"Dawn of X isn't doing anything new"

[Hybrid]

Anyone else hear this on other communities and get frustrated? While most of us are looking forward to Dawn of X, there's a smaller yet vocal camp who believes Dawn of X is just a rehash to old nostalgia. It often comes from outside this community, and it frustrates me because even that has little if any merit.

Looking at it overall...

• The X-Men and all the mutants titles all have a hub in the form of Krakoa, their own lush, advanced futuristic nation that can serve as the point of many good stories to come. It's like Genosha or Utopia, but taken to the max!
• Characters are rerailed to their classic characterizations after getting derailed. Maybe it could be "nostalgic", but I'd rather Cyclops be the reasonable and tough authority figure with a slight edge than the whiny person everyone in Marvel hates. I'm sure most would.
• Others grow into something new. The most obvious being Betsy becoming Captain Britain, and yes, she's been Captain Britain before but that was only a temporary title. This is legitimate, as she's gaining the powers of her brother and taking on the title.
• New designs that are true to X-Men, and great. No drastic alterations that feel unnatural, but rather the next logical step.
• Also, each title is completely distinct. Beforehand, you have your X-Men Red, Blue, Gold, Astonishing and Uncanny etc., some solos, and maybe one other team like X-Force. That was confusing as hell, because it's hard to gauge off the bat the real differences between the color titles and the adjectives. It also made the X-titles looks like a dumping ground for characters Marvel was treating like garbage over film rights, rather than a true pillar of the universe. Here, the six titles we know so farare all completely distinct and get the point across right away, while making the X-Universe feel more legit, which is miles better than before.

Also, looking at the titles we know, I've seen people complain about them supposedly milking nostalgia without looking further beyond the titles themselves. Many of them have been heavily retooled to a fit a new concept and grow the brand. For example:

• X-Men is the hub of all characters, free to show up at any time, and not featuring a set team.
• New Mutants is retooled to be a cosmic space adventure and '80s throwback, where the team travels through space and meets the Shi'ar and Starjammers. Before, their deal often favored horror-esque stories often with mystical elements.
• Excalibur more heavily focuses on the magic side of the Marvel Universe, and even establishes a new kind of "mutant magic". Before, Excalibur focused more heavily on adventure aspects when they weren't made into another X-book.
• Marauders is especially new, with it being X-Men pirate comic starring Captain Kate and the crew sailing the open seas, and that sounds fun.
• X-Force goes from being the gritty black ops comic to a mutant CIA organization, split between intelligence and special ops, in the name of keeping Krakoa in working condition.
• Fallen Angels expands upon the backstory of a mostly unknown character (outside of her body) and tells the story of people on the outside of paradise, those who don't belong in Krakoa for one reason or another.

And this just for starters, as we have at least two additional waves of X-Men books coming. The bottom line, I feel like the people complaining "Dawn of X isn't doing anything new!" only look at titles like X-Force and New Mutants, and assume it's exactly the same. I can get the idea of wanting completely new titles, but we'll get there. It's important to build a foundation to hold the others. Some of these old titles are well-earned anyways. Excalibur hasn't been a thing since 2007, so it's nice to see that make a comeback. Again, I understand it's a vocal minority, but I just don't like the way they act because it suggests they don't even know what they're talking about.

Anyone else see this and get annoyed? Just wanted to see if others felt the same way.

On the plus side, writing all this out just makes me even more excited for what Dawn of X has in store for us.

[TOTALITY]

Yikes that sentiment seems wrong for reasons too tediously numerous to even spend time contemplating, but I imagine it’ll only seem more obviously wrong as the stories continue to play out, so I’ll just wait and let the books to do the talking.

*I mean the sentiment that they aren’t doing anything new seems wrong, not your rebuttal!

[CoCoBandz]

It's okay even Muppets can have opinions.

The most vocal are often always the most wrong.

[RachelGrey]

There are definite differences.
1. The population is bigger than Utopia and may one day rival Genosha if the resurrections go according to plan.
2. Genosha was ruled strictly by Magneto, whereas Krakao is being ruled by in interim Quiet Council with a distinctive separation between state and military because it appears as non council members are running the military.
3. Krakoa has negotiated trade and diplomatic treaties with over 80% of the world nations.
4. Krakoa has applied for and been granted United Nations recognition and they now have a seat in the General Assembly. It's not significant power, but it gives them the ability to negotiate under the United Nations charter, and it also means that other countries have to adhere to the Geneva Accords the same as Krakoa does.
5. They have several diplomatic agreements in place that encourages treaty countries to extradite all mutants to their country. This works to their advantage because it is both normal citizens and criminals. Some of those criminals simply wanted mutants to have a nation and will probably be very grateful that they were granted citizenship.
6. They have created an alliance with mutants who have typically been seen as villains. The reason is that Xavier and Magneto is encouraging everyone to see themselves as "a people" a "unified people" with common accord with each other.
7. It actually appears that Apocalypse is planning to support Krakoa fully for the time being, this gives the nascent government a lot of credibility with the other more hardened villains in that they know if they cross the Quiet Council they won't just be dealing with the X-Men, they will be dealing with Apocalypse too!

