Unpopular opinion: Hickman's X-Men is going downhill

[Slicknickshady]

Way downhill!

[Sapfiryt]

My opinion that all X titles go down with X of swords. Creation was nice, but then it looked like a mockery of the readers

[Tenebrae]

I liked House of X, and there's still good concepts to use, but the actual writing in general hasn't been up to a decent level in a bit. Buying 22 issues was not something I was gonna be able to do for money or interest reasons and with actual recycling of art, that is taking the piss quite a bit.

[gonnagiveittoya]

Events in general are an industry wide problem with how they're executed but God this definitely burnt out.

I still give some benefit of the doubt to Hickman in general but yeah this (middle?) of Hickmans run is not as strong as the start was.

[nx01a]

The (mishandling of the) fantasy elements dragged the X-line down recently. With S.W.⨂.R.D. #1 in December and the return of the Vault team in February, hopefully the sci-fi elements will be better (handled). To be fair, they're what were hyped in HoX/PoX.

[Gigantor]

I don’t know how anyone can defend x of swords at this point. This whole event should have been a four issue arc in Excalibur. This is a trainwreck

[Rev9]

I still think that the best comp for this event is Fear Itself.

Ouch, honestly XoS is bad (imo didn't start out bad) it has taken excitement to disappointment gradient a whole new level but as bad as it is getting- Fear itself is atrocious, it was so bad ,I dropped the saga a third way in.Nothing in my book is as bad as Fear Itself and I didn't even finish it

[Killerbee911]

I don’t know how anyone can defend x of swords at this point. This whole event should have been a four issue arc in Excalibur. This is a trainwreck

top ten best.jpg

Reality doesn't match some of the opinions in the thread. Does the event have pacing issues? Yes. Was it a mistake to try to make every issue important? Yes. Would this be better as four main books and a bunch of spinoffs you aren't forced to read if you are interested? yes. It is a trainwreck. nope.

Every story has a beginning, middle, and end. It could stick the landing how many movies are saved by their climactic ending. Imagine judging endgame or infinity wars without its ending. It comes with the territory of comics but reading a story week to week, is a different experience than reading it all the way through with no interruptions. As a weekly read this horrible but as a complete read it should be fine if the ending is good. Waiting isn't helping this event they are too many elements that people don't care about which hurts the main storyline which imo has been good.

[numberthirty]

I think the difference in quality between "House of X" and "Dawn of X" shows the problem of the comic book industry. If you would give authors and artists the time they need to come up with quality work, we as consumers would get quality work. If you rush and overburden them with a tight schedule, we will always get mediocre storylines and art. At least this is how I see.

Although I adore what Hickman has done with the x-men, MARVEL will quickly lose me again as a consumer in the next year because I find many comicbooks ridiculous expensive for reading through them in 10 minutes, being bored by mediocre storylines and find myself unimpressed with rushed art (I look particularly at you X-Force!!). There are so many fantastic comicbooks at the market (like SAGA) which keep their quality in writing and art 100 percent.

Sorta like saying that you are going to save your money to pick up the final arc of The Black Monday Murders, no?

[MAR420X]

i've bought every book since house of x #1.. and do feel the run is fading fast.. especially X of swords being a disappointment so far. Creation #1 is still the best issue from the crossover..

but ill tell u one thing.. there's TOOOOOOOO many books. its killing the potential. Wolverine has 2 titles. Cable shouldn't have a solo title. Excalibur is still the weakest link from the bunch.

All i want is 2 titles a month from hickman pepe then hickman and RB silva. its the simple. quality artwork and story. those books will never fall outta the top 5 monthly sales @$4.99. I'll gladly pay..

I'm looking forward to 2021 but im scared as ****.

