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

[TheCape]

There’s also something else that explains Chris Claremont’s initial run is so loved, worldwide: he had no favourite character. Each of the X-men has been brought to the front of the stage at least once and none of them has ever felt superfluous. It provided a solid foundation.

For the criticisms, well… “he who has had a beautiful dream does not regret having slept”… it can be analyzed but either it brings you pleasure reading a comic or it doesn’t. Despite his defaults, his fetishes, his repetitions (and his heavy bubbles, and his soapish tendancies)… I still love Chris Claremont’s initial run and I don’t like Hickman’s run.

I’m fine with the fact it will never be the same: people, situations are never the same: a page has been turned. There isn’t such as starting anew in life. It isn’t comic.

Lol, Claremont did have a favorite, it was Storm, he clearly loved her more than the other characthers. In his defense, he didn't treat the rest of the team badly, they all have a purpose and actual subplots going for then. Thought some of the plots were weird.

[Frobisher]

I'm curious to know if I'm the only one here.

I have no opinion myself.
I tried about six issues of Hickman's FF and gave up.
I tried even less of his Avengers.
So I didn't even give his X-Men a try.
His writing just doesn't work for me.

Not enough paragraphs?

[SiegePerilous02]

There’s also something else that explains Chris Claremont’s initial run is so loved, worldwide: he had no favourite character. Each of the X-men has been brought to the front of the stage at least once and none of them has ever felt superfluous. It provided a solid foundation.

For the criticisms, well… “he who has had a beautiful dream does not regret having slept”… it can be analyzed but either it brings you pleasure reading a comic or it doesn’t. Despite his defaults, his fetishes, his repetitions (and his heavy bubbles, and his soapish tendancies)… I still love Chris Claremont’s initial run and I don’t like Hickman’s run.

I’m fine with the fact it will never be the same: people, situations are never the same: a page has been turned. There isn’t such as starting anew in life. It isn’t comic.

Claremont had pretty blatant favorites, Storm being at the top of the list. And others he was equally blatant about not caring as much about. He's the #1 X writer and Bobby Drake never seemed to ever get any attention from him, and he wrote out Warren after Byrne left because he thought he was boring. And as I pointed out in the other post, he also had a willingness to write out X-men and seemed to think writing out Scott, Jean and the rest of the O5 was a necessary step for the franchise, but never showed any signs of writing out the ANAD cast (plus Kitty, Rogue, Rachel and the New Mutants).

I get pleasure from reading both Claremont's original run and Hickman's despite their differences. And neither one of them is going to be perfect. But IMO, it does seem a bit unfair to lob some criticisms at Hickman, like favoritism for certain characters, when Claremont was definitely guilty of that as well. And he just straight up can't write the same intimate soap opera Claremont was able to because the franchise has grown too large to effectively do that again. Plus, beyond Claremont most of that stuff hasn't been that good anyway.

[FluffyCyclopsRLZ]

Lol, Claremont did have a favorite, it was Storm, he clearly loved her more than the other characthers. In his defense, he didn't treat the rest of the team badly, they all have a purpose and actual subplots going for then. Thought some of the plots were weird.

Polaris fans might beg to differ.

[Bruce Wayne]

House of X / Powers of X was the perfect superhero/sci-fi story.

His New Mutants run was a fun space romp.

His X-Men series is very hit-or-miss and that's partially because it feels like a series of one-shots and miniseries and in-between brilliant issues we get Hordeculture. I think being so collaborative is hurting a still-strong line of books - I think he could juggle more and frankly I think he should. For a flagship it is neither focused nor big enough.

At the very least I think X-Force and New Mutants should be folded into Hickman's title where he can write the intelligence + the Sextant on a rotating basis. The flagship should cover island society IMHO. The other titles (Marauders, X-Factor, Hellions, Excalibur, SWORD) all center around topics disconnected enough from the main narrative.

I think it's the fact they are wasting their time with side stories like X of Swords and not getting to the meat of the story like the Phalanax/the Children of the Vault/Nimrod, which is the problem.

[baxer]

I wish more people would just say this instead of jumping through hoops to convince others this era is terrible. Hickman has a pretty distinct approach that has pros and cons, so it’s not gonna please everyone (and that’s okay). Even though I haven’t been blown away by the main X-Men book I can at least be glad that someone is putting some energy into telling a story with these characters instead of retreading old story beats over and over again.

I liked Hickman FF and Avengers. But I am not liking his x-men run

[nandes]

I don’t like Hickman’s run.

So you've actually read HoX/PoX? I ask because you seemed pretty adamant about not reading any of it in your previous posts

[TheCape]

Polaris fans might beg to differ.

I forget that Polaris exist half of the time if i'm being honest lol.

