Time-Displaced X-Men (2012-2018)

[Gray Lensman]

I understand why you would feel that way. His progression was more emotional, which is probably why I love it so.

A better writer (as in one who cared even the least little bit) could have given Scott an emotional arc without transforming the most highly trained person on the team into by far the least competent.

[Mercury]

Lol, I've never been called that before.

Not everything as in within the X-Books, just within it's own narrative. Admittedly I haven't read everything in that era, and it's been a while, so I'll grant that there were bound to be good things in there.

I’m glad the nickname made you chuckle. ::sending you good vibes::

Anyway, this era strikes me as the type of run best digested in a relatively short period of time. Editorial and the writers as a whole did a great job of tying everything together in a way that seems completely planned. However, I could see growing frustrated and impatient with it if read real time, i.e., month to month, because the set-up is temporary, or at least meant to be, by its very nature. So, waiting for the payoff, i.e., the teens going back to the past, must’ve been maddening.

However, reading it while knowing there’s a definite end to the story allows you to focus on the nuances and emotional arcs, which is where this era really shines. I love it to bits.

[Mercury]

A better writer (as in one who cared even the least little bit) could have given Scott an emotional arc without transforming the most highly trained person on the team into by far the least competent.

Now, are you talking teenage or adult Scott? I really didn’t delve into Uncanny X-Men unless the teens were involved.

[Gray Lensman]

Now, are you talking teenage or adult Scott? I really didn’t delve into Uncanny X-Men unless the teens were involved.

Teen Scott - remember that the era the teens came from was when he actually was the powerhouse of the team, and the one who lived in the training room. I don't expect things to remain that way, but to see Bunn flip things to an extreme version of the exact opposite still angers me to this day (I still won't buy anything Bunn writes).

[Mercury]

Teen Scott - remember that the era the teens came from was when he actually was the powerhouse of the team, and the one who lived in the training room. I don't expect things to remain that way, but to see Bunn flip things to an extreme version of the exact opposite still angers me to this day (I still won't buy anything Bunn writes).

Do you have any specific examples that stand out?

[Grunty]

(...) Does anybody else enjoy this period?

Honestly no.

The last two decades in general felt like a lot of lost time, because of a headless editorial and writers (capable or incapable) having to deal with multiple stupid status quos caused by mandates to cut down the X-men's prominence (first Joe Q's "everything back to old days" mandate to decrease the mutants numbers, then the movie rights conflict by Perlmutter and co.), resulting in a lot of "empty runs" with very little worthwhile and longterm outcomes gained.

It's 15 years and hardly anything that happend in them has become remembered, not to forget having very little potential for movie, tv or video game adaptions.

To me, the time displaced 05 are one of these empty runs, which on top of that had gone on for far too long in a time when the X-men where at their weakest prominence and story wise.

As far as i see it, it was an attempt to modernize and retroactively make the original "in training" five X-men members interesting and "hip with the kids", because they arguable only became fan favorits to many readers with the characterization and stories they recieved with X-factor after the All New All Different relaunch (which also produced some of the biggest fan favorit X-men character who notable overshadow the 05 in prominence) when they were also full adults.

As much as some fans might glamour for an X-men adaption series which follows the "proper" continuity of X-men teams, the 05 simply are not interesting, which is why TAS' and Wolverine and the X-men's creators felt the need to start with fully established teams and Evolution's mixed them up with later creations like Rogue and Nightcrawler at the start.

Because of this i see the entire purpose of the time displaced 05 run as futile attempt to fight an uphill battle against the accomplished facts that the young versions of the 05 were simply not relevant to what made the X-men a juggernaut comic in the 80's and 90's and that their true impact on readers only started when they were presented as full adults in the years after All New All Different.

A battle the run arguably still lost, since for all the focus Jean Grey's younger self got, it didn't seem to change the perception and writing of the adult version, Cyclops was overshadowed by the attempt to present his adult self as extremist monster, Beast and Angel were arguable barely relevant entities and only Iceman's comming out had any lasting impact, which has since not really helped him gaining more relevance in stories that matter or are remembered.

