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

[Jackraow21]

I’m cool with that. Uber powerful characters remind me of the DC Universe. Boring AF. But maybe that’s just me…

Give me 80s and 90s level of powers for the mutants. That was plenty powerful IMO.

[Sutekh]

I’m cool with that. Uber powerful characters remind me of the DC Universe. Boring AF. But maybe that’s just me…

Give me 80s and 90s level of powers for the mutants. That was plenty powerful IMO.

One generation grew up with characters with powers like Bouncing Boy and Shadow Lass. A few generations later has grown up with Goku punching planets hard enough to blow them up and getting progressively stronger year by year, even *after* that. Different expectations, I'd imagine.

Storm's level of power back in the '80s, pre-Omega, was pretty awesome, with complex characterization, and she was constantly doing funky stuff with pressure changes or temperature changes, then she kind of turned into 'Omega Lightning Lass' with a badass attitude, and that, IMO, was kind of a letdown. It doesn't feel like a coincidence to me that as her power ramped up, and she became more style over substance in attitude, Storm increasingly got sidelined and replaced by Emma on teams, who was objectively a 'weaker' powered character than her or Jean.

[Jackraow21]

Nailed it. I like how less powerful characters have to be more clever and skilled. Makes them far more interesting to me than a simple powerhouse “elemental force of nature.” Again, just my $.02.

For example, Cable is far cooler with his powers nerfed than he is with full blown uber-powerful TK/TP.

[Grunty]

I’m cool with that. Uber powerful characters remind me of the DC Universe. Boring AF. But maybe that’s just me…

Give me 80s and 90s level of powers for the mutants. That was plenty powerful IMO.

Considering the cartoons and movies, i have the feeling many fans outside the comic circle feel similar. Make the mutants too powerfull and they lose their relatability and underdog status.

Which reminds me. I often get the impression that one of the major reasons why Wolverine is so popular in pop culture (we are talking hugely popular outside the small comic reader crowd by this point) is that he has a strong "down to earth" charm to him, especialy in comparison to many of the other major X-men characters.

Fittingly it seems that most of his popular stories are usualy set on earth and involve, by super hero standards, almost "mundane" events or plots.

Idealy. He is long lived, having witnessed major events, but was never a big player. He can heal rapidly, but mainly so he can have his "Didn't hear no bell" moment. He can cut things to shreds, but he has to get up close and personal to do so. He has a lot of wisdom but isn't always right.

Trying to make him more special, more powerfull, more historic (as in having been responcible for major events), more "right", as the comics have done for years now, could therefor actualy be considered contra productive to what actualy endears many people to the figure.

One generation grew up with characters with powers like Bouncing Boy and Shadow Lass. A few generations later has grown up with Goku punching planets hard enough to blow them up and getting progressively stronger year by year, even *after* that. Different expectations, I'd imagine.

And now a generation grows up seeing a wide bandwith of shonen (and seinen) heros who are very far appart on the power spectrum, leaving it to the respective context of their worlds to indicate what is accaptable cool and what is stupidly over the top.

Their advantage over Marvel and DC though is that they all exist in their own seperated universes, with different levels of what is possible or not. Therefor little need to constantly juggle around characters on the spectrum of Batman to Superman and trying to imply that they are all equal.

And in that regard the X-men comics are even more problematic because they are essentialy a microcosm of the Marvel universe overall.

You have mutants who's powers are great for "urban" and "gritty" stories, exist side by side with others who's powers are much suited for "cosmic" or "divine battle" stories, with many in betweens.

Wheras Spiderman at least only has to deal with villains who are on a spectrum from "personal endangering" to "city endangering", the X-men have villains on a spectrum from "personal endangering" to "world ending", all who are supposed to be treated as equals to the teams, which in turn has resulted in increasingly dividing upgrades to the heros.

By Shonen standard a lot of the current incarnation of X-men characters would have to exist in seperated universes.

This makes it feel like it would be a wise choice for adapations of the X-men to keep a much stronger limitations on what mutants can do with their powers (without requiring a deadly overdrive ala Jean Grey with the Phoenix Force) in order to at least keep a relative playing field among the massive variations of characters and powers.

[ohsnapulon5000]

Maggott! most of his sense faculties/ organs should actually be kinds of mutated cyborgian insects. and he should definitely be an insectiopath or whatever. like his eyeballs should pop out of his skull and go flying around like dragonflies.

[Sutekh]

Maggott! most of his sense faculties/ organs should actually be kinds of mutated cyborgian insects. and he should definitely be an insectiopath or whatever. like his eyeballs should pop out of his skull and go flying around like dragonflies.

Huh, seeing Maggott just sort of 'come apart' into many components, each vaguely resembling a cyborg insect or isopod or whatever, could be neat, with the 'swarm' reassembling at the end of the fight into his humanoid composite form. (And having two 'bugs' named Eenie and Meanie implies the existence of a Miney and Moe!)

