On Leadership & The X-men

[Striderblack01]

The X-men have a leadership problem.

It seems inconceivable, but even a brief glance into their history reveals a rather surprising amount of ineffectiveness, corruption, and dissatisfaction from their leaders.
How is it that a team filled with supremely talented and qualified individuals often produces such below-par leadership performances?

Unlike other superhero teams, who have far simpler mission statements, the X-men find themselves in a unique situation.

They are superheroes, but they are also the champions of the mutant cause.
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.

With the stakes raised so high, any missteps, whether through direct action or lack of it, have huge consequences.

In a meta sense, the leader of the X-men faces many additional issues.
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, there is a lot of pressure from the readership for that character to be written as likeable, and, from the fandom, to be written as their best self. In addition, X-fans often hold the leaders personally responsible for any hardships mutants face during their tenure. However, there are certain realities of leadership and comic book publishing that are bound to clash with their expectations.

A good story explores character strengths and, more crucially, their weaknesses and ties them to their main goals / struggle. As leader of the X-men, a character’s flaws are magnified, as they directly tied to how they champion mutants in a world that hates and fears them. It's hard to like someone when their flaws lead to mistakes that have detrimental life and death implications for an entire race of people. Sooner or later, a leader's popularity is bound to wane.

We are all familiar with the perceived progression vs actual progression strategy employed by the modern publishing companies. This model works when the status quo is good, and worthy of being preserved. However, when it’s filled with prejudice and hate, preserving the status quo can amount to failure over time and can call into question a character’s efficacy.

Marvel is so committed to this lack of progression, that it often regresses the mutant struggle itself – from peaceful coexistence to mere survival. With the aforementioned mindset in place, even if an X-leader should achieve victories and progress for mutants, they will ultimately be undone, either during his/her tenure or the next.
This too fundamentally undermines that character’s capabilities.

In many ways, the X-men leadership problem is the X-men book problem.

[The tall man]

The X-men have a leadership problem.

It seems inconceivable, but even a brief glance into their history reveals a rather surprising amount of ineffectiveness, corruption, and dissatisfaction from their leaders.
How is it that a team filled with supremely talented and qualified individuals often produces such below-par leadership performances?

Unlike other superhero teams, who have far simpler mission statements, the X-men find themselves in a unique situation.

They are superheroes, but they are also the champions of the mutant cause.
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.

With the stakes raised so high, any missteps, whether through direct action or lack of it, have huge consequences.

In a meta sense, the leader of the X-men faces many additional issues.
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, there is a lot of pressure from the readership for that character to be written as likeable, and, from the fandom, to be written as their best self. In addition, X-fans often hold the leaders personally responsible for any hardships mutants face during their tenure. However, there are certain realities of leadership and comic book publishing that are bound to clash with their expectations.

A good story explores character strengths and, more crucially, their weaknesses and ties them to their main goals / struggle. As leader of the X-men, a character’s flaws are magnified, as they directly tied to how they champion mutants in a world that hates and fears them. It's hard to like someone when their flaws lead to mistakes that have detrimental life and death implications for an entire race of people. Sooner or later, a leader's popularity is bound to wane.

We are all familiar with the perceived progression vs actual progression strategy employed by the modern publishing companies. This model works when the status quo is good, and worthy of being preserved. However, when it’s filled with prejudice and hate, preserving the status quo can amount to failure over time and can call into question a character’s efficacy.

Marvel is so committed to this lack of progression, that it often regresses the mutant struggle itself – from peaceful coexistence to mere survival. With the aforementioned mindset in place, even if an X-leader should achieve victories and progress for mutants, they will ultimately be undone, either during his/her tenure or the next.
This too fundamentally undermines that character’s capabilities.

In many ways, the X-men leadership problem is the X-men book problem.

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.

[Striderblack01]

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.

I did not say the leader of the X-men is the leader of the mutants.

I said they were the leader of the mutant cause.
I phrased my OP very carefully to make that distinction.

The X-men are the best and most consistent champions of the mutant cause, and their leader is often in a position to speak for the team in public on their directives.
Which makes them the strongest spokespeople for the mutant cause in the Marvel Universe.

We've seen politicians and mutant supremacists come and go, and their messages wax and wane.
But the X-men are always there, consistently championing peaceful coexistence.
Because they are the first, most enduring, and best, all eyes are on them, and their every actions are heavily scrutinized and carry a disproportionate weight.

---

Also keep in mind that, just because I'm accurately describing the situation, doesn't mean that I endorse it.

[Disciple of Redd]

It doesn't really matter who the team leader is as long as that character isn't annoying and/or boring.

Justa about anyone who has been around longer than X-23 should be capable at this point.

Not a big deal as long as the writer isn't an obnoxious self-inserter.

[Striderblack01]

It doesn't really matter who the team leader is.

(Fixed.)

I've seen posters criticizing Scott, like he was the one responsible for the mutants facing extinction.
I've seen posters criticizing Ororo, like she was the one responsible for the Terrigen mist incident.
Etc., Etc.

It doesn't really matter who the leader is because they will never effect long-lasting change.
However, unlike the remaining cast, X-leaders are judged and essentially criticized for 'failing to improve the mutant situation', despite that being functionally impossible from a meta perspective.

Unless something different is done, the process of falling out of love with the X-leader is going to happen to Jean too.
Unless she vacates after a few victories but before any big mistakes.

--
Not to digress, but Batman is in a similar scenario.

He's done some amazing things, saved world & Gotham from destruction countless times, but Gotham is still a cesspool.
A cesspool he's been trying to clean up, and failing, since he took up the cape and cowl.

That Gotham is still a cesspool really calls into question the effectiveness of Batman, despite the fact that he's an amazing superhero/crime fighter.

[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.

