Too Many X-Men/Lack of Team Structure

[Master of Sound]

I liked the way it was decided during the Utopia period.

A core team with leaders (which consisting core members) Who then lead, or co-lead teams.

Looking at popularity I would put in that core team: Cyclops, Wolverine, Storm, Psylocke, Rogue, Havok and Jean. Added with Cannonball, Sunspot, or Moonstar.

Let Jean and Namor have a team - Red II
Rogue and Gambit lead a Young X-Men team
Wolverine and Iceman on a new X-Force
Psylocke and Archangel on Excalibur
Cyclops and Storm co lead Uncanny
Havok and Polaris on X-Factor
Sunspot, Dani or Sam on Newer Mutants

[CRaymond]

Some of these roster lists read very arbitrary or very obvious, and I KNOW some thought was put into thier combinations.

Would it be too much to ask WHY you chose the team members you did, be it chemistry, expertise, location viability, or otherwise when you all make lists? Like, I can’t tell if I’d be interested in buying a new Gold book if it’s just a list of mutant codenames. I don’t really follow characters, I’m interested in chemistries.

[ExodusCloak]

This is my team

Emma Frost:- Taking the X-Men in after enormous backlash from Nate Grey and funding them
Storm:- Stepping up as X-Men Leader
Jean Grey
Psylocke
Kitty Pryde will play devil's advocate for Emma
For their powerset and to ease team dynamics...
Dazzler
Rogue
Danger

[Factor]

I agree the line-ups need some more stability, but not necessarily more core members.
What the franchise is missing is the chance to really develop characters and relationships over time. The team is always changing after six months, no writer can make you care about them anymore.

[Digifiend]

Sure, but Hickman Avengers had a boatload of new characters and old ones who became new Avengers, after Secret Wars every team had a new character and a truckload of new Avengers, and even now that the line has shrank for a while to give old heads the spotlight, they still got Ghost Rider there to add a fresh perspective, have West Coast Avengers, and split a lot of their new guys into their own franchise through Champions. This is all with a cap of like three Avengers books compared to the X-Line, which can hold like five team books.

Meanwhile, the X-Line has had multiple teams in recent years with token minorities comprised of people created before the 2000's (and that's me not counting Storm in Extraordinary because she was the boss.) Something is very wrong when a franchise with a high bar like Earth's Mightiest Heroes is doing better at getting fresh faces in and representing the world than the franchise about an entire species who get powers during adolescence who parallel minority struggles. The Inhumans with their dinky three-five books on average have been doing a better job than the X-Men.

Yeah, there's at least five Champions books (four team members have solos). A couple of years ago, that's all X-Men had!

[Snoop Dogg]

Her absence on those years has influenced the direction of the franchise more than some character's presence have at the same time-frame lol.

Can you elaborate on what this means? Uncle Ben's absence influences most Spider-Man stories, but he's not a core part of the cast. Because he's absent.

[TheDeadSpace]

An identifiable roster won't magically make the books better. What's holding the X-Men books back is the writing and editing.

I agree completely. The characters are fine, it all hinges on the stories a writer tells with them that holds the most importance in my opinion. While some characters may have more reader pull than some, the story does a lot more in the long run. If there is a lack of story direction, the team doesn't seem to matter and continually changes it seems.

[Zero Hunter]

The whole line just needs a break for about 6 months or even a year. Cancel everything and let it sit while a new editoral teams comes in and come up with a new fresh plan instead of just rehashing the same ideas over and over. The way the X-books have been the last decade at least is like trying to patch a sinking ship while someone is blowing more holes in it faster than they can patch them. Give it a breather then come back with just a few books at first. Something like 3 or 4, but all with their own casts, settings, and missions with little overlap.

[Wiccan]

Can you elaborate on what this means? Uncle Ben's absence influences most Spider-Man stories, but he's not a core part of the cast. Because he's absent.

Well, Uncle Ben doesn't get to come back and deal with the outcome of his death for ages like Jean did in X-Factor and to a lesser extent Phoenix Resurrection/X-Men Red. I think Bucky is a better comparison for Jean, though still not a perfect one. He's definetely considered one of the main Captain America-related characters even though he has spent more time dead than alive AFAIK.

