Your thoughts on the current status of the X-books

[Uncanny X-Man]

It’s been a little while since we’ve had a general thread like this and with interesting conversations happening in different threads (cost of comics, importance of diversity, Beast, etc.) and possibly big announcements on the horizon, I’m curious to hear where everyone stands with the line as the boards seem to be steadily less active.

What are you reading/not reading, are you looking forward to what Fall of X may bring and the preceding Before the Fall mini era? What are you hoping for?
I’m enjoying Sins but I’m glad we’re at the halfway point because I’m ready for what comes after. I’m personally hoping for a very big shakeup.

Fun topic and very good timing as we're about to enter the next phase of the Krakoan era. I'm still reading all the books and enjoying most of them - I think the core books (X-Men, Immortal and Red) have been consistently good/great and provide a good foundation for the X-line.

As for the rest... the Ben Percy corner of things gets a lot of flack and some criticism is certainly well deserved, but overall I've been enjoying both books lately, and with X-Force I haven't enjoyed it as much since the very beginning where the first couple of arcs blew everything else of the water.

Everything else has been frankly very average - I could leave or take Legion of X, Marauders and the recent bevvy of miniseries has been OK but mostly underwhelming.

In terms of what I'm hoping for, I've always maintained that less is more, so a smaller and more focused X-line is the way to go for me. I don't think you can maintain a consistent quality with a line of 10+ books and you always end up with a few good titles and a painfully average majority.

[Houseofhick]

With Fall Of X we might just get the end of the Krakoa era in the 616 universe but then continued in the Ultimate Universe.
We never got to see the Moira X book and I for one would of loved to see a more detailed look at some of those lives and I feel Ultimate X-Men can give us this.

[Winter_fury]

Currently it feels like the regenisis era after the messiah era when we only had on good x-book ironically written by gillen

[Frobisher]

I still like the Krakosn era. It took them a while to really delve into the implications of a mutant nation, but we definitely getting it more now with the Quiet Council book and an Arakko book; and this means we’re treading new ground instead of greatest hits replays.

It’s not all perfect, and frankly I have no clue what’s going on with the Percyverse, but I’m still enjoying the ride.

[CGAR]

Currently only getting X-Men and X-treme until Immortal and Red come back.

I think the boring writers have worn out their welcome and have taken too long to tell their stories.

Each arc should have brought something new and exciting about the Krakoa era.

But they just stayed with their boring stories that no one was really interested in.

[jwatson]

It was better before judgement day. Since then and may just be in my mind it has seemed to be a non-stop push to destroy all the fun and it has been done in such a manner i can't help but feel it is catering to the foaming of the mouth vocal majority(vocal majority not THE majority cause i know most of them don't buy stuff they probably read it at their friends shop) that was against it from go but have no problem with Morrison real supremacist run. All the females have been dumped from the writing staff and the status quo behind the scenes seem back to the same but thus the breaks when you cater to 2000 individual shop owners as though they are the industry. *shrugs* Also i find i care less. You can only keep going " look at this and look at that and try to actually help before it's like "eh" if marvel is perfectly happy burning money before they can really get it then so be it.

[Steroid]

I'm currently reading X-Men, X-Men Red, Bishop War College, and SOS. To be honest I have loved the Krakoa era but am not really as excited about the franchise as I was at the start of the era. I really don't actually feel a need to read the books until Fall of X but I of course will. I can just say they are not mandatory reading for me on new comic day at the moment.

[PolarIceFire]

Same.

They left an era of decimation and pain and suffering. Started anew and fresh, big and bold. Then...within 24 hrs went right back to decimation and pain and suffering with a lethal dose of internal corruption thrown in for good measure. I don't know if that was the initial intent but it seemed that they never really gave Krakoa an opportunity to actually become a stable society before tearing it all down and apart. As much as I love the Arakkii now...that whole lengthy XoSwords time frame could have been put to much better use. It wasted and derailed a lot of time and potential so early in the new era.

Yep, pandemic notwithstanding, it's been almost 4 yrs. now and...

... Krakoan worldbuilding...

we're still waiting for them to deliver on the promise of the concept, while simultaneously watching the opportunity be squandered.

Now, after the eXcellence of HoX (gonna sidestep PoX, as time travel/divergent AUs are the new death for me, when it comes to overused, storytelling tactics) I do feel they stumbled some, right out of the gate. I agree that X-Force was the strongest & hit the hardest @1st, but also really liked Hickman's NM & actually felt it > his X-Men issues of the same number, overall. I liked Marauders, too, for its general entertainment value & how it most felt like the tour guide of this new world. Excalibur had me the most interested w/the intro of Rictor's role but couldn't maintain that level of engagement. FA was lost on me, I'll never understand how it ever even got greenlit in the 1st place, TBH. Marauders ended up winning in the end, as it was the most consistent with what it offered. I'm sure my bias toward Bobby was a BIG part of that, just his presence alone gave it an automatic edge, same w/NM 'cause of Dani. That goes for AleX in H & Lorna everywhere she's been, too, I hafta admit.

