Originally Posted by
NewMutant
X-Men is great because it was a metaphor or allegory for minorities. To me, the thing that dates/holds back the modern X-Era is the lack of direction (which seems to be changing with HoX - and let me forever repeat the 05 coming back in time is not direction), lack social/cultural/technological commentary/philosophies, and diverse representation.
Initially using mostly straight white males was a reflection of the time, but then also go those readers understanding and empathizing with minority culture more. Writers and stories varies on if the shift was from Jewish, to POC, to Women, to LGBTQ, etc. The problem is it's a franchise and they always want to go back to the popular characters which are a majority white men due to the date of creation. So now in 2019 a team representing equality shouldn't be just majority straight white men: Xavier, Magneto, Cyclops, Wolverine, Beast, Gambit, Havok, etc; or white people in general; Colossus, Nightcrawler, Banshee, etc all might not be American but they are still straight white men. These characters are great, I want them around, I want them used, and yes straight white men should of course be included in the overall representation as well. The fact that Bishop is the only straight male POC character and is B-List is crazy.
The stories themselves have become so bland superhero generic. Think about the ever praised Claremont/Byrne run. The characters are all taken out of their element and go to other cultures and explore. We learn about the bigger world when they go to Japan, Russia, etc. Now a battle happens in Africa but rarely is actually exposing the reader to African culture.
We are a smarter culture now, we are more connected through the internet, and the X-Titles need to adjust to properly reflecting the times. It's part of what made Morrison's run so popular. He modernized what it meant to be a mutant.