[Rover]

You make a great point about the lack of progression ! Marvel has painted themselves into a corner with preserving the status quo and they can only tell three types of stories:

The us against the world story, where mutants learn to accept themselves and find ways to work together. This story only works with the X-kids (or time displayed O5). It's a coming of age story that they can repeat with a different generation of kids every time. The story is sometimes used with older characters and ignore any kind of character development that has happened in the past.

The X-Men vs the bad guys story, which is at the core of every book but ultimately becomes repetitive and has to be mixed with another trope to add interesting themes or create drama. There has been some noteworthy X-Men vs the bad guys story for instance where the conflict also happened at an ideological level with Magneto, but writers are struggling to keep these stories fresh and interesting, which is understandable for a franchise that has been around in the 60s.

The internal struggles story, where bad writers will demonize a character to make the story work while good writers will create a believable scenarios where you have two valid point of views that clash with each other. This is where the flawed leadership trope appears. It's not a bad thing in itself, it's just that few writers have been able to pull it off without trashing a character. I think there was a time period where they overused that flawed leadership trope with Cyclops and Xavier and turned it into something that readers don't want to see anymore.

I think they've been trying not to use that trope recently. The ongoings we got in 2018 didn't really use that and I think the Uncanny relaunch is going to focus on the Xmen vs the bad guys trope, and the Age of X thing might be an AU where the status quo is a little different. I'm sure we'll eventually circle back to the 'us against the world' thing the next time they decide to launch a new x-kids book and we'll get other flawed leaders stories after a while. I think Jean's two-dimensional leadership in Red showed the flawed leadership story might not be so bad in comparison to the bland 'flawless leader'.

[wano]

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

[Cyyyke]

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

True. We’ve seen lots of leaders, some of them used to be everyone’s best friend but when they are put in the position of giving orders the situation is immediately different. Eventually, every leader will have haters from the x men or from the x men fandom, it’s only a matter of time.

Cyclops was the most obvious example and he had full awareness of what leadership means.

94707181-306A-453B-9126-CE919C007DD7.jpg

I think he’s still the best choice for the leader role, but if his era has already passed (I agree some other people should have their chances), I’m curious to see who the next general long-term leader is, where he/she will lead the x-men to and what treatment he/she will get.

[oldscottsummers]

well... Cyclops is one of the best leaders in the Marvel Universe.
Scott was a tactical genius, but he never developed the balls to be a proper leader until he got rid of Jean, Xavier, Boyscout idealism.

[wano]

True. We’ve seen lots of leaders, some of them used to be everyone’s best friend but when they are put in the position of giving orders the situation is immediately different. Eventually, every leader will have haters from the x men or from the x men fandom, it’s only a matter of time.

Cyclops was the most obvious example and he had full awareness of what leadership means.

94707181-306A-453B-9126-CE919C007DD7.jpg

I think he’s still the best choice for the leader role, but if his era has already passed (I agree some other people should have their chances), I’m curious to see who the next general long-term leader is, where he/she will lead the x-men to and what treatment he/she will get.

well... Cyclops is one of the best leaders in the Marvel Universe.
Scott was a tactical genius, but he never developed the balls to be a proper leader until he got rid of Jean, Xavier, Boyscout idealism.

I think simply there was not an end of the world/universe/ mutantkind situation that required him to assume the position of absolute leader since everyone was on the same page and they'd the resources to deal with them, the M day era was an emergency (with mutants on the verge of extinction) that he's ready to tackle, and his goals and victories of that era will never be replicated

[Havok83]

Quite the opossite, leadership wasn't such a big deal back then...

I really dont felt it became this big important deal until Cyclops in the post M-Day era

(Fixed.)

I've seen posters criticizing Scott, like he was the one responsible for the mutants facing extinction.
I've seen posters criticizing Ororo, like she was the one responsible for the Terrigen mist incident.
Etc., Etc.

It doesn't really matter who the leader is because they will never effect long-lasting change.
However, unlike the remaining cast, X-leaders are judged and essentially criticized for 'failing to improve the mutant situation', despite that being functionally impossible from a meta perspective.

Unless something different is done, the process of falling out of love with the X-leader is going to happen to Jean too.
Unless she vacates after a few victories but before any big mistakes.

--
Not to digress, but Batman is in a similar scenario.

He's done some amazing things, saved world & Gotham from destruction countless times, but Gotham is still a cesspool.
A cesspool he's been trying to clean up, and failing, since he took up the cape and cowl.

That Gotham is still a cesspool really calls into question the effectiveness of Batman, despite the fact that he's an amazing superhero/crime fighter.

Outside of the Legacy virus, there's never been this one big sweeping problem facing all mutants as we got with M-Day and later the T-cloud. Scott and Ororo took on extra responsibility bc alot more was placed on their shoulders than ever before. Even the Legacy virus was met with ignorance and there was no clear action to take as far as protection and survival came. We are in a post IvX world and IA with DoR that the team leader doesnt really matter all that much. Mutantkind isnt on the brink of extinction with their backs against the wall. Any number of experienced qualified X-men can lead and they dont need to do it alone

[phoenixzero23]

Focusing so much on a single character is wrong. It's wrong with Cyclops, Storm, Jean, Wolverine, etc. The world feels larger when not one single person is in charge.
Honestly for me leadership is overrated.

[bell]

Leadership comes with so much responsibility, people think is just being the face of the x men and making peace. Ororo gets blame for the mess the cloud was. I think she needs a 2nc chance. This time a good writer, that actually know what they are doing with her. With Scott and Logan back they don't need to be leaders.

Ororo has more experience and has been second in line for this. She was the leader of a team at one point when Scott was of another.

[yogaflame]

The mantle of leadership means nothing. It is the mantle of writer and editor that means everything.