[GodfatherIV]

Alot going on in this thread. First of all I'll say that the whole cancel and silence a person because we dont like their stance on certain things is in my opinion immature. Not everyone has to agree or accept everything. People will say uts racism not to include certain genres or groups of epople in character comics. Some will sit there with tears streaming down their cheeks claiming that they are misunderstood and maligned in culture and only wish to escape by reading a comic book with a chara ter that looks like them or identifies the same way they do. But isnt it racism and discrimination to only be able to enjoy a story if you can see your race and culture in it? Chasing people down on the internet and harassing or even criticizing to try and force your beliefs when 99.9% of those same critics wouldn't do it face to face is the definition of cowardice. I would also add that most of your so called freedom fighters if you will and ones calling for heads based on this issue or that statement are not actual fans of the material or comics, movies, books, tv shows what have you in general but rather want ro make a name for themselves attached to a particular cause. No different from politicians both in ancient civilizations like Rome and today who ride the wave of a cause or percieved threat to get what they want. I agree with the simple sentiment of speaking with your wallet and making the choice to be entertained by something else more suited to your taste.

Now that said... When it comes to Hickman's run.....

I think in general the Xmen have become almost too big its too widespread to trt to include all characters. Some obscure somebody somewhere will complain that the wrost character is their personal favorite and shouldnbe the one to save the universe. Its impossible to please everyone.

I think covid and trting to play nice with others has hurt momentum on this run. It feels like were waiting on this to just be iver so we can get back to the actual story. Its easy nowadays to read Claremont in a vacuum or a tpb and like the plotting and pace but the format of storytelling that is comics is just not for a give me everything now culture. Cavle tv suffers with live ratings because most of us record dvr or whatever sit down when want and blow thru commercials and slow points that feel unnecessary to the overal plot. Netflix played into this well by releasing whole seasons of a show in order for consuners to binge watch. Personally i do the same with network tv, I'll record whole seasons of shows wait until the season is done then watch all at once because i hate having to wait to "tune it next week". Comics are even worse which why i love the graphic novel trade paperback route. This has largely been remedied with weekly chapters to events now. Claremont also had meandering plots that took months even years to resolve. Seems like all writers have the occasional seeming throwaway stories almost as if they are taking a breath between issues or arcs or that they've hit a created roadblock that they have yet to resolve and then its lets dust off this little story i did way back when plug it in while I catch my breath and get my thoughts together to dive back in. Similar to the shocking rerun week when we were expecting the next chapter that was teased at the end of last week's show. Hickman isnt differnt from others in that sense.

X of swords is something of a problem because of the different writers on it. I love to look at Tini Howard but her writing just isn't my thing. The stories seem unnecessary because Hickman is writing high science fiction while it seems she's doing fantasy mystical mythical magical stuff. You have to look beyond yhe D&D Game of thrones middle earth stuff to see tge ancient mutant society parallel to whats being done on Krakoa. As a whole it just feels unnecessary or at least that it could have been done differently while staying with sci-fi.

I also think some of the run is built on faulty ground so to speak. Krakoa is a strange concept even when it was 1st introduced. Its been mutated by radiation or experimentation its a living island that walks like a man it was in space..omg. Now for me personally if this was Genosha then I'd feel better with it. Easier concept easy adaptation to movie etc. I like the Hickman is deep diving on some things we kniw but it cant just be about Morrison and Claremont. The idea of ancient mutant society is fine and niw they are ready to attack and take over this reality..ok. But why not use the idea of them coming from the fault and the cancerverse or mutant x universe or Malibu universe something else. Even if they were mutants from another planet perhaps at the far edge of Shiar space. Or use the ghost box theory of another universe. Or if you just had to go magical then you have a built in story with Magik being able to access Limbo, this should have been the other side crossing over which would have highlighted Magik even more especially if you played with the elder gods concept here too but the Starlight citadel?? No thank you. But that just my preference and I lean toward condensing some of whats out there and leaning more into what you have already.

All in all I'd rather have Hickman as a lead writer of 2 books. Bring back Mike Carey to write a book. Have Christopher Priest on one. Maybe brong over a Joshua Dysart on one. And I wish Remender would return but if not give Kyke and Yost. Also Marjorie Liu or Kelly Sue Deconnick. I just think the current crop minus Hickman are inferior talent at least for Xmen. They belong somewhere else in my opinion

[Kitty&Piotr<3]

top ten best.jpg

Reality doesn't match some of the opinions in the thread. Does the event have pacing issues? Yes. Was it a mistake to try to make every issue important? Yes. Would this be better as four main books and a bunch of spinoffs you aren't forced to read if you are interested? yes. It is a trainwreck. nope.