[Gripstir]

I’ll be honest at first the idea of Krakoa and this mutant utopia thing sounded like such a big deal but one thing that is really bothering me is this event feels very small. I thought we were going to see interactions and interpersonal stuff that I wanted to see. But I feel the focus has been on plot a lot.

My other issue is this event feels like a manga storyline. much like “manga is doing better than us because we aren’t being creative so let’s use a story tropes that fit for a different medium more than a comic book”

I really loved the idea of krakoa but I haven’t loved the actual characters or details.

[Anthony Shaw]

I'm curious to know if I'm the only one here.

I have no opinion myself.
I tried about six issues of Hickman's FF and gave up.
I tried even less of his Avengers.
So I didn't even give his X-Men a try.
His writing just doesn't work for me.

I feel the same way. Reading his stories are an extreme chore to me. Those are my three favorite teams. His FF run bored me to death. I have trades of the Avengers I never finished. I decided not to try the X-Men.

I am not the intended demographic.

[ethanrih]

I actually fully agree with the OP. I wasn’t too interested in this event when it was announced and explained, but the first two issues got me really hyped for the rest of the storyline - that’s gone. It’s been dragged out way too much. I barely care about the plot explanations that seem to happen with every issue, where’s the fighting? Suspense? Action? It’s also annoying that Hickman has created whole new mutants instead of using the ones that we already have.

[Omega Alpha]

Sidebar, but there is also the fact that his "evolving the narrative and the cast" thing seems to be a bit overblown as well. He had planned to write out Scott and Jean respectfully, pretty much ignored the rest of the O5, but never seemed to want to let go of the ANAD cast. Even when Kitty, Kurt and Rachel were written out of the main book, he kept them in Excalibur. And it seems like he keeps returning to the same pool of characters whenever he comes back, and his new OC's are just never as memorable as the ones he came up with back in the day.

Exactly, he never wanted to "have the characters outgrow the X-men"- he just wanted characters he didn't create or wasn't at least involved with nearly from day one (like the ANAD) out.

[Killerbee911]

I think the OP and others should be trapped for maybe about 30 days with nothing bad X-men books and nothing else. While I have seen some good legit opinions in opposition to Hickman run in this thread. It is fair not to like a writer The best writers consistently give you average arcs and amazing arcs with very little material being poor. Not so good writers and average writers consistently give you bad stuff or their stuff never reach the highest point. Being able to write average competent comic books consistently is a skill. Something you don't appreciate until the writer is gone and the next write thinks it is a good idea to write about the Hellfire kids.

I am rocking with Hickman his lows are competently written arcs that don't quite hit the mark his highs are Hox/Pox, Time Runs out, Infinity, Secret Wars,etc. It is going to sound like an insult but Bendis gave competent arcs but he failed to drop that classic story defining arc. Morrison had a classic arc, Remender had a classic arc. Hickman consistently hits with big stories it doesn't mean every big story he does hits, It means that he gets a run on a book he will have a classic arc at some point. And go ahead between Morrison and today's books give me the name of the X-men classic arc. I will help you Gifted by Joss (Whedon), House of X/ Powers of X (Hickman). And if we do little extending for more context backward for context, E for Extinction (Morrison), Dark Angel Saga (Remender), SuperNovas(Carey) Magneto(Bunn) Messiah Complex(Various). Now, this is not to create an argument about what is classic or not obviously people will disagree and add or take off somethings the point is writing classic stories and arcs isn't that easy. Hickman already gave you one and everyone pretty much knows that once Moria shows up the fireworks are going to begin again. Everything else in between is killing time, but obviously, with the amount of worldbuilding they have done, we can get some good stuff while we wait.

Anyways I wish InhumanVsX-men, The Draco, Extraordinary X-men, X-men Gold, The 12 storyline, Blood of Apocalypse storyline, Rosenberg Uncanny, That Vampire Run in San Francisco, The Romulus stuff, AvX on some of you guys then maybe you will learn to appreciate a solid well-executed storyline.

[yogaflame]

Exactly, he never wanted to "have the characters outgrow the X-men"- he just wanted characters he didn't create or wasn't at least involved with nearly from day one (like the ANAD) out.

Y'all really going to forget the Outback Era disassemble era? Storm? Gone. Kitty? Gone. Nightcrawler? Gone. Colossus? Gone. Professor? Gone. Cyke? Gone. Wolverine? Crucified and left for dead, saved by Jubilee. For a minute there, it was just Sean and Forge.

[Omega Alpha]

Y'all really going to forget the Outback Era disassemble era? Storm? Gone. Kitty? Gone. Nightcrawler? Gone. Colossus? Gone. Professor? Gone. Cyke? Gone. Wolverine? Crucified and left for dead, saved by Jubilee. For a minute there, it was just Sean and Forge.

Kitty and Nightcrawler were in Excalibur. Wolverine, Colossus and Storm never left the book. Cyclops and Xavier were not characters he created or developed nearly from scratch.