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

[PablitoMc]

1. Aurora. She started off really well in Alpha Flight but quickly the character was ruined and I honestly dont think she ever fully recovered from that. Her appearances in X-Factor as part of the Brotherhood were disappointing - They just didn't do anything with her. She then reappeared in Alpha but contributed nothing. Her time on the X-Men was brief. Such a waste of a great character.

2. Emma Frost. Such a fantastic villain she was as the White Queen. Cunning and ruthless. I always wanted her relationship with Cyclops to be part of a much bigger story. Again proving his weakness for bad ladies (Maddy as the other example) The fact that they eventually just split up when he died was a bit on an anti-climax.

3. Spiral I think this character always worked better when she was independent of Mojo. The link to the Crimson Dawn was interesting as were her appearances in Excalibur. Her time on the Sisterhood was pretty flat and unexciting.

4. Psylocke - Biggest mistake ever, in my opinion, was separating the 2 again and having Betsy become Captain Britain. Totally ruined both characters. The mind switch happened and Revanche died and as far as I'm concerned that was that. The fact that she 'willed' herself a new body is ridiculous. If you apply that principle then the X-Team could revive Revanche and then we would effectively have 3 Psyloches. Betsy in Kwannan's body worked really well and defined the character.

Does anyone agree or disagree? Anyone any other examples?

[Ambaryerno]

Frankly, X-23.

By and large, she's just plain been written BADLY by most writers. Most writers treat her as a gender-swapped Logan, all growling and snarling. Or worse, having her toss off pithy one-liners. They just can't grasp how to handle an introvert. Furthermore, very few remember how smart she's supposed to be, or that she's a scalpel, not a meat cleaver. Instead she throws herself head-first into fights rather than using the raised-from-birth assassin training that allowed her to put one over on CAPTAIN AMERICA. At thirteen!

Yes, she got to have the Wolverine name, but Marvel didn't let her actually DO anything with it. There's many missed opportunities for stories that could connect her to the larger Marvel universe. Wolverines could have laid the groundwork for a major role in Secret Wars (Destiny predicted that without Wolverine the multiverse was screwed) but she appeared in one panel IN THE ENTIRE EVENT AND ITS TIE-INS. She was the Unipower's chosen heir, and this has never been mentioned since. She was one of Kingpin's favorite assassins, and yet despite a story arc that seemed like the PERFECT setup to bring them into conflict, (Orphans of X: Laura vows to bring everyone who used her as an assassin to justice) it was Emma who got to face Fisk in Devil's Reign. Even when Logan was DEAD she still played second-fiddle, with Old Man Logan getting the multiple team books. Her "big" arcs in recent books pretty much involved reduced her to a prop for Synch to angst over.

Laura has been utterly wasted on the X-books pretty much since Second Coming.

[Saithor]

The cuckoos. Not the most blatant example, but there are only ever two cuckoo stories, one of them branching apart as their own people and beginning to learn individuality, and then the story where they get reset to the status quo so the next author can do it all over again. See X-force

[crimsontt]

Psylocke and Captain Britain:

Kwannon was way better depicted in her short lived rendition in the 90’s. A dark past, dramatic dialogue, an unapologetic and bold attitude towards her fate, in case, her eminent death.

She was cold, callous, but we could feel her intense passion for Matsuo.

She was provocative with betsy, almost the bully when Betsy was the one overwhelmed by the confusion. It was amazing to see her connection blossoming as they were becoming partners in crime.

Now she is a bland version of ninja betsy braddock. Her current depiction reminds me of sad periods when betsy pannel time was reduced to angry faces in the background. When she was nothing but a pawn.

She is not her particular character like she could be picking up from the 90’s. She is a cameo ninja betsy braddock.


As for Betsy, I think there’s nothing left to be said. She is not picking up from her glorious characterization from the 80’s, nor she is exploding in action like the 90’s and neither she is continuing the interesting development that remender, spurrier and bunn were able to deliver in the last decade. She is somewhere else. A place that denies all highlights of betsy in the past. She is not pragmatic, not confident, not a spy, not a creative psionic that can do wonders with her powers, she is not dominant towards the men around her, she is not strategic nor an adventure junkie. Her struggles are mundane, for a woman that have been trough so many obliterations and yet was able to come trough.

All of a sudden she became a bland brawler and not even with her position as the prime omniversal guardian she is getting some relevance in the x or marvel myhtos.

[Silver Fang]

Sabretooth

Who went from a competent, popular A-list villain in the 90's and early 2002 to a jobbing, meathead, D-lister. This year puts him at exactly 20 years of being the joke he's turned into with no clear signs of his character getting course corrected.

Deadpool

Not exactly an X-character. More adjacent, but frequents X-books enough to call out that he's written like a fail version of Peter Griffin rather than the legit dangerous, tragic, but eccentric badass he used to be.

Monet St. Croix

She's mostly just been wasted. But PAD really derailed her character into a dumb brawling hypocrite. If she's not depicted as a reckless brawler, she just kinda character flips to whatever bit part writers want her for.

[Saithor]

Sabretooth

Who went from a competent, popular A-list villain in the 90's and early 2002 to a jobbing, meathead, D-lister. This year puts him at exactly 20 years of being the joke he's turned into with no clear signs of his character getting course corrected.

