How have your X-opinions changed?

[Snoop Dogg]

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.

this post is so beautiful omg

[Indigo_Lady]

I used to like Wolverine way more than I do now. I think it was the oversaturation, and how much of a complete killing machine he became. He needed a reboot, although I would have preferred that he stay dead a little longer. Hopefully he'll be restored to a more likable character. Time will tell if this resurrection will give him a new attitude. Please Marvel, don't start putting him in almost every book again.

[Synch340]

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

I totally agree. I still have love for all three more than ever.

[PsychoEFrost]

When I started, I knew nothing of the comics, and only knew the X-Men through the 90s animated series, and eventually X-Men Evolution. As a result, I loved Gambit and Cable, and hated Cyclops for how boring he was.

With Evolution, I really liked Laura, and picked up all of her comics when she moved over to them. Through them, I read the issue where Emma Frost lobotomizes Kimura, and that was super cathartic. So I started cheering for her, and picked up her stuff.

But it was around the Schism that Emma became my favorite character, and I started cheering for Cyclops: the sheer level of hate being thrown his way for relitively small crimes, especially when Jason Aaron was writing, made him look sympathetic by comparison. AvX just closed the deal: ironically without Jean there was no gray story-telling. There was what the editorial was pushing, and that was it because the comics rarely reflected it.

[From The Shadows]

I started reading in 1983 and gobbled up everything X and was a steady reader from then up until 2005 then left comics when Reload turned into a lot of alternate dimension garbage and I had just escaped House of M. I had heard that the X-Men went dark but I said to myself, well, "Outback X-Men" was dark but when I came back to really see and catch up it made the X-Men from the late 80s angels in comparison.

I could not recognize them at all and not only that the fans seemed to have become crueler. I used to post here in the early days of forums and this was considered the nice board though the rest of CBR was definitely up for debate. I mean there was unnecessary nastiness to characters and rivalries I didn't understand. I understood the rivalry between Jean/Emma, Scott/Ororo, Scott/Logan etc since due to the comics it sort of made sense at least though I didn't condone it. Some seemed to just get their rocks off bullying people. I was also turned off by the underhanded homophobic hazing passed off as gay acceptance, underhanded white supremacy and rampant misogyny and misandry and … the classism. I started to rethink coming back, definitely reconsidered it with the chest-beating and then the std and tranny jokes almost sent me fleeing. But I kept a stiff upper lip. I left just after the big forum reboot and it seemed even after that people were still challenging the reason for it and just couldn't get it. So... I finally left because the X-Men weren't being written the way that I could enjoy anyway with the exception of Aarons Amazing X-Men that got quashed, that there was no reason to suffer and stick around when I could spend my time and energy on other things... which was great as I rediscovered other old fandoms/loves and discovered new ones. Many posters I connected with left too so why stay?

Basically in summation I started out loving the X-Men and it kept steady for a long time and then I loathed them and its "ideals" and "message" which I began to feel was a fraud and now I have more complex feelings for the books post Reload. But the quality I'm still pretty much disappointed with even if I'm trying to put the "revolution" and "morally grey" themes in perspective. That can always be better.

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.

Love your Xorn avatar. Are you a fan? Or do you just like the image? I rarely see him discussed and he became my fave during Morrisons run. I was not pleased with Xorneto!

Also! Something else that changed. I felt Bishop was just another gun toting badass from the future but that quickly changed and I ended up enjoying the character and even read his minis and District X and I definitely think District X was one of the best books of that era.

[From The Shadows]

Also, Austen almost killed my love of the X-Men and especially the guy in my avatar but CC and Davis quickly saved it!

[AJpyro]

I literally only knew of the xmen by way of animated series and movies.

Reading the comics:

Cyclops is deeply sympathetic, has too much weight on his shoulders, and needs a break.
Emma deserves better.
Jean deserves better.
Logan has had too much stuff happen for me to like him like I used to.

[Can'tHexTheX]

A little bit has changed, mainly because I was exposed to the cartoon pretty much before anything else, unfortunately. I mean back when all I knew was the cartoon, I disliked Wolverine a bit because he was brash and didn't mince words, but now I really value that. Also used to think Cyclops was a good guy, but...yeah...the comics. My first exposure besides the arcade game was the cartoon and so I frequently wondered how Jean Grey could be so useless, just given her powerset alone, character aside...then along came my exposure to the REAL characters in the comics and Jean in particular took hold for me. Still appreciate the idea of this atom bomb trying damned hard to just be a firecracker. They should show her failing at that more. Gotta love when Grey cuts loose.

Let's see, what else...past like 10-15 years or so made Betsy a star for me. She's been through alot, particularly in regards to Angel-related business.

I thought Mystique was cool before I knew anything about her, but man do writers like to repeat her one shtick. Now I groan when she pops up. Always some kind of betrayal story.

Glob...good ol Glob. You need a regular or average character who isn't the best at everything or most powerful in spite of his efforts. Lemire and Brisson refused to let a joke character just be that and I dig it.

[pandafarmer]

I could not recognize them at all and not only that the fans seemed to have become crueler. I used to post here in the early days of forums and this was considered the nice board though the rest of CBR was definitely up for debate. I mean there was unnecessary nastiness to characters and rivalries I didn't understand.

