Rewrite the X-events

[Askani's Flame]

My take on how AvX should have ended:

Avengers: Oh noes! Teh Fenix iz coming!
Rachel Grey: I got this.

The End.

AvX DOES. NOT. HAPPEN. if anyone remembered for more than five minute that Rachel exists.

THIS ALL DAY EVERY DAY. Seriously. In my mind so much would have been different had Rachel been allowed to be a player in the event. But her relationship to the Phoenix "complicated" their "story".

X-Cutioner's Song: Gambit and Quicksilver would not have gotten KO'd by Wildside and Reaper. Apocalypse would have gotten killed by some of the more vicious X-Men like Gambit, Cable, Shatterstar, Bishop, and so on. Not by jobbers like the Dark Riders. I also would have less Summers family. They really took over the second half and make it hard to re-read like I love to do with my old comics.

For me, some of this would have played out similarly, more X-Men would have been injured in the course of the event, leading to a recruitment of of teams, namely Excalibur to come in and assist with the rescue effort. With Scott and Jean in peril, Rachel joins the fray also having strange images of battles and conversations during the series from Cable's perspective (her remnant psilink to him). She and Kitty accompany Cable, Havok, Polaris, and Cannonball to the moon and she is able to also enter the field. Stryfe's power levels are even stronger and he goes ballistic when he see's Rachel appear. "You!! How are you so young?!? This is YOUR FAULT!!" He lashes out at her, leaving him open to an assault from Cable. Similar ending but Rachel realizes that Cable is Nathan at the last moment. She then uses her powers to enter the timestream in search of him, which leads to a small mini and him returning and cements their bond as brother and sister, and helps further connect Rachel to Scott and Jean, as the return of his son prompts Jean to propose and make their family real.


Second Coming:
Plays out similar to everything leading to the creation of the dome. As the war with the Nimrod's rages inside the dome, after Cable and crew have left for DoFP, the X-Men are being beat while their "friends" the Avengers sit and watch. Suddenly a huge light appears over the dome and light punches through the top. It's the X-Jammers with a small Shi'ar army in tow. the portal closes again as the strain of keeping the hole open overloads the Shi'ar tech. Things aren't going well in DoFP, which requires Rachel to use her echo (she still has it) to enter the timestream and see how corrupted it has become after she saved it (Excalibur 68). Cable and Rachel together hold open the timeportal and during this the echo rushes from rachel into the portal, and at the last moment Nate pushes her through to save her. Rachel feels the echo is close and realizes that Hope may be the next host. She then introduces herself as her aunt, and offers to train her.

[davetvs]

The only one I'd really want to rewrite is AvX. So many years of great buildup just to get...that.

[H-E-D]

The “M” in “House of M” now stands for “Monet St Croix”.

You’re welcome.

[CRaymond]

Love this kind of thread.

Me too. I'm kinda stuck looking at the 90s.

Active Teams:

X-Men Blue Xavier Mansion / Westchester
Cyclops, Wolverine, Beast, Rogue, Psylocke/Sage + Karma, Gambit

X-Men Gold Xavier Mansion / Westchester
Storm, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Phoenix(not cosmic), Iceman, Kylan

X-Factor DUMBO / NYC
Moonstar/Talisman, Multiple Man, Strong Guy, Wolfsbane, Rictor, Quicksilver/Northstar

X-Force Adirondack Mountains
Bishop/Cable, Domino, Longshot/Shatterstar, Boom Boom, Cannonball, Catseye/Feral, Warpath

Generation X Braddock Manor / Maldon, Essex, England
White Queen, Jubilee, Monet St. Croix, Husk, Blink, Chamber, Skin, Synch, Bolt

Additional Whereabouts:

Savage Land
Magneto, Dazzler, Dynamo,

Hellfire Club Brazil
Sunspot

Limbo
Template, Magic, Bird of Prey, Chance/Penance

Braddock Manor
Warlock's stasis cocoon

Since I'm getting rid of Cable & Stryfe, there's no X-Cutioner's Song to be had. And I'm saving a big fight with Magneto and the Acolytes for the big event that closes Chapter 3, Part 1... so Blue's first mission is against Omega Red and the Hand in Madripoor, Gold's first mission is against Sentinels in the Amazon rainforest at Sunspot's behest.

