Which Cancelled X-Book Do You Miss the Most?

[mister_medusa]

I am a fan of the alternate universe series we have been able to read.

The recent Age of Apocalypse by David Lapham. While I was not a fan of depowering some of the main characters I enjoyed the world he was developing.
I like how Mutant X began and I thought it had a lot of promise before spinning it's wheels to avoid cancellation.
I liked the original Exiles and how anyone could die at any time. I did not like trying to explain who the Timebroker was. To me it detracted from the story of hopping around to put right what once went wrong. Also, King Hyperion was a lot of fun to read.

I realize that Marvel has too many cooks in the kitchen when it comes to a new series but when I was younger I really wanted an alt-x book that would break from 616 and slowly become the DofP timeline with it showing the rise and domination of the Sentinels with the series 'catching up' to Uncanny 141 and 142 in the year 2013. It could have ended with the first page from issue 141.

[Dante Milton]

I can't really think of any. With most series that had a pretty good sized run (like say Gen X), by the later issues the series tend to get less engaging and more contrived. With series that had a shorter run (Spurrier's Legacy), they at least went out while still being interesting, which I'm fine with so long as they are allowed to reach a natural conclusion.

[Daymare]

I can't really think of any. With most series that had a pretty good sized run (like say Gen X), by the later issues the series tend to get less engaging and more contrived. With series that had a shorter run (Spurrier's Legacy), they at least went out while still being interesting, which I'm fine with so long as they are allowed to reach a natural conclusion.

Well said. They do tend to run their course and some have jumped the shark long before they end. The way Legacy went out was great, leave them wanting more and not "why is this still being published?"

[blinkingblah]

Well said. They do tend to run their course and some have jumped the shark long before they end. The way Legacy went out was great, leave them wanting more and not "why is this still being published?"

Didn't the last writer of Gen X pretty much sabotage the series because they didn't want to write it anymore? I think I heard that rumor hear at one point. If that is the case then I don't think it is fair and it never really got to run it's full gambit.

[Dante Milton]

Didn't the last writer of Gen X pretty much sabotage the series because they didn't want to write it anymore? I think I heard that rumor hear at one point. If that is the case then I don't think it is fair and it never really got to run it's full gambit.

That was Brian Wood. Afaik, he doesn't dislike writing the characters or for Marvel in general so that seems unlikely. Although I never really followed the behind the scenes news back then.

[anthony_lynch15]

I forgot about Mutant X, that was a great comic.

[Anduinel]

District X was another good one. Basically Bishop and his human partner being cops for Joe Mutant on the street over in Mutant Town. It was David Hine writing, so it was gritty and deliciously creepy in spots. Unfortunately, M-Day pretty much killed the series. I'd like to see that concept revisited now that mutants -- hell, even Inhumans -- are back in force again, and I'd love to see Hine back at the helm.

[Sorceress Supreme!]

1. Excalibur vol 1
2. Xtreme vol 1

I can pick up an old school Claremont comic and instantly get a sense of who these characters are, what makes them tick, and how all these personalities work together. The characters just feel empty and soulless these days by comparison, and it seems to be a case of make the characters fit the story than the other way around.

[Mari]

The ones I miss most:

Milligan's X-Men
X-Men Unlimited
X-Treme X-Men

[Fifolet]

I love lots of cancelled x-books, but if i have to pick only one, it has to be Excalibur with Claremont and Davis. The cancellation was overdue when it came, as the book had long lost it's way by then, but most of those earlier issues were great, and unlike some other series, there hasn't been anything similar since. You could make an argument about Exiles, but that series never really felt like an x-book to me despite the x-characters involved, and it never reached the same level of quality and humor of Excalibur. I suspect the groundwork done by Alan Moore and Davis with Captain Britain has a lot to do with that.

Other than that, i only miss a book where the focus is on student/teen mutant characters being developed, the way New Mutants, Generation X and New X-Men did in the past. To be fair, I think Bendis has done a decent job in Uncanny with his new mutants, but i always find myself wanting to read more about those characters than the title can offer for obvious reasons.

[grinningdemon]

You know, while I did enjoy X-Men Forever for what it was, this is what I really had hoped it was. I also seem to recall the original pitch being "what if Claremont had kept on going" which was intriguing because of all the leaked information about some of his abandoned plots. Some of them sounded quite good, others not so much, but that would have been far more interesting to me than what materialized.

When the series was announced, I was genuinely looking forward to seeing the direction the X-Men might have gone if he had stayed on board. Then the book started and I saw that Claremont wasn't actually doing what he would have done back then but instead doing anything and everything that hadn't been done by anyone else. It was awful and it crapped all over my childhood as that era was when I first started reading the X-titles.

[Bl00dwerK]

Quite a few Excaliber fans, too...

[General Nerditry]

When the series was announced, I was genuinely looking forward to seeing the direction the X-Men might have gone if he had stayed on board. Then the book started and I saw that Claremont wasn't actually doing what he would have done back then but instead doing anything and everything that hadn't been done by anyone else. It was awful and it crapped all over my childhood as that era was when I first started reading the X-titles.

Yeah, me, too. 90-91 ish. I think I read an interview by Claremont after the series had been picked up saying he was specifically not going to use old ideas but make new stories instead. Drag as that's not what this was supposed to be, but oh, well.

Also, generally, I see multiple comments how a lot of these canceled titles had run their course by the time they got the axe, and that it was long overdue. I agree that this is true, but I think people are more reminiscing about the books in their prime. My biggest example is Exiles. As much as I loved it for its first few years, it's death was long overdue. Frankly, I think it was poor quality for longer than it was ever good at least IMO.

[blinkingblah]

I think everyone keeps saying a book just lost the quality and interest it had been a long time coming. Who is to fault for that? It isn't the book or the characters. It is the writer. Yes I agree with what a lot of people said about Gen X. It had a good 25 book run. But I didn't stop reading because I hated the characters or because I was just done with the book. I stopped because the stories began to turn a little childish and lost the darker broodier quality that I liked. If the book would have kept the same vibe and stuck with stories that were already there then I would have probably stuck around a lot longer. I think events sometimes really get in the way of proper story telling.

[General Nerditry]

I think you're touching on the why the books were on the chopping block, definitely. You're also touching on another debate that could probably justify its own thread - following books for writers vs following for characters, etc. I used to follow books/characters, but years and years of subpar writing have made me more of a writer follower. I still lament those cancelled X books for what they used to be, though.