Deadpool

Not exactly an X-character. More adjacent, but frequents X-books enough to call out that he's written like a fail version of Peter Griffin rather than the legit dangerous, tragic, but eccentric badass he used to be.

Monet St. Croix

She's mostly just been wasted. But PAD really derailed her character into a dumb brawling hypocrite. If she's not depicted as a reckless brawler, she just kinda character flips to whatever bit part writers want her for.

While I won’t disageee with his past treatment I thought the miniseries treated Sabretooth rather well overall in what was a return to form

[Diammandis]

1. Aurora. She started off really well in Alpha Flight but quickly the character was ruined and I honestly dont think she ever fully recovered from that. Her appearances in X-Factor as part of the Brotherhood were disappointing - They just didn't do anything with her. She then reappeared in Alpha but contributed nothing. Her time on the X-Men was brief. Such a waste of a great character.

2. Emma Frost. Such a fantastic villain she was as the White Queen. Cunning and ruthless. I always wanted her relationship with Cyclops to be part of a much bigger story. Again proving his weakness for bad ladies (Maddy as the other example) The fact that they eventually just split up when he died was a bit on an anti-climax.

3. Spiral I think this character always worked better when she was independent of Mojo. The link to the Crimson Dawn was interesting as were her appearances in Excalibur. Her time on the Sisterhood was pretty flat and unexciting.

4. Psylocke - Biggest mistake ever, in my opinion, was separating the 2 again and having Betsy become Captain Britain. Totally ruined both characters. The mind switch happened and Revanche died and as far as I'm concerned that was that. The fact that she 'willed' herself a new body is ridiculous. If you apply that principle then the X-Team could revive Revanche and then we would effectively have 3 Psyloches. Betsy in Kwannan's body worked really well and defined the character.

Does anyone agree or disagree? Anyone any other examples?

I have to heavily disagree with Emma. I think as a character shes evolved so much from being a villain, shes been fighting for mutants and teaching them for well over 20 years. Pushing her back into the category as a villain would do such a huge disservice to her character, watching her character arc over these past years has been great so itd be terrible to see her start back as a villain.

However i do think i will somewhat agree that she has been handled “badly”, I think a lot of writers now dont know how to fully utilize her character, as much as I am glad that writers have moved past her actions in IVX and forward I do feel like her character has been lacking a little bit lately.

[Saithor]

I have to heavily disagree with Emma. I think as a character shes evolved so much from being a villain, shes been fighting for mutants and teaching them for well over 20 years. Pushing her back into the category as a villain would do such a huge disservice to her character, watching her character arc over these past years has been great so itd be terrible to see her start back as a villain.

However i do think i will somewhat agree that she has been handled “badly”, I think a lot of writers now dont know how to fully utilize her character, as much as I am glad that writers have moved past her actions in IVX and forward I do feel like her character has been lacking a little bit lately.

Bit past IvX for the dork age for me with her. I didn’t like the convoluted “Oh I was only pretending to help with the Mothervine” thing that they did tbh. She’s better now although I do think some authors maybe treat her too well. Then again that might just be bad taste from Marauders.

[Silver Fang]

While I won’t disageee with his past treatment I thought the miniseries treated Sabretooth rather well overall in what was a return to form

Meh. Characters as bland, uncharismatic, boring as ever in that. And lost all points whatever points I could've given with this.
Jobbertooth.jpg

Still jobbing it up & a LOOOOOOONG way from where we were 20 years back when he was beating the **** out of Mystique.

[davetvs]

Storm. She's back on track under Ewing (and has been written well throughout the Krakoan era for me) but for most of the 2000s - House of X might as well have been wallpaper. She missed out on Morrison's run, Whedon's, Remender's, and basically anything else good.

[Omega Alpha]

Beast, Beast, Beast. Beast, Beast, Beast. Beast, Beast, Beast. Beast, Beast, Beast. Henry McCoy.

I have to heavily disagree with Emma. I think as a character shes evolved so much from being a villain, shes been fighting for mutants and teaching them for well over 20 years. Pushing her back into the category as a villain would do such a huge disservice to her character, watching her character arc over these past years has been great so itd be terrible to see her start back as a villain.

However i do think i will somewhat agree that she has been handled “badly”, I think a lot of writers now dont know how to fully utilize her character, as much as I am glad that writers have moved past her actions in IVX and forward I do feel like her character has been lacking a little bit lately.

Anyone that thinks Emma was better off as a villain is just complaining because of childhood nostalgia. As a villain, she's poor man's Selene. It's on the side of the good guys she's unique.

[davetvs]

Complaining that Emma isn't a villain anymore is like complaining that Rogue isn't, at this point.

[Steroid]

One's that quickly come to mind for me would be Gambit and Bishop.

[JB]

Sadly, I'd say most characters have had some really bad stints at some point or became wallpaper for an extended amount of time. Monet has definitely been short-changed during this era.

I have to disagree about Emma as well though. The Krakoa era has given me my favorite Emma of all time.

[NewMutant]

At this point most of the major characters have had some sort of character assassination.

What I like about Emma Frost is that all of her variants (as I suppose were calling them) all still felt within the switch of the relm of the origin of the character. Claremont's grew into Lobdell's who grew into Morrison/Whedon and so on. IvX was certainly down point. And in a book about evolution! But at that point it was also the all-time low point of the franchise IMO anyways.