X-Men comics are getting dumber

[Nick Miller]

But this ISN'T entertaining.

It's a lack of words and writing...which is sad for a BOOK.

The comics read like the art was done for instagram and the script written with a limit for twitter. People who pay $4+ for a book would actually like to have words to read.

And Narration boxes....there's nothing wrong with explaining what's going on. You shouldn't have to be reliant on a writer's twitter/tumblr to be told what's going on in a comic book.

Damn. Post of the year. Insert clapping gif here.

[Nick Miller]

No, not dumber...that's not a good excuse. This is not an age of innocence or ignorance or even experience. Not yet and not anymore.

Skimming the surface of things, touching lightly on everything in the affirmative, waving hello, using names asking names using names, nodding and acknowledging everybody, always winking and nodding...the X-Men franchise is that person now. These days popularity seems to deny its own intent which only makes things worse. I don't know, I don't know - but the X-Men, since Claremont & the ANAD creators, are spiritually and compositionally not made to be what they've become.

It was captivating reading Morrison's run. Yet miserable. It's as if he charmed and captured the most vulnerable essence of the X-Men and held it in isolation. Then with twisted viciousness - tortured it and cast it corrupted and damaged into the street...pulled off his surgical gloves and walked away...like it was a gift to us all...what he did with no evidence or attempt to conceal, has been done.

To me, it's not a masterpiece, no more than the much lauded/appalling Lolita, it's as vulgar as it was intended to be. A sober warning and distorting mirror. And what I actually fear most, is that vulgarity has been misappropriated and spread throughout the X-Men franchise...Morrison didn't create it...he nurtured it and strengthened its potency and resolve. He didn't demand what be done with it be done this way.

He can't be wholly blamed for how it has spread, knotted and bound itself to the ever diminishing strangled root of what the X-Men are. They grow together now. And what will become of that - I hope will be ANAD again...someday.

Yet this divisive host/parasite condition is not sustainable or 'good'.

If it can be expressed as it must be, I guess it deserves to be understood in this gross embittered mess of being, that friend to many friend to none innocuousness.

And some creators do amazing things with this. Not by ignoring the reality but by working with it and giving it immediate voice. IMO, Bendis' work on UXM is utterly heroic and Aaron's work on Amazing was a deep sustaining renewal of true blood and breath. There have been many many others...but this is post-climate change...the air we breath is broken.

The X-Men Franchise acts like he knows me. And if I'm not careful...I think that knowing me means he cares.

Probably the most fundamental misreading of Morrison’s run i’ve Seen on these boards.

No points for you.

[Nick Miller]

So true. The burden of storytelling has shifted from the writer to the artist over the last 20 years, and, unfortunately, a lot of artists simply aren't capable of carrying the message or themes across.

That's not to let writers off the hook. Honestly, a lot of writers nowadays are plotters or scripters, at best, and not writers.

That’s because they are “writing” 3 or more books, plus probably working on their creator owned stuff too.

Claremont wrote 1 comic a month, for the most part. Until New mutants.

[Snoop Dogg]

Judging the quality of a comic book by word quantity and not scene pacing or word quality is bizarre. You pay $4 for at least 20 pages of professionally drawn artwork that tells a story. You did not really get more bang for your buck if it took you 20 minutes to read an issue instead of 10. You get more if you got more story. And more story doesn't mean better story. You might not prefer that.

Modern word limits on word balloon counts and pages are good. They encourage writers to think about flow and pacing. They allow the art to breathe more when in times past it could easily be suffocated and overshadowed. They allow the letterers to do their jobs efficiently and not have to figure out convoluted balloon placements like god-letterer Orzechowski had to do all the time for Claremont.

Narration captions like Claremont's that have to labor to explain everything that's going on and introduce people while generally just interrupting the flow of the book to regurgitate information were more necessary to hold new readers by the hand before we invented recap pages that have both the premise of the series and a primer on all of the events you need to be aware of to understand an issue. They also look pretty cool these days.

[CoCoBandz]

I know a lot of X-fans share your opinion and have expressed similar experiences with either beginning with or coming back to Morrision and then hating Bendis.

It seems, for many, this has to be the way.

Actually, I had no intention of comparing Morrison's and Bendis' runs, I don't know if I even could. They're entirely different in intent, craft, and expression.

Yet both are almost anti-superhero superhero runs. That's something I really love about my favorite X-Books. Morrison's isn't one of my favorites. But not liking it doesn't mean it doesn't matter or garner importance for me, in some ways not liking it but respecting it is what it's all about. Repulsion is powerful. And IMO, that's what Morrison meant to do. He wasn't wrong and his work certainly gave NEW (however tainted) energy to the X-Men

For what it's worth, I actually believe that the beats and pacing of Bendis' UXM was purposefully staccato. That 'boring meandering trash' was to allow his core characters brokenness and disillusion, their odd displacement, grief and desperation to be actual not simply 'stated' as a matter of fact. IMO Bendis, Bachalo and Anka did incredible work. For me, every panel IS exciting. Entirely intimate, familiar and uncomfortable with genuine earned voice and heart.

It's perhaps natural law that most core Morrison fans hate Bendis' UXM. It's honest.
I guess fans of Bendis' run (me included) must reflect the spirit of that book's vulnerable uncertain nature. It's difficult to hate from that place.

Bendis' UXM is about hope and Morrison's is about hopelessness.

How coild you possinly see Bendis-Men as anything beyond trash after that Matthew Malloy rubbish...

It was an awful finish to a mediocre run.

[Snoop Dogg]

Brian's Uncanny run is not a very good long-form epic, but it is a conceptually daring series that oozes character and is full of great character moments. It's a very interesting book and one of the things wrong with the line now is the lack of anything that daring and experimental.