Jean might have been absent but she's been a part of the most well known lineups and some of the most important eras. Original 5(and so X-Factor/time-displaced O5), first Claremont lineup, '90s(Gold team and TAS), Morrison. She has meaningful ties or relationships to some important characters like Xavier, Cyclops, Wolverine, Cable, Rachel, etc. She's been part of all X-Men cartoons, was one of the main characters on the original movie trilogy and now the newer movies with Apocalypse/Dark Phoenix.

Marvel Wiki counts her as having 1,106 appearances, and that's without counting Teen Jean(who's at 196) or Phoenix Jean because of the retcon, which is about the same as most other main X-Men besides Wolverine. So statistically even dead for years she somehow hasn't actually appeared much less than other X-Men who have been alive since forever and/or with just short-lived deaths.

[yogaflame]

I'd like to see Storm lead Namor, Marisol, Magma, Iceman, Monet, and Sunspot in a new X-Treme vol. focused on ecological devastation, climate change, global finance, immigration and famine relief. Obviously Namor's in a weird position given his recent Avengers arc, but it's actually still on message for him to want to face these issues and Ororo has enough strength of will to steer him in a slightly more positive direction. I'd like to elevate Monet as a premiere telepath(as she was originally in Gen X where she countered Emma) and develop a relationship with her and Roberto. Marisol is the feisty kid, but also has tremendous potential in terms of reforestation, reversing desertification, and creating disease/climate resistant crops. This would be the main squad, but there could be cameos/featured arcs including Nature Girl, Northstar, Empath, Emma's Hellfire Club, etc.

[jalsrix]

Two teams are too little considering how the roster have grown. There should be 3 teams

[yogaflame]

Let Jean colead with Cyclops, a team of Beast, Frenzy, Triage, Trinary, and Jubilee. They can be a bombastic superhero team, bread and butter American-based, inner city kinda deal. They can stay in NYC and jet around from there. Chamber is reserve, babysitting Shogo and dating Jubes. Keep Gentle around too for Trinary, but put him back on his pacifist angle to keep him off the active team.

I'd like to see Angel and Betsy co-lead a new Excalibur out of London. Meggan and Brian can be sort of reserve members raising their baby, but bring Colossus, Nightcrawler, Kitty, Pixie, and Oya as the active members. They are the European-centric team, but they can get into all kinds of weird stuff too.

[yogaflame]

Then have Bishop and Wolverine lead the new X-Force, with Sage, Kwannon, Siryn, Warpath, and Magik. They get into the dark corners and do what the other teams wouldn't dare. Rictor and Shatterstar are reserve members.

Have Havok and Polaris co lead a new X-Factor, with Dazzler, Multiple Man, Bling, Surge and Forge. Take them back to a government sponsored team, but also make it like a very media-centric/pop star/reality tv situation. They can have lots of guests from the various kid generations and anyone else who is missing.

Finally, have Moonstar and Cannonball chaperone Prodigy, Hellion, Rockslide, Anole, X-23, Mercury, and Armor as they form their own unit to address issues they are interested in. Prodigy and Armor can vie for leadership of this squad.

I guess Rogue and Gambit can just stay in their title. If necessary they can hop in on Storm's X-Treme team or Wolverine's X-Force.

[frostedemma]

The CORE X-Men are Cyclops, Wolverine, Storm, Nightcrawler, Rogue, and Colossus.

Next question?

there is no core x team. that's what makes the x-men franchise unique. yes you have various famous/iconic characters but unlike the avengers and the justice league you don't have core members because unlike them, historically the x-men could sustain itself by having various x teams with different goals

[frostedemma]

The core X-Men is everyone from the Gold & Blue team circa 1991 w/ Nightcrawler, Kitty, Emma and others more as secondary tier.

Sure you have newer mains like X-23 and Magik but they aren't core.

Also, Storm is not more essential than Cyclops since most of the iconic stories evolve around him, his love life, his children and his daddy issues and the weeds that sprout from said roots. Cyclops is more important to the X-Mythos than Storm who is important as an identifier but not in the realm of the narrative (relative to Scott, I mean; she's still core like the others circa 1991).

Also, why is Kwannon being mentioned in the OP with the core characters? Psylocke is core regardless which body she occupies, not Kwannon.

storm is considered by many as being the most important marvel female character. in all the classic x-men storyline storm and cyclops have pretty much always had the same importance except for inferno where cyclops had a bigger role solely because of his relationship to maddy. For most of the 80's uncanny revolved around storm