Has it been a good year for the X-Men?

[weezer17]

My friends have been pretty pessimistic about Marvel's treatment of the X-Men lately. They seem to believe that Marvel has given the X-books the shaft because of the lack of movie rights and the huge spotlight on everything Avengers-related.

However, I feel like their pessimism is misplaced, and I want to hear what everyone else thinks. The two titles I read consistently are the flagships, All-New and Uncanny, but I've been trying to catch up on some of the other titles in trades and it's gotten me more optimistic about the X-franchise. Some of the points I've made to my friends:

• Tons of new solo titles for X-Men, some of which have been fantastic and all of which have been a long time waiting -- Storm, Magneto, Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Doop mini
• A great X-Force title both in writing and art
• All-New X-Factor, albeit getting cancelled, was one of my titles-of-the-year!
• From "Good, Bad, and Ugly" on, Deadpool's quality has gone up and the character has had several storylines of depth under the pens of Duggan and Posehn.
• Uncanny Avengers has only gotten better, Rogue and Wanda both stepping up as core characters for the series, and Axis (regardless of how you feel about the event so far) seems like a genuine effort to put the A's and the X's back in each others' good graces. (The title of the event is "Avengers and X-Men: Axis.")
• Many seemed to complain when Marvel Now happened back in '12/'13 that there were too many Avengers teams, so it's refreshing to count the many X-Men: All-New, Uncanny, Amazing, *adjectiveless*, Wolverine/Spider-Man and...
• Kyle and Yost back on an X-book!
• Death of Wolverine I found enjoyable (McNiven was as good as always!), and some may see it as a good way to move away from Wolverine-over-exposure. Also, the weekly Wolverines seems very X-oriented (Mr. Sinister's back!) and has a lot of potential. Marvel could've found a way to make an Avengers or Guardians weekly to combat DC's Futures End and Batman Eternal, but they chose X-characters to helm the weekly instead!

So I'm pretty happy with where the X-Men stand, and I'm having a good time playing catch-up in trades. If anyone has any comments or disagreements with one of my points, fire away!

The question is then: Has it been a good year for the mutants, and is it a good time to be an X-fan?

Discuss away!

[Sardorim]

Well, it is clear that the X-Men have been getting pushed aback or abused for the Avengers benefit due to the Movie rights.

AvX and AXIS for example portray the X-Men in a bad light.

Wolverine is dead.

Hope has been abandoned by the rest of Marvel and now she's in a coma. Ouch.

As for the X-Books, only the Bendis ones are pushed as the ones that "matter" and W&TXM has been pretty bad. On the other hand we got X-Men which, despite its hiccups, have finally found its place with the current Rachel arc which really touched on Rachel's past a great deal.

Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver.... Yeah.

If they X-Men weren't as big as they are still in the comics, as far as sales go, I could see Marvel doing away with them like they did with the F4.

[weezer17]

Oh. Just read Axis #7 between posting the OP and posting this.

Well, now I'm mad.

[weezer17]

Well, it is clear that the X-Men have been getting pushed aback or abused for the Avengers benefit due to the Movie rights.

AvX and AXIS for example portray the X-Men in a bad light.

Wolverine is dead.

Hope has been abandoned by the rest of Marvel and now she's in a coma. Ouch.

As for the X-Books, only the Bendis ones are pushed as the ones that "matter" and W&TXM has been pretty bad. On the other hand we got X-Men which, despite its hiccups, have finally found its place with the current Rachel arc which really touched on Rachel's past a great deal.

Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver.... Yeah.

If they X-Men weren't as big as they are still in the comics, as far as sales go, I could see Marvel doing away with them like they did with the F4.

Maybe I was being too optimistic.

[Sardorim]

I find it funny as some mock the X-Men about a "Complex" yet Marvel has done nothing to disprove it with their decisions as of late all because they don't have the X-Men Movie Rights.

[sifighter]

What's been good:
Uncanny Avengers
Axis(yes even with today's issue)
All-new X-men
Cullen Bunn's Magneto
The 05 Cyclops series
All-new X-factor
Death of Wolverine-plus aftermath series
The Legendary Star-lord(I count it since Kitty Pryde has been in almost every issue)
Deadpool's Wedding

The "Meh/Ok":
Uncanny X-men(I enjoy it but it could be better)
First arc of WATX by Latour

The bad:
The rest of Latour's WATX
Wolverine
X-men Legacy's gone and so is my favorite character Legion

[JackalsIII]

A good year for Shadowcat but a very disappointing year for Lockheed and his fans

[Supernature]

Aside from Spurrier's contributions and a few entertaining moments in Uncanny, I have almost nothing positive to say about this year's X-Men comics.

There seems to be next to no quality control in the books: continuity mistakes galore, a crippled purposeless gold side and its insipid books, no visible direction for the franchise as a whole, complete mishandling of several characters, etc etc... It's awful, and it all deserves to do poorly. The franchise needs a complete overhaul STAT.

[Mutant God]

What's been good:
Cullen Bunn's Magneto
All-new X-Factor
X-Men Legacy
Deadpool's Wedding

The "Meh/Ok":
Uncanny X-Men (I enjoy it but it could be better)
First arc of WATX by Latour

The bad:
Uncanny Avengers
Axis
All-new X-Men
The 05 Cyclops series
Death of Wolverine-plus aftermath series
The Legendary Star-lord(I count it since Kitty Pryde has been in almost every issue)
The rest of Latour's WATX
Wolverine
X-men Legacy's gone and so is my favorite character Legion

For me it was this

[DragonPiece]

Charles Soule writing X-Men books is definitely good news, if someone had to milk Wolverine's death, I'm glad it's him. Also, I like how Cyclops gets to be taken more seriously now that he is gone as well.

[Venomous Mask]

Days of Future Past should count as well given how successful it was.

[JeenRogue]

Yes of course. DOFP.

It must burn marvel /disney that the best superhero film this year came from a marvel film not made by marvel itself but by fox.

It has also been a good year for me as an xmen fan as I want back and digged up all my old xmen graphic novels even read them again and enjoyed them greatly. to remember rogue and gambit as an awesome couple after not reading about them for nearly 7 years was a high for me.

[Park Slope Pixie]

It's been a horrific year, creatively speaking.

The franchise has imploded, save for "Uncanny X-Men" - which has survived and pretty much thrived by insulating itself from the rest of the franchise proper and focusing on a severely-narrowed cast and supplementing the whole procedure with great art.

I'd cull everything else. Scorched earth.

[nx01a]

The Good
>Uncanny X-Men
>All-New X-Men
>O5 Cyclops series
>Days of Future Past movie
>The weirder and darker topics explored in the Magneto and X-Force series
>The chances taken on X-Men solo series

The Bad
>The gold side books
>Editorial oversight/malaise [Jubilee constantly drawn with her plasma bursts when she doesn't have her powers back, for example]

The Ugly
>X-Men as the villains in yet another Avengers event
>X-Men constantly being used to promote other properties [GotG; Ultimate Universe; Spider-Man]

The Unforgivable
>Wanda/Pietro spoilers:

no longer Magneto's kids

end of spoilers
>The lack of real direction for the franchise

[RLAAMJR.]

For Storm fans, yes!