Dawn of X books overview thread, thoughts and opinions

[Devaishwarya]

I’m just starting on the ongoings, so maybe I’m wrong about this, but isn’t it kinda early have an opinion on them yet? Like, shouldn’t we wait until the first storyline is over?

Don't be silly!
Why wait for the first arc to finish? Why wait for a book that's only been solicited today with just a cover? (Cable)

[pkingdom]

I’m just starting on the ongoings, so maybe I’m wrong about this, but isn’t it kinda early have an opinion on them yet? Like, shouldn’t we wait until the first storyline is over?

That's just part and parcel to the medium. With ongoing media like comics, you have to judge them as they come out week to week. Most series don't get the luxury of waiting for a finished, collected story to be judged on. Because sales of the story each issue can be used by the company to end series quickly and early, reaction to each individual issue is important.

[Londo Bellian]

After all, how else to explain how the "Amazing Mary Jane" Spider-spinoff 5-part mini become upgraded to an ongoing? Unless Marvel is trying to emulate DC's "Lois Lane" and the revived "Superman's Pal: Jimmy Olsen" ongoings.

[pkingdom]

After all, how else to explain how the "Amazing Mary Jane" Spider-spinoff 5-part mini become upgraded to an ongoing? Unless Marvel is trying to emulate DC's "Lois Lane" and the revived "Superman's Pal: Jimmy Olsen" ongoings.

Yup, short answer is its doing gangbusters critically and sales-wise. A lot of miniseries are test pilots for certain characters, and many series that would be ongoing become miniseries' when they don't catch on enough. Only when things bomb majorly do they get cancelled mid story

[KangMiRae]

Yup, short answer is its doing gangbusters critically and sales-wise. A lot of miniseries are test pilots for certain characters, and many series that would be ongoing become miniseries' when they don't catch on enough. Only when things bomb majorly do they get cancelled mid story

I thought the physical sales for issue #1 dropped like a rock going into issue #2? Not to mention issue #1 only did so well because it had tons of variants.

[pkingdom]

I could be wrong. I haven't been paying much attention to it, but I had heard good things and that it was becoming an ongoing

[Uncanny X-Man]

I haven't been posting in a while but I've been (psy)lurking and enjoying the various debates, and most importantly I've been enjoying the DoX books quite a bit so I thought I'd share my thoughts in this thread. Before I get into the individual books though I will say that, despite not loving every single series that was spun off from HOX/POX, I'm delighted by the love every single creator clearly shows for the characters and their history. No, that doesn't mean that every character is written well or that the books are necessarily that compelling, but every single creator seems to be pouring love on the pages at least and it's very nice to see.

X-MEN: after the magnum opus that was HOX/POX, the done-in-one stories this series has offered so far tend to be a bit underwhelming, albeit still well done. But on the other hand it's clear Hickman is very much in worldbuilding mode and is undoubtedly working towards a number of big payoffs down the line. I'm perfectly happy for him to take his time. Art-wise, Leinil Yu wouldn't have been my first choice, especially because I feel he's done A LOT of X-Men already, but then again his pencils look tighter than his usual sketchy-self and ultimately the book has been looking pretty good.

NEW MUTANTS: I'm very happy with both the Hickman and the Brisson stories, and I really like the idea of the book spotlighting all the different younger mutant sub-teams. Hickman is clearly having loads of fun with the cast and his story and dialogue have a "neo-classic" feel: they could easily be part of Claremont's 80s run but at the same time they're modern and well entrenched into the current status quo.

MARAUDERS: I'd crown this book as the overall winner of the wave 1 titles. New Mutants and X-Force are also excellent but it's Marauders that came up with the weirdest, most original premise and made it work right off the bat. I love Duggan's writing and like how he seems to be taking his time with the stories, which doesn't mean padding, but rather he's not writing for the trade and can get away with a whole issue dedicated to the Shaw family and make it work.

X-FORCE: another winner. And again the key was taking some familiar elements and mixing them with the new Krakoa status quo. I wasn't familiar with Ben Percy's writing but I'm very much a fan now, and Cassara's art make everything look stylish af.

EXCALIBUR: and now for the not so good... I REALLY wanted to like this book. Love the entire cast, love the premise to explore mutant magic, love Marcus To's art... but the writing is just not selling it for me. It's not awful but just not terribly interesting? I can't quite figure out if it's the pacing that's off, or the dialogues (the quiet scenes unfortunately are pretty bad), and Gambit, who I normally adore, is pretty much insufferable here - but this clearly needs a bit more work.

FALLEN ANGELS: this was always going to be the ugly step sister of the Dawn of X books, given its main character is pretty much a blank slate and that the book was lacking a strong hook to justify its existence, but I was hoping for at least some introspective writing to flesh Kwannon out, accompanied by some stylish art. Unfortunately, the latter doesn't do the book any favour, as while there are often some nice page compositions, it's mostly really hard to tell what's happening just looking at the art, and sometimes even who is who. And Hill's writing just doesn't capture me, I don't think we've been given a reason to care about Psylocke and her mission and the reasons for Laura and Nathan to be tagging along are extremely flimsy.

