Would You Rather Have Your Favorite Be Misused, Or Not Appear?

[PsychoEFrost]

The question is self-explanatory. Would you rather your favorite character show up in a major X-book, but be horribly misused, or have them not appear in a book at all for a prolonged period of time?

The question is relevant with the recent discussions about character assassination, specifically for Lucas Bishop, Rachel Grey-Summers, and Emma Frost.

From a personal standpoint, if you're going to have a character be a cartoonish stupid and evil caricature, I'd rather just have the character not be there. Wait until someone else decides to actually use them well. It's not about the character always winning or being shown in the best light, it's about the character not:

A) Doing something cowardly and stupid that goes against everything the character has ever stood for (Emma)
B) Exists just to put the character through massive trauma because everyone else has done it (Rachel)
C) Has the character do something monstrous and out of character just for the sake of having a bad guy (Bishop).

What are your thoughts?

[Vegeta]

If a character isn't appearing regularly, they tend to drop from being a top tier character to a "c-lister." After that, there is a good chance that when they DO finally appear, it will be as cannon fodder for a quick "shocking" death in a story. (Often killed alongside several other c-list nobodies in the same panel.)

Wolverine is still a beloved character and he has been misused off and on since the late 90's.

I chose "other." Let the character appear in some other corner of the universe. Mutants don't have to remain solely the domain of the X-office. They can do cosmic, or become Avengers, or an Amazing Spider-friend. That way they can be used in a new an unusual way, instead of becoming irrelevant by sitting on the sidelines.

[Killerbee911]

Misused. As long as you are around you can be fixed or even if you aren't fixed your overwhelming body of work lets people ignore the bad story. I was just having convo about Captain Marvel and people were doing the I hate CM because of Civil War 2 thing and they are minority. I don't think Marvel specifically went of the way to fix CM after CW2 but her constant body of good superhero work makes it silly to refer back to Civil War 2 story (unless your hater).

I hate what has happened to Bishop but him being gone didn't help the character. The X-men is best franchise in comics at elevating C or D list characters to B list characters. It is far too competitive in the X-men world to sit out. You sit out long enough the X-world will replace you.

[norj]

There should be a give them to the mainstream marvel verse option.

[Glio]

Cyclops almost managed to dodge all post Secret Wars, I wish he had endured dead until Hickman

[Silver Fang]

Not Appear
Appearing badly only leads to a chain of writers / editors picking up on an inaccurate portrayal, then it becomes the default canon because nobody's gonna go back far enough to see the intended depiction. Then a character is ruined.

There's many X-Characters I like well enough. But I had 3 actual favorites, and two of them have a good bit of bad depiction. With that, I stopped reading one of them & gave up on another recently as well.

So if depiction has gotten so bad that you can't read, or if you actively avoid, your favorites, they may as well not be appearing since you, as a fan, don't get anything out of them.

[SneakyLookingSort]

Wolverine is still a beloved character and he has been misused off and on since the late 90's.

The lack of direction over the years made me stop caring about Wolverine.

[Omega Alpha]

Cyclops almost managed to dodge all post Secret Wars, I wish he had endured dead until Hickman

Yep. It's best to simply not appear at all. Less chances of you doing something unforgivable or dying a stupid death.

[Fokken]

My anxiety is triggered every time Marvel announcing the inclusion of Wiccan in anything. I'm in immediate defense mode, every time.

[phoenixzero23]

Not appear at all. Limbo is better than something that could damage the characters.

[Anduinel]

Not appear at all. Limbo is better than something that could damage the characters.

Yup. You get enough bad token appearances and suddenly that characterization becomes the new status quo. Better for characters to stay on the shelf until a writer who gives a damn comes along.

[The Kid]

I can see it either way. For the smaller characters, it's probably better to appear period so they don't get limbo'd for eternity. If you're talking characters that have historically had a big role (Nightcrawler, Kitty Pryde, etc..) and are guaranteed to come back eventually, it's probably better to just not appear

[Snoop Dogg]

If I feel that the character's profile makes their absence bizarre and grating, then not appearing is worse. Otherwise, for the lovable less important characters, I'd prefer for them not to appear knowing that they're living their own lives. Fictional stories are only snapshots into larger worlds.

[skyvolt2000]

I can see it either way. For the smaller characters, it's probably better to appear period so they don't get limbo'd for eternity. If you're talking characters that have historically had a big role (Nightcrawler, Kitty Pryde, etc..) and are guaranteed to come back eventually, it's probably better to just not appear

Being in limbo is not all bad. Because when you go OUTSIDE of comics-a lot of those folks appear.

What book was Blade is when he got his movie?

What about the Eternals?

Because appearing in books and written badly does WORST for a lot of characters.

You can trash Cyclops, Emma, Logan, Kitty, Nightcrawler and others all you like-HOWEVER that is a LINE of folks whoa re WILLING to fix the mess (or make it worst).

Meanwhile for folks like Storm, Prodigy, Sunspot, Cannonball-where is that line in the X-Office? Because all them had SOMEONE outside of it.

Finally you got folks like the Hellions-where NOBODY is willing (or allowed by editors) to try to fix the mess.

All bad writing does is give you a larger pile of unsaleable characters and IF someone is interested. You get push back.

Example
"Why use John Stewart he's BORING" Thanks to 10 years of Johns writing. Thus you have a HARDER time selling him in projects (within comics).

[jwatson]

I'll go with appear "badly". It may not be my cup of tea but I usually always find something to like about it. Maybe I'm a masochist.