On Leadership & The X-men

[Dementia5]

What do you think of the idea of a “leadership council” for the X-men? A group made up of senior X-men (maybe the O5 plus Ororo and Logan or whoever you think should be there, maybe rotating membership to give others some experience) designed to lead the entire team by committee. Would this work? It would certainly be more democratic, but would it be effective? Would it be too unwieldy for making critical spur-of-the-moment decisions in the field?

It might take the “leadership curse” off of any one character, but would it be workable for the X-men?

Just throwing it out there.

[Havok83]

What do you think of the idea of a “leadership council” for the X-men? A group made up of senior X-men (maybe the O5 plus Ororo and Logan or whoever you think should be there, maybe rotating membership to give others some experience) designed to lead the entire team by committee. Would this work? It would certainly be more democratic, but would it be effective? Would it be too unwieldy for making critical spur-of-the-moment decisions in the field?

It might take the “leadership curse” off of any one character, but would it be workable for the X-men?

Just throwing it out there.

It really felt like Gillen sort of had that idea with his Extinction team on Uncanny but AvX happened soon after that run started and it never fully played out

[wano]

What do you think of the idea of a “leadership council” for the X-men? A group made up of senior X-men (maybe the O5 plus Ororo and Logan or whoever you think should be there, maybe rotating membership to give others some experience) designed to lead the entire team by committee. Would this work? It would certainly be more democratic, but would it be effective? Would it be too unwieldy for making critical spur-of-the-moment decisions in the field?

It might take the “leadership curse” off of any one character, but would it be workable for the X-men?

Just throwing it out there.

That honestly sounds more like the x men illuminati, if decisions are slow taking actions will be slow, I think there should be a designated leader but everyone should shoulder the responsibility, or at least the senior X men

[yogaflame]

At this point the X-Men concept is too bloated. When you had one or two strike teams made up collectively of a dozen or so individuals that have been together since they were teenagers, a leader or two makes sense and you can still get characterization in for all the team members. Now there are hundreds of so-called 'X-Men', with all but two or three dozen barely realized characters. At that point, even a council of leadership becomes ineffective, especially in the context of monthly comic books.

It would be best to bring back the various splinter teams(X-Factor, Excalibur, etc), and just divide the characters into unique niches so they can all have adequate panel time, and thus divide the 'leadership' responsibilities accordingly. You could have occasional on panel 'council meetings' of the respective team leaders, but the idea of having all the characters under one banner is impracticable. The Utopia era with all 200 mutants operating under a Cyclops dictatorship was completely ridiculous, and the subsequent attempts with other characters have been even worse.

[LordAllMIghty]

I really disliked all the X-men under one leader, under one roof. There should be multiple teams with multiple leaders. Each one working different problems facing mutants

Cyclops, Storm, Nightcrawler (or Havok) and Cannonball should have their own team, with their own base and maybe only one team in New York

[DragonflyJones]

Bro... that comment was so on point, I made an account just to tell you that

[DragonflyJones]

My bad. That was for wano's first post about leadership ( I'm still getting used to this)

[LordAllMIghty]

My bad. That was for wano's first post about leadership ( I'm still getting used to this)

Welcome to CBR.

[DragonflyJones]

Welcome to CBR.

Thank you. I've been lurking for like 2 years lol

[wano]

Bro... that comment was so on point, I made an account just to tell you that

Thanks bro, welcome to the cbr forums, hope you enjoy the experience, and if you like cyclops come say hi in the cyclops appreciation thread, you're more than welcome

[Cyyyke]

What do you think of the idea of a “leadership council” for the X-men? A group made up of senior X-men (maybe the O5 plus Ororo and Logan or whoever you think should be there, maybe rotating membership to give others some experience) designed to lead the entire team by committee. Would this work? It would certainly be more democratic, but would it be effective? Would it be too unwieldy for making critical spur-of-the-moment decisions in the field?

It might take the “leadership curse” off of any one character, but would it be workable for the X-men?

Just throwing it out there.

I like this idea, maybe it’s debatable whether it is the best solution to leadership problem or not, but it’s definitely a good angle for storytelling. Writers can explore the relationships between the senior x-men and their characterizations deeply and thoroughly, considering they are mostly fans’ favorites I assume fans would be thrilled to see that (if written well of course).

