The appeal of the x-men

[Radix]

Hi. My experience with the x-men is mostly watxm cartoon, xmen evolution, and the movies. Ive looked at a few comics but I just dont see the appeal.

Can someone explain to me what makes the x men so popular that they were marvels flagship for at least a decade? The only thing I have liked was the new mutants series about the academy and students there (mostly because I love school stories).

[Darth Phoenix]

They are a disfunt family, who fight for a better world with lots of voices and tones how to get there.
Stir in a large mix of soap opera love stories, betrayal/forgiveness,Sci Fi crazy.
It has an organic inclusion of many races,aliens,robots, andsexualitys often before other mainstream comis.

image.jpg

[yogaflame]

The Claremont era is why. Without him, they would never have become the huge franchise they are now. And with the movies and everything as it is, they are slowly evaporating (the comics, in relevancy to the MU at large).

[StrongStyleSpirit]

Outcasts. There is an atraction there.

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

The Claremont era is why. Without him, they would never have become the huge franchise they are now. And with the movies and everything as it is, they are slowly evaporating (the comics, in relevancy to the MU at large).

Quoted for truth!

[Nicoclaws]

They are a disfunt family, who fight for a better world with lots of voices and tones how to get there.
Stir in a large mix of soap opera love stories, betrayal/forgiveness,Sci Fi crazy.
It has an organic inclusion of many races,aliens,robots, andsexualitys often before other mainstream comis.

image.jpg

This plus strong visuals, strong female characters since early on, and an important message about minorities.

[CraigTheCylon]

Here's your handy itemised guide to what makes the X-Men tick.

• Purple robots
• Metaphors for the treatment of minorities, minus most actual minorities so white folks don't get grumpy
• Purple robots
• One of comics' greatest villains, a spoon-bending buckethead who won't stop begging for Nazi-related sympathy despite having killed more people than cancer
• Purple robots
• The opportunity to use terms like "the techno-organic virus" in a spoken sentence without it being weird (ish)
• Purple robots
• Empowered, inspirational female characters who all coincidentally dress in fetish underwear
• Purple robots
• Enough perplexing extended family ties that there are no more relationships that aren't a little bit incestuous
• Purple robots
• A big chap who looks like a living Iron Maiden album cover and doesn't quite grasp where lipstick is meant to go
• Purple robots
• A full platoons' worth of OP psychics who must always behave like idiots or none of these stories would last more than 10 pages
• Purple robots
• Beefcake dudes with metal in them if that's your thing
• Purple robots
• A neverending surplus of identikit superpowered teens, all of them annoying little twerps
• Purple robots
• That one time a whole bunch of said teens got blown up aboard a bus and I laughed for a whole week non-stop
• Purple robots
• Ineffectual revolutions led by a dude who drew a big fat target right on his own mask
• Purple robots
• Hands-down the worst interpretation of SHIELD ever, including the one from the David Hasselhoff Nick Fury TV movie
• Purple robots
• Time travel plots that continually violate their own internal logic
• Purple robots
• Depictions of Japan so closet-racist you'll never stop being thankful that country no longer has a real army to attack us with
• Purple robots
• At least 3 different antagonistic alien races, none of whom really fit in here
• Purple robots
• Racially confusing posh thong ninja and the endless arguments over her
• Purple robots
• The eternal, unbound majesty of REIGNFIRE~!!
• Purple robots
• Basically Slimer from Ghostbusters but with a letter drawn on his tummy
• Purple robots
• Attack of the clones...and more clones, and more after them
• Purple robots
• Mysterious backstories dragged out for years then revealed with the impact of a wet fart in a crowded elevator
• Purple robots
• Many other things done better in Doctor Who, basically
• And lest we forget PURPLE! RRRRRRROBOTS!

You're welcome.

[shades of eternity]

so your saying, purple robots? .

[The Fury]

so your saying, purple robots? .

It's actually a good analogy regardless of how many there are. The Purple Robots are a symbol for the hatred these characters have to endure just for crime of being born. They are the far end of hate in that those that hate mutants have gone out of their way to create giant robots to hunt and kill them.

[CraigTheCylon]

so your saying, purple robots? .

<<<-- is the one who always hopes the Sentinels will win.

[genki_desu]

Hi. My experience with the x-men is mostly watxm cartoon, xmen evolution, and the movies. Ive looked at a few comics but I just dont see the appeal.

