X-Characters who could do well with a "personal reboot"?

[Grunty]

With "Personal Reboot" i mean that instead of a whole universe or timeline getting reset to a previous status quo or being restarted from scratch, it only happens to either a singular or a small handfull of characters.

Let's face it, continuity in any long running series or franchise can become a double edged sword both for the world and the characters.
Obviously it's still very important for long runners since it creates consistency and rewards being invested, something which greatly helps retain viewers/readers/listeners. And yet it often feels like there are characters for whom continuity has not been kind and infact detrimental.

So let's have a little hypothetical scenario.
There is a storyline or mini-series which involves events that result in a partial timeline alteration of certain characters. All major events still happend. The timeline just bend itself back into shape to adjust to their new selves.

Who do you think would profit from this kind of opportunity?

Two potential examples that come to mind:

1. Partial Reboot: Beast.
Even before Percy got green light by the X-editorial, to do... what ever he thinks he is acomplishing with the character, Beast has largely been on a bad streak for the past years. Which arguably started with Morrison, who seem to have set a certain example that was then often followed, with each next incarnation seemingly becoming worse.

However because Beast has what i call "The good times montage", a long series of stories and moments which defined the core aspects of the character and will be more likely remembered over the bad ones, the character can easily do well with a relative small reboot just removing these bad years from his personal canon.

2. Full Reboot: Marrow.
I like this character. She is my favorit among the C-listers of the X-men. But...

if i had to use actual stories and continuity as basis for why someone else should like the character, i feel i would have a hard time providing a convincing argument. To say nothing of having to provide a list of "go to issues" to do so and not having much to show for it (X-men #72 and...). Because her great visual and thematic potential aside, she is frankly a MESS of a character.

Let's start with her creation. She was meant to die. That was her entire purpose. Show up, be a unhinged killer with no inhibition and a misguided grudge against Storm and normal humans, have a knife fight with her to immitate the classic "Callisto vs. Storm" scenes and then get killed by her in typical 90's fashion.
For added bonus, the writer wanted her as unappealing looking as possible and gave her powers inspired by being weirded out over seeing teenagers with piercings.

To make matters worse her origins are also extremely intervowen in very specific and partial outlandish events, which cuts off any "down to earth" potential that usualy serves as good foundation for lineage independent new characters

If her origins were simply "Morlock kid who survived the mutant massacre and grew up to be a violent and angry young woman" everything would be fine. But actual comic continuity doesn't provide such a simple yet explorable origin story.
Instead it involves a reality warping insane cosmonaut brother of an X-men, a pocket dimension, time acceleration, the Age of Apocalypse, Beast evil version from said alternate timeline and a bunch of conflicting informations.

Most of the successfull X-men either have very easy to sum up backstories, which stand alone without need to know major X-stories or events and those with complicated ones tend to be directly related to major X-men (Rachel Grey, Cable, etc.) creating the constant need to be present and remembered.

So strike one against her.

Then came the brief 3 year run when she was a X-men. Which is basicly the only time in the sun the character ever had or is remembered for. But even that wasn't really a golden time for her.
Because all to often it felt like the writers just weren't sure what to do with her (no wonder given her presence was an editorial mandate).
Case in point, rather than focus on her violent upbringing on The Hill and trying to give her some sense of redemption for her murderous past, they instead focused on her body image issues. At some point it felt like the argument the writers made was "Oh she is just violent because her powers make her unpretty".
And when she got her "makeover" it all went downhill even further.

And then came Chris Claremont, kicked her from the team with no explanation and then she just drifted from appearance to appearance, with each instance somehow making the character worse.
1. Spiderman/Marrow gave no explanation, but gave her a split personality disorder. 2. Weapon X made her betray mutantkind for another makeover. 3. Decimination removed her power. 4. X-force gave her the powers back, but Spurrier felt he should just write her as unhinged madwoman who lost her baby.
And then she only had tiny little appearances with no explanation of how she changed again, what she has been up to or what her personality is actualy anymore.

So let's summarize.
The character is by now 27 years old. Has a completely messy and unusuable on pannel origin story. Only ever had 2-3 good years of any relevance. Spend the remaining 22 years appearing with erratic characterization. Doesn't actualy have a very stable characterization. Doesn't have even one truely stand out moment.

