite had the context of how important the island was in the timeline of X-Books. It was good to see the "whole history" and get why things mattered here.
- Pixie - I know that the San Fran arch isn't very popular, but holy cow did they make this character go from simpering weakling to kick ass X-lady. I haven't caught up to the point where she's relegated back to "X-kid" but now I'm wishing they would have kept her in the graduating class.

EVENTS THAT I DON'T LIKE AS MUCH:
- Pretty much the whole 90's run. When I was younger I thought it was cool and action packed. As an adult I now see it as obnoxious and "loud" with very little in way of quality storytelling (even Age of Apoc fell flat to me).
- New X-Men - At the time, I thought it was a twist on New Mutants type of "teen angst" books but now I see it for what it is... while a breath of fresh air after the 90's "noisy" books, this was a pretty eye rolling group of books. I'm thrilled we don't see much of those characters any more.
- Academy X - Same as above, only worse. I loved it at the time, but I was only clutching on because Dani, Karma, Rahne, and the others were in them. As an adult these storylines were so silly and overfluffed I could barely get through them. Ironically the hope they'd bring back Magik back was the only thing keeping me interested, but I quit before they got to that point so I never saw it happen.

EVENTS I FEEL THE SAME WAY ABOUT:
- House of M - Masterpiece IMO
- Astonishing X-Men - Those 24 issues are quintessential X, and I would tell any new reader to start there.
- Controversial opinion - I adore the "rebel Cyclops" era of Bendis's run. Without it I wouldn't be "back" as a devoted reader. I thought perhaps with context I would see why people disliked it so much, but I still really love this run.

[darewithpeace]

i used to love wolverine, hate cyclops and adore jean
now i love cyclops, still adore jean and its ok for wolverine

[Sin Nick]

Nah, not really. I still don't take X-Men books written post 2000 seriously. For as bad as folks think bad about the 90s, some of the more recent stuff is like 10 times worse. I honestly think losing the CCA was a bad thing for Marvel comics. I still can't get over that a character like Stacy X was allowed to exist.

[Silver Fang]

Nah, not really. I still don't take X-Men books written post 2000 seriously. For as bad as folks think bad about the 90s, some of the more recent stuff is like 10 times worse. I honestly think losing the CCA was a bad thing for Marvel comics. I still can't get over that a character like Stacy X was allowed to exist.

Yeah. For me, the 90's was the highlight time for all the few favorite characters I have. But the 2000's slowly ruined them.

[akiresu_]

They've probably changed more than I realise, but one that I'm always thinking about is how I've twisted on Planet X. I didn't care for it for the longest time. I thought it's depiction of Magneto was insulting, frankly (and I still think it kind of is tbh), but since really taking a look at Morrison's run, and the ideas he was attempting to explore, I've really acclimated to it.

I also found myself recently holding contempt for characters I do love just because of the infantile nature of a lot of posters and threads. I had a long-period of detox from CBR once I realised that was happening.

[Devaishwarya]

I was an avid fan from the 80's right up until issue 500 and Frhacktion's Utopia run. And haven't been a fan since. Sporadically jumped back in when things caught my attention...X-Men by Wood, Extraordinary X-Men, X-Men Red being the most recent (only to be left disappointed). And from the looks of things...for a variety of reasons, I'm still not a fan and won't be buying/collecting any X-books, anytime soon (though MMX did pique my interest).
In a nutshell, I still think that from Utopia-era to 2019 the X-line is 90% rubbish.
I still appreciate (to varying degrees) all the X-characters as much as I did back in the 80's (no bad characters only bad writers etc.)...I just really dislike the way they have been/are being written and the general direction editors have taken the franchise as a whole.

[RachelGrey]

I liked rebel Cyclops and Emma Frost leading their more militant version of the X-Men.

I love when they brought Rachel Summers back in Cable years ago and I hoped that she would be a recurring character or co-lead in his comics, I was disappointed that they only used the brother/sister relationship a few times over the years.

I wish that the X-book writers would revisit some of the psychological PTSD issues that some of the warrior generation of X-Men have experienced (Kitty Pryde, Rachel Grey, Illyanna Rasputin, Cannonball, Dani, Karma, etc...). I remember that they actually shows Rachel and Kitty in therapy a few times and I thought it was an interesting character storyline to explore how both Rachel and Kitty had serious PTSD issues because they have both been "soldiers" of the X-Men since they were kids. With everything that happened to Illyanna, Dani, and Karma since they were taken by the government and experienced on I can only wish that Uncanny will explore the psychological impact of this on these young adults.

I used to love Wolverine and I really liked his Madripoor days during the Outback years. I am sick of Wolverine now and I only read stuff involving him when he is teamed up with other X-Book characters.

I sometimes wish for a more positive and hopeful tone in the X-books, also the constant changeover from one event to the next is starting to get exhausting. I think it would be helpful if they went to one crossover event every two to three years. Also, try a different type of crossover, do the New Mutants, Academy X, Young Avengers, and Champions kids crossing over with each other. Just leave the older characters out and do a huge crossover that involves the kids, maybe something happens that causes the older characters to be taken out temporarily and the younger generation has to take the place of all the teams in all the books.