Two thoughts on this... neither of which excuse the behavior (I'm very much a devil's advocate type of person in order to keep myself level):

- I certainly think we're in a bit of an echo chamber here in CBR. It can get snotty, but I think most of us know that this is one of the few places we CAN be snotty about Emma vs Jean and people know whatever you are talking about with clarity. I can't go off about why "Magneto was right" to someone at work or even family members without being considered a bit random. A forum like this can let someone's pent up demons about comics spew forth. Unfortunately for the rest of us they don't hand out raingear at the front door.

- I think this just comes with the accessibility to the internet in general. It's easy to be nasty or even "short" with someone even if you don't intend that to be the tone. If all you've known is the internet for communication, I'm guessing it's super easy to hit send without really checking your words or thinking through the argument very clearly.

This being said, it's funny how often I'll go online to other forums and see people GUSHING about the same things that people here are positively ripping to shreds. But if anything I've learned from my time here it's that all sides are indeed repped. You go to the "new release" links and just as many people (or more) are raving about a new issue as barking "This kind of crap is why I don't read X-Men anymore." It's just hard to look past the negative vibes sometimes to have the reasonable discussion we want.

[AbnormallyNormal]

Hmm I grew up mostly reading in the early to mid 90s

I guess I appreciate the "villains" more now? Like for me they are more interesting than the "heroes" in a lot of ways

I think when I was first reading X-Men comics I was mostly into Wolverine, his rivalry with Sabretooth, Mystique was there sometimes. The whole mystery of his background.

Gambit was huge too

I guess I just appreciate sort of more the kind of "social themes" now and kind of try to understand X-Men from a broader perspective, at the time it was very much just like "Wow look at how that character moves and dodges lasers" and all that, which of course is still part of the fun but just there is more going on for me at this point I suppose, and the issues I probably used to consider more boring or "filler" I can probably get more into nowadays

[Mutant X]

- 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?
.

Same opinion here. I hated X-statics when I was young.
I couldn't understand Peter Milligan's sarcastic approach over the mutant population overcaming the homo sapiens.
And I used to have Jim Lee art as a standard to superhero comics, so Mike Allred's style looked childish to me.

[akiresu_]

Love your Xorn avatar. Are you a fan? Or do you just like the image? I rarely see him discussed and he became my fave during Morrisons run. I was not pleased with Xorneto!

Yes, I'm a fan! I love Xorn and honestly tolerate the whole retcon mess just bc, however briefly, we got Shen Xorn out of it. I loved seeing him back in Bunncanny (and then, again briefly, in Blue). Thing is I kind of dig the Xorneto twist too, I think it's sadistically brilliant. I contain multitudes.

[Huntsman Spider]

My opinions about X-Men did evolve as I came to a better understanding of the topics, conditions, and situations that they were allegorizing. In my younger years, I was all about the X-Men as the righteous heroes who fought for a noble dream of peaceful coexistence despite constant rejection, abuse, and torment from the very people and world they wanted to protect and I thought Magneto's actions were completely wrong despite what he'd gone through, because what was he doing except victimizing others because he was a victim once? As I've gotten older and realized just how much of the suffering of marginalized peoples throughout the world isn't only a matter of outright "bad guys" being bad and horrible to those people, but also so-called "good guys" standing by and doing nothing as they're targeted with hate and abuse and threats to their very lives just for existing, I've soured a bit on the X-Men's ideals and come closer to thinking that maybe they're wasting their time and Magneto is the reckoning the human race deserves for how it treats mutants.

[Tazpocalapse]

One opinion of mine that has changed is that former X-villians becoming X-men is ok. I found it ok at first, but now it seems every decent villian the X-men have become team leaders. Why not just develop them into a antithesis to the X-men. Of course reforming and forgiving is a stable of the X-men, but you got to draw a line.

[From The Shadows]

Two thoughts on this... neither of which excuse the behavior (I'm very much a devil's advocate type of person in order to keep myself level):

- I certainly think we're in a bit of an echo chamber here in CBR. It can get snotty, but I think most of us know that this is one of the few places we CAN be snotty about Emma vs Jean and people know whatever you are talking about with clarity. I can't go off about why "Magneto was right" to someone at work or even family members without being considered a bit random. A forum like this can let someone's pent up demons about comics spew forth. Unfortunately for the rest of us they don't hand out raingear at the front door.

- I think this just comes with the accessibility to the internet in general. It's easy to be nasty or even "short" with someone even if you don't intend that to be the tone. If all you've known is the internet for communication, I'm guessing it's super easy to hit send without really checking your words or thinking through the argument very clearly.

This being said, it's funny how often I'll go online to other forums and see people GUSHING about the same things that people here are positively ripping to shreds. But if anything I've learned from my time here it's that all sides are indeed repped. You go to the "new release" links and just as many people (or more) are raving about a new issue as barking "This kind of crap is why I don't read X-Men anymore." It's just hard to look past the negative vibes sometimes to have the reasonable discussion we want.

I usually try to put it in perspective this way.

Yes, I'm a fan! I love Xorn and honestly tolerate the whole retcon mess just bc, however briefly, we got Shen Xorn out of it. I loved seeing him back in Bunncanny (and then, again briefly, in Blue). Thing is I kind of dig the Xorneto twist too, I think it's sadistically brilliant. I contain multitudes.

There should be an Appreciation Thread. If its safe to have one, lol.