Can someone explain to me what makes the x men so popular that they were marvels flagship for at least a decade? The only thing I have liked was the new mutants series about the academy and students there (mostly because I love school stories).

Classically, it was the combination of strong characters, soap-opera, sci-fi superhero adventures, exciting villains - often a bit scarier and more modern-looking than the typical "strangely-shaped-helmet" Marvel villain, strong continuity and top-notch artwork.

Most of these things have faded away since the mid-'90s, so the present day X-Men's popularity is largely down to nostalgia and/or people who've picked up the comics out of curiosity after seeing the movies rather than any real quality in the comics.

[The Fury]

You don't see the appeal of a bunch of superheroes who have to deal with a most basic of human problem? Segregation. Plus mutants can be anyone, not just some rich guy in a suit or lab experiment. Although the segregation thing is being played out a lot recently, kinda want them to get back to like 80s and 90s superhero stuff really.

[donpricetag]

You don't see the appeal of a bunch of superheroes who have to deal with a most basic of human problem? Segregation. Plus mutants can be anyone, not just some rich guy in a suit or lab experiment. Although the segregation thing is being played out a lot recently, kinda want them to get back to like 80s and 90s superhero stuff really.

I agreed most with this and CraigTheCylon rant/love letter to purple robots. The bar for understanding them is low. Anyone can be a mutant, and just born that way. Awesome for no reason other than being awesome. Kids can imagine themselves special for no other reason than that. Other than that, they arent your traditional super heroes. Lets face it. Marvel has been crushing the Comic Book industry since the 90s BUT the classic heroes belong to DC. Superman, Batman, Wonderwoman etc. You can even look at their names and see the difference, which is Marvel's appeal from the beginning. Less "gender suffix" names and just names. The character models are just more modern and for lack of a better word, cool. The tech talk of a drunk Star Trek captain mixed with the everyday happenings of Superman, time travel, real issues like sex, betrayal, mass murder, bigotry... Whats not to love?

[JustAnotherFan]

I agreed most with this and CraigTheCylon rant/love letter to purple robots. The bar for understanding them is low. Anyone can be a mutant, and just born that way. Awesome for no reason other than being awesome. Kids can imagine themselves special for no other reason than that. Other than that, they arent your traditional super heroes. Lets face it. Marvel has been crushing the Comic Book industry since the 90s BUT the classic heroes belong to DC. Superman, Batman, Wonderwoman etc. You can even look at their names and see the difference, which is Marvel's appeal from the beginning. Less "gender suffix" names and just names. The character models are just more modern and for lack of a better word, cool. The tech talk of a drunk Star Trek captain mixed with the everyday happenings of Superman, time travel, real issues like sex, betrayal, mass murder, bigotry... Whats not to love?

That's what makes many Marvel characters great and X-Men (along with Spidey I guess) really embody the relatable hero concept.

And this is also kinda why Avengers shouldn't be Marvel's answer to Justice League. I used to think that that's what they are and should be but now that Marvel has made it happen I've started to see the issues with that concept.

Justice League is the Justice League, the greatest heroes of them all, the icons, the living legends, gods among men who protect the world from larger than life villains and alien invasions. And they're comprised mostly of über powerful, larger than life characters, who are hard to relate to like GL, Superman and Wonder Woman, etc.

On the other hand most Marvel heroes, especially the ones that have succeeded and are considered the best like X-Men, Spider-man, Daredevil, F4, etc. are humans with superpowers. They have human flaws, make mistakes and aren't always perfect and all knowing which has helped them to succeed. And even many Avengers, like Hulk(rampages) and Iron Man (arrogance, alcoholism) have these flaws so it's hard to look up to them as the unrelatable saviors and gods the same way we do with JL, yet this is how Marvel is kind of trying to possition them.

On top of that out of all the founding JL members Batman is the only one who's human and doesn't have the powers of a demigod unlike pretty much all other JL founding members. Meanwhile founding Avengers have many human characters who aren't all that powerful: Iron Man is a smart guy in an armored suit, Cap is slightly stronger and faster than regular human can be, Pym and Wasp can alter their sizes and Hawkeye and BW are just trained humans. Only ones who are really powerful are Thor and Hulk and even Hulk has human flaws leaving Thor as the only unrelatable god character. Maybe that's part of why Avengers have never been quite as big before the movies.

[SidheKnight]

This: