Strange Academy proved that sometimes, this kind of book can work.
Otherwise, I say make Wolverine their teacher, call it Wolverine and the X-Men, put Logan on every cover, and make him appear for one page every issue..
Strange Academy proved that sometimes, this kind of book can work.
Otherwise, I say make Wolverine their teacher, call it Wolverine and the X-Men, put Logan on every cover, and make him appear for one page every issue..
Bringing back the old, killing the young: that's the Marvel way
Note that Hellion and the Hellions had a successful mini that was planned to lead into other minis for other characters, before the original Aca-X writers were booted and plans were derailed by M-Day. IIRC KYost decided to move on to other books, which is largely why New X-Men ended and got rebooted for a new volume.
Also, the franchise wasn't immediately awful starting with M-Day. People liked Carrey's run and Legacy. It only went to crap later on... Around the time Hellion stopped getting roles, and was primarly used to prop other characters up. Looks like general audiences know to support Hellion. The franchise's platinum child.
Controversial take... I prefer DeFilippis and Weir's time on this Gen more than the KYost stuff.
Agree, and it's a good reminder that every era has gems. While the tone was definitely a bit too dark (which isn't everyone's cup of tea) there was still some quality stuff cooking. The KYost and Carey stuff was interesting and had nice build up through the Messiah Trilogy. Wells had a really good New Mutants run. By Schism the decimation status quo had been going for WAY too long though, and AvX was such a backhanded way to bring the X-Men out of it.
I can't really say I like one more than the other, because I feel like neither would be nearly as good without the other. I wouldn't care as much about the kids' struggles in KYost's stories if I hadn't grown to love them in the De/Weird stories, in books that weren't afraid to get messy and show the best and worst sides of the characters, but also ultimately move them forward and learn to coexist. But those books wouldn't have given them the dramatic and tragic push KYost did, and I feel that all their harrowing adventures in later stories helped shape their (very cool) identity as a lost generation who grew up too fast and stepped up when no one else could. Like both ideas are so different, but for me, you put them together and you get such a compelling saga.
Though shout-out to De-Weir for how chaotic the New Mutants were. Imagine a book where the heroes were the dysfunctional ones who tore each other down. Meanwhile, the Slytherins were much more supportive of each other. The characters were deceptively clever.
Not a chance in hell.
There are plenty of good characters (Hellion excluded, of course), yes.
But at the end of the day, creative directions for franchises change on a dime. Some big shot gets a brainfart, and the series will be cancelled and characters cast into limbo.
I mean, hell, how many times has that happened already?
And everyone knows this.
So no one would read it, expecting it to get canned. And guess what would happen...!
They probably could sell better than Exceptional X-men if they also had a couple of solid A/B-listers to attract readers.
To illustrate I can’t see a team of Emma + Laura + NXM selling worse than Emma + Kitty + new kids.
The difference is that editors are just not willing to give the NXM a real push anymore.
But the generation has tons of characters who could be elevated. Surge, Hellion, Rockslide, Pixie, Elixir, Anole, Wind Dancer, Dust etc.
I actually enjoyed the first series when it was 'New Mutants.' I'd love an ongoing book but don't think it will be able to survive in the long-term but a mini or the occasional one-shot could work out. I do like the idea of them graduating to other teams, but Marvel doesn't seem to be interested in that.
Last edited by From The Shadows; 04-01-2024 at 08:06 PM.
Me too, when they were the next generation of 'New Mutants.'
IMHO it was great to be an X-Fan then. 'New Mutants,' Whedons 'Astonishing,' Claremont and Davis' Uncanny etc. Wish that wasn't interrupted.
I shipped them. They were my favorites along with Mercury.
Last edited by From The Shadows; 04-01-2024 at 08:14 PM.
They need three things and it could possibly happen: a good writer, a good artist, and good marketing.
It is possible, the Academy X kids just need to be given a good chance.
“Fleeing through the labyrinths with the hordes of the living dead fast upon them;
Once again they found themselves trapped in front of the abyss.”
If I was to write a book... I'd do something akin to a Hogwarts version of Mutants. A big part of that would be having Xavier's academy around. Also Acolytes, Hellfire, and Akabba, but all would be younger Mutants.
What I hate most is that they keep on developing new kids. They will add 3 new ones to Kitty's team and 4 new ones to Rogue's team. I think that this is ridiculous. We have so many Young X-Men/ students already. About time to use them, instead of developing more kids that will then no longer be used after the writers depart. I wish writers would stop wanting to make their mark with creating new mutant kids, instead of showing how great they could develop current kids more.
"COURAGE, DON'T YOU DARE LET ME DOWN"
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The problem is that the current “kids” aren’t supposed to be kids anymore and can’t play that “inexperienced, new to being a mutant” role anymore. I explicitly remember the complaints when Ayala was using Anole and folks complained that they were writing him to sound too young.
Last edited by Kingdom X; 04-02-2024 at 06:39 AM.
I would expect something like that will be coming to the MCU once the X-Men are up and running... it's easy to imagine an "Academy X" show on Disney+, especially now that we're also getting a Harry Potter reboot, Marvel will want to tap into that Hogwarts magic with their school for mutants.