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

[ZephyrSurf]

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

There is no way they're rebooting Vulcan. That run of Space Marvel is some of the most critically acclaimed Marvel all around, especially during that era.

[BobbysWorld]

There is no way they're rebooting Vulcan. That run of Space Marvel is some of the most critically acclaimed Marvel all around, especially during that era.

Yeah but this thread is about who we'd like to see rebooted, not pitching that we actually think any of these will happen. Vulcan's the top of my list as well, because I've always thought it was a waste of a concept to debut him with a backstory specifically built to make him sympathetic and with a reasonable axe to grind about his early life with the Shi'ar....and then Xavier basically throwing out him and his team with the trash and wiping all memory of his existence.....only to then turn around and speedrun him into such extreme ranks of villainy that all the sympathy his backstory had been geared to create is just wiped out and irrelevant because he immediately turned into an over the top fascist ******* dictator.

I'll never understand that series of character choices. Makes no sense to me. Its not like we didn't already have tons of prominent X-Men who have villains for siblings. Vulcan being a Summers brother has never actually made his impact as a villain that much different from Mikhail Rasputin's or Jamie Braddock's. But oh well.

(If they ever did another Ultimate Marvel style universe, or even just a singular AU X-Men title, my ideal premise would be 'the time-lost 05 X-Men actually DID spin off a whole new universe when they returned to the past, and thus there was no need to erase their memories and they could act on all that knowledge...similar to the Moira retcon, ironically, but a lot more streamlined and with the premise and mechanism for that already built into the time-travel story Bendis wrote. So first thing Scott does is go in search of the brothers he now knows are both out there, Jean hunts down Sinister while he's still tinkering with his early Maddy clone and liberates her herself, Hank goes after Dark Beast who by that point in time would have already been in the Morlock tunnels tinkering with their genes from behind the scenes, Warren sets out to ensure Cameron Hodge never rises to power or influence and Bobby is gay and omega from day one and has nothing holding him back from pushing his development in all walks of life from an early age.' And here's how non-villainous Vulcan can still win, but I mean I think that's pretty much the only way he really works cuz some things can't be redeemed. But get to Gabe before he takes his first dark side turn and there's no reason he can't be the heroes his brothers are.)

[Rev9]

I'd re-work Messiah war storyline to have Scott Summers and his X-Force team go to the future to retrieve Hope, she is being raised by Warpath in that future ,Cable is being controlled by Apoc and basically the X-Force rescue Hope and Cable but Summers makes a trade, and remains in the future with Cable and Hope coming back and being regulars in the present ,with Cyke having a full odyssey to get back to his family in the present. ..about time Cyke gets a re-vamp.

[Kingdom X]

Oh and if we re-working specific time periods, then pretty much EVERYTHING Storm was doing in the Decimation era. As someone who had such a major storyline about losing her powers, she could have played such an active role in wanting to protect + keep community with the depowered mutants. Additionally, as someone who has actually worked with the UN and played such an active leadership role it would have made sense for her to get mutants a protected status and initiate the move to the West Coast. Most importantly, she should have had an active opinion on the direction of mutantkind. She was constantly being used as a player in Scott and Logan’s disagreements as if she’s not right up there with Scott when it comes to leading the X-Men.

[Grunty]

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.

There have been some interesting debates about the procs and cons of "armored" or "protective" costumes in regards to super heros and their practicality vs. how they interfer with the classic artistic depictions. Though it's basicly just another form of the discussion about helmets on heros in modern visual depictions.

Mainly that in order for the hero to be recognizable (and in case of life action media to let the actors show their faces), they need to not wear helmets, so to be told appart from the "red shirts" of their armies or allied forces.

However the end point of this debate is basicly that because these stories tend to take place in fictional worlds with all powerfull narrative gods (the writer), practicality and function have no direct value. A helmet, regardless of how strong or well designed it might be, will always only be as effective and usefull as the writer wants it to be.

If the chaotic and random nature of the real world is no longer at play, in which any suitable form of protection will more often increase the chance of survival and decrease the chance of injury than not having one, logic behind protection becomes relative.

Helmets only protect if the writer wants to show them doing so. Same goes for body armor. Same goes for energy shields. Or any other form of protection.

So if one looks at the history of Wolverine and Laura getting constantly injured, it would make sense to think that they should start wearing more protective costumes. BUT. Since the intention of the writers is still to get them constantly injured, they will just more often encounter enemies with the weapons or abilities to penetrate their armor as if they were not wearing them.
Meanwhile fellow heros who don't wear extra protection and can't super heal, will constantly get missed or avoid getting hit.

It can make for a cool alternate costume and would fit their role as melee fighters, but it still wouldn't solve the problem of the writers wanting them to get injured to show their "awesome" healing factors in action.

And that brings us back to the fundamental problem. Writers overdoing it with the healing factors.

[Digifiend]

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.

You mean, make him like The Flash? How do they give him such an upgrade without it looking like a blatant knock-off of Barry and Wally?

[Ambaryerno]

Mainly that in order for the hero to be recognizable (and in case of life action media to let the actors show their faces), they need to not wear helmets, so to be told appart from the "red shirts" of their armies or allied forces.

