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

[federicodettofred]

The X-Men have ALWAYS been a soap opera, I don't know if you say it as a good thing or a bad thing.

My definition of "soap opera" in this particular case is something that takes years to be told and just feels boring. I repeat, what happened in 14 issues except Magneto destroying Cotati (that is the only funny issue I remember) and people talking about Krakoa?

[OopsIdiditagain]

If Hickman's run was pretentious it would have more incomprehensible monologues and lines that feel like they came straight out of r/Iam14andthisisdeep.

[Glio]

My definition of "soap opera" in this particular case is something that takes years to be told and just feels boring. I repeat, what happened in 14 issues except Magneto destroying Cotati (that is the only funny issue I remember) and people talking about Krakoa?

-The Brood have a new leader
-We have discovered that Vulcan is an unwitting sleeper agent of some unknown villains, perhaps the Cancerverse.
-Summoner came to Krakoa and Apocalypse used the External Gate, which is the cause of all X of Swords
-Kurt has decided to found a new religion
-Hordeculture was introduced, which is a new team of villains.
-A team was sent to deal with the Children of the Vault, who are the precursors of Homo novissima.

[Kingdom X]

-The Brood have a new leader
-We have discovered that Vulcan is an unwitting sleeper agent of some unknown villains, perhaps the Cancerverse.
-Summoner came to Krakoa and Apocalypse used the External Gate, which is the cause of all X of Swords
-Kurt has decided to found a new religion
-Hordeculture was introduced, which is a new team of villains.
-A team was sent to deal with the Children of the Vault, who are the precursors of Homo novissima.

Came through with the facts. I’m personally excited to see where a lot of these stories go. One of the benefits of Hickman (and like I mentioned earlier there are also cons) is that I can feel pretty confident that he actually plans on following through on all of his storylines and that he’s not just throwing stuff at a wall hoping it’ll stick.

[nandes]

The one major criticism I don't get is "Hickman only cares about his OCs". He gave Apocalypse, Monet, Cypher, Sage, the entire cast of The Five, Exodus - hell even Charles & Moira themselves - their most relevant roles in the X-Men comics in millenia but now he only cares about his OCs because he (& Tini & the rest of the X-Office) created new characters for a plot about an ancient mutant society? How dare he

[numberthirty]

The one major criticism I don't get is "Hickman only cares about his OCs". He gave Apocalypse, Monet, Cypher, Sage, the entire cast of The Five, Exodus - hell even Charles & Moira themselves - their most relevant roles in the X-Men comics in millenia but now he only cares about his OCs because he (& Tini & the rest of the X-Office) dared to create new characters for a plot about an ancient mutant society? How dare he

Forge/Black Tom Cassidy/The Cast Of Hellions

[jpmst17]

Exactly! It's almost as if Hickman has so may ideas he doesn't know what to tell first. If I read X-Force or Wolverine I can easily follow the story. X-Men? It's a mess. Every issue is so slow and just full of dialogues that lead nowhere. And I'm not all about action, I love things like Immortal Hulk (but that is a roller coaster compared to X-Men).

I disagree. Hickman's stuff does connect, they are just one shot issues. The Mystique issue connects to HOX. these one shot stories are used to develop characters so that when they do something insane or extraordinary, we can look back and say "well that makes sense." give it time

[MyriVerse]

Eh. Well. My opinion is that it started in the Mariana Trench and is now at bout the core. I don't think I could possibly care less about Arakko, Otherworld, or any swords. Once upon a time, the X-Men were about important real life things, but that's no longer the case. From the get-go, Hickman has only made the X-Books even less approachable and relevant than they've ever been. It's like Marvel took every valid criticism of the X-Books over the past decade or more (how they don't fit well with the broader Marvel universe, etc.) and magnified them a hundredfold.

[Glio]

Eh. Well. My opinion is that it started in the Mariana Trench and is now at bout the core. I don't think I could possibly care less about Arakko, Otherworld, or any swords. Once upon a time, the X-Men were about important real life things, but that's no longer the case. From the get-go, Hickman has only made the X-Books even less approachable and relevant than they've ever been. It's like Marvel took every valid criticism of the X-Books over the past decade or more (how they don't fit well with the broader Marvel universe, etc.) and magnified them a hundredfold.

Yes, arcs like Dark Phoenix Saga, the Brood saga and Age of Apocalypse were about important real life things.

Much more relatable and grounded than the dynamics that occur in a newly founded nation, how cultural elements are formed or the emancipation of minorities.

Of course Arakko is only about swords, it does not examine with parallels to Krakoa how two societies of similar origins can develop in drastically different ways depending on the political and cultural context in which they find themselves and how that affects their people.

[Triniking1234]

I can say X of Swords isn't as exciting as Infinity. By now Shuri would've nuked Atlantis and Namor hit Wakanda with a Get Gud.

[Kingdom X]

Eh. Well. My opinion is that it started in the Mariana Trench and is now at bout the core. I don't think I could possibly care less about Arakko, Otherworld, or any swords. Once upon a time, the X-Men were about important real life things, but that's no longer the case. From the get-go, Hickman has only made the X-Books even less approachable and relevant than they've ever been. It's like Marvel took every valid criticism of the X-Books over the past decade or more (how they don't fit well with the broader Marvel universe, etc.) and magnified them a hundredfold.

I get that, but I’d also much prefer Hickman write crazy sci-fi and fantasy stories, then attempt to do social commentary that he doesn’t have any experience with.

[Triniking1234]

X-Men only focused on real life stuff like 5% of the time.

[Kingdom X]

X-Men only focused on real life stuff like 5% of the time.

Also less is definitely more in this case, because it ends up being more poignant when real life stuff does come up.

[SiegePerilous02]

Eh. Well. My opinion is that it started in the Mariana Trench and is now at bout the core. I don't think I could possibly care less about Arakko, Otherworld, or any swords. Once upon a time, the X-Men were about important real life things, but that's no longer the case. From the get-go, Hickman has only made the X-Books even less approachable and relevant than they've ever been. It's like Marvel took every valid criticism of the X-Books over the past decade or more (how they don't fit well with the broader Marvel universe, etc.) and magnified them a hundredfold.

I don't think that's ever been the case most of the time. Even when it did, it has some pretty epic missteps (like Kitty dropping those N-bombs).

[Glio]

I get that, but I’d also much prefer Hickman write crazy sci-fi and fantasy stories, then attempt to do social commentary that he doesn’t have any experience with.

And Krakoa also has parallels with reality, about emancipation, nationalism, capitalism, community...

The whole Xavier, Magneto and Apocalypse meeting in Davos is about the influence of economic systems on racism, which is more interesting and novel in the franchise than "People are racist because they are ignorant."

But as you said: Hickman has never suffered real discrimination (Like Claremont, Morrison or the dozens of white cis straight writers the franchise has had). So, wisely in my opinion, he decides to write about it from a different perspective.

In the 21st century, paralleling mutants with real racism in a direct way seems like a bad idea because there are too many "buts." But if you take it to a conceptual level of "nation", I think you can tell something