Every story has a beginning, middle, and end. It could stick the landing how many movies are saved by their climactic ending. Imagine judging endgame or infinity wars without its ending. It comes with the territory of comics but reading a story week to week, is a different experience than reading it all the way through with no interruptions. As a weekly read this horrible but as a complete read it should be fine if the ending is good. Waiting isn't helping this event they are too many elements that people don't care about which hurts the main storyline which imo has been good.

Is the art good? Yes.

Is the story terrible so far? Yes.

Is it quite apparently too many issues? Yes.

Is it a trainwreck? Yes.

Is it selling? Yes.

[Gigantor]

top ten best.jpg

Reality doesn't match some of the opinions in the thread. Does the event have pacing issues? Yes. Was it a mistake to try to make every issue important? Yes. Would this be better as four main books and a bunch of spinoffs you aren't forced to read if you are interested? yes. It is a trainwreck. nope.

Every story has a beginning, middle, and end. It could stick the landing how many movies are saved by their climactic ending. Imagine judging endgame or infinity wars without its ending. It comes with the territory of comics but reading a story week to week, is a different experience than reading it all the way through with no interruptions. As a weekly read this horrible but as a complete read it should be fine if the ending is good. Waiting isn't helping this event they are too many elements that people don't care about which hurts the main storyline which imo has been good.

How can it stick the landing? How? I don’t even know what their fighting about anymore! This event started as a story about the X-men being dragged into a conflict by apocalypse over his family. Now the story is that everything, including Apocalypse parts of the plan was really about saturnine trying to get Betsy fired again! It seems the end game with the post x of swords Excalibur covers is that Betsy becomes the new head of the citadel and that this entire event was just to set up a new status quo for exactly 1 book out of the infinite sprawl of X-men comics. Every other book is going right back to the story they were doing before the event without skipping a beat. Kate is back to killing Shaw xforce is back to fighting Russians and wolverine is fighting vampires. This event is such filler it’s giving me a headache

[Gigantor]

Alot going on in this thread. First of all I'll say that the whole cancel and silence a person because we dont like their stance on certain things is in my opinion immature. Not everyone has to agree or accept everything. People will say uts racism not to include certain genres or groups of epople in character comics. Some will sit there with tears streaming down their cheeks claiming that they are misunderstood and maligned in culture and only wish to escape by reading a comic book with a chara ter that looks like them or identifies the same way they do. But isnt it racism and discrimination to only be able to enjoy a story if you can see your race and culture in it? Chasing people down on the internet and harassing or even criticizing to try and force your beliefs when 99.9% of those same critics wouldn't do it face to face is the definition of cowardice. I would also add that most of your so called freedom fighters if you will and ones calling for heads based on this issue or that statement are not actual fans of the material or comics, movies, books, tv shows what have you in general but rather want ro make a name for themselves attached to a particular cause. No different from politicians both in ancient civilizations like Rome and today who ride the wave of a cause or percieved threat to get what they want. I agree with the simple sentiment of speaking with your wallet and making the choice to be entertained by something else more suited to your taste.

Now that said... When it comes to Hickman's run.....

I think in general the Xmen have become almost too big its too widespread to trt to include all characters. Some obscure somebody somewhere will complain that the wrost character is their personal favorite and shouldnbe the one to save the universe. Its impossible to please everyone.

