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

[Harasar]

I think a lot of popular characters needs some reboot, because writers constantly put them in the books, but don't seem to know what to do with them anymore. They either:
- reuse the same story over and over again, like Angel becoming Archangel, returning back to Angel, again becoming Archangel. Or Iceman constantly learning how to better control his power, only to again returning to "unrealized potential", now it diluted sometime with accents on him being gay and dating this man, or that man. It seems to me what being gay omega-level mutant with unrealized potential is all the writers know about him, so they constantly return to these parts without doing any character-growth. Or Rogue, learning to control her power, then losing control, learning again, losing again. And she also became so entangled with "flying brick" powerset, what writers constantly return her to it. She lost Ms.Marvel's powers, but got Sunfire's, lost his - got Wonder Man's.
- doubling down on the same direction, like Beast going further and further downhill with each new writer, I now can't even remember his original personality. Or Wolverine going from brooding loner with accelerated healing, to a member of every team on the planet, capable of regrowing his entire body from scratch.
- throwing anything at the character in the attempt to make them interesting, like Colossus being resurrected without memories, becoming Breakworld's destroyer, becoming Juggernaut, becoming Horseman of Apocalypse, becoming a traitor, secretly manipulated by his brother. IMHO it would have been better if he stayed dead, at least he sacrificed himself for the greater good, but now he is just a mess. Same with Banshee: was a teacher to Generation X, then became more military with X-Corp, then died an idiotic death, was resurrected in Necrosha, died, returned in Chaos War, died, returned as Horseman of Death, returned to normal, and now became a ghost rider. To a lesser extent the same is truth for Nightcrawler. He died as a hero, to save Hope and I still remember that scene. But shortly after he was resurrected in a weird way as some combination of bamfs without soul. And while he was in the books ever since, nothing memorable happened, he was all over the place.

I think some characters would become better, if rebooting them would also combine them with some others. Like, for example combine Angel and Banshee (and throw in Thomas Guthrie into the mix). Warren Cassidy III / Angel - an older member of the X-Men (like Banshee, in his 40s or 50s), he wasn't a student, but a friend/ally of Xavier. A heir of ancient rich Irish family, he was originally married to Maeve Rourk who died while he was in Interpol. He left the Ireland, not knowing what Maeve gave birth to their daughter, who later became a mutant herself Sirin - with red wings and enchanting voice (combination of Syrin and Icarus). Warren traveled all over the world in attempts to forget Maeve, and in the process sired quite a number of kids: Aero (Aero + Wind Dancer), Surge (Jeb Guthrie + Surge) and Kidogo (Elizabeth Guthrie + Kidogo). Later on he settled in USA, married Lucinda Guthrie and have Cannonball, Husk and the human Guthrie kids. He started a mining company, one day he brought Sam to one of the mines, but accident happened and it collapsed. Cannonball managed to escape and survive, but Warren was believed to be dead, because his torn off wings were discovered. In truth he also survived and managed to claw his way out while seriously injured. He was noticed by Apocalypse, who was impressed by his perseverance, so he saved Warren's life, gave him metallic wings, brainwashed him and turned him into his Horseman of Death - Banshee, with additional ability of sound scream. Eventually Warren recovered his own personality (while retaining metallic wings and scream), left Apocalypse and joined Emma Frost as a teacher of Generation X, including his daughter Husk. Later on he joined the X-Men and became a core member ever since.

[davetvs]

Agree that they need to solidify (and then stop touching) the parentage of the Maximoffs. Magneto as their dad and Natalya as their mom makes the most sense at this point.

[Fokken]

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.

Unsurprisingly, 100% in favor of your suggestions, Kingdom X.

With peace and love to the Krakoa era, the Penancification of Monet with an on/off switch is not my jam, and I was fully "wait, wtf" back when the neurodivergent Monet my wee self was fallingin love with was revealed to be little twins playing Gestalt dress up.