Fatal Attractions is Magneto's big first attempt at building a mutant kingdom in the Savage Land. Dazzler is his voice to the public, Shola Inkose AKA Dynamo is his fist. The confrontation with Magneto is an all-out war. Kylun is killed. Bishop abandons his team, knowing they'll be fine, but they don't know that. Nightcrawler, Colossus, Psylocke, Iceman, and Dazzler head to Scotland to recuperate. Jubilee is exposed to a genetic accelerator, so she rejoins the X-Men to train in the expanded use of her powers. That leaves the new X-Men roster with the Animated Cast, and the guys in Scotland form New Excalibur with Captain Britain.

Gen X experiences the Phalanx Convenant as a smaller arc in just their book when Warlock begins to wake up upon interacting with the Otherworld Mastermind computer in the Braddock Manor cellar. They skip across the Multiverse, discover Kylun was resurrected by the CB Corps, learn that Saturnyne = Emma Frost, and Blink ends up dying.

From there I'm a bit lost, but I know the next big event is revealing the truth of Legion/Morph/Polaris/Proteus/Juggernaut, and AoA. Or Onslaught. I know that OZT proceeds a big battle with Apocalypse, and that leads to the Morrison Era.

[Ambaryerno]

THIS ALL DAY EVERY DAY. Seriously. In my mind so much would have been different had Rachel been allowed to be a player in the event. But her relationship to the Phoenix "complicated" their "story".

The worst part is that they didn't even find a way to take her off the board. They pretty much just willfully ignored her existence.

[H-E-D]

AvX had much bigger problems than that.

[Dthirds3]

Every story involving the avengers has them realise and acknowledge the xmen as their equals and better. Also they get called out for being assholes.

[Ferro]

Id change the progress of the new mutants, who I deeply feel were sabotaged and outright disrespected by new creatives that possesed large amounts of spite and disdain for what they were, removing pretty much half of the team to be replaced because aparently they werent badass enough, magneto becoming a villain once more, the hellions being brutally murdered, the editorial mandate to pretty much remove any magical traits from the x-men, it was all small blows to the new mutants brand.
I would have sticked with the cast, make bringing their missing members a plot point, focus even more on the mystery/adventure/mystical aspect of the new mutants, when emma falls to a coma, the hellions survive and are taken in by the x-men, who then join dani's team, one arch would try to bring doug and would reconect them to magneto.

[CRaymond]

Id change the progress of the new mutants,

Go ON. I'm with you.

who I deeply feel were sabotaged and outright disrespected by new creatives that possesed large amounts of spite and disdain for what they were, removing pretty much half of the team to be replaced because aparently they werent badass enough, magneto becoming a villain once more,

...And I'm out.

the hellions being brutally murdered, the editorial mandate to pretty much remove any magical traits from the x-men, it was all small blows to the new mutants brand.

These are incredibly interesting thoughts to me... because I totally agree with you that the "New Mutants" echelon of characters has historically been given short shrift and presented as an insular community within the X-Men, rather than fully integrated members of the X-Men family. Some are whole-heartedly embraced like Magik and Rictor(maybe?) while classic cast members like Dani and Shan seemingly have no essential place in the mythology.

However, I think the pacification of Magneto into a mentor to the New Mutants might've been good stories, but I feel it did a disservice to the brand and ideology of the character. Magneto should be an antithesis to Xavier's dream, whose leadership embraces power and might over right. Allying with Magneto should be a constant tease for weaker characters, and an outright arc for others. So while I'm with you that the NM are beat down, I think Magneto should never have been among them. THEY should choose to be among Him, and HIS.

As for the degradation into X-Force, I always saw that as a natural course for young mutants who grew up too fast in an increasingly complicated world. I would've tempered it by making 90s X-Factor kinda their opposite, their gold to X-Force blue, their Gallant to X-Force Goofus. Which is why it was important to merge Talisman with Moonstar. Danielle was always a critical outsider while Sam was an optimistic boy scout. When Sam goes militant and joins X-Force, Dani mirrors that by working alongside government and superheroic networks to establish a more public and heroic X-Factor. They exchange places, and tell a greater mutant story between their continued rivalry.

You're absolutely right about the Hellions, who clearly could've joined their contemporaries in the MLF rather than die at the hands of a once-every-ten-years villain in Fitzroy. And it's why I like the idea of Catseye replacing Feral in x-force... it brings that team lineage closer to Xavier's.

I'm a bit ambivalent about the loss of that weird 80s magic... it's clearly an element of Claremont's writing and cosmology, but I can also rationalize its loss in the narrative as part of growing up. Things become more grounded when you choose to be more militant or political. Things lose mystery and wonder when you learn more and stretch your own ability.

