Originally Posted by
pkingdom
OK, I've got two major changes to this relaunch. I'm venting a bit here, so sorry.
1) ENOUGH WITH THE DATA PAGES! If you want to give us a map or a timeline chart, fine. Hell, One Piece does that all the time! 'This invasion is going on, here's a map of the island/castle/facility/whatever, and here's where everyone is!' But we should not be getting major plot details or foreshadowing relegated to text walls. The data pages are quickly becoming a crutch. Things like how Moira convinced Xavier and Magneto over time, and how Krakoa and other vampiric mutants are even living on the island is really important information that should be happening on-panel. These are comic books, not light novels. It is meant to be a visual medium. If you have to constantly supplement your narrative with walls and walls of text, you are failing as a comic book writer.
2) No more villain led groups. This is a bit more complicated. I've personally had issues with the X-men for years because they turn to their villains for help on a dime, rather than asking other heroes for help. Some of that is editorial shenanigans keeping the X-men apart, but it hurts their credibility if they have to rely on people like Dark Beast, Emma Frost and the like for help with every problem. HoXPoXDoX has magnified this problem a hundredfold. This entire run is being run by, and headlined by, unrepentant villains. Its hard to take all the talk of hope, happiness and optimism seriously when the good guys are taking orders from Apocalypse, Sinister and Shaw. These characters didn't have a mea culpa moment, their goals just align with Xaviers', who brought them as a power consolidation move. We've had some characters make toothless statements about not trusting these people, but they still take orders from them and let them lead their country!
I'll stop there, because I don't want to get into another long rant. It really keeps me from from rooting for the X-men when the villains are largely in charge. Hickman seems much more comfortable writing Emma, Magneto, Sinister and Apocalypse then he is writing any of the real heroes.