They are exploring the limits of biological technology linked to Shi'ar technology. With Apocalypse on board they will also now have access to Celestial technology too. They have already created colonies on Mars and the Moon with the obvious intention to expand mutant kind further into the solar system and perhaps even abandon Earth entirely at some point when the time is right.

In many ways the X-books are becoming a bigger mix of SciFi and Fantasy than they have ever been. Although the X-books have been linked to space before, it appears that they are going all in with this now. Also there is an entire segment of mutants who are dedicated to exploring the link between mutants and magic.

Personally I think this is one of the best constructed stories for the X-Men in a long time. It's obvious that Jonathan Hickman, Gerry Duggan, and the other writers have been working on this for a while. I bet they have storyboards going out 2 years and outlining how all the books will stream out from HoX/PoX over the next 2 to 3 years.

Gerry Duggan admitted that he has been working on preparing the story for Marauders for a year and a lot of what he wanted to do with that book is launched directly out of House of X and Powers of X.

Jonathan Hickman has set up the possibility of doing an series of What If? or Elseworld line of comics to explore Moira's other lives in more detail. I can tell you if they do a Moira and Apocalypse 6 issue or longer series I am going to buy it.

Lol, I would also love to read about MI6 assassin Moira going after the Trasks and getting her Deathstroke on. I want to read about Moira and Magneto taking over North American together.

I am all in, give me more Moira!!

[Anduinel]

I've seen that pop up a few times since HoX/PoX started, and it's always from folks who don't seem to have actually read the comics. Mostly noise and uninformed opinions.

[Hybrid]

I've seen that pop up a few times since HoX/PoX started, and it's always from folks who don't seem to have actually read the comics. Mostly noise and uninformed opinions.

That's what I think too. I hate when people say things like that without even doing the most basic of research.

[Stormultt Divine]

I mean, I'm kind of a sit-and-watch kinda girl.

Can't wait to see what happens, I don't think Hickman will disappoint though.

[CRaymond]

I think it’s intentional.

Hickman is taking decades of tired tropes and adding adrenaline to them.

Want time travel to save the future? Here’s Moira X.

Want pointless deaths and automatic resurrections? Here’s the Five.

Want a secret cabal of good v evil leadership? Here’s the Quiet Council.

Want Storm and Cyclops each leading in their own way? Heard.

Want evolutionary themes that go well beyond petty squabbles? Here’s the Phalanx of X^3.

Want mutants to rally and unite? Here’s Krakoa.

Want villains to become heroes? Here’s everyone.

[Killerbee911]

Hickman can't completely reinvent the wheel because it still has to feel like X-men. I even think he has said he is taking X-concepts that have been done before/familiar and going completely new place with them. It is intentionally familiar because it still has to be X-men.

[Hybrid]

Hickman can't completely reinvent the wheel because it still has to feel like X-men. I even think he has said he is taking X-concepts that have been done before/familiar and going completely new place with them. It is intentionally familiar because it still has to be X-men.

Well of course. Most comics still have to stay true to their core, but at the same time, there's still a lot of change as demonstrated above, yet the haters still go "durr, it's just a rehash" which isn't true at all.

[H-E-D]

The only book I'm not really sold on as being very new is New Mutants.

[Snoop Dogg]

Practically everything in the new line is a retool/riff/remix of an old thing, so okay, but the state of those things has been so shoddy that that is what the line needs.

"It is not time to replace the chicken with the beef. It is time to add broccoli and soy sauce."

-Jonathan Hickman, 2019

[Agatha's Ghost]

I do not mind if the story is "old" if the old stories were good. We haven't had a magikal mutant team in ages, and that is what I have been longing for (even if I have to suffer through Rogue and Gambit to get it).

[Beaddle]

I have made reservations for this book as a person who skipped all the gold, blue, red and the rest of the resurrection era. dawn of x , I may read next year. MAYBE.

Frown at me but I think marvel's best story telling days are behind them.

[Hybrid]

Practically everything in the new line is a retool/riff/remix of an old thing, so okay, but the state of those things has been so shoddy that that is what the line needs.

"It is not time to replace the chicken with the beef. It is time to add broccoli and soy sauce."

-Jonathan Hickman, 2019

That's the thing. The titles are recognizable hence they're used, but they're done in a very different way than before. Perfect examples being X-Force as a mutant CIA organization, New Mutants as a spacefaring '80s throwback, or Excalibur which is practically high fantasy with mutants. Marauders is an entirely new creation people already like, and Fallen Angels may share a title with a deep cut '80s comic but that's as far as it goes and the premise is new as well.

Point is, I feel like the people who say "Dawn of X isn't doing anything new" look at only the titles and not beyond them.

And it's also true that Dawn of X was completely needed due to the bad state the X-Men was in. They needed a foundation to build off of, so it makes sense to launch classic titles like X-Force, New Mutants an Excalibur. Wave 2 should see more titles that are brand new, and I think we'll get the announcement at NYCC. It's exciting.