X-Characters you think have been handled badly over the years.....

[Askani's Flame]

Sounds like the Rachel fans and the Ben Reilly fans should start a support group together.

Isn't Dark Web just that, except switch out Rachel for Maddie?

[brandnewfan]

Wolverine. Putting him in so many books cheapens the character.

The Academy X kids, for the most part. Not putting them in books, or relegating them to the background, or characters with one-liners.

[Jackraow21]

Wolverine. Putting him in so many books cheapens the character.

Well, he’s only in two books regularly these days, his solo book and X-Force, and the one-off guest star spots are easy enough to ignore. So while this was a big problem awhile back when he was on X-men, X-Force, Avengers and in his solo book plus popping up everywhere as a guest-star, it doesn’t seem like as much of one today. At least to me. And, as stated in this thread, his primary writer (Ben Percy) does have a good handle on his voice.

No, to me the biggest problem with Logan is that he’s just kind of treading water in perpetual “status quo” mode right now. Which I suppose is fine if you like your heroes preserved in amber and the same as they were thirty years ago. But I tend to prefer when they’re developed and shaped by external events a bit more, as opposed to just having adventures that conclude with the character being in the same place he or she was before the start of it. For this reason I’m intrigued by upcoming solicits that claim to be a turning point for Wolverine in terms of his relationship with Beast and X-Force, and also indicate that he could be going feral again for some reason. That sounds intriguing to me as a fan.

These days I’ve been re-reading a lot of old stuff and just got through with the first phase of “the bone claws period” from Wolverine #75 leading up to #100, which was a big fake out where you thought he was getting the adamantium back but he didn’t. Instead his body rejected it and his mutation went into overdrive, causing him to go feral and lose his nose for some reason. So the second phase of “the bone claws period”, which is the post-Wolverine #100 period where he was all feral and noseless, is not worth a re-read IMO. At least until you get to the OZT stuff and ‘Not Dead Yet’ by Warren Ellis, when Leinil Yu took over as penciler on the book. Then it got pretty good again in parts until you hit #145 where Apocalypse gives him the metal back finally after like six or seven years… which is a damn eternity for a status quo change by today’s standards!

But what I loved about those early bone claws issues post-Fatal Attractions was the whole aspect of Logan having to find himself again and figure out who he was now without the adamantium bonded to his bones. His healing factor was also on the fritz, so now he was no longer the unbreakable weapon they created him to be in the Weapon X program. So he had to be crafty, and use his lifetime’s worth of skills and training to survive as his enemies came out of the woodwork and came after him in this weakened state. It was pretty awesome stuff that made me really appreciate the character work that Larry Hama did with him during those years.

IMO Logan could benefit from some status quo shift like that again. I mean, I know folks have been saying that he should get a mysterium skeleton now instead of adamantium, but I find myself wondering why a character like Logan wouldn’t opt to undo what Weapon X did to him all those years ago via the Resurrection Protocols and become a completely natural being again? Seems logical to me. Sure, the bone claws are weaker, but still useful. And it’s not like The Five couldn’t enhance his durability as part of the process too. They can clearly make tweaks. So that could be an interesting twist if he decided that, the next time he dies and gets resurrected, he doesn’t want to have the adamantium put back in him. Especially with Laura now having her entire skeleton coated with it. Could be a cool way to differentiate the two.

But if not that, I think some other sort of status quo shake up for the character would make him more interesting again. Like really leaning into his role as the spymaster of the mutant world, since he runs the field branch of their CIA over in X-Force. Let’s see him doing some Nick Fury style shady stuff around the world. That could be fun. Percy has kind of been nibbling around the edges there, telling some stories involving his old Team X pal Maverick and his new band of mercenaries, but not quite to the degree I think he could or should be. It needs to make Logan feel fresh and different in terms of his role in the Marvel U, at least IMO.

[jmc247]

I knew someone was going to bring up Morrison's crap. I hate his run and didn't even have it in mind when I said Magneto was great when he returned to villainy. But Hell, even Claremont wrote a great return to villainy for Magento in X-Men 1-3. That alone was much better and way much interesting than him just being a nuetered member of the X-Men for 15 years, doing pretty much nothing.

Part of the problem from Marvel's vantage point is Magneto turning against the X-Men is something they have done repeatedly in the past and they wanted to not repeat themselves though I do think its caused problems. I think the word antagonist or philosophical foil is better than 'villainy' in this context.

I generally agree he has been too philosophically neutered other than brief moments under Hickman and Bunn's pen. Its caused major problems for Lorna too. Marvel consistently ignores the big events in her life and tries to peg her views and thoughts to being a step or too more moderate than dad. They shouldn't be doing that they should peg them to her own life events like Genosha, but because they are pegging Lorna's philosophy to being the nicer side of dad the turn of Magneto towards X-Man in good standing has for a decade and a half meant they erased her philosophical edge other than some very brief blink and you miss them moments.