RE Madelyne: Yeah, if maybe all of the post-Inferno attempts to revisit her could just be cleansed from the timeline and we could acknowledge the Hellions return as THE return, that'd be just fine by me.

I'm also a fan of the Emma Frost is trans narrative. There is so much about her life experience that resonates with the trans experience. Community deserves some A-list rep.

[davetvs]

I'm not sure about Emma being trans. It feels too much like pasting a minority identity onto an existing character for cheap representation points, vs. something like Iceman's coming out which was more "realistic" since people come out in their 20s and 30s all the time.

Back to Cable, I think Old Man Cable should have a book where he just hops around the timestream with his team fixing problems (maybe add Rachel to this?) rather than being part of mainstream continuity or the main X-Men in a major way. I'd prefer Kid Cable in that role since the character is better served as like, the X-Men's answer to Franklin Richards rather than what we have now. IMHO of course.

[Jackraow21]

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.

100% this. Could not agree more.

[IN-a-Synch]

Jubilee and Iceman needs a reboot enough said.

[protege]

I wonder if Sebastian Shaw could be rebooted into a good guy.

[yogaflame]

I wonder if Sebastian Shaw could be rebooted into a good guy.

All it takes is a writer who wants to make it happen. They did it with Emma, no reason they couldn't do the same with Sebastian. Maybe a love triangle with Jean and Scott like the last time? Worked like a charm before...

[raidensix]

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

He could be resurrected at his true age and original power levels (assuming his accidentally absorbing the M-Day energies is still canon).

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

I'd probably just have Wanda and Pietro be Erik's adopted kids. It's works as a parallel to the original 5 to me. I'm more into nurture than nature so it's my preference.

I'd commit to Sam Wilson as a mutant and I'd have Miles and Riri be mutants recruited by Cyclops during the Schism days rather being Spider-Man/Iron Man legacies. (Does it count?)

Gabby was in Kwannon's Fallen Angel miniseries instead of Laura. It fits her more than Laura to me.

Neal Shara's callsign is Agni or Ignis instead of thunderbird.

I wonder if Sebastian Shaw could be rebooted into a good guy.

Was he ever one? Or are you referring to Generation hope? I wanna use Generation Hope more. Teon should hang out with Gabby.

I was fine with Kid Cable and wouldn't mind if he stuck around longer. He felt like a fun Final Fantasy protagonist to me.

I'd probably use Nate Grey as a snarky action hero like this fan art.

https://www.deviantart.com/cspencey/...able-462223045

He's not a grizzled vet like Old Cable but not a cocky teen like Teen Cable.

[Grunty]

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

Would that it were so simple.

Those two parts should indeed by their lonesome be a solid foundation for a backstory and origin.
The Morlocks are quick and easy to explain and provide a good basis for a sort of family/community situation from which someone could originate.
Same goes for the Mutant Massacre, which as far as shocking event that could crush a young person's soul and turn them into a violent mess years later goes, doesn't need a lot of explanation (fittingly it's a classic story which requires barely any read up, even when it later got all kinds of pieces added on)
Finaly Gambit's involvement in saving her gives her a limited connection to an established X-men, without it being too important for the major continuity.

Variations of that could also be an ideal blueprint for adapations (if there were more cartoons, video games or movies anywhere close enough on the horizon where she could appear).

Everything else involved in getting her to her "default" version (the Joe Mad redesign and being a reluctant X-men), oh boy, what a mess.

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.

Agreed. Everyone kinda became less for it. Monet herself lost an interesting flaw, the twins became plot devices and have since never gained any meaningfull role again and Penance herself was removed as character becomming nothing more than a "beast mode" for Monet.

And they sure seem to currently love putting her in that shape on covers because it makes her more striking looking (at the expense of female mutant characters who were always or permanently striking looking in that regard), even though M allready had a plethora of super powers, being essentialy super girl.

So on top of super strength, speed, flight and all the other jazz she now has a beast mode with super sharp claws and near indestructable skin... though jokes on her it doesn't give her any better moments or more enjoyable stories so far.

