X-Men: Gold #3 SPOILERS

[DDM]

He was free to choose the team he wanted and he went with milquetoast.

Poor Bunn must be extra salty given that. I wouldn't blame him.

[Maestroneto]

Poor Bunn must be extra salty given that. I wouldn't blame him.

And the second time in a row that a bad writer got to snatch away the good characters from Bunn.

[Purplevit]

It wasn't so bad but definetely not good. I won't like to reread it.
I hope Gambit arc will be much better!

[Luckystar.]

This team lineup is so boring and vanilla. This book needs a wild card.

[DDM]

This team lineup is so boring and vanilla. This book needs a wild card.

A wild card? Like shady Gambit and crazy Magma?

[TheRealWashout]

A wild card? Like shady Gambit and crazy Magma?

Mesmero's manipulations should mess with Magma's head so that duplicitous Allison Crestmere occasionally takes over and causes mischief.

[Purplevit]

A wild card? Like shady Gambit and crazy Magma?

Will see how shady Guggenheim's Gambit will really be.

[Tycon]

A wild card? Like shady Gambit and crazy Magma?

Or maybe just some POC that can also provide drama? Gambit and Amara add nothing to this nearly white bread team. Surge. Triage. Frenzy. Quicksilver. Dust. Armor. These teams literally write themselves and Guggenheim still fucks up

[True Believer Tony]

This was very disappointing. I'm worried that Guggenheim doesn't have any original ideas on where to take the X-Men. All the characters feel very bland and the plot was extremely predictable. Three issues and I can't think of a single memorable moment. No spark here whatsoever.

Also, why did they bother keeping the green guy? What made them interested in him and not the new Avalanche and Pyro?

And has Mesmero ever had telepathy attached to his powers? I thought his powers were pure hypnosis.

[CoCoBandz]

You should realize Storm's gotten upgrade. She went from Cyclops to Xavier. She should shave her head to celebrate.

Bald Storm would be hot.

[Prof. Warren]

I liked this. No real complaints. I'm not nearly as into this book as I'm into Blue but this first arc was ok. I liked that it was really concise, straight-forward and just went for a classic X-Men vibe. I think it's kind of like The Force Awakens where they wanted to play it safe out of the gate, just to get fans on familiar footing again. It was meat and potatoes X-Men - nothing mind-blowing but still satisfying, I thought.

I'll be interested to see how the book develops from here.

[rutog98]

But the whole point of this team is to capture the early 80's UXM nostalgia and that book had Storm in the same team with Rachel, Colossus, Shadowcat, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Cyclops and Rogue. This team has all but 2 of those characters in it. Sage wasn't a part of that team so that's why she's not there. And Storm has been teamed up with powerful TK users many times in the past, even in Claremont's books where all of these Mary Sue-ish feats you are craving for happened! So clearly the issue isn't that her powers are nerfed because of her team mates. She was almost the sole powerhouse in EXM AND the team leader and she STILL didn't show that big feats. Current canonical Storm just isn't capable of combating Hulk one on one or healing herself from a single cell Wolverine style or simulating telepathy by manipulating electricity in people's brains. That's not how her powers work under modern writers and only reason she has been able to do stuff like that in the past is because she has been written as a borderline Mary Sue and the writers have stretched the limits of weather manipulation quite a bit by taking a ton of creative liberties. Most of the time Storm isn't all powerful like you wish her to be and that's for the best if one wants to see her continue to exist within modern books. If she becomes too overpowered she'll have no need to be on the team. Feats aren't necessarily the most important thing. Characterization is more important.
And I get that it's hard to see your favorite get sidelined but Storm has recently had a lot of focus by being a leader so that's why she's more in the background right now to give others more focus. Granted the focus in XMG could be spread out better but still.

1) Actually, the nolstagic feel he is going for is Storm, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Phoenix Force Jean Grey, Banshee, Wolverine, and Kitty (well, she came onboard after Banshee lost his powers). Rachel doesn't have the Phoenix Force, but she is replacing Jean on the lineup. Sage or Emma could have replaced Jean.