It is funny that Maggott seems to be the logical conclusion to the increasing variations on characters based around 'mutant bones' (Marrow, kinda Wolverine), 'mutant skin' (Skin, kinda Husk), 'mutant eyes' (Peepers, kinda Cyclops), etc. Here's the guy with a 'mutant stomach' who is sorta Clive-Barker-reimagines-Matter-Eater-Lad.

What's next? Liver Lass has the mutant power to never get drunk? Brain Boy is really smart? Nervous Nell has creepy nerves that shoot out of her body and grab onto people and let her puppet them by overwriting their own nerve signals? Lung Lou can blow *and* suck!

[charliehustle415]

1. Beast - 'nuff said

2. Logan - streamline his origin and experiences especially all the craziness from the 90's i.e. noseless Savage Wolverine

3. Magneto - gotta figure out how his WWII background makes his age work in the 2020s (maybe give me a secondary mutation that slows his aging) and his Xorn connection

4. Prof. X - same issue as Magneto gotta figure out how his age lines up with Magnetos

5. Apocalypse - his origin needs to be streamlined to incorporate his time on Okkara

6. Mystique & Destiny - I'm still confused about their origins and ages

[Sutekh]

6. Mystique & Destiny - I'm still confused about their origins and ages

This latest reveal of Mystique cosplaying as Sherlock, and Destiny being around, and seemingly in her late 20s, early 30s in 1895, suggests that she was teetering along in her 90s-110s, *at least*, when we first met her, attempting to murder Senator What's-his-face, in 1980.

[LordUltimus]

Moira. Get the original back and kiss goodbye to any mutant or killer robot versions of her.

[yogaflame]

One generation grew up with characters with powers like Bouncing Boy and Shadow Lass. A few generations later has grown up with Goku punching planets hard enough to blow them up and getting progressively stronger year by year, even *after* that. Different expectations, I'd imagine.

Storm's level of power back in the '80s, pre-Omega, was pretty awesome, with complex characterization, and she was constantly doing funky stuff with pressure changes or temperature changes, then she kind of turned into 'Omega Lightning Lass' with a badass attitude, and that, IMO, was kind of a letdown. It doesn't feel like a coincidence to me that as her power ramped up, and she became more style over substance in attitude, Storm increasingly got sidelined and replaced by Emma on teams, who was objectively a 'weaker' powered character than her or Jean.

Storm wasn't replaced by Emma because of her powers. She was taken from the X-Men by Hudlin to prop up his Black Panther run.

And her powers were huge right from the start in the 70's. She hurricaned the first Sentinel she ever saw. Controlled the solar winds the first time she was ever in space. I would say her biggest feat, other than controlling the whole Trion dimension that one time in the 90's, was concentrating the power of millions of stars and planets in the galactic core to purge her body of the Brood infection, and that was in the early '80's.

[dragon1440]

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.

THIS! As a memember of the LGBTQ+ community, specficlly a nonbinary queer person who does drag, we dont need more shoehorned in reprsentation. What we need is the characters that are LGBTQ+ or other minorities to have the chance of there own in the lime light, not taking another character and forcing our being on them.

[Noek]

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?

Well I would make him a Mutant (not Wanda) but have the Experiments done by the High Evolutionary on them increased their physical bodies potential thus allowing increases happen easier. Explaining why the Terrigen Crystals didn't cause his powers to go out of control his body can adpat to it. Next he is working with others to find away to be able to enter and exit that level of speed/dimension he did in his mini freely. Basiacally he goes kind of back to Avengers Academy's days (kind of) of working more to bring out his greatest speed. Having him needing to get faster and find problems to help with this will be the core of the book.

Also have him act as a mentor for Luna who is getting into Superheroing.

[ohsnapulon5000]

Huh, seeing Maggott just sort of 'come apart' into many components, each vaguely resembling a cyborg insect or isopod or whatever, could be neat, with the 'swarm' reassembling at the end of the fight into his humanoid composite form. (And having two 'bugs' named Eenie and Meanie implies the existence of a Miney and Moe!)

It is funny that Maggott seems to be the logical conclusion to the increasing variations on characters based around 'mutant bones' (Marrow, kinda Wolverine), 'mutant skin' (Skin, kinda Husk), 'mutant eyes' (Peepers, kinda Cyclops), etc. Here's the guy with a 'mutant stomach' who is sorta Clive-Barker-reimagines-Matter-Eater-Lad.

What's next? Liver Lass has the mutant power to never get drunk? Brain Boy is really smart? Nervous Nell has creepy nerves that shoot out of her body and grab onto people and let her puppet them by overwriting their own nerve signals? Lung Lou can blow *and* suck!

I love this. all of it! they should all be on a team together

[Grunty]

I love this. all of it! they should all be on a team together

Don't think those would ever catch on though, unless they are protagonist in a Junji Ito story.

[Sutekh]

Don't think those would ever catch on though, unless they are protagonist in a Junji Ito story.

They do sound like the sorts of powers' that would show up in a show like My Hero Academia.

I would be amused to see this 'enhanced body parts' notion extended to the experiments on Luke Cage in prison, with his being specialized in enhancing his skin, and others perhaps focused on enhancing muscles, or bones, or the nervous system, or eyes.