I think covid and trting to play nice with others has hurt momentum on this run. It feels like were waiting on this to just be iver so we can get back to the actual story. Its easy nowadays to read Claremont in a vacuum or a tpb and like the plotting and pace but the format of storytelling that is comics is just not for a give me everything now culture. Cavle tv suffers with live ratings because most of us record dvr or whatever sit down when want and blow thru commercials and slow points that feel unnecessary to the overal plot. Netflix played into this well by releasing whole seasons of a show in order for consuners to binge watch. Personally i do the same with network tv, I'll record whole seasons of shows wait until the season is done then watch all at once because i hate having to wait to "tune it next week". Comics are even worse which why i love the graphic novel trade paperback route. This has largely been remedied with weekly chapters to events now. Claremont also had meandering plots that took months even years to resolve. Seems like all writers have the occasional seeming throwaway stories almost as if they are taking a breath between issues or arcs or that they've hit a created roadblock that they have yet to resolve and then its lets dust off this little story i did way back when plug it in while I catch my breath and get my thoughts together to dive back in. Similar to the shocking rerun week when we were expecting the next chapter that was teased at the end of last week's show. Hickman isnt differnt from others in that sense.

X of swords is something of a problem because of the different writers on it. I love to look at Tini Howard but her writing just isn't my thing. The stories seem unnecessary because Hickman is writing high science fiction while it seems she's doing fantasy mystical mythical magical stuff. You have to look beyond yhe D&D Game of thrones middle earth stuff to see tge ancient mutant society parallel to whats being done on Krakoa. As a whole it just feels unnecessary or at least that it could have been done differently while staying with sci-fi.

I also think some of the run is built on faulty ground so to speak. Krakoa is a strange concept even when it was 1st introduced. Its been mutated by radiation or experimentation its a living island that walks like a man it was in space..omg. Now for me personally if this was Genosha then I'd feel better with it. Easier concept easy adaptation to movie etc. I like the Hickman is deep diving on some things we kniw but it cant just be about Morrison and Claremont. The idea of ancient mutant society is fine and niw they are ready to attack and take over this reality..ok. But why not use the idea of them coming from the fault and the cancerverse or mutant x universe or Malibu universe something else. Even if they were mutants from another planet perhaps at the far edge of Shiar space. Or use the ghost box theory of another universe. Or if you just had to go magical then you have a built in story with Magik being able to access Limbo, this should have been the other side crossing over which would have highlighted Magik even more especially if you played with the elder gods concept here too but the Starlight citadel?? No thank you. But that just my preference and I lean toward condensing some of whats out there and leaning more into what you have already.

All in all I'd rather have Hickman as a lead writer of 2 books. Bring back Mike Carey to write a book. Have Christopher Priest on one. Maybe brong over a Joshua Dysart on one. And I wish Remender would return but if not give Kyke and Yost. Also Marjorie Liu or Kelly Sue Deconnick. I just think the current crop minus Hickman are inferior talent at least for Xmen. They belong somewhere else in my opinion

If there going to have 30 X-men books there should be no overlap in cast. It would be a small step in trying to make it look like with title is unique instead of another tie in. Magneto one book only Xavier one book only cyclops one book only. They could try to use the 100000000 X-men characters at least

[Killerbee911]

How can it stick the landing?

They are fighting to save Krakoa from being invaded by Apocalyspe kids and wife. The previews show the X-men down 17-6. My guess The X-men should make a big run and come back appear to win but they should be some big revelation that is going to push plots forward. How things resolve will change how some people feel about the event overall. I can't lie and say the event is running smoothly. How it should have been organized is

1. First book introduces the problem
2. Second book the collecting of the swords from the two groups( spin off show how they got the swords)
3. Third book fight begins( spinoffs show banquets and what marauders are up too)
4. Fourth book conclusion( what ever side stories get wrap up in spinoffs)

Again I am little less harsh of a judge because that is how I have collected the story in my mind, The main story is interesting the side stuff not so much, before X of swords started I ask a question " They are "10" swords on each side if each side wins 5 matches it is tie. That was my hint that there was going to be shenanigans happening now I didn't expect this level of shenanigans but it was clear it wasn't going to be straight up death tourney. I walk into the event knowing that the most dramatic scenario a 4-4 tie with the final match to determine the winner wasn't a possibility. So I wasn't disappointed when things went left, I was okay that is how they are going to build drama.