In terms of what's coming up, I'm not a fan of the endless proliferation of X-books as historically that has gone hand in hand with a dip in quality. I've also been enjoying the newfound cohesiveness across all books and wonder how that's going to work when you go from 6 to 10 or 12 books. But I'm at least happy some writers are pulling double-duty as that will definitely help with keeping continuity tighter.

In particular, I'm very happy with having Percy and Duggan on Wolverine and Cable's solo respectively, whereas I'm not really feeling the necessity of Hellions, despite liking Zeb's writing.

Aside from those and Giant-Size, we also know there's a Leah Williams, a Vita Ayala, a Moira and an X-Corp book coming up (unless the latter is the same as the first or second one) - I think that's already more than enough X-books if you wanna keep the line manageable and have the books play off each other, especially given the current crop already needs more work (Excalibur) or has quickly run out of steam (Fallen Angels)

But overall I've been pretty happy with the wave 1 books and would give it a solid 8/10.

[Stormultt Divine]

I'm loving it, I'm ultra busy with personal things so I don't post as much but X-force is by far my favorite followed by Excalibur, X-men and Marauders.

I love the direction the x-men are going, so much potential for future huge story arcs.

[RamaBird]

Overall I'm loving it.

XMEN: I don't mind the single issues since I know it's just laying down the foundation. Cyclops is one of my favorites so him being the anchor to this series also works for me.
XFORCE: This is the most engaging book so far. The writing is really tight and it's keeping me on the edge.
MARAUDERS: This should be my favorite book due to the cast, but I do wish it was a bit darker and not as campy. Hellfire brats are not a good sign either. However, I really loved Uncanny Avengers and hope this book loses a bit of the campiness. Plus, the Kate > Kitty redemption story is great.
NEW MUTANTS: Hickman writing the original cast is A+ for me. This is when the book truly shines. Brisson and his obsession with Glob (reminds me of Guggenheim and Kitty). I have really disliked Brisson's story and worry that if Hickman leaves instead of reading about Sunspot and Moonstar, the book will be about Glob and Maxine.
EXCALIBUR: It's ok. Nothing really great yet but nothing bad either.
FALLEN ANGELS: Was glad it was gonna focus on Psylocke but they've dumbed down Laura and Cable to do so and that's a huge turn off. Bit disappointed since I do feel this title could've been much better.

HELLIONS: Like the idea of this book but not the cast really. Psylocke is the only visiblee female and Scalphunter is the only minority isn't great either. I'd rather read about Selene, Frenzy, Hellion...
CABLE: EHH. The current teen Cable is a huge pass for me. He should've stayed in the previous era. And I do think Brisson wrote teen Cable better too. Hickman's version grates on my nerves. Pass but I'll keep an eye out on it too.
WOLVERINE: Looking forward to this mostly. No cons as of now.

Random CONS
-The villains were too easily forgiven. It' be nice to hear for example that Emlate is seeking therapy and Krakoa has found a "healthy" way for him to feed. They could show Monet keeping an eye on him. But seeing Cyclops, Jean and Mr Sinsiter acting as equals would feel better if we saw Cyclops an Jean saying they still don't trust him. Show Selene putting up an act at reformation while still slowly plotting against the good guys.
-Show more mutant backlash. It'd give the whole world a lot more texture and realism. I mean, why haven't the Morlocks even been mentioned? It'd be interesting seeing Morlocks feeling the Krakoa mutants still treat the "wrong kind" of mutants badly.
-Show more of the human allies.

[Anduinel]

-Show more mutant backlash. It'd give the whole world a lot more texture and realism. I mean, why haven't the Morlocks even been mentioned? It'd be interesting seeing Morlocks feeling the Krakoa mutants still treat the "wrong kind" of mutants badly.

I feel like a lot of the Morlocks' original criticism of Xavier's has been a bit neutered now that every new student at Xavier's has pastel skin, horns, or looks like they came off Furaffinity. Sina Grace had a couple of good points in Iceman's solo, but for the most part, the school itself had a lot of mutants that wouldn't be counted as "pretty ones". But if someone could update the idea a bit, I'd like to see that particular culture clash, especially since, meta-wise, the X-Men that get the most spotlight still "pass" pretty easily.

[jpmst17]

I'm a fan of most of it, and dislike one or two. X-Men is my favorite and I love X-Force too. New mutants and Marauders are decent too. Excalibur is just awful. extremely boring. I liked the first couple of issues of Fallen Angels, but it's gotten pretty bad too

[Mr.B]

I want them to do two copies of one character. Like oops.

And I wonder about 05 having copies, or old Cable. And what if two fused, like Jean and Maddie, hmm.