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

[Malachi]

Yes, this was my criticism from the beginning. Lots of users misunderstood me, I think. Hickman is clearly a genius in planning things and he has great ideas (HoX and PoX are an obvious proof, he literally rebooted the mutants from years of bland stories), the problem is his execution in long runs story-arcs. X-Men looks like something approaching something else, but this "else" never comes. Someone mentioned Kurt founding a new religion or the Brood having a new leader, but are we really invested in things like that? I can't recall a SINGLE issue except the one with Magneto destroying Cotati. It's just completely forgettable TO ME.

It's a wierd setup in that Hickman has created a scenario where he necessarily doesn't have to deliver the "else". With X-men he can keep seeding and someone else will pick it up. That person doesn't even have to finish it. Just keep the ball in movement. Yet even going through the pain of seting this structure up and placing himself in charge of it as a version of a showrunner he's not really using it.

Maybe he's afraid of crossover disdain, in the sense that someone outside of an official crossover shouldn't have to pick up a issue where the idea was established X-men and then ran for 1-4 issues in Marauders.

Personally I think that there are two larger problems working atm:

1) Corona set us back. We know it, they know it. Yet we still feel something else. We can't help but look at the publishing pace as it is and not be more lenient. If Hickman could have kept his original plan we would have been through X of swords by now and moving along with possibly more ideas being further explored. We all know this. Yet we can't help but judge what we have been given in the amount of time that has passed.

2) The writers Hickman has picked aren't doing the work he needs them to do. If you take away the shine of the current direction then many of the books wouldn't have made us terribly excited. Several options existed for Hickman. The most obvious one's would be to pick writers who write similarily so he can just keep going in his direction but faster. Or to pick writers who writes in a different style. Fleshing out the angles and holes he leaves behind. What we have gotten isn't really doing any of those. It's a very bland mix. Yet this problem is very much in his control. He can fix this easily but he hasn't shown any desire to do so. Seemingly content and proud of the current status.

[pkingdom]

Hickman playing favorites is more a problem than with Claremont because spent years building everyone up on his own, while Hickman ostensibly brought literally everyone back only to resort to the same proud white guys he's been favoring since he started the Illuminati.

I've never been a fan of his worldbuilding. He drops a big, complicated concept then does no follow up for months, or years. All the attention is on the concept itself when he drops it, not the characters, or even how the concept came to be, which is important when it comes to characterization. Without the character connection, there's little reason to care, and readers are left trying to infer or invent some sort of justification for how things are. Its an 'ideas first' approach, when the draw of the X-men has always been their characters. Its lazy.

[nx01a]

I don't think Hickman's X-Men is going downhill but I do think some things could have been done differently.
While the world-building of Krakoa has been necessary, I'd have liked to see a parallel focus on what the main villains of the spectacularly successful miniseries (ORCHIS) are doing, a parallel focus on what the breakout star and focal point of the spectacular miniseries (Moira) is doing. Giving me two pages 9 months ago doesn't cut it, COVID or not. Will we have to wait until after the obviously forthcoming space-based crossover to get back the the real thing that set this X-era apart from those before it: machines vs mutants? I hope that Hickman can at least focus his X-Men title post-XoS on what I think is the real meat of his era... but he'll probably focus on the Brood and Vulcan next.

[Kingdom X]

I don't think Hickman's X-Men is going downhill but I do think some things could have been done differently.
While the world-building of Krakoa has been necessary, I'd have liked to see a parallel focus on what the main villains of the spectacularly successful miniseries (ORCHIS) are doing, a parallel focus on what the breakout star and focal point of the spectacular miniseries (Moira) is doing. Giving me two pages 9 months ago doesn't cut it, COVID or not. Will we have to wait until after the obviously forthcoming space-based crossover to get back the the real thing that set this X-era apart from those before it: machines vs mutants? I hope that Hickman can at least focus his X-Men title post-XoS on what I think is the real meat of his era... but he'll probably focus on the Brood and Vulcan next.

