When did X-Men get too dark?

[Marvelgirl]

What is with all the recent complaining in the last five-seven years that X-Men is too dark. X-Men is too depressing. X-Men needs to have a playful tone. My awareness comes from people who watch the current comic movies, mostly the MCU films. This assumption is further gotten from X-Men movies being a sharp contrast to the MCU movies in tone and story.

X-Men was always dark, depressing often open to interpretation, many times playful but not turning into a spoof. I would go as far as to say the comics are darker than the movies people watch more than read to get the perception of a fraudulent dark X-Men.

How long has X-Men been around? The comics do have some reputations. Darkness was a big part of it. Some now want X-Men to be GOTG, Captain Marvel and Avengers. They tell me Days future past or Logan was more of a Fox thing. They have zero clue those movies are heavily linked to a precise X-Men comic that were much darker than what we even watched. They want something more playful. Not only do I find this intellectually offensive as a 36 year old comic fan girl, I am stunned by the zero tolerance thoughts of millennials. Millennial comic fans should stop saying X-Men is dark.

[Snoop Dogg]

when professor x got the hots for a student and sent five kids to fight a terrorist capable of mass murder

[Marvelgirl]

when professor x got the hots for a student and sent five kids to fight a terrorist capable of mass murder

It was when Claremont rebooted the books in the 1970s. Not much has really changed. Goodluck Millennial marvel with trying to do what cannot be undone.

[Triniking1234]

When giant robots killed a guy with lasers in the Saturday morning cartoon.

[gurkle]

IMO while X-Men was never light and fluffy, it became much darker in the '80s, especially after Ann Nocenti took over as editor. Her most famous act was replacing Sal Buscema with Bill Sienkiewicz on "New Mutants" but she also edited some stories like "Mutant Massacre" that were darker than what had come before, and the tone of the book became much more like it was in a one-off like "God Loves, Man Kills," where the mutants are rarely really happy or safe.

Compare that to the Claremont/Byrne run, where persecution of mutants was only rarely mentioned and even something like "Days of Future Past" turned into a standard X-Men vs. Brotherhood of Evil Mutants fight near the end (probably because Byrne preferred the X-Men to be closer to a standard superhero comic). I could certainly see someone who fell in love with those comics finding the later '80s and '90s stuff to be too gloomy. I'm sure there were people who felt that way at the time.

[Oheao]

It was when Claremont rebooted the books in the 1970s. Not much has really changed. Goodluck Millennial marvel with trying to do what cannot be undone.

Claremont didn't even reboot it though, that was Cockrum and Wein. Honestly, I was pretty shocked when I found out he didn't do Giant Size X-Men because I associate that era of X-Men with him.

Personally, I'd say God Loves, Man Kills in 1982 was pretty dark, it was essentially Dark Knight Returns before Dark Knight Returns.

[From The Shadows]

Claremont didn't even reboot it though, that was Cockrum and Wein. Honestly, I was pretty shocked when I found out he didn't do Giant Size X-Men because I associate that era of X-Men with him.

Wein gets left out a lot because he wrote only one issue but that's understandable. He helped set the stage though, so he should get props for that.

[Bunch of Coconuts]

This notion that something can’t handle dark themes without also having levity (and dare I say “fun”?) to it is a really weird one.

[Killerbee911]

The X-men is not one thing or other. The most annoying about these discussion is people acting like X-men is nothing but mutant persecution book with grimdark stories. X-men is also action adventure story where they fight aliens,robots and supervillians. X-men is just as much adventures to Mojoworld,The Savage land, In space with the Starjammers, fighting Dracula and oh yeah occasionally they fight large mutant island name Krakoa as it is dark storylines. It is balance of being a great able to tell fantastic adventures stories and serious meaningful social stories with comic book twist is what makes X-men great.

[xhx23x]

The X-men is not one thing or other. The most annoying about these discussion is people acting like X-men is nothing but mutant persecution book with grimdark stories. X-men is also action adventure story where they fight aliens,robots and supervillians. X-men is just as much adventures to Mojoworld,The Savage land, In space with the Starjammers, fighting Dracula and oh yeah occasionally they fight large mutant island name Krakoa as it is dark storylines. It is balance of being a great able to tell fantastic adventures stories and serious meaningful social stories with comic book twist is what makes X-men great.

Agreed. X-Men is everything. Even when you don't like a certain era eventually they'll make something that appeals to you. It's great.

[Marvelgirl]

Claremont didn't even reboot it though, that was Cockrum and Wein. Honestly, I was pretty shocked when I found out he didn't do Giant Size X-Men because I associate that era of X-Men with him.

Personally, I'd say God Loves, Man Kills in 1982 was pretty dark, it was essentially Dark Knight Returns before Dark Knight Returns.

God loves man kills is darker than The Dark Knight Returns as a complete story. The Dark Knight Returns was physically gritter.

What trouble me is you don't see anyone complaining Batman is too dark. The recent complaint that X-Men is too dark only seems to be coming from people who are into the current superhero films.

[Maestro 216]

When writers kill off characters for the sake of some metaphor. Cough Rosenberg cough.

[Agent Z]

What trouble me is you don't see anyone complaining Batman is too dark.

I take it you don't visit the Batman forums often? Complaints about him being too dark are very common. That's not even getting into people who hated BvS or the Nolan movies.

[Havok83]

God loves man kills is darker than The Dark Knight Returns as a complete story. The Dark Knight Returns was physically gritter.

What trouble me is you don't see anyone complaining Batman is too dark. The recent complaint that X-Men is too dark only seems to be coming from people who are into the current superhero films.

No, its an observation made by people that grew up on the comics in the 90s as well. The X-men had some dark stories in the 80s as mentioned but overall GLMK and the Australian phase did not set the tone for what the X-men were throughout the 90s and early 00s. The line was rather tame and they were traditional superheros. The dark tone of the modern era happened after M-Day where we slowly saw the moral compass of many characters get thrown out the window. There also was an influx of villians into the ranks which further blurred the line. These werent exceptions or one off characterizations as was the case in the past, but commonplace across the franchise. X-Force and Cyclops sanctioning them as a secret force to assassinate their enemies played a big part in shifting the tone as well. The X-men of today is more in a gray era in a way that it wasnt in the past which was more of a black/white good vs evil

[Nigel909]

What is with all the recent complaining in the last five-seven years that X-Men is too dark. X-Men is too depressing. X-Men needs to have a playful tone. My awareness comes from people who watch the current comic movies, mostly the MCU films. This assumption is further gotten from X-Men movies being a sharp contrast to the MCU movies in tone and story.

X-Men was always dark, depressing often open to interpretation, many times playful but not turning into a spoof. I would go as far as to say the comics are darker than the movies people watch more than read to get the perception of a fraudulent dark X-Men.

How long has X-Men been around? The comics do have some reputations. Darkness was a big part of it. Some now want X-Men to be GOTG, Captain Marvel and Avengers. They tell me Days future past or Logan was more of a Fox thing. They have zero clue those movies are heavily linked to a precise X-Men comic that were much darker than what we even watched. They want something more playful. Not only do I find this intellectually offensive as a 36 year old comic fan girl, I am stunned by the zero tolerance thoughts of millennials. Millennial comic fans should stop saying X-Men is dark.

Strongly disagree . The x men were not always dark and depressing . When I started reading they were very optimistic . Who could forget celebrations at the Cafe a go -go ?