Thoughts on books nowadays?

[Magneto]

Since the day the X-Men were created, the current status of the X-Men is at the worst. You could not have chosen a worst time to try and get into the X-Men.

[Hariel0079]

Logan didn't sponsor jubilee or kitty to the x-men. They just joined. Cyke, Phoenix, and crew found kitty after emma and jubilee lived in a mall, followed the x-ladies and eventually ran into logan who was nailed to an "x".

As for the books, it's bad across the board. Half assed events after events, no clear directions, same stories being told over and over again (mind possesion, mentally broken, mindwiping, mind control, body possesion, etc...) all amounting to the same excuse from both marvel and stories themselves.

[Hatbar]

I haven't minded Uncanny and All New as much as I thought I would but they are not even close to how good the X-Men used to be. I really miss the X-Men as a family that had lots of quieter moments amid all the crossovers and battles. There doesn't seem to be much of a relationship between the characters that they used to have and they are always snarking at each other all the time. The constant renumbering of issues and 'major events' always stop the progression of stories and continuity is lost. It would be good to have a decent sized team that we get to know and love/hate like the Claremont days when he built up personalities and storylines that meant something and wasn't just forgotten about in the next issue. Maybe I just have rose tinted specs on but I much prefer reading older stories as opposed to recent issues that I haven't touched yet.

[ExodusCloak]

Kind of horrible. Wish they stopped with the alternate universe/future storylines, wrapped up the O5 plot as fast as possible so we never have to speak about it again. There is no direction, even this "revolution" has taken too long to happen.

[AcesX1X]

the whole thing smacks of corporate restriction.

[Jackraow21]

I'm almost hoping that they get shunted off to their own universe after Secret Wars. But then they'll probably get even less love to be honest and the worst artists and writers.

[AcesX1X]

yes it's pretty clear that creators are under orders to 'phone it in' so to speak.

[Starleafgirl]

The sections in bold are what I imagine most longtime fans feel(including myself). They're definitely decent books, but the Schism and O5 plot lines are getting very tiresome.

That's how I feel, as well, i.e. those bolded sections.

I also think it's ridiculous to have brought the teenage O5 to the present. That's got the potential to cause all sorts of problems when they go back and if they don't go back, then you've basically robbed an alternate timeline of their O5... or it won't cause any problems because we're now looking at an alternate timeline... or ... wait... Yeah, uh, I don't know, I don't get it, and I don't have faith in Bendis to sort it all out nicely. And that's a big part of why I'm against it.

Not to mention the fact that there were dozens of interesting present day x-characters they could've built on instead of kidnapping the teenage O5. That's basically admitting that you don't think much of all the decades of x-comics that have come since.

One recent comic I miss is X-Men: Legacy -- the version with Mike Carey, the version with Christos Gage, and the version with Spurrier's Legion.

Older comics I miss include the likes of X-Men Unlimited and Generation X (even though that comic went downhill in its later issues, lol).

More recently, we've had developments like Rogue getting killed (temporarily), Banshee getting resurrected in order to be evil then shelved, the whole Xavier-Mystique marriage thing, and the Scarlet Witch-Quicksilver reveal that undoes decades of continuity. Going back a bit further, you have things like Cyclops killing Xavier and Siryn getting a major power upgrade just to never be heard from again. And you hardly ever hear from Emma Frost anymore.

So yeah, I'm among those not pleased with the X-Men's current status quo. That's not even getting into my anti-Bendis bias (well, not much, anyway).

Even though I'd love to blame Bendis for everything, it really seems like the blame lies somewhere higher up the corporate ladder at Marvel. Sure, writers are responsible to some extent, but they're also bound to write the developments which the higher ups are dictating to them.

By and large it's more of an unentertaining mess now than it has been in a decade+ at least. That includes how badly the X-Men get jobbed in non-X-Men comics and big events. If I have to sit through one more crossover event where the X-Men turn out to be the bad guys... ugh.

EDIT:

Actually, I have to admit I'm pretty pleased with a couple of things, now that I think of it:

1. Jubilee and Monet being on the same team again.

2. Storm having her own ongoing solo book.

But as you can see, the bad far outweighs the good in my eyes.

[Autobot Tran]

Yeah, I liked House of M idea and Messiah Complex. Im just kind of confused what ended up happening with hope. Im only reading UXM and ANXM right now. Last i read she was the the Jean Grey school. Is there a comic that follows the JG school after all the wolverine stuff? What ended up happening with her being the Messiah? Did that just boil over and she was just the first one born after HoM and thats it? or are we still waiting to see if theres more to her.

All the death of Xavier stuff confuses me too. Cyclops killed him but he was being controlled by Phoenix Force right? so they hate him for killing Charles even though he was mind controlled. Isn't this what happened to Jean Grey when she destroyed that planet and the Shi'Ar wanted her executed and everyone stood up for her and said she wasnt in control.