[Kurolegacy]

Isn't Dark Web just that, except switch out Rachel for Maddie?

Always room for more fans in the support group.

[K7P5V]

Definitely, my choice would be Wind Dancer! TPTB took too long to restore Sofia to her former glory (IMHO):

[danielsan52]

Sabra.

Has she even been on Krakoa?

[JB]

[Top Hat]

Cyclops stop trying to making him out to be some kind of almost villain and let him be a hero, which they are actually doing now. And stop treating Nightcrawler as some kind of naive innocent who had to be protested from the harsh realities of things.

[Master of Sound]

Wolverine. Putting him in so many books cheapens the character.

The Academy X kids, for the most part. Not putting them in books, or relegating them to the background, or characters with one-liners.

I sooo agree with this.

Also putting Logan front and center so many times, takes it away from other high profile X-guys, like Cyclops, Bishop Gambit and Archangel.

What I also do not like is that both Mike Carey and Kelly Thompson brought Rogue and Gambit back to A-listers and then after that they barely got attention. Happened twice now. Not cool.

Finally Kwannon should be named Kwannon, or Revanche, or anything but Psylocke and should get het own unifotm. Make her as unique as she is.

[Sutekh]

Even his current stint in Legion Of X is (to me) pretty lackluster. It seems as if whenever he's with the "main" X-Men, all his tactical knowledge is forgotten. With multiple, higher volume or distance teleporters available (Magik, Pixie, etc), he's not even the premier 'porter in the ranks.

Heck, Kurt's pretty much always been the weakest teleporter, of the batch. Vanisher, Manifold, Lila Cheney, Magik, Blink, Astra, Jaunt, Amelia Voight, Pathway, etc. are all anywhere from 'better' to '*way* better,' with, in some cases, *vastly* more than his '2 mile range.'

He made up for it by teleporting only being part of his mutation, he was also superhuman agile, could cling to walls like Spider-Man, see in the dark, turn almost invisible in shadows, and a hell of an acrobatic swordsman / fighter (with an extra limb in his prehensile tail, which appears to be unnaturally strong/tough, since it can support his full weight when he hangs from it, to boot!). Even if he couldn't teleport at all, he'd still be a useful addition to any team, able to fight almost as well as Wolverine, if you put some swords in his hands (and / or tail, since he has at least once shown the capacity to fight with *three* swords at the same time, one in each hand, and one in his tail!).

I'd honestly like to see him strike out and join the Avengers or similar, where his skills and powerset would be largely unique and, hopefully, appreciated and used effectively.

That'd certainly be an interesting niche for him, although the current Aaron Avengers, entirely centered around the 'trinity' of Tony, Thor and Steve, probably not. I think I'd prefer him on an Avengers team with folk like the Black Knight or Monica Rambeau, US Agent or Spider-Woman (Julia Carpenter). The one's Aaron is using, are, IMO, overused, and, in his specific case, being used so badly that it's tainted the better-written original incarnations of them (pre Tony Snark and boozy unworthy manchild Thor), for me.

[Zelena]

Claremont *WAS* right here. Those "GREAT" Magneto "villian" stories you're referring to were for the most part absolute ****, especially Grant Morrison's BS.

The match is between Rachel and Magneto in my opinion… The former because the writers didn’t seem to see Rachel past the Hound persona of the tough girl and the latter because they liked violent and ruthless Magneto too much… without giving him a good reason to behave this way.

[Jackraow21]

I sooo agree with this.

Also putting Logan front and center so many times, takes it away from other high profile X-guys, like Cyclops, Bishop Gambit and Archangel.

What I also do not like is that both Mike Carey and Kelly Thompson brought Rogue and Gambit back to A-listers and then after that they barely got attention. Happened twice now. Not cool.

Finally Kwannon should be named Kwannon, or Revanche, or anything but Psylocke and should get het own unifotm. Make her as unique as she is.

I’d like to see Wolverine “put to the side” rather than “front and center”, meaning running black ops in X-Force and his solo book… so more of a satellite X-character than one who is hogging the spotlight in the X-men books.

So I tend to agree with this. There are other characters who I think should be over in the X-Force corner with him, along with Deadpool, such as Domino and Kwannon, maybe Cable or Bishop, depending on which one is the X-men books.

[Omega Alpha]

Cyclops stop trying to making him out to be some kind of almost villain and let him be a hero.

He was never a villain. Only idiots think so. Unfortunately, some of these idiots are editors at Marvel and got prickly when people called them on it.

[Top Hat]

He was never a villain. Only idiots think so. Unfortunately, some of these idiots are editors at Marvel and got prickly when people called them on it.

One of the dumbest character turns was when they tried pushing him in that direction.