[The tall man]

At this point the X-Men concept is too bloated. When you had one or two strike teams made up collectively of a dozen or so individuals that have been together since they were teenagers, a leader or two makes sense and you can still get characterization in for all the team members. Now there are hundreds of so-called 'X-Men', with all but two or three dozen barely realized characters. At that point, even a council of leadership becomes ineffective, especially in the context of monthly comic books.

It would be best to bring back the various splinter teams(X-Factor, Excalibur, etc), and just divide the characters into unique niches so they can all have adequate panel time, and thus divide the 'leadership' responsibilities accordingly. You could have occasional on panel 'council meetings' of the respective team leaders, but the idea of having all the characters under one banner is impracticable. The Utopia era with all 200 mutants operating under a Cyclops dictatorship was completely ridiculous, and the subsequent attempts with other characters have been even worse.

100% agree! The X-men need to go back to the 2 strike squads method, each containing 6-7 members.Then there can be the various satellite teams and separate school. But they should all be independent and have their own leadership. It seems like every mutant and their grandmother is an X-men these days, and just having one leader barking orders makes no sense. Some may hate nostalgia but to me the X-men were best when they were just a small team (7-9) members, had a semi outlaw status and fought evil mutants and had adventures. Clearmont's teams, the outback era and the blue and gold squads are perfect examples of this. On the flip side I hated the utopia era with hundreds of mutants cramed together under general Cyclops and first lady Emma. No one person or one group can claim leadership of the entire mutant race.

[dkrook]

I don't see the leader of the X-men as the de-facto leader of all mutantkind. They are just the leader of a particular group of mutants and they most definitly do not speak for all mutants. If you are a mutant in Africa or Australia or anywhere in the U.S do you consider Cyclops/Emma/Magneto or any leader of a mutant group your leader? Are you obliged to follow their orders or accept whatever they say? No one person whoever they may be cannot and do not speak for a whole "race" of people. If I was a mutant in the MU I would most likely join the X-men but I would only defer to the team leader in the field and not see them as my "President" so to speak. And if I was not in the X-men I certainly would not consider the team leader my leader. The X-men are just a group of mutants who have banded together to fight for mutant rights, they were not an official elected representative group of all mutants. Although they often take on that role in most alt-reality stories.

You make a very salient point about how mutants from all of the world would feel. If anything this is the issue with their writing Logan, Jean, Scott and Xavier are the only important mutants! How is that even possible except that all mutant stories somehow go back to their rule. X-books should have been expanding and including more diverse views and perspectives of other mutants.

[SpiderClops]

Quite the opossite, leadership wasn't such a big deal back then... Cyclops was a field leader and everyone acknowledged that he's good at it, Xavier had a guiding mentor role but every X man had a say in what happened... In emergencies the leader took a bigger role and more responsibilities, but it wasn't a glorified job but more of a burden that not everyone was ready for. My point is that being the core leader of the X men wasn't such a big deal until cyclops made it cool and now everyone wants their favorite character to be the Supreme leader of the X men, but that job comes with responsibilities that nobody seems to be eager to recognize and want it for the glory while dismissing the burden and eventual failure and criticism that comes with that...

Ultimately leadership fits cyclops because he's the only character that can take the burdens of leadership without truly affecting his image, since so many always hated him and found him a too by the rules guy he's tailor made for taking the shitty Job that's created for while everyone else does cooler things

Very well said.

[Sundown]

........
This subtly imbues the leadership role with far greater responsibilities than simple field tactics and team morale – the leader of the X-men is, in fact, the de facto leader of the mutant struggle. For all intents and purposes, they are the strongest spokesperson for mutants and set the tone and direction for the mutant-human relationship.



They are promoted to protagonist of a stellar ensemble cast filled to the brim with break-out characters and hard fan favorites. As they receive the lion’s share of characterization in the book, .......

The bolded is what has broken the franchise. It should never have become predominantly about one character who was the face of the struggle. It should never have been about that character's decisions determining the direction for everyone else. The X-Men, and their struggle, works best as an ensemble cast, with multiple points of view, different responsibilities, different reactions and decisions to the world around them. Doing as Marvel has done since the rise and fall of Cyclops (life and times of Kitty, now What-Would-Jean-Do) is selling the entire franchise short and limiting stories.