[Huntsman Spider]

Every story involving the avengers has them realise and acknowledge the xmen as their equals and better. Also they get called out for being assholes.

Pretty much this, because as we've seen in stories like Civil War and Dark Reign, (some of) the Avengers don't do that well, emotionally and psychologically speaking, when the public is against them instead of just being against mutants. I would like to see the Avengers as a whole acknowledge and respect the strength it takes for the X-Men (and mutants as a whole) to persevere in a violently hateful world hellbent on wiping them out of existence, because again, circa Civil War and Dark Reign, (a lot of) the Avengers aren't cut out for being hated and feared by the world they protect.

And yes, as "bad" as the X-Men can be at times, there are at least as many world-destroying threats that have come from the Avengers themselves as have come from mutants --- Hulk on his really bad days, Ultron every damn day, the Scarlet Witch on some really bad days, the Illuminati (a secret collaboration started by a founding Avenger), all just off the top of my head, so why the X-Men (and mutants as a whole) are still bearing the brunt of human society's fear and loathing with all that in Marvel canon is beyond me.

[Ambaryerno]

Id change the progress of the new mutants, who I deeply feel were sabotaged and outright disrespected by new creatives that possesed large amounts of spite and disdain for what they were, removing pretty much half of the team to be replaced because aparently they werent badass enough, magneto becoming a villain once more, the hellions being brutally murdered, the editorial mandate to pretty much remove any magical traits from the x-men, it was all small blows to the new mutants brand.
I would have sticked with the cast, make bringing their missing members a plot point, focus even more on the mystery/adventure/mystical aspect of the new mutants, when emma falls to a coma, the hellions survive and are taken in by the x-men, who then join dani's team, one arch would try to bring doug and would reconect them to magneto.

Honestly, extend this to pretty much ANY "Next Generation" team, which inevitably gets shelved sooner or later.

[CRaymond]

Honestly, extend this to pretty much ANY "Next Generation" team, which inevitably gets shelved sooner or later.

Also, there needs to be a functional and appropriate non-combat limbo for characters that graduate from lower class men but decline X-Men agent status. Mutant advocacy programs, Mutant neighborhood with civilian jobs, research foundation.

[Dthirds3]

Pretty much this, because as we've seen in stories like Civil War and Dark Reign, (some of) the Avengers don't do that well, emotionally and psychologically speaking, when the public is against them instead of just being against mutants. I would like to see the Avengers as a whole acknowledge and respect the strength it takes for the X-Men (and mutants as a whole) to persevere in a violently hateful world hellbent on wiping them out of existence, because again, circa Civil War and Dark Reign, (a lot of) the Avengers aren't cut out for being hated and feared by the world they protect.

And yes, as "bad" as the X-Men can be at times, there are at least as many world-destroying threats that have come from the Avengers themselves as have come from mutants --- Hulk on his really bad days, Ultron every damn day, the Scarlet Witch on some really bad days, the Illuminati (a secret collaboration started by a founding Avenger), all just off the top of my head, so why the X-Men (and mutants as a whole) are still bearing the brunt of human society's fear and loathing with all that in Marvel canon is beyond me.

I'm suprised wanda stayed with the avengers. You'd think hiding the fact she had kids and doing nothing to help her so they could keep her on the active roster would make her hate them. As bad as the xmen handle emotional problems the avengers are some how were worse.

[Huntsman Spider]

I'm suprised wanda stayed with the avengers. You'd think hiding the fact she had kids and doing nothing to help her so they could keep her on the active roster would make her hate them. As bad as the xmen handle emotional problems the avengers are some how were worse.

And she already snapped once, way back in the day. You'd think they'd send her to a half-decent therapist or something. Then again, these are the same people who let Carol Danvers go off with the guy that mind-controlled her into compliance before raping her so he could reincarnate himself inside the resulting offspring, so . . .

[pkingdom]

You're right that the Avengers haven't handled it well when the public tide turns against some of them, but when you start talking of one being superior I have to disagree. And two of those threats you mentioned involved mutants, Xavier and Scarlett Witch. I'm still counting her because she was considered a mutant when the worst of her stuff happened, and that retcon was stupid and hurt her, her brother, and Magneto's characters a lot. Banner and Pym have rock-bottom reputations (Pym in AND out of universe!)

Mutants have the problem of its harder for the public to tell the 'bad' ones from the 'good' ones. Which I suppose is supposed to be a commentary on racism or something. Basically, when other heroes do something wrong, the blame usually falls on them, individually. When a mutant character does something wrong, all mutants are blamed.