Which post HoX title most missed the mark for you and why

[johnnysv75]

Not even pretty crap, like Marauders or Excalibur, for the most part. I can be distracted by the shiny, I am fickle like a cat that way, but there was no shiny in X-Corp. It was ugly and stupid, and it will die never having known love.

I have loved several beautiful but poorly written comics. But Excalibur was so bad that not even the art could save it for me. Excalibur has the best art of all the post HoX titles, but the poor writing still made me so mad that I almost threw away my iPad.

[Criticalfan]

This is a very dispiriting thread.

[charliehustle415]

This is a very dispiriting thread.

this is just us dorks complaining about people in spandex, it's not that serious

[BobbysWorld]

Plus the way I look at it, people complain about stuff everywhere on the board, but this is a thread about encouraging people to share WHY things didn't work for them, which opens up a lot more avenues for discussion or thought than just 'ugh I hate that book.'

*Shrugs* Criticism or critical commentary is never the enemy, IMO. At least not when there's reasons and cases for it actually being made. Like there's a difference between that and just character/book hate and snide smear attempts, y'know?

[Wolverine12]

Fallen Angels and X-Factor were the 2 on goings that I disliked the most. Fallen Angels had a great premise, but the art got really bad, so mush so I couldn't tell what was happening on the pages and the writer clearly gave up after issue 2. X-Factor didn't live up to what it was billed as, a team of detectives finding out who died and how. It was more about the interpersonal relationships of the team members and I know that a lot of people liked that aspect but I didn't care for it at all. Also Williams take on Daken was just so bad imho.

As much as I hate to admit it X-Force was a let down after starting so strong. As many mentioned already the team was bad at their job. My issue was mostly that Percy spent so much time spinning the wheels. It's 2022 and we still haven't gotten the reveal of who the Peacock tattoo man is, that's just way too long to drag it out. That's not even mentioning how much time was spent on Terra Verde....

If mini series count than Trial of Magneto must be mentioned, that series missed every mark it could have. I will say the art was decent but the story really had very little to do with Magneto and just about everyone was written OOC. I'm cool with a Wanda story, I like Wanda but don't call a book Trial of Magneto and then give me a Wanda story, I know cover's can be misleading but the title really shouldn't be.

[nx01a]

Let me focus on the books that actually hit their mark so I can start off the new year positively (and go downhill into negativity later)... Hellions and S.W.O.R.D. were brilliant, and ending them was a crime against good comics. At least Hellions had some level of closure, and S.W.O.R.D.'s story continues in X-Men Red v2.
Hickman's X-Men had ups and downs, mostly because it seemed very 'adventure of the week' instead of actually building a cohesive narrative. I was expecting the story we're getting now in Inferno.

this is just us dorks complaining about people in spandex, it's not that serious

Preach it, fellow dork!

[CGAR]

Truthfully I could tell X-Force was not for me within the first several issues. It really turned into the body horror book, which isn't something I have an extensive desire to read month after month. Also watching Beast continue to devolve into an ethically bankrupt monster brings me no joy either.

But I would love to read the version of this book you are envisioning BobbysWorld! That sounds far more interesting. More espionage! I'd think breaching some relevant topics like the ethical quandary of surveillance of your own population to root out dissent would also be intriguing.

For me though, Excalibur has been my biggest and most bitter disappointment of this era. I love fantasy as a genre. I was curious to see exactly what "mutant magic" was supposed to be. The cast had my two favorite characters and another two of my top 10, including lots of strong personalities that should have played off each other in such a fun way. It had a great artist.

And the whole thing has been a miserable experience for me as a reader. It has never been made clear what mutant magic is or how it's any different from a mutant technology circuit. It basically isn't. And even there, the circuit they create only the one time isn't that creative or even that interesting, especially compared to the ones in other books like SWORD. The characters have been generally stiff and one dimensional and unpleasant in their interactions with each other. They just wander from aimless mission to mission without questioning what they're being asked to do. I truly don't understand most of their motivation. Action sequences are skipped on the regular and we are told instead of shown what happens many times. This is supposed to bring Betsy into this new role, but she's absolutely terrible at it. Why any of the characters continue to stay on a team they never chose in the first place is completely unclear and unjustified. The majority of the fairly small cast is underutilized. Plot threads are started and then dropped so often that the whole thing feels unmoored in it's purpose and direction. What they are doing in Otherworld feels very questionable, yet nobody seems to care - invading a foreign land and installing your own government? We're good with that, Krakoa? It's hard to empathize with the mutants in this scenario as they feel more like the aggressors than the heroes. It's not made clear why what they're doing is right or necessary.

I thought we would be in for fun adventures through all these new worlds, but it's been more like a miserable pointless dungeon crawl. And you don't really get to hang out to worldbuild anywhere because the characters are yanked out of each place before you get to know it or the characters living in it.

And now Marvel is slapping a new coat of paint on it and a shiny new name to give us more of the same? No thanks. Count me out.

People say she explained mutant magic in her run but honestly I dont think TH ever did and at a certain I think it was just thrown in that mutant magic is just mutant circuiting there powers together. Which is not even needed to be differentiated. She really went all in during interviews about exploring mutant magic but it was one of the least interesting or written about story points.

Just reading some of these critiques just makes me dread Knights of X even though I was trying to stay positive. Her whole 26 issues run Honestly could have been done in 12 issues and better.

[BroHomo]

New Mutants

[Wolfsbane]

X-Force is the absolute worst. I’ve never liked anything that the writer writes.

[MYCMTSC]

By far - X-Force. Of all the titles that lasted more than six issues, this one doesn't even have seeds of anything interesting. I think the intelligence book of such a successful mutant nation should have been thrilling and moving the needle, but I've walked away from this book with absolutely nothing.

[Milici]

What was even the purpose of Children of the Atom?

[Tobinator]

Way of X was straight-up insulting. From writing Nightcrawler as a proselytizing douche to the nonsensical moral dilemmas like "sex is only for procreation" and "conspiracy to murder humans isn't a crime" and "forcing the abuser and abused into a life-or-death situation is good therapy" to the weird power of friendship resolution, Way of X was just awful. I had forgotten it was supposed to tackle the Big Questions in a post-mortality society because they were never actually addressed.

[Anduinel]

Of the books I stuck with for more than an issue or two, Marauders. I thought it started off with a couple of strong, character-focused mysteries and a lot of potential so far as cast and world-building. And then it just sort of wandered off into a mess of bad ideas. Everyone except Kitty, Emma, and Shaw became wallpaper. I hate the Hellfire Brats, but veering into child rape and/or molestation was *not* the way to try and flesh them out. He made Shaw a more loathsome character than he'd been previously, then at the same time, tried to make him even remotely sympathetic. Just...yeah. No idea what this book was trying to do, to be quite honest, and I hope Orlando can get it back on track.

[charliehustle415]

Way of X was straight-up insulting. From writing Nightcrawler as a proselytizing douche to the nonsensical moral dilemmas like "sex is only for procreation" and "conspiracy to murder humans isn't a crime" and "forcing the abuser and abused into a life-or-death situation is good therapy" to the weird power of friendship resolution, Way of X was just awful. I had forgotten it was supposed to tackle the Big Questions in a post-mortality society because they were never actually addressed.

I thought for sure we would get a in depth look at the Crucible and morality of it within Mutant Culture, but it was a bit whiff for me as well

[Vulcansfire]

X Force and X Corp were a let down