I am a bit worried lately because I think they are going to parse the entire X-book line to a bare minimum characters just so they can synchronize for future MCU movies.

[phoenixzero23]

When i started i didn't like Wolverine at all but slowly i ended up loving him.
I hated Emma with passion but my dislike for her has decreased a lot, i still dislike her though.
I loved Cyclops until he became all edgy, i still like him but it's complicated.

I love Jean.

[AHRNIHAL]

I liked rebel Cyclops and Emma Frost leading their more militant version of the X-Men.

I love when they brought Rachel Summers back in Cable years ago and I hoped that she would be a recurring character or co-lead in his comics, I was disappointed that they only used the brother/sister relationship a few times over the years.

I wish that the X-book writers would revisit some of the psychological PTSD issues that some of the warrior generation of X-Men have experienced (Kitty Pryde, Rachel Grey, Illyanna Rasputin, Cannonball, Dani, Karma, etc...). I remember that they actually shows Rachel and Kitty in therapy a few times and I thought it was an interesting character storyline to explore how both Rachel and Kitty had serious PTSD issues because they have both been "soldiers" of the X-Men since they were kids. With everything that happened to Illyanna, Dani, and Karma since they were taken by the government and experienced on I can only wish that Uncanny will explore the psychological impact of this on these young adults.

I used to love Wolverine and I really liked his Madripoor days during the Outback years. I am sick of Wolverine now and I only read stuff involving him when he is teamed up with other X-Book characters.

I sometimes wish for a more positive and hopeful tone in the X-books, also the constant changeover from one event to the next is starting to get exhausting. I think it would be helpful if they went to one crossover event every two to three years. Also, try a different type of crossover, do the New Mutants, Academy X, Young Avengers, and Champions kids crossing over with each other. Just leave the older characters out and do a huge crossover that involves the kids, maybe something happens that causes the older characters to be taken out temporarily and the younger generation has to take the place of all the teams in all the books.

I am a bit worried lately because I think they are going to parse the entire X-book line to a bare minimum characters just so they can synchronize for future MCU movies.

You missed Scott having PTSD & he is the first kid soldier & also sinister's lab rat.

[TheCape]

I used to dislike post-Morrison Emma, now i'm more accepting of her and grew to appreciate her, but i don't miss her of her relationship with Scott.
I never cared much about Scott and Jean as characther, i did never hated then, but i was never very interested on then, now i have come to appreiciate more, althougth not to the levels of other posters here.

[spirit2011]

I used to not care much about Jean, but since starting reading comics she became a favorite for me.

Cyclops I used to not care and now I can't atand him. Never liked Emma Frost

Never cared about wolverine, but liked a lot Old man Logan

I'm appreciating Bishop a lot more

[Andru]

I always preferred Jean over Emma. However, that has completely flipped and I now prefer Emma.

[sungila]

I grew up with the 80's books. I haven't finished everything yet, but I'm getting to a place where I'm satisfied with my history lesson and have found that there are opinions I had formed about certain X-series/characters that were based on what little I knew about them.

So this question is... what opinions about certain X-books or characters have changed since you had first read them to today after revisiting? Whether it be lack of context, "growing up," seeing a character in a new light, or reading something new to you that expanded your opinion about something... what was the most noticeable changes of opinion you have faced while reading X-Men?

If I were to trace my own 'opinions' I think they'd be something like yours only different.
I do appreciate this question of faith in this form of self-portraiture, the figure drawn out of the frame of a flip book.

By the hallway light through the crack of the left open door! My things look so different like this. Always have.

Once upon a before the internet the reading felt more intimate, my questions about things sought no response or answer. I wasn't feeling for anything in particular, not seeking scenarios solicited months in advance - things didn't need spoil protection alerts, I traced Nightcrawler with a pencil and paper from my father's type writer ream. I always lost the weapons my action figures came with. But the X-Men didn't need weapons. So my Snake Eyes was Nightcrawler in a black uniform.

When they died, I buried the dead figures in the swampy part of the backyard.

Snake Eyes Nightcrawler never died.


Nothing much has changed.

My opinions about things have nothing to do with how things are. So I have opinions mostly because I need excuses for what I do and how that not the same as the stuff I don't do anymore.

I have opinions in order to I say I do.
But if I don't say I do, I don't.
I've never been a good liar.
I'm not very good at blame.
I apologize too much, I wouldn't if I was a better liar.

Honestly, I couldn't really see through the paper I used to trace Nightcrawler when I was a kid.
So I admit it, I guess I wasn't really tracing.

[Glio]

I started liking Wolverine and tolerating Cyclops.

Thanks to post-House of M and Bendis, I ended up hating Wolverine and loving Cyclops.

[MYCMTSC]

I hated Morrison's run as a teen because it was not my childhood X-Men (from designs to content to Quitely's very-much-not-Madueira-art. Now I love it for that very reason. Well...except for the last two arcs or so.

I like Cyclops a lot more after Gillen and somewhat Bendis.

My opinions on how the original New Mutants' stories have aged varies wildly between re-reads.

Monet was my least favorite Gen Xer and now she's one of my favorite mutants. It took a good start in X-Factor and a mid-run slump to make me realize Larry Hama's convoluted nonsense was clouding the most intriguing and hilarious characters in what is one of my favorite teams.