Yeah now would have been a perfect time to reintroduce Moira... though you never know maybe she’ll be part of the conclusion.

[SiegePerilous02]

Hickman playing favorites is more a problem than with Claremont because spent years building everyone up on his own, while Hickman ostensibly brought literally everyone back only to resort to the same proud white guys he's been favoring since he started the Illuminati.

I've never been a fan of his worldbuilding. He drops a big, complicated concept then does no follow up for months, or years. All the attention is on the concept itself when he drops it, not the characters, or even how the concept came to be, which is important when it comes to characterization. Without the character connection, there's little reason to care, and readers are left trying to infer or invent some sort of justification for how things are. Its an 'ideas first' approach, when the draw of the X-men has always been their characters. Its lazy.

Why shouldn't Hickman write who he wants to write, being his favorites and his own creations? If these are the characters he feels he wants/needs for his plot, I don't see the upside of forcing him to use anyone else. Any writer coming on board the flagship X-book for a big event filled run is going to want a crack at the big names anyway. There is no way it wasn't going to prominently focus on Xavier, Magneto, Cyclops, Apocalypse, Wolverine, Storm, etc. It's not really an objective way to judge a comic, as in what someone wants vs. the merit of what it is. There isn't really an objective better or worse difference to Claremont or Hickman's approaches, Claremont is just the classic one so fans tend to give him more passes (a lot of it deserved).

If the concept is Krakoa, I think it being dropped the way it was was a necessary shot in the arm the franchise needed. Even with just a broad knowledge of recent X-Men events or the classic major ones (I've only really read the original Claremont era and Morrison), the characters all seem on point to me even if this is a more plot driven approach and it seems believable the Mutants as a whole would try something like this when clearly doing the same thing over and over doesn't work. And is also boring to read about yet again. So the concept being dropped on us the way it was happened to be necessary for the proper impact, and I think if Hickman wants to space it out...that's really not a bad approach until we get the whole thing finished. After all, we will have the completed run forever once it comes out and it can be read and re-read as a complete saga, and the pacing of the storytelling will not seem as drawn out in collected form.

[baxer]

Hickman playing favorites is more a problem than with Claremont because spent years building everyone up on his own, while Hickman ostensibly brought literally everyone back only to resort to the same proud white guys he's been favoring since he started the Illuminati.

I've never been a fan of his worldbuilding. He drops a big, complicated concept then does no follow up for months, or years. All the attention is on the concept itself when he drops it, not the characters, or even how the concept came to be, which is important when it comes to characterization. Without the character connection, there's little reason to care, and readers are left trying to infer or invent some sort of justification for how things are. Its an 'ideas first' approach, when the draw of the X-men has always been their characters. Its lazy.

You got luck, on Decorum on the data pages he just put some random language and that is it.

I think worldbuilding can come with character development, claremont did this a lot. Yeah Hickman dropped a lot of concept in the first 12 issues and then didn't continue. Seems like he just like the concepts a lot more than the characters

Well Claremont had his favorites, but he build stories for all the cast (except Polaris haha)

[Zelena]

Hickman playing favorites is more a problem than with Claremont because spent years building everyone up on his own, while Hickman ostensibly brought literally everyone back only to resort to the same proud white guys he's been favoring since he started the Illuminati.

I've never been a fan of his worldbuilding. He drops a big, complicated concept then does no follow up for months, or years. All the attention is on the concept itself when he drops it, not the characters, or even how the concept came to be, which is important when it comes to characterization. Without the character connection, there's little reason to care, and readers are left trying to infer or invent some sort of justification for how things are. Its an 'ideas first' approach, when the draw of the X-men has always been their characters. Its lazy.

I agree… it doesn’t feel enough incarnate to me, comic is the “touchy-feely” medium and I have always followed the characters in their moods and hesitations. A reader must understand what they go through for them to “feel real”: the attention must be on the characters. If Hickman really cared about the characters, he has failed to make think that.