2) True, Claremont did give Storm high end feats even with powerful telekinetics on the team, but the current writers don't seem to know how to balance Storm on a team with other energy users. They write Ororo like a flying Cyclops who shoots lightning from her hands instead of optic blasts from her eyes. Even at the most basic and fundamental levels, her powers can do far more than that.

3) Current Canonical Storm can battle the Hulk, etc. Lemire even stated in an interview that the difficulty in writing Storm on the X-Men is she is powerful enough to end most threats on her own. I think somebody quoted Guggenheim saying that Storm was the most powerful X-Man or something like that. The only thing I am saying is current writers don't seem to be able to write Storm's powers creatively while she is on the team with other energy wielders. They tend to want to restrict her to lightning and nothing else.

4) It was a current writer who had her shut down Sinister in a split second by manipulating the electrical impulses in his nervous sytem thus shutting down his mind.

5) A lot of what you are saying is simply not true. Again, the writers acknowledge Storm's power levels in interviews, yet they scale her back to just lightning in the stories. Again, I assert the reasoning for this is they put her on teams with too many other energy wielders and don't know how to balance that, so they scale her back so she doesn't overshadow them. Powerwise, if Storm is on the roster, no other energy wielder is needed. She is the only X-Man powerful enough to say that about in this regard unless you have a Phoenix Force-possessed character on the team. So, given you don't need anymore energy projection powers on the team besides her and most of the recent writers can't seem to write her well with said characters, to remedy the situation, I suggest making her the sole energy wielder on the team (unless they add Gambit to the roster...I'll make an exception for him. ) and tanking her with characters like Sage, Emma, Kitty, Colossus, Warpath, Kurt, Rogue, Cannonball, and Longshot just to name a few. A team of Storm, Sage, Kitty, Kurt, Colossus, Rogue, Gambit, and Longshot would be wildly popular and nostalgic, too. Heck, maybe you can take off Sage, if you want, and replace her with OML.

[Aighthomie]

There's also the fact that the direction Guggenheim is taking Kitty's leadership in is really bizarre. Kitty can inspire, but being "the best tactician the X-men ever had" (as Guggs said in an interview) and generally being a hardass don't fit her character at all, especially with, as you said, such an experienced team. She's not in charge of children. And while she's very smart, we've never really had a hint about her being skilled or trained in battle tactics.

I'd also add, that Guggs is making it too obvious. Generally speaking (though it seems recently things have changed) Team Leader was just a natural part of a Team cast. It was something that was a given. But there wasn't any particular emphasis unless it was a part of the plot (Scott vs. Storm, for example). But I think Guggs, in an effort to prove that Kitty can be a leader, is over selling the idea, which is why we get KittyClops. Over on Blue, Jeen is getting a similar push but Bunn allows her some growing pains.

[Michael Watkins]

that Brotherhood turned out to be a real non-threat. I think Toad's version was fiercer. I wonder who the new Pyro and Avalanche are supposed to be.

[nx01a]

This was very disappointing. I'm worried that Guggenheim doesn't have any original ideas on where to take the X-Men. All the characters feel very bland and the plot was extremely predictable. Three issues and I can't think of a single memorable moment. No spark here whatsoever.
Also, why did they bother keeping the green guy? What made them interested in him and not the new Avalanche and Pyro?
And has Mesmero ever had telepathy attached to his powers? I thought his powers were pure hypnosis.

that Brotherhood turned out to be a real non-threat. I think Toad's version was fiercer. I wonder who the new Pyro and Avalanche are supposed to be.

To acknowledge that the original Pyro and Avalanche are dead but do nothing to flesh out their replacements? Wasted opportunity.
Mesmero certainly got a power upgrade.
The Mellancamp ripoff seems like the only part of this Brotherhood that will have any story going forward... or so it seems.