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.

Similar to how Jean always seem to get reduced to the Phoenix in people's mind Maddie always seems to get reduced to being her clone and becomming a demon queen.
Imagine a reboot version where it turns out she was an existing woman that got mentaly and physicaly reshaped to be as close to Jean Grey as possible to manipulate the X-men, meaning there is a whole seperated personality underneath it all.

Just an idea though.

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.

Well the RP isn't going to be around forever. If it's gone. Wolverine and co. will just go back to somehow healing back from their injuries instead of dying.

However it's indeed a problem how overblown the healing factors have become simply because the writers seem to try to one up each other with "Wolverine moments" and since his two other powers (claws and enhanced senses) don't allow for more impressive displays than the last, they just frequently increased things he could heal from.

In addition to that writers fseem to follow the old handbook that characters' powers need to be presented frequently, sometimes even each issue, regardless of what ever it fits or not. Likely because of the old rule "every comic could be someones first" (a problem of it's original "newstand" buy nature). Hence why Wolverine always needs to pop his claws out even for the simplest or downright pointless reasons.

However because his other major power is healing, he always needs to be injured to display them. Which then leads to the above mentioned "one up" manship of the writers.

I agree that it works for Deadpool because of his bloody slapstick character nature, but for characters usualy meant to be treated more serious like Wolverine it can quickly become jarring because of the unending nature of these comics.

Funny enough Marrow seems to have lucked out somewhat. Her main powers are so noticable that her healing factor gets only infrequently used or reference. Though on the flipside it seems many writers forget or never know she has one. Resulting in weird situations where an alt universe version can seemingly die from a gun shot, even though she survived a giant hole in her chest where her heart used to be.

Never the less it shows that secondary healing factors seem to be a lot less affected by getting overblown than primary ones.

I wonder if Sebastian Shaw could be rebooted into a good guy.

Could? Yes. Should? I would say no.

Because the X-men are allready running low on established and lasting mutant villains as is, while the list of good guys keeps increasing with each new generation of students and new characters.

[Ambaryerno]

Well the RP isn't going to be around forever. If it's gone. Wolverine and co. will just go back to somehow healing back from their injuries instead of dying.

However it's indeed a problem how overblown the healing factors have become simply because the writers seem to try to one up each other with "Wolverine moments" and since his two other powers (claws and enhanced senses) don't allow for more impressive displays than the last, they just frequently increased things he could heal from.

In addition to that writers fseem to follow the old handbook that characters' powers need to be presented frequently, sometimes even each issue, regardless of what ever it fits or not. Likely because of the old rule "every comic could be someones first" (a problem of it's original "newstand" buy nature). Hence why Wolverine always needs to pop his claws out even for the simplest or downright pointless reasons.

However because his other major power is healing, he always needs to be injured to display them. Which then leads to the above mentioned "one up" manship of the writers.

I agree that it works for Deadpool because of his bloody slapstick character nature, but for characters usualy meant to be treated more serious like Wolverine it can quickly become jarring because of the unending nature of these comics.

Funny enough Marrow seems to have lucked out somewhat. Her main powers are so noticable that her healing factor gets only infrequently used or reference. Though on the flipside it seems many writers forget or never know she has one. Resulting in weird situations where an alt universe version can seemingly die from a gun shot, even though she survived a giant hole in her chest where her heart used to be.

Never the less it shows that secondary healing factors seem to be a lot less affected by getting overblown than primary ones.

One of the best moments in All-New Wolverine was when Laura debuted her second costume with the body armor, because Gabby (rightly) pointed out that just because Laura COULD heal from almost anything, she didn't need to constantly put herself in a situation where she HAD to if she could avoid it. Just a shame other artists kept forgetting her cowl was an actual HELMET, not just a mask.

[Odd Rödney]

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.

And I for one really hate that. It seemed like she was beginning a slow redemptive arc in New Mutants and then *BAM* suddenly she's reverted to serve the needs of some dumb Spider-Man crossover. Because clones.

