What to do With a Problem Like...

[Glio]

Telepathy and Phoenix: they have to stop being used all the time as bad excuses for plots. Most of the major X-Men should have already developed telepathic defenses of a gigantic magnitude. You can not justify any nonsense with "A telepath / Phoenix forced me to do it".

[fsger]

Erase Emma Frost from the X-men's story, she wasn't worth killing Jean again. It was for nothing Jean is back and Emma a villain again, an entire decade without Jean for nothing.

[Decoy]

Emma Frost - they should explore how much she loves teaching and have her be in charge of the school itself. Emma is a better headmistress than Charles, and she knows more about actual education than anyone on the X-Men. She should be headmistress of a school. I don't care if she still dabbles in other things, just have her running the school.

Jean Grey - she needs to stay as a team leader, no being in Charles, Logan, and Scott's shadow. Jean is a better leader than Scott and Logan hands down and she should be in charge of one of the teams.

Storm - same as Jean, better leader than Charles, Scott, and Logan, she should be running a team.

Rachel - let her have an actual documented relationship with her parents Jean and Scott. Team her up with Cable in an ongoing so the brother/sister relationship can be explored for a while.

Kitty - keep her away from Colossus and have her do something different. Send her back to space, put her in Shield, put her on the Avengers. Kitty needs a change again.

Illyana - free her from the X-books for a while and have her move into Dr Strange's book. She should be his designated apprentice and she should take over whenever he is incapacitated. It's time for Illyana to be groomed to be Sorceress Supreme!

Scott - he could actually use a solo comic for a 5 issue mini or something. Have him get on a motor bike and go on a self-discovery journey and then come back to the teams refreshed. The editors and writers keep taking him different directions because they don't like how he was under the previous writer. Instead of just spending 10 issues of a comic blaming him for everything, have him regroup and rebuild and move forward. They do this exact kind of thing with Logan all the time, he goes on a journey to figure himself out, it's Scott's turn to do the same thing for once.

Dani - seriously I liked Jane Foster's Thor run, but Dani had every right to be Valkyrie or to at least be co-lead in the new book. She should be deeply involved in that story.

Celeste, Irma, and Phoebe - need something to do. I loved exploring their relationship in Amazing Nightcrawler. Heck if they establish Excalibur again, Kitty should take the 3 of them to England and they can be the telepaths on Excalibur. I like the relationship they have with Kurt from Amazing Nightcrawler and I would love to see that continue by being on the same team as Kurt.

Kurt needs to be back on Excalibur. He loves being a swashbuckler type character and he shines as a character when he can have fun. Plus we would get to have the ongoing drama with Brian, Meggan, and Kurt again just so we can have another relationship triad for people to fight in the forums over.

Cyclops did go to Alaska in the aftermath of Stryfe’s big move (also it was just after Psylocke attempted to seduce him)

[Ultimate Rogue]

The 2017 Xavier Institute was split into three different courses (future X-Men, future members of society and trash) but it was never expounded upon outside of interviews and Gen X wasted all its panel time on the trash.

LMAO, ROFL, LOL, Kek, *muttley laugh* crying with laughter!

I'll compose myself before contributing to thread *snort*

downright funny


No offense intended to that Gen X, I kinda dug the M and Shogo plots and writing, even with the bad trip art.

But funny is funny

*chuckle*

[stormphoenix]

For me:

Storm- Let her quit the X-Men or better yet let her leave and do her own thing. It's about high time she's gone. Jean can take care of things. IF however, Storm MUST be an X-men then let her lead a Team of Competent members who know what they are doing. Tired of watching the X-men act like this is their first time out as Heroes.

Nightcrawler- Can he become a Avenger please?? I'd very much would like that. That would be very cool for him.

Phoenix Force- Can this Bird NEVER come back. And if it has to PLEASE give a better explanation on who can wield it and what purpose does it serve for Mutants. Because it's ALWAYS going after Mutants. And I'd like a less complicated Origin Story of it as well.

Iceman- He should leave the X-men as well. It's time for him to go. Just like Storm let him go. He should join another Team.

Wolverine Needs to be dialed back A LOT He'd have his solo and ONE team book, which will not be his book in disguise. Then he will only have 1 or 2 issue guest appearances in other books IF HE MUST be in them. Secondly his wild seed will be kept under control. NO MORE Kids introduced into his story, and finding a way to get rid of the ones we now have -aside from X-23. His healing factor needs to decrease considerably. Take it back to healing from minor wounds, maybe even some bigger. Bot no regrowing from a single cell or healing in 2 sec.

I 100% Agree with this. Please let it be done.

[Omega Alpha]

Cyclops did go to Alaska in the aftermath of Stryfe’s big move (also it was just after Psylocke attempted to seduce him)

Also, this idea Jean and Storm are better leaders than Scott just screams #feminism- didn't we just see Storm handle a similar, although slightly less dramatic situation than Scott post-M-Day, and fail completely? Also Jean leading one small team against one opponent hardly makes her the best leader ever. Even Havok has a few victories here and there.

[davetvs]

Erase Emma Frost from the X-men's story, she wasn't worth killing Jean again. It was for nothing Jean is back and Emma a villain again, an entire decade without Jean for nothing.

Huh???????

[Omega Alpha]

Huh???????

Don't engage.

