"Are the X-Men in trouble? Marvel teases an S.O.S. is coming January 2023"

[Omega Alpha]

The thing that stopped the big momentum that HoxPox generated was absolutely X of Swords. Absolutely no reason for it to be so long. Duggan taking over refreshed that specific book and the other books have mostly been good but thats where the shine wore off.

No, not really, people still were excited, and generally speaking liked the event, even if went way too long. Hickman leaving much earlier than expected + Percy stopping the line for no reason was what drove a lot of people away, or at least left them much less excited.

[Jackraow21]

I think a lot of the line just not being good has been the biggest issue. It has had its gems, in all phases including this current “Destiny of X” phase, but overall the line has been too lackluster and probably precisely because it is too bloated.

[Kingdom X]

The thing that stopped the big momentum that HoxPox generated was absolutely X of Swords. Absolutely no reason for it to be so long. Duggan taking over refreshed that specific book and the other books have mostly been good but thats where the shine wore off.

X of Swords came out right after the books came back from the pandemic pause right? It seems like extending that event was a direct response to not being able to sell books for 3-4 months (which also helped kill momentum). I'd say that X of Swords being so long was the first major "miss" of the era (before that Fallen Angels), but Reign of X had every opportunity to rectify that. We know from interviews with Hickman that this was when a lot of books entered a holding pattern and it became obvious that plots were being dragged out. Hickman's subsequent departure and lackluster events that belonged in ongoings (Trial of Magneto + XLives/ XDeaths) REALLY killed momentum. I still believe that Destiny of X was poised to at least bring some of that momentum back, but full-circle uncontrollable delays and an overextended event have put a stop to that.

[Saithor]

X of Swords came out right after the books came back from the pandemic pause right? It seems like extending that event was a direct response to not being able to sell books for 3-4 months (which also helped kill momentum). I'd say that X of Swords being so long was the first major "miss" of the era (before that Fallen Angels), but Reign of X had every opportunity to rectify that. We know from interviews with Hickman that this was when a lot of books entered a holding pattern and it became obvious that plots were being dragged out. Hickman's subsequent departure and lackluster events that belonged in ongoings (Trial of Magneto + XLives/ XDeaths) REALLY killed momentum. I still believe that Destiny of X was poised to at least bring some of that momentum back, but full-circle uncontrollable delays and an overextended event have put a stop to that.

While later events definitely were the nails, X of Swords was definitely the first signs that things were going off the rails and were slowly drifting off in terms of pace. The fact that every single book got dragged into it, it was so long and stretched out, character choices didn't make much sense (Oh yeah, Silver Samurai definitely wasn't skilled enough to be part of it, sure). Honestly that and how long it took for someone to actually utilize the Arrakki makes me question if Arrakko was part of the original plans to be as incoporated into the new direction as much as they were.

Even if X-lives or X-death delayed all the lines, you know what, at the least it didn't intrude on other books and drag them into it. As much as these forums like to complain about events in Marvel dragging in X-books all the time and interrupting the ongoing storylines, that's essentially what X of Swords did for a good third of a year.

[Vishop]

X of Swords came out right after the books came back from the pandemic pause right? It seems like extending that event was a direct response to not being able to sell books for 3-4 months (which also helped kill momentum). I'd say that X of Swords being so long was the first major "miss" of the era (before that Fallen Angels), but Reign of X had every opportunity to rectify that. We know from interviews with Hickman that this was when a lot of books entered a holding pattern and it became obvious that plots were being dragged out. Hickman's subsequent departure and lackluster events that belonged in ongoings (Trial of Magneto + XLives/ XDeaths) REALLY killed momentum. I still believe that Destiny of X was poised to at least bring some of that momentum back, but full-circle uncontrollable delays and an overextended event have put a stop to that.

It was understandable for only selling point of view to do that during pandemic despite being a disaster. Now is not

[MAR420X]

https://twitter.com/mdp_tm/status/15...cploglexnwcrlg

here u guys go

its sinister

pit issue is number 10 thats january 2023 go back to his sinister secrets hes asking for help

confirmed bang

[Hulkout42]

If everything is an event, nothing is an event.

There is so much truth in this.

[Hulkout42]

The first Hellfire Gala was something that never should have been that long to begin with coupled with a lot of real world cameos that just did not add anything overall. Factor in why some characters were there to begin with such as the F4 and Doom in the wake of X4 among others and it was a just a long winded way to get the Arrako off the planet before they caused more trouble than they were worth.

[Uncanny X-Man]

I think a lot of the line just not being good has been the biggest issue. It has had its gems, in all phases including this current “Destiny of X” phase, but overall the line has been too lackluster and probably precisely because it is too bloated.

This 100%. In my opinion, in any given era we get very few really good X-books, with the rest being bloat. If you have a line of like 10 titles every month, the general impression is that the whole line is mediocre, when in reality like you said there are always a few gems but they get buried under the rest. With Marvel's current model, I don't really see them ever scaling back from having a double-digit number of X-titles every month but the reality is that, aside from the few core mutant books (2 X-Men books, Wolverine and maybe X-Force), the rest will always be a neverending carousel of titles ending, restarting and ending again.

My solution to this would be to focus on the core books only but speed up the publishing schedule, with a weekly Uncanny X-Men book and bi-weekly X-Force and Wolverine books, plus one rotating limited series spotlighting different characters/teams/missions. This way you could make up for the lost revenue from publishing less X-books and likely shift more copies (as an Uncanny X-Men will always sell more than a Marauders), and still have multiple creators and spotlight many different characters thanks to the increased publishing schedule.

[Frobisher]

The first Hellfire Gala was something that never should have been that long to begin with coupled with a lot of real world cameos that just did not add anything overall. Factor in why some characters were there to begin with such as the F4 and Doom in the wake of X4 among others and it was a just a long winded way to get the Arrako off the planet before they caused more trouble than they were worth.

To be fair, it was absolutely not a crossover you had to read all of. Pretty much all the books did an issue, X-Force temporarily got demoted even further from being a militia defending Krakoa's beaches with sticks to being doormen at a party, and you could take or leave anything you weren't already reading.

[ericng]

Are we not tired of all these extinction events where it's not really an extinction because mutants are money-earners for Marvel? lol.