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.

Yeah, it’s ridiculous to the point of being uninteresting now.

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.

At the very least they need to make him (and Wanda) Magneto’s spawn again. Even if not by blood he raised them. However, it’s kind of ridiculous that Quicksilver isn’t a blood relative of Mags considering they’re often drawn to deeply resemble each other.

Agree that they need to solidify (and then stop touching) the parentage of the Maximoffs. Magneto as their dad and Natalya as their mom makes the most sense at this point.

Yeah, that works just fine.

I think a lot of popular characters needs some reboot, because writers constantly put them in the books, but don't seem to know what to do with them anymore. They either:
- reuse the same story over and over again, like Angel becoming Archangel, returning back to Angel, again becoming Archangel. Or Iceman constantly learning how to better control his power, only to again returning to "unrealized potential", now it diluted sometime with accents on him being gay and dating this man, or that man. It seems to me what being gay omega-level mutant with unrealized potential is all the writers know about him, so they constantly return to these parts without doing any character-growth. Or Rogue, learning to control her power, then losing control, learning again, losing again. And she also became so entangled with "flying brick" powerset, what writers constantly return her to it. She lost Ms.Marvel's powers, but got Sunfire's, lost his - got Wonder Man's.
- doubling down on the same direction, like Beast going further and further downhill with each new writer, I now can't even remember his original personality. Or Wolverine going from brooding loner with accelerated healing, to a member of every team on the planet, capable of regrowing his entire body from scratch.
- throwing anything at the character in the attempt to make them interesting, like Colossus being resurrected without memories, becoming Breakworld's destroyer, becoming Juggernaut, becoming Horseman of Apocalypse, becoming a traitor, secretly manipulated by his brother. IMHO it would have been better if he stayed dead, at least he sacrificed himself for the greater good, but now he is just a mess. Same with Banshee: was a teacher to Generation X, then became more military with X-Corp, then died an idiotic death, was resurrected in Necrosha, died, returned in Chaos War, died, returned as Horseman of Death, returned to normal, and now became a ghost rider. To a lesser extent the same is truth for Nightcrawler. He died as a hero, to save Hope and I still remember that scene. But shortly after he was resurrected in a weird way as some combination of bamfs without soul. And while he was in the books ever since, nothing memorable happened, he was all over the place.

When you list it like that it certainly doesn’t sound like a good story.

I'm not sure about Emma being trans. It feels too much like pasting a minority identity onto an existing character for cheap representation points, vs. something like Iceman's coming out which was more "realistic" since people come out in their 20s and 30s all the time.

100%

[protege]

I'd probably just have Wanda and Pietro be Erik's adopted kids. It's works as a parallel to the original 5 to me. I'm more into nurture than nature so it's my preference.

I'd commit to Sam Wilson as a mutant and I'd have Miles and Riri be mutants recruited by Cyclops during the Schism days rather being Spider-Man/Iron Man legacies. (Does it count?)

Gabby was in Kwannon's Fallen Angel miniseries instead of Laura. It fits her more than Laura to me.

Neal Shara's callsign is Agni or Ignis instead of thunderbird.



Was he ever one? Or are you referring to Generation hope? I wanna use Generation Hope more. Teon should hang out with Gabby.

I was fine with Kid Cable and wouldn't mind if he stuck around longer. He felt like a fun Final Fantasy protagonist to me.

I'd probably use Nate Grey as a sparky action hero like this fan art.

https://www.deviantart.com/cspencey/...able-462223045

He's not a grizzled vet like Old Cable but not a cocky teen like Teen Cable.

Well, I kind of was referring to generation hope, but actually, I was speaking in general terms about Shaw.

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

Well, I kind of was referring to generation hope, but actually, I was speaking in general terms about Shaw.

Ok you could just give him a redemption arc. But Sinister and Mystique are on the Quiet Council so the bar isn't set very high. Lol