[CRaymond]

Don't engage.

I’m going to wait for Harp to pick a topic. This open thread could fly off the rails.

[Harpsikord]

I’m going to wait for Harp to pick a topic. This open thread could fly off the rails.

I'm looking at everyone's ideas and a lot of them are super good so far, but then there's the idea of Storm and Jean being good leaders being feminist propaganda and I'm so confused...

I do have a few that I'd like to cover, just give me a little bit to draft 'em.

[Omega Alpha]

I'm looking at everyone's ideas and a lot of them are super good so far, but then there's the idea of Storm and Jean being good leaders being feminist propaganda and I'm so confused...

Being good I don't disagree, just this idea that Cyclops needs to go away because they are so much better than him.

[Ultimate Rogue]

WHAT TO DO WITH A PROBLEM LIKE... randomly generated team rosters.

Extraordinary, Astonishings, Gold, Blues, Red, ANAD, Umpteenths Uncannys

Cause - Just because a writer has had a success on their independent book, shouldn't (unfortunately, but apparent) qualify them to cherry pick a roster of disparate X-characters WITHOUT showing us some justification (story) of why and how they have come together and acknowledge any past connections, canon and dynamics, if any.

Effect - They are eroding any sense of a family, community, bonds, relationships, friendships, shared Xistence between these folks.

Solution - Have a spine. X-Men Legacy provided this once upon a time. It wasn't closed off, it reacted to the stories and events within the x-world, but still was able to keep its own narrative and add depths/feats/glimpses/interest to *. My point being that it was connective of the characters. Its faults were that it couldn't use much of ** because they were in other books/dead/not on Mike Careys radar, but if the X-office dedicated a 'spinal' book that weaved together the other threads/books/stories/characters (defiant of writers being 'grabby' and free from this complacency within the x-office that a character is in a book, so be happy you ungrateful entitled customer!) then we'd have a true flagship book that sells.

TLDR; We've had a few years now of solos misdirected to us as team books, Legacy was a spinal book misdirected to us as a solo.


* Trance, Ariel, Rockslide, Bling, Hellion, Emplate, Legion, Proteus, Gambit, Xavier, Danger, Rachel, Magneto, Frenzy, Cannonball, Mr Sinister, Cyclops, Pixie, Ares, Moonstone, Psylocke, Nightcrawler, Husk, Destiny, Mimic, Omega Weapon, Children of the Vault, Lady Mastermind, Omega Sentinel, Marauders, Sabretooth, Utopia, Iceman, Phoenix 5, Ms Marvel, Various Avengers (Moonknight, She-Hulk, Falcon to name a few), Jean Grey School and so on

** Storm, Cyclops, Jean, Wolverine, Emma, Psylocke, Beast, Kitty, Angel, New Mutants

[Omega Alpha]

I don't know, my problem with the team rosters in recent years wasn't their randomness, but rather the overfamiliarity of them. Sure it makes sense the 05 would be together, or the same team as in 1985, like in Gold, but it's boring.

[CRaymond]

I'm looking at everyone's ideas and a lot of them are super good so far,

In that case:

ICEMAN. Potentially one of Marvel's most archetypal hero properties. Where all flying bricks resemble Superman in some way, all ice-powered protagonists reference Iceman's use of magical ice constructs. If that equity wasn't impressive enough, he is possibly the oldest, and highest profile gay male superhero in the world. All that, and he's still only tangential to the most powerful comic book franchise of the last century, a book that embraces and emboldens the marginalized population. Despite all that amazing positioning, Iceman solo books are poorly handled and subsequently poorly received.
What could and should be done to highlight Iceman either in X-Men properties or other Marvel properties?

[salarta]

What to do With a Problem Like... Polaris!

Don't act surprised. You knew I was a snake when you let me in.

I would give her a solo, mini or oneshot. Lean toward solo or mini. I'm not saying this just because as a huge fan of her I'd love for her to get one (though that should be obvious). I'm saying it because I'm increasingly convinced Marvel doesn't know what the hell they're doing.

Here's what I'm thinking. Marvel has a problem. They don't see Lorna. When they look at her, all they see is a prop/punching bag/trophy to be used and abused as needed for the benefit of other (usually male, usually Havok) characters. Every time they do this, they cut away something important to the character because it's "not relevant" or it's inconvenient to the only goal they care about of putting the other character(s) on a pedestal.

A solo or mini would go a long way to fixing this problem. Because it would be devoted to Lorna, they would be all but forced to put some real thought into her for once. You can't make a book titled Wolverine and make it only about how much he loves Cyclops, after all. Simultaneously, a dedicated solo or mini would give an opening to revive essential elements of her character that have been ignored for far too long (e.g. surviving the Genoshan genocide), and delve into things that otherwise would never get covered (e.g. who were her foster parents and why did Lorna feel she needed to dye her hair?).

Of course, as I've said before, I'd keep Havok the hell away from her in this. Marvel would feel compelled to make it all about him, which would make the solo/mini/oneshot worthless for its needed purpose.

Speaking more broadly. Even if a solo/mini/oneshot never happened, the big fix for Lorna would come from acknowledging and using her history that Marvel's ignored for too long. She should've been directly involved in Axis because of how Red Skull exploited Genosha's dead. She should've spent some meaningful time with Iceman following his reveal due to their history.