When did X-Men get too dark?

[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.

[Foon4000]

When teenagers were groomed to be a private militia.

[Vishop]

When Disney took over and consequently AvX and IvX happened but I guess what I am saying is that x-comics became too generic.

[FIGHT]

Nothing wrong with a dark tone as long as the story is written well.
Nothing wrong with a light tone as long as the story is written well.

I personally prefer a darker X-men. The general sense I get from modern X-men is that they are fighting a losing battle. Every glance into a future timeline is one of horror where most of them are killed. Thats cool, imo. I like rooting for the underdogs.

Unlike other heroes like say Spider-man the X-men are not just "having a bad time", or "just cant catch a break". They are literally fighting a battle in which they are destined to lose and die (As we have seen from the lives of Moira). These guys are fighting against destiny in a way. All the while doing what they can to keep the peace, keep the bad mutants in check, deal with extinction level threats the would lead to the annihilation of their people should they fail. As someone who likes a good underdog story of course Im gonna read X-men over the other marvel properties. But thats just my preference... I do enjoy some light hearted stories to change the pace.

[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.

[lowfyr]

I mean sure X-men had some Pretty dark stuff, but they also did fun stuff. I mean the Baseball games alone are one great example of that.

So please none of These "only grim-dark stuff allowed" nonsense. That would get into Snyder DCU dark and gritty stuff. And I do not want that for the X-Men again esp. after the last years.

And not to Forget even the MCU had Infinity War that was Pretty dark .

Even Batman could get some levity and does not Need to get too dark. As is often said on the Batman Forum alone.

[FUBAR007]

Plot-wise? The Genoshan genocide at the beginning of Morrison's run.

Tonally? M-Day.

[lowfyr]

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.

And even Nolan managed to get some jokes and levity in his Batman movies.

[Chris0013]

Second Coming...Messiah Complex...Cyclops's Extinction Squad...Then when Age of X-Man happened and in the mainstream universe there were maybe a dozen and a half mutants left and they started dropping like flies (Rahne deserved better than that) and ALL humans are basically portrayed at genocidal racists.

[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

[Mike]

For me it was when this issue came out.
250px-New_X-Men_114.jpg

[Oheao]

Well, there are multiple X ongoings now, why can't they just do a mix? Have some of them light-hearted and others being darker.

[Havok83]

Well, there are multiple X ongoings now, why can't they just do a mix? Have some of them light-hearted and others being darker.

Thats already how things are. New Mutants has been more light hearted since day one (Maraurders and Excalibur as well) and then you have darker books like Fallen Angels (RIP) and X-Force with X-men being in the middle