Not too long ago there was a thread essentially saying Hickman's era has been going downhill. Everyone is definitely entitled to their opinions so it was good there was a thread that could reflect those who are disappointed in this era. But I thought I would start a thread with an alternate take: this is the most consistently exciting era for the X-Books for me as a fan in my whole life (or at least since AoA hit when I was 10 years old)
This isn't to say every issue of every book has worked for me. Some series haven't clicked for me yet (I also felt a little lost during Excalibur around issues 9 and 10 though I think Howard's X of Swords issues were very strong. Percy's Wolverine has the character's voice right but the plots have been uninteresting) but I cannot remember the last time I was this excited for New Comic Wednesday every week and that's entirely due to the X-Books.
I know X of Swords' bait and switch vis a vi the sword fighting pissed people off, and I'll admit I was disappointed at first, but I thought the final three chapters were so good that it almost made up for that entirely. After chapter 22 came out I brushed up on some of my Captain Britain and original Excalibur, and then reread all of X of Swords in one sitting and a lot of the problems I had with the event disappeared. As I said in another thread, I think it was cool to see an event springing from Claremont and Davis' work on Excalibur, which was the fourth X-Men Spinoff book ever and created by the patron saint of all things X-Men, and fully incorporating that book's history and vibe into a wide line event. We know that Jordon D. White is a huge Excalibur fan and I think we have to allow that sometimes the personal favorites of the creators involved are going to play a part in what kind of stories they tell. But it was the most additive crossover in sometime. Hickman and Howard basically created a whole new pantheon of characters and realms for other creators to explore going forward. In an age where every creator holds onto original ideas to save them for creator owned books (which I understand entirely) it was wonderful to see creators create a whole new world for future creators to play with. I vastly preferred these new characters to Infinity's The Black Order/Builders/Thane in terms of comparing it to another mid-run Hickman event that attempted to create new antagonists for the heroes.
Long story short, while I don't think any series has been as strong as HoxPox, I honestly wasn't expecting that as HoxPox A) Was in development for years, B) is one of the greatest X-Men stories of all time C) We are still so pointedly in the set-up phase of this story that I never expected year one would produce a classic on that level. I do think chapters 20-22 of X of Swords are nearly as strong a trio of books as we've gotten since HoxPox.
And now with S.W.O.R.D. coming from the brilliant Al Ewing, and the promise that some of the groundwork the first year of books laid down are going to start paying off (Children of the Vault, Nightcrawler's new religion, Nimrod, Kitty's revenge, etc.) I think people might start getting more of the plot advancement and character work that the first year sacrificed in the name of setting up the new status quo.
When Hickman was announced I was so excited, his Fantastic Four run is my favorite run of the 21st century (and I loved a lot of books the last 20 years) and knowing his lifelong love of X-Men rekindled my love of a franchise that had diminished over the last 10 years (and X-Men was my OG book...Uncanny 303 got me into Marvel Comics after only reading Archie's TMNT books). And while his X-Men run hasn't lived up to his FF run yet, the best parts of that run came after he had set up all the pieces in his first year. So I am very pumped for what the future holds.
Honestly the only thing that worries me is I hope the other Marvel books don't step on too many toes as they try to cash in on the success of the X-Line right now. Things like Franklin being not a mutant, the Phoenix nonsense in Avengers, and their somewhat perfunctory appearances in things like King in Black are just not that interesting for me.
Anyway, I've gone on too long, but I just wanted a positive thread to reflect the excitement the last 12+ months of X-Men books have brought me. The series that for good or ill made me a comic book fan is in the best place its been in years in my opinion and I cannot wait for Year 2 / Reign of X