Infact since the stories took place in the present, they have no impact (with the exception of Iceman because his change couldn't be removed or ignored without uproar) on the original past of these characters, neither in the comics or in movie and tv versions, so overall one has to wonder what the point was when other characters of the present day could have had that focus instead with the changes and developments actualy lasting.

The time displaced X-men run, in my opinion, has been a waste on top of a waste, because it just clogged a whole title full for 6 years with characters who will not be allowed to really progress in a meaningfull way, written haphazardly, while new and old characters with longterm potential were struggling for relevance.

So overall, this whole run feels emblematic for a problem which was going on at the X-office at the time.

But that's just my negative opinion looking back.

[Mercury]

Negative or not, your opinion matters, Grunty. Of course, it saddens me to read that you dislike this era so much, but I respect your opinion.

Meanwhile, I’m pining for Omnis of this era because I love it so.

[Gray Lensman]

Do you have any specific examples that stand out?

Of the good or the bad?

[Mercury]

Of the good or the bad?

I was thinking of the bad, but give examples of both.

[Grunty]

Negative or not, your opinion matters, Grunty. Of course, it saddens me to read that you dislike this era so much, but I respect your opinion.

Meanwhile, I’m pining for Omnis of this era because I love it so.

They are what they are, but thanks for respecting them.

As for an omnibus.

Would those only include the offical All New X-men issues (Volume 1-4) or also the events they got tied in, because looking up the page count of the trades and hardcovers we are looking at up to 1600 pages if Battle of the Atom and Black Vortex are included. That would be quite a doorstopper.

[Gray Lensman]

I was thinking of the bad, but give examples of both.

For the bad, once the reboot happens I think Scott spends more time unconscious, kidnapped, or in a hospital bed than every other team member combined, even if you cut his time in half.

He went from someone who, in his solo series was able to bounce shots to take out 3 opponents simultaneously, or make a dozen bounces to remove someone grappling him from behind, to being unable to hit the broad side of a barn from inside of it, and in then extremely rare event one of his attacks did hit, he was unable to actually have an effect when he did. The bad, as far as combat goes, is every issue from the end of Stupid Wars until the character went back in time, with the exceptions of Champions and the crossover with X-Men Gold. Which alone should tell you how badly he was treated when I was looking forward to him being written by the consensus worst writer of the period since Scott would be written better than in his own book.

It was obvious that Bunn wanted to write Jean and none of the others by the way he treated them.

[Kingdom X]

I actually first started reading comics during the Bendis era, so I have soft spot for the O5’s re-introduction. That being said they should have been sent back after Battle of the Atom or at the latest when Bendis left the book. Even when they were being written well after that (credit goes to Bunn here), it just didn’t feel like they needed to be around. When there are so many X-characters that can be put to use (and more diverse ones at that), why give the O5 double the development and space?

[Celestialbodies]

Like with most interesting ideas Bendis has after the initial arc things starts to fall apart rather quickly! So many of the issues with the 05 being in the present were never addressed in a meaningful way. We never got an explanation on why Magik or Tempus couldn't send them back. Or why Rachel Summers the daughter of Jean Grey was never consulted on helping her manage her powers!

I'll always be grateful that this run brought Jean back but the story and arc all feel like wasted years where we could have been focusing on the X-men line instead of a gimmick that went on several years too long!

[Captain Buttocks]

I did not like it (in fact it drove me away from the books until Hickman) but I'm very happy that there are some who did. It's nice that there are so many X-Men stories that are someone's favourite!

[Spiderfan001]

It was a good idea that overstayed way too long, one arc is a bit small ig but it should have ended w/ the run.They lost direction and momentum afterwards.Jean fans(including me) would like it for her since it's like 80% her and then 20% distributed b/w the guys, not to mention her solo as well.I also binge read it, well most of it.Read the last of it as it came out.

Also being written by Bendis after his prime didn't help, after death of Spider-man he lost his touch.The Miles comics showed that(I had to read all of them for feats and stuff, it was not fun), this cemented it.

I'd say the artwork for that initial run was *chef's kiss*