[Disciple of Redd]

Right now, the X-Books need a little vulgarity/sensationalism and a few boxes with more than three words.

There's been some spot moments. I love the character and emotion in the Rogue and Gambit book. Kitty and Colossus breaking up is great and we need to see some more fallout from that. The Jean/Hope comic was awesome.

But we need more of this, more extended runs of character stuff. More dialogue that actually has meaning.

And some occasional salaciousness.

Everything is so characterless, flavorless, and devoid right now.

[sirmarkus]

Right now, the X-Books need a little vulgarity/sensationalism and a few boxes with more than three words.

There's been some spot moments. I love the character and emotion in the Rogue and Gambit book. Kitty and Colossus breaking up is great and we need to see some more fallout from that. The Jean/Hope comic was awesome.

But we need more of this, more extended runs of character stuff. More dialogue that actually has meaning.

And some occasional salaciousness.

Everything is so characterless, flavorless, and devoid right now.

If you haven't I'd recommend the first issue of the Shatterstar mini. Really well written book that focused on him as a character. The next two issue have been more action based, but that first one was great.

[Snoop Dogg]

That’s because they are “writing” 3 or more books, plus probably working on their creator owned stuff too.

Claremont wrote 1 comic a month, for the most part. Until New mutants.

Before New Mutants, Chris would, alongside X-Men, write Iron Fist, Ms. Marvel, Marvel Team-Up, Power Man and Iron Fist, and Star Wars. Not counting fill-in issues on stuff like Cap or Avengers. During New Mutants, he would be writing it alongside X-Men while also doing several minis for stuff like Wolverine, Fantastic Four/X-Men, and Magik. After New Mutants, X-Men started double shipping and he was doing Excalibur and Marvel Comics Presents.

So on average, Chris was doing three titles a month.

In comparison, Ed Brisson is usually doing a team X-project (Uncanny, Extermination, his Age of X thing), X-Force, Old Man Logan, and a creator owned book. So let's say he has four things a month.

Kelly Thompson has about five books between Captain Marvel, Jessica Jones, Rambit, Sabrina, and Avengers. And she just did Nancy Drew. Let's say she has five books a month, plus Uncanny.

Rosenberg has Punisher and X-Men stuff. So on average he has two things a month, but Uncanny seems to be double shipping next year. So let's say he has two a month, soon to be three. Plus Uncanny.

[Disciple of Redd]

If you haven't I'd recommend the first issue of the Shatterstar mini. Really well written book that focused on him as a character. The next two issue have been more action based, but that first one was great.

I liked issue one and actually have issue 2 but haven't read it yet. I"ll start it back up.

[Tugger]

I haven't been able to get into current X-Men for years now.

Thank goodness for back issues. I've been reading from Giant Size #1 and have reached #144. I have every issue up to about #270 but will stop when they go through the Siege Perilous, which is where I started to love my love for the title.

I will be picking up a couple of the 'Age of X-Man' titles though.

[Uncanny X-Man]

Right now, the X-Books need a little vulgarity/sensationalism and a few boxes with more than three words.

There's been some spot moments. I love the character and emotion in the Rogue and Gambit book. Kitty and Colossus breaking up is great and we need to see some more fallout from that. The Jean/Hope comic was awesome.

But we need more of this, more extended runs of character stuff. More dialogue that actually has meaning.

And some occasional salaciousness.

Everything is so characterless, flavorless, and devoid right now.

This. We shouldn't have to rely on satellite books to get some decent character work, writers have pages and pages on the core books to explore character relationships. There seems to be a fundamental inability from writers to actually write a team book: you either get the majority of the focus on your lead (Kitty/Gold, Jean/Red), or everyone is reduced to snappy one-liners while decompressed action stretches out for a whole 6 issues.

[DearMachine]

I mean, Claremont also wrote an arc where Nightcrawler got kidnapped by sassy leprechauns. And thought leprechaun magic was the best way to reveal Wolverine's name to the readers.

You can cherrypick any two moments from any run to make one seem better or smarter than the other.

[yogaflame]

I mean, Claremont also wrote an arc where Nightcrawler got kidnapped by sassy leprechauns. And thought leprechaun magic was the best way to reveal Wolverine's name to the readers.

You can cherrypick any two moments from any run to make one seem better or smarter than the other.

If you thought that was bad, try reading Lodbell's Gen X story at Cassidy Keep. The story you are referring to also covered Jean's initial recovery from the Phoenix outburst in Jamaica Bay, the new X-Men vs. Juggernaut and Black Tom Cassidy, Eric the Red and the Shi'Ar, and showed us Ororo's origin and the first case of her claustrophobia.

A modern X-Men book would be lucky to have so many long-lasting/pivotal plots going on at the same time.

[MechaJeanix]

I want the X-men to have a bold style. I think we need stories with a lot of character but we also need some shock value and even some minor fan service. You need something to keep people interested and keep people talking. What I loved about the Morrison run was that it was so stylized and I think the X-men need that. The X-men shouldn't be a dumpy run of the mill superhero book. It should be something more. The X-men should be a sci-fi book (and there's room for fantasy too, naturally). We need high concepts, layered stories, high stakes, and of course the drama/conflict between the characters and their ideas.

Some of Morrison's touches were subtle (loved how he used telepathy: "What was that mindquake I just felt", "beta waves make your mind glow"). He didn't use telepathy like writers usually do (we have to have their powers blocked or they could just put everyone to sleep or they just stand around shooting beams out of their head).

The X-men need layered storytelling and they should be able to experiment with style and tone. It shouldn't feel safe. I don't want anymore major characters to die. That has been done, but there is still room for shock value, weirdness, and creating something a little off center.

I feel that the current Uncanny feels so safe and 90's X-men that it is distracting. I still like it, but I await what comes next.