Whats everyones take on that? Was Cyclops not really being controlled? Is iceman so mad at him because Cyke had some sort of subconcious that wanted Charles dead? or is it because Cyke wont attone for his sins or something and hes going so far the other end that they are mad at him for so many countless reasons that this is just icing on the cake.

After reading the last issue of UXM and Beast says "I hate to admit that Scott was right and the humans suck for not helping us!" I hope its not as simple as that and the X-family is all together now lol. Dont get me wrong i want them all together again but theres so much internal strife now who needs villains! and thats was always the best part of Xmen to me. Awesome cast with equally awesome villains.

[Starleafgirl]

Yeah, I liked House of M idea and Messiah Complex. Im just kind of confused what ended up happening with hope. Im only reading UXM and ANXM right now. Last i read she was the the Jean Grey school. Is there a comic that follows the JG school after all the wolverine stuff? What ended up happening with her being the Messiah? Did that just boil over and she was just the first one born after HoM and thats it? or are we still waiting to see if theres more to her.

The whole Messiah thing just kind of got ignored after a while and badly botched at that, lolz.

I think this might shed some light on the Hope situation for you: Check out the section called "New X-Force and MeMe":

http://marvel.wikia.com/Hope_Summers_(Earth-616)

Long story short, Hope does appear in the latest volume of X-Force after the Jean Grey School.

All the death of Xavier stuff confuses me too. Cyclops killed him but he was being controlled by Phoenix Force right? so they hate him for killing Charles even though he was mind controlled. Isn't this what happened to Jean Grey when she destroyed that planet and the Shi'Ar wanted her executed and everyone stood up for her and said she wasnt in control.

Whats everyones take on that? Was Cyclops not really being controlled? Is iceman so mad at him because Cyke had some sort of subconcious that wanted Charles dead? or is it because Cyke wont attone for his sins or something and hes going so far the other end that they are mad at him for so many countless reasons that this is just icing on the cake.

Cyclops wasn't mind-controlled, he chose to kill Xavier. Under the influence of an all-powerful cosmic entity, though.

It's kind of a mess.

[genki_desu]

I know I've quite boringly posted this several times, but the question keeps being asked.

They should have ended the X-Men line at the end of Legion Quest. It was the perfect end to the series. They could've run Age of Apocalypse (which was great) as a mini series and then at the end, just done the odd X-Men limited series here and there or an ongoing if they had the talent interested in doing it.

After Age of Apocalypse there was essentially an exodus of pretty much all the good staff from the X-books. Fabian Nicieza left X-Men and X-Force, Tony Daniel left X-Force, Matt Ryan left X-Men, Chris Bachalo and Mark Buckingham left Generation X, Peter David and Alan Davis had been gone from X-Factor and Excalibur, respectively, for quite a few months already, Andy Kubert left X-Men fairly soon afterwards. So the X-line, which had been fairly healthy in quality terms just a year or so before Legion Quest, was dead in water. They've just been flogging a dead horse since then.

Edit: I kinda suspect that the only reason anyone reads the X-book any more is because they have an interest in particular characters. Whenever anyone compliments an X-Book now, it's always "Yay, I love Pixie, it's awesome that she's on page 14" or "It's brilliant that they have M and Psylocke in the same book!", very rarely "Wow, that artwork was amazing" or "That dialogue really pulled on my heart-strings!". It's like people are just grateful to see their favourite characters even if they're drawn as a stick-man and take part in dull stories.

[Starleafgirl]

Edit: I kinda suspect that the only reason anyone reads the X-book any more is because they have an interest in particular characters. Whenever anyone compliments an X-Book now, it's always "Yay, I love Pixie, it's awesome that she's on page 14" or "It's brilliant that they have M and Psylocke in the same book!", very rarely "Wow, that artwork was amazing" or "That dialogue really pulled on my heart-strings!". It's like people are just grateful to see their favourite characters even if they're drawn as a stick-man and take part in dull stories.

Hah, yeah.

That's 'cos they destroyed the concept of the X-Men as a family and started a bunch of infighting. It's hard to love the X-Men as a unified whole when they no longer act like it.

At least we get occasional moments like the x-gals rushing out to meet Jubilee on her train then fawning over her baby (X-Men #1 with Brian Wood) and such.

[Nopozyzy]

This probably the least interesting the books have ever been for me. I've been an avid reader for decades but now I only get a couple books(x-men, amazing x-men, and x-factor). One is getting canceled and the other two are simply average. Dark times. Bendis isn't horrible but his stories and rosters are boring to me.

[autbey]

I stopped buying everything except X-Factor months ago, and then it was cancelled. I miss the X-Men, but I can't stomach the books as they are now.

[Knives]

It would be good if teachers school Jean Gray would create a new team X-Factor with the participation of some students.

I think Magneto today can be considered the best current X-book.