As a counterpoint, I recently saw some panels that Phil Noto did for a book some time ago with Wanda and Jessica Jones some time ago. There was a third woman with black hair who looked EXACTLY how Noto drew Laura in the Liu book. If it weren't for the dialogue, I'd have never realized it wasn't her from just those panels. Laura is probably easier to identify when she IS wearing the cowl than when she's not.

[Grunty]

As a counterpoint, I recently saw some panels that Phil Noto did for a book some time ago with Wanda and Jessica Jones some time ago. There was a third woman with black hair who looked EXACTLY how Noto drew Laura in the Liu book. If it weren't for the dialogue, I'd have never realized it wasn't her from just those panels. Laura is probably easier to identify when she IS wearing the cowl than when she's not.

Of course these examples exist too, either because the helmet or mask are a particular iconic part of the character and they would be less recognizable without it, or because it makes a character more recognizable among all the heros who don't wear helmets.

[Sutekh]

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.

I do not like Monet turning into Penance mode at all. She's already bulletproof, able to fly, super-strong and telepathic, among probably other things, she gains nothing by getting harder skin and claws, since she already has good defenses *and* offenses. She turns from someone at least kind of distinctive (of the X-peeps, only Rogue is a flying strong-girl), to one of 39817 members of team schnikt-bub, leaping at folks with their stabby hand-cutlery. Boring.

I remember back in the day it was suggested that Selene liked to groom young mutants (like Amara, or Wither) and infect some of them with a shard of her power, so that they to became dependent on life-force, and thinking that it would be neat to find out that Monet's family was descended from Selene, with her brother Marius being the 'most like great-greatx40 grandma,' a (potentially immortal) predator among mutants. Meanwhile, the St. Croix family clearly has a number of mutants in it, since Monet, Marius and their sisters all seem to be mutants. It would be interesting to me to find out that Monet doesn't just have a bunch of unrelated powers, but that somewhere in the last generations, a St. Croix developed the mutant power to take or give mutant powers from members of their family, and began to 'collect' them for the good of the family. When someone acted up and threatened to reveal the family secret, bam, auntie so-and-so shows up and takes their power away (and using the telepathy she 'collected' earlier, removes their memories of the family secret entirely!). When some family scion fails to manifest a 'good' mutation, auntie gifts them a better (or more useful, to the family, one!). Monet would be the latest generation of these 'aunties.' She's got the power of flight from one person (long dead). Telepathy from another (also dead). Strength and toughness from a third. (Still alive, but old and senile, and it would have been dangerous for them to retain those powers with advanced dementia...)

And the power, not discussed with outsiders, to take and give mutations to others in her family, changing the mutant hands they were dealt like the ultimate card shark.

[JJS]

X-Office has a big focus on the least interesting characters.

More please of:

Madrox
M
Colossus
Siryn
Layla Miller
Archangel
Armour
Dazzler
Rachel

[Exodus]

The Phoenix Force and its relationship to Jean Grey need a writer like Donny Cates, Al Ewing or Grant Morrison to completely re-boot it entirely and make it more than a sexually transmitted disease again.

[mesjarch]

As a counterpoint, I recently saw some panels that Phil Noto did for a book some time ago with Wanda and Jessica Jones some time ago. There was a third woman with black hair who looked EXACTLY how Noto drew Laura in the Liu book. If it weren't for the dialogue, I'd have never realized it wasn't her from just those panels. Laura is probably easier to identify when she IS wearing the cowl than when she's not.

This is how Noto draws women and it's a major flaw of his art. Women have always the same face in his works.

[Midnight_v]

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.

I'm gonna just disagree. My favorite wolverine is an Immortal unkillable tank that the Candatians wanted as Captain Canada and who they use a a stop gap measure for the hulk, laughs off spidermans punches, pulls tree's up by the roots and is also james bond levels
of smooth when he needs to be. The only thing I'm weary of is the writers. They don't know what to do with wolverine to make him more interesting. But it easier than anything else for wolverine fans and for NON-wolverine fans well divert them by building up they're favorite characters on the x-teams for a while.

[Jackraow21]

Yeah. Agree to disagree for sure. Invincible characters just aren’t interesting to me.

Now that doesn’t mean Logan can’t handle a lot of damage, including shrugging off a punch from the Hulk in the heat of battle. But I like it when they show the pain he goes through as he heals, and when some mortal injuries taking days to fully heal (i.e., he’s still feeling pain and soreness from it even after the wounds have closed, as the scar tissue takes awhile to smooth out). Versus just making it instantaneous like it was in the movies. After all, there’s a reason why in two of Logan’s three solo films he had his healing factor nerfed, to up the stakes and make it more interesting. Just saying.

[Sin Nick]

I'm gonna just disagree. My favorite wolverine is an Immortal unkillable tank that the Candatians wanted as Captain Canada and who they use a a stop gap measure for the hulk, laughs off spidermans punches, pulls tree's up by the roots and is also james bond levels
of smooth when he needs to be. The only thing I'm weary of is the writers. They don't know what to do with wolverine to make him more interesting. But it easier than anything else for wolverine fans and for NON-wolverine fans well divert them by building up they're favorite characters on the x-teams for a while.

I agree with all of this. If all these other characters get to become Omega mutants or whatever, then I have no problem with Logan being what he is now. If folks feels they need to dial Logan back power wise, then lets do it for every other character too. Get rid of omega power levels and all that nonsense and lets see how x-fans react to their favorites being depowered.