[baxer]

She was founding a mutant nation "without borders". Krakoa treats borders very seriously. The problem isn't the existence of a mutant nation, the disagreement comes with how it's run.

Not very serious when it has gates to other countries LOL but humans can't go to Krakoa. Double standarts

Jean plan was very diferent from Krakoa

[Exodus]

Not very serious when it has gates to other countries LOL but humans can't go to Krakoa. Double standarts

Jean plan was very diferent from Krakoa

Jean‘s plan was so bloody brilliant. I really have hoped we would have gotten an utopian vision of Jean‘s new Mutant Nation in X-Men Red. That could have been real good science fiction.

Unfortunately, Hickman does not seem to have the progressive spirit for that type of societal change...putting Jean back into her 60s dress is more important than utilizing her concept as a mutant leader on equal terms with the boys club Magneto, Xavier and Apocalypse.

[nx01a]

Jean's in her 60s miniskirt so Hickman can do what every X-writer does eventually: Phoenix her out as part of some grand cosmic story. She'll become Phoenix, eat the singularity bad guys, then inexplicably become merely mutant again. That writing's painfully clear on the wall but I hope he does something different than the expected.

[cranger]

Jean's in her 60s miniskirt so Hickman can do what every X-writer does eventually: Phoenix her out as part of some grand cosmic story. She'll become Phoenix, eat the singularity bad guys, then inexplicably become merely mutant again. That writing's painfully clear on the wall but I hope he does something different than the expected.

Then Wolverine kills her just as she returns to normal, in some manner that prevents her from coming back by whatever is the fashionable means by then for another decade or two.

[baxer]

Jean‘s plan was so bloody brilliant. I really have hoped we would have gotten an utopian vision of Jean‘s new Mutant Nation in X-Men Red. That could have been real good science fiction.

Unfortunately, Hickman does not seem to have the progressive spirit for that type of societal change...putting Jean back into her 60s dress is more important than utilizing her concept as a mutant leader on equal terms with the boys club Magneto, Xavier and Apocalypse.

I was pretty sure he would ignore anything before his run. Now I see that it has been 2 years since the last issue of X-men Red.

[baxer]

Then Wolverine kills her just as she returns to normal, in some manner that prevents her from coming back by whatever is the fashionable means by then for another decade or two.

Great Stuff

[skyvolt2000]

Why shouldn't Hickman write who he wants to write, being his favorites and his own creations? If these are the characters he feels he wants/needs for his plot, I don't see the upside of forcing him to use anyone else. Any writer coming on board the flagship X-book for a big event filled run is going to want a crack at the big names anyway. There is no way it wasn't going to prominently focus on Xavier, Magneto, Cyclops, Apocalypse, Wolverine, Storm, etc. It's not really an objective way to judge a comic, as in what someone wants vs. the merit of what it is. There isn't really an objective better or worse difference to Claremont or Hickman's approaches, Claremont is just the classic one so fans tend to give him more passes (a lot of it deserved). .

Then don't bring back guys like Synch and QUICKLY toss them away.

If you want to showcase favorites boy club or pet favorites-leave Laura, Synch and the rest out of your story. Don't waste the time of those your previous regime have alienated with token appearances.

Nothing is new if it's the same folks tossed out using a different lipstick for the pig.

[SiegePerilous02]

Then don't bring back guys like Synch and QUICKLY toss them away.

If you want to showcase favorites boy club or pet favorites-leave Laura, Synch and the rest out of your story. Don't waste the time of those your previous regime have alienated with token appearances.

Nothing is new if it's the same folks tossed out using a different lipstick for the pig.

That doesn't fit when it's being blatantly set up for an upcoming plot point.

Whether or not the plot as it develops lands with everyone is irrelevant to the fact that something is happening, it is not (thus far) just a throwaway appearance.