Then, as Dev said, came XoS & it totally fumbled the ball IMO. Unnecessarily overstuffed w/some truly bizarre, head-scratching, what-were-they-thinking decisions. The downtime did them no favors, as the padding they added proved to be an absolute drag on the proceedings & the entire line. But I felt they recovered immediately w/Reign, Hellions was going strong, XFAQ returned, and SWORD debuted. Before too long though, in the runup to the 1st HfG, it did seem like they were trying to run out the clock. The inaugural bash had some neat things to it, but I think the 2nd's approach proved to be the better way to go & am glad they decided the same w/the upcoming 3rd. Thereafter we gotta solid bump, by way of a nice boost from the OG, newly "elected" X-team & more, I felt. But then came another fumble w/ToM & a complete interception w/Inferno, wherein they still have yet to get the ball back. Contrivance was always part of the recipe, right from the get-go. But with Destiny it has become the overwhelming main ingredient, to wherein it's all been rendered rather flavorless by feeling so forced. Per my personal taste(s) that is, of course, so YMMV.

[Saithor]

Been keeping up, despite my own ennui for reasons beyond the X-books. Some of them are fine, some of them are meh, some of them actively make me question what kind of drugs are being done at the X-office (Green, Maruders). Red is quite good, Inmortal was, Legion of X was alright, I liked X-terminators, the Percy books I honestly treat as an alternate universe so they make sense.

I’ve given up on most of my worldbuilding and background filling hopes as time has gone on. The moment to address the issues such as demographics, internal dissent, mutant culture, and such have long fallen by the wayside. Attempts to build up Orchis have improved but they still feel like a guest star villain at the best, at worse they feel like when writers will randomly grab Hydra to fill in as villain of the week for an unrelated book. The Quiet Council should not exist. Any actual government that incompetent tends to be much more actively repressive towards its own populace and have greater control to maintain itself. Unless the Krakoan populace is explicitly all old Tankies from the Soviet Union hanging in because they remember the glory days and wanna give it a good shot without having to deal with those irritating parts of the left that believe in such silly things as “democracy”, something should have happened by now.

In terms of the fandom I’m about as done as I can get. I’d hoped things had calmed down since I took a long hiatus from…everything in general, but nah people are doctoring data pages and posting them to the subreddit so there can be a nice good round of “Remember A vs X” and “Avengers are cops”. It’s tiring and it’s discouraging.

Immoral is just not holding my interest that well. It’s an alternate timeline where I think the big thing coming out of it is probably just character devolopment for Sinister. Which…we’ll see what happens, but like Apocalypse and the child grooming, I find Sinister having been an unrepentant Nazi concentration camp doctor a sticking point for any kind of moving him on any theoretical moral scale. Honestly at this point just retcon it like you did with Nemisis.

We’ll see what Fall of X brings. I don’t think they are ending Krakoa. If anything I predict they are going to invade and take over Russia.

[loke13]

Pretty lukewarm on the current status of the books, X-Men Red is still my top pick followed behind to a much lesser extent By Immortal X-Men and X-Men tbh.

We're pretty much wrapping up the last bits and pieces of Hickman's plots when it comes to Orchis and the Dominion. Once that happens I see editorial. Probably putting a bow on the whole Krakoan nation and reverting the X-Men back to your usual superhero affair just in time for their MCU debut. Depending on how much they keep around and how much they discard will determine my interest in any future X-Men books.

[Kitty&Piotr<3]

Is it time to shake the rosters again?

[myownlittleusername]

I mostly stopped paying attention to them a bit before Inferno, and that event failed to re-raise my interest.

Let's see how Fall of X succeeds.

[jwatson]

Eh the same shops that didn't give House of X a chance will be the main ones ordering Fall of X just because it has fall in it. If that is considered success, good luck marvel. lol no wonder their numbers are down.

[M@Bowers2014]

Is it time to shake the rosters again?

I actually think it's time for the X books to have steady rosters. The only book with a steady roster is X-Men and that changes once a year. I guess Marauders does too but none of the others do in reality. X-Men: Red is a great book but Storm is really the only character that appears in every issue. Legion of X only has Nightcrawler and Legion appearing every issue. In my opinion there's a huge lack of focus on our favorite characters in most of the X titles. There's way too much focus on the "former" mutant villains and I'm really tired of it personally.

[JB]

Getting some insight on the Hellfire Gala and Fall of X last night has reinvigorated me quite a bit. From the solicits for the HFG and UA:

- Innocent people and world leaders are dead after simultaneous attacks on the U.S. and Krakoan governments.
- False flag attacks meant to whip up anti-mutant hysteria are unfolding.
- The Hellfire Gala is always the biggest event of the season…but this year’s will upend Krakoa as we know it. What is meant to be mutantkind’s greatest night becomes their worst nightmare as the FALL OF X begins!
- X-MEN: HELLFIRE GALA #1 will be a giant-sized one-shot that propels mutantkind into an unpredictable future. All your favorite X-Men are going to be left reeling after a series of shocking revelations, stunning betrayals, horrifying tragedy, impossible deaths…and more.
- This powerhouse new team (UA) must solve the mystery of who the new, murderous Captain Krakoa is—and stop his team of killers from igniting the fires of a new world war.
Duggan: "Everything we’ve been working towards in our third act is coming to a head this summer. The Uncanny Avengers have existed to provide an example of unity between humanity and mutantdom, and they will need to work extra hard at that now as relationships and friendships have frayed in the events of FALL OF X."

JDW said the Fall will affect every book in the line. Not to mention him also hinting that Apocalypse may have a "terrible agenda" upon his return that will make everything "awful."
There are more announcements to come as we don't know the fate of some of the current books/writers and we know some new writers are coming in. I'm looking forward to it all!