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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[MichaelC]

They are special, superior, and that specialness and superiority makes them lonely and oppressed by bigots. So they are a power-fantasy that is also angsty and relatable. Perfect for teenagers who feel alienated and lonely and would love for that to be rooted in them being special/superior.

There is also a certain attractive nobility in them being people who try to help those who fear and hate them. This makes them attractive the same way that the musical version of Don Quixote is attractive. It's the attraction of being a Jesus metaphor, essentially. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgzXwpePTTU

[Kuwagaton]

They are a CLAN.

I see the Avengers as a superhero team. They're co-workers, who are rarely in each others' lives personally, and often have the veil of identity between them. They are "too" fluid and membership comes and goes on a whim. They are mostly professionals, but typically as independents; they often don't mesh and goof around in training.

I see the Fantastic Four as a family, a single family unit. They're rather stagnant. They are a group of heroes connected by real relationships, but lack the dysfunction and adversity necessary to force growth and change. From what I've seen of the foundation, it's removed from the lives of the recruits, and apparently that idea isn't even around anymore.

The X-Men started out remarkably bland, but they built up a decent rogues gallery and added acquaintances and other members. Then All-New, All-Different happened. The cast not only exploded with diversity (by mid '70s standards especially) but the book greatly increased in terms of drama. The original cast was allowed to grow from teens to adults, and the new players were being fleshed out in ways unlike other teams.

Wein, Byrne, and Cockrum made huge contributions early on, but this was largely Claremont. He wrote compelling sagas that followed one after another excellently, adding tension and raising the stakes each time. The words in the page were a smooth, warm, stream of clever purple. Women (not woman) were finally allowed power physically, emotionally, and in function, but it's hard to imagine anyone smelling an agenda. Cyclops, Wolverine, Colossus, and Nightcrawler were very much written in a way that allowed them to be favorites. The team was a family of individuals drawn together. They were underdogs, which is always fertile ground for a protagonist. The adversity they faced reflected what many of us go through, sometimes directly, sometimes as allegory. Members moved in and out, but that bond stuck. The characters were in each others' lives for better or worse.

But the action wasn't spared in the least, it was as poetic as the drama. There were stories that led from the middle of Scotland to Chicago to New York and then way out into space. The X-Men were a clan, they grew as individuals while they learned to move and fight as a unit. It was just always going down, in the 16 years Claremont was at it. Fall of the Mutants still makes my freaking day.

After Claremont, everyone was/is "sort of" Claremont. He was the X-Men and so his flavor stayed throughout the decades across multiple new titles and adaptations. Some blatantly try to evoke his power, and sometimes that works well because there were just so much fuel and momentum. He's even come back, to varying degrees of critical and commercial success, and failed to top himself. We all just know what they can be, and how they can touch us, and we're willing to keep up.

[yogaflame]

They are a CLAN.

I see the Avengers as a superhero team. They're co-workers, who are rarely in each others' lives personally, and often have the veil of identity between them. They are "too" fluid and membership comes and goes on a whim. They are mostly professionals, but typically as independents; they often don't mesh and goof around in training.

I see the Fantastic Four as a family, a single family unit. They're rather stagnant. They are a group of heroes connected by real relationships, but lack the dysfunction and adversity necessary to force growth and change. From what I've seen of the foundation, it's removed from the lives of the recruits, and apparently that idea isn't even around anymore.

The X-Men started out remarkably bland, but they built up a decent rogues gallery and added acquaintances and other members. Then All-New, All-Different happened. The cast not only exploded with diversity (by mid '70s standards especially) but the book greatly increased in terms of drama. The original cast was allowed to grow from teens to adults, and the new players were being fleshed out in ways unlike other teams.

Wein, Byrne, and Cockrum made huge contributions early on, but this was largely Claremont. He wrote compelling sagas that followed one after another excellently, adding tension and raising the stakes each time. The words in the page were a smooth, warm, stream of clever purple. Women (not woman) were finally allowed power physically, emotionally, and in function, but it's hard to imagine anyone smelling an agenda. Cyclops, Wolverine, Colossus, and Nightcrawler were very much written in a way that allowed them to be favorites. The team was a family of individuals drawn together. They were underdogs, which is always fertile ground for a protagonist. The adversity they faced reflected what many of us go through, sometimes directly, sometimes as allegory. Members moved in and out, but that bond stuck. The characters were in each others' lives for better or worse.

But the action wasn't spared in the least, it was as poetic as the drama. There were stories that led from the middle of Scotland to Chicago to New York and then way out into space. The X-Men were a clan, they grew as individuals while they learned to move and fight as a unit. It was just always going down, in the 16 years Claremont was at it. Fall of the Mutants still makes my freaking day.

After Claremont, everyone was/is "sort of" Claremont. He was the X-Men and so his flavor stayed throughout the decades across multiple new titles and adaptations. Some blatantly try to evoke his power, and sometimes that works well because there were just so much fuel and momentum. He's even come back, to varying degrees of critical and commercial success, and failed to top himself. We all just know what they can be, and how they can touch us, and we're willing to keep up.

Well said good sir!

[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?