And that's why i feel she might be better of getting one good full reboot.

Cut everything off except: Was a Morlock. Survived the Mutant Massacre because Gambit carried her away.

From there just have her survive on the street, maybe with Gambit occasionaly showing up trying to steer her into the right direction or teach her some tricks and the end result is a angry young mutant woman with a big grudge against the world and freakish power which constantly makes her run on a mixture of adrenaline and natural pain killers.

They still could imply that she ran with the X-men for a bit. But everything else might aswell go to give her a fresh start.

[davetvs]

Rachel Summers because I find her useless and completely lacking relevance or direction

I preferred Kid Cable to adult Cable

[Su_Whisterfield]

I don’t want a reboot, but I would love for Kurt to have a coherent and sensible origin story. Particularly if it didn’t involve Azazel.

[Alex.]

Rachel Summers because I find her useless and completely lacking relevance or direction

I preferred Kid Cable to adult Cable

This in every way possible

[sunofdarkchild]

Moira. The reboot she got with HOXPOX went off the rails and needs to be re-rebooted.

[DarkMagnus]

Moira X- Split the "bad ending Moira" of the "Good ending Moira"

Having two Moira´s one overpowerful evil robot lady and other overpowerful mutant allies would make the character rich instead of poor.

Also Xmen Unlimited makes me miss the sweet Moira, the nice character not this Bastion with boobs that we have now. i dont hate Moiraneitor but i prefer "The real real Moira"

Rogue

Make her DESTINY BIOLOGICAL CHILD. Why? Rogue origins are something barely touched. and make her literally a "Destiny Child" will be hilarious also between "Evil Hippie Goddes Rogue Momma" or "Rogue The Destiny´s child" sound way cooler. Also she is my fave and i want something to her rather than just "being married"

Manon and Maxime

Make they Rogue and Gambit sons of some alternative future that Ahab stole. That way you have them as parent without you know... Pregnancy? that appears is something Marvel hates to show unless you are name Jessica (Drew and Jones have nice and respected "Pregnant runs")

Phoenix Force

So the Phoenix force is now a avenger? I get BUT "The Force" will always be associated to the X , so make "some Jean Grey" the ultimate and last Phoenix. So whoever wield the flames currently needs to remenber the bird belongs to the X.

The Maximoff family (Specially Wanda and Prieto LENSHERR)

EASY. Restore them. The High evolutonary was Lying. THEY ARE Mags Children . He slept with Natalya but either she and him didnt knew about that for some villian or Robo Moira or Xavier needs him to lie because something.

[Jackraow21]

Hard pass on another Cable reboot, since the last one made zero sense and wasn't even the same character we'd met at that age before (in series like The Adventures of Cyclops & Phoenix and The Further Adventures of Cyclops & Phoenix, or Cable Volume 1, issue #25)... not to mention his being here creates a weird time paradox. I'd rather see them do literally anything else with the character... merge him with Xilo (instead of his T-O virus), kill him off permanently and let's see Stryfe (the grown man version) try to fill the void and be given a redemption arc, make him an Avenger. Whatever. Anything but watching the strange character-twisting that went on during the Kid Cable era.

Just my $.02, though, as a major fan of the character. Maybe just leave him with Al Ewing and tell him he can make major, status quo altering changes to him. I trust that man with the character more than any other writer in Marvel's stable right now. He seems to get him and the appeal of him and won't throw the baby out with the bathwater. At least IMO.

Honestly, I kind of miss the whole "warrior priest" vibe he had going on during the Casey-Ladronn and Soldier X runs. That could be cool for Ewing to play with.

[Kingdom X]

With "Personal Reboot" i mean that instead of a whole universe or timeline getting reset to a previous status quo or being restarted from scratch, it only happens to either a singular or a small handfull of characters.

Let's face it, continuity in any long running series or franchise can become a double edged sword both for the world and the characters.
Obviously it's still very important for long runners since it creates consistency and rewards being invested, something which greatly helps retain viewers/readers/listeners. And yet it often feels like there are characters for whom continuity has not been kind and infact detrimental.

So let's have a little hypothetical scenario.
There is a storyline or mini-series which involves events that result in a partial timeline alteration of certain characters. All major events still happend. The timeline just bend itself back into shape to adjust to their new selves.

Who do you think would profit from this kind of opportunity?

Two potential examples that come to mind:

1. Partial Reboot: Beast.
Even before Percy got green light by the X-editorial, to do... what ever he thinks he is acomplishing with the character, Beast has largely been on a bad streak for the past years. Which arguably started with Morrison, who seem to have set a certain example that was then often followed, with each next incarnation seemingly becoming worse.

However because Beast has what i call "The good times montage", a long series of stories and moments which defined the core aspects of the character and will be more likely remembered over the bad ones, the character can easily do well with a relative small reboot just removing these bad years from his personal canon.

2. Full Reboot: Marrow.
I like this character. She is my favorit among the C-listers of the X-men. But...

if i had to use actual stories and continuity as basis for why someone else should like the character, i feel i would have a hard time providing a convincing argument. To say nothing of having to provide a list of "go to issues" to do so and not having much to show for it (X-men #72 and...). Because her great visual and thematic potential aside, she is frankly a MESS of a character.

Let's start with her creation. She was meant to die. That was her entire purpose. Show up, be a unhinged killer with no inhibition and a misguided grudge against Storm and normal humans, have a knife fight with her to immitate the classic "Callisto vs. Storm" scenes and then get killed by her in typical 90's fashion.
For added bonus, the writer wanted her as unappealing looking as possible and gave her powers inspired by being weirded out over seeing teenagers with piercings.

To make matters worse her origins are also extremely intervowen in very specific and partial outlandish events, which cuts off any "down to earth" potential that usualy serves as good foundation for lineage independent new characters

If her origins were simply "Morlock kid who survived the mutant massacre and grew up to be a violent and angry young woman" everything would be fine. But actual comic continuity doesn't provide such a simple yet explorable origin story.
Instead it involves a reality warping insane cosmonaut brother of an X-men, a pocket dimension, time acceleration, the Age of Apocalypse, Beast evil version from said alternate timeline and a bunch of conflicting informations.

Most of the successfull X-men either have very easy to sum up backstories, which stand alone without need to know major X-stories or events and those with complicated ones tend to be directly related to major X-men (Rachel Grey, Cable, etc.) creating the constant need to be present and remembered.

So strike one against her.

Then came the brief 3 year run when she was a X-men. Which is basicly the only time in the sun the character ever had or is remembered for. But even that wasn't really a golden time for her.
Because all to often it felt like the writers just weren't sure what to do with her (no wonder given her presence was an editorial mandate).
Case in point, rather than focus on her violent upbringing on The Hill and trying to give her some sense of redemption for her murderous past, they instead focused on her body image issues. At some point it felt like the argument the writers made was "Oh she is just violent because her powers make her unpretty".
And when she got her "makeover" it all went downhill even further.

And then came Chris Claremont, kicked her from the team with no explanation and then she just drifted from appearance to appearance, with each instance somehow making the character worse.
1. Spiderman/Marrow gave no explanation, but gave her a split personality disorder. 2. Weapon X made her betray mutantkind for another makeover. 3. Decimination removed her power. 4. X-force gave her the powers back, but Spurrier felt he should just write her as unhinged madwoman who lost her baby.
And then she only had tiny little appearances with no explanation of how she changed again, what she has been up to or what her personality is actualy anymore.

So let's summarize.
The character is by now 27 years old. Has a completely messy and unusuable on pannel origin story. Only ever had 2-3 good years of any relevance. Spend the remaining 22 years appearing with erratic characterization. Doesn't actualy have a very stable characterization. Doesn't have even one truely stand out moment.

And that's why i feel she might be better of getting one good full reboot.

Cut everything off except: Was a Morlock. Survived the Mutant Massacre because Gambit carried her away.

From there just have her survive on the street, maybe with Gambit occasionaly showing up trying to steer her into the right direction or teach her some tricks and the end result is a angry young mutant woman with a big grudge against the world and freakish power which constantly makes her run on a mixture of adrenaline and natural pain killers.

They still could imply that she ran with the X-men for a bit. But everything else might aswell go to give her a fresh start.

It's the way that I thought that was her entire origin...

For me I would do a couple partial reboots/ streamlines:

1) Monet: I dunno how you would do it, but right now the whole Penance thing is kind of a mess and her twin sisters are basically extra characters that don't do anything. Also we lost some neurodivergent rep with the reveal that there was a "real" Monet the entire time.
2) Madelyne: Most of her appearances after Inferno are actually alternate universe characters or clones of clones, so really I just need a map of what this character has actually done.

Lastly, if the franchise were to ever truly reboot:

Emma Frost as a trans character. Before Christian Frost was brought back into the fold, there was this theory floating around that Christian and Emma were one and the same (https://www.pillowfort.social/posts/268255), and that Emma was Christian post-transition. Honestly, the theory didn't hold much ground BUT I just always found it intriguing based on how it could play into Emma's complicated family dynamics, her dynamic with with Iceman, and how she embraces femininity and sexuality. Also, I'd personally feel a lot more comfortable with all the times that Emma is propped up as the voice of mutantkind if she came from an actual minority group.

[Jackraow21]

I also think Logan could do with a status quo shift. Was just re-reading the period after he lost his adamantium, from about issue #76-90 of Wolverine by Larry Hama & Adam Kubert and can honestly say that that's one of the best periods for defining his character. At least to me. It made him vulnerable and showed his humanity in a way that hadn't been done since the early Claremont/Byrne run when we first got to know him. My favorite versions of Wolverine aren't invincible. They're the 80s Claremont/Miller/Buscema version or Larry Hama/Mark Silvestri version, the 90s Larry Hama/Adam Kubert bone claws version or even the 00s and 10s Old Man Logan version by Millar/McNiven and then Lemire/Sorrentino.

Again, just my opinion, but I wouldn't mind another status quo shift for Logan. The immortal, unkillable "tank" version kind of bores me.

[Taurean Sun]

Vulcan... along the way we lost the plot. Time to go back to those roots because the shiar nonsense was not it.

[JB]

Vulcan... along the way we lost the plot. Time to go back to those roots because the shiar nonsense was not it.

Yeah I agree with this. He never really had a chance to be anything more than a colossal, maniacal, danger to everything living. And he'll likely be banned from resurrecting after Storm ends him.

I also agree with Moira. I don't mind her being secretly against Xavier/Magneto/Krakoa but the whole cyborg wearing people for Halloween was too much imo.

[Wolverine12]

Maddie could use a reboot. I thought we got a face turn in New Mutants but Dark Web seems to be putting her back on the usual path. I would also say Beast but I’m kinda digging complete a-hole Beast right now so let’s wait until Logan obliterates him and when he gets resurrected let’s get him back.

[Ambaryerno]

I also think Logan could do with a status quo shift. Was just re-reading the period after he lost his adamantium, from about issue #76-90 of Wolverine by Larry Hama & Adam Kubert and can honestly say that that's one of the best periods for defining his character. At least to me. It made him vulnerable and showed his humanity in a way that hadn't been done since the early Claremont/Byrne run when we first got to know him. My favorite versions of Wolverine aren't invincible. They're the 80s Claremont/Miller/Buscema version or Larry Hama/Mark Silvestri version, the 90s Larry Hama/Adam Kubert bone claws version or even the 00s and 10s Old Man Logan version by Millar/McNiven and then Lemire/Sorrentino.

Again, just my opinion, but I wouldn't mind another status quo shift for Logan. The immortal, unkillable "tank" version kind of bores me.

IMO ALL characters with Healing Factors need to be toned down. With the exception of Deadpool, since it's kind of his thing to be ridiculously unkillable.

Frankly, having a HF has become a moot point altogether considering the Resurrection Protocols have now made death laughably irrelevant for EVERYONE, not just the over-amped HFs.

[From The Shadows]

Beast, definitely. But it seems to me they may just end up writing him the same way again eventually. Marvel is still in the grey part of things. Though, Beast may not be even grey but further along. Just imagine old Beast returning and being faced with how much the X-Men have changed if they ever went the Dark Beast route.

[CaptainUniverse]

Quicksilver. He needs a new hook other than having less-than-stellar super speed and being an arrogant dick to everyone. Repair his family life with Crystal and Luna! Make him as fast as The Blur was in Heroes Reborn and give him the power to traverse time and space so he can go on bigger adventures and become more than just Wanda's tag along! Do...something other than have him be a poor man's Peter Parker! For the love of God, this man was one of the second generation Avengers and a founding member of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, there has got to be a way to breathe new life into him.