X-Men

[Philip Ayres]

I challenge you to say you like the story with the Celestials mentioned in that article.....

[legios]

Dec 17, 2009 22:07:19 GMT Philip Ayres said:

I challenge you to say you like the story with the Celestials mentioned in that article.....

Heh. No, even I'm not that irrational about it.....

But I do like quite lot of the rest of her run.

Karl

[Philip Ayres]

The earlier stuff is great - Mutant Massacre -> Fall of the Mutants. It looses steam a little after that, but the fall really is at Inferno where the great will they won't meet the X-Men and all the Scott/Madeline/Christopher plot threads are resolved and the title loose Walt Simonson at the same time.

(an aside: do you think the UXM were killed off/sent to Australia in UXM 226 just to put off the inevitable meeting with X-Factor ?)

The Liefield & Adams fill in issues are OK but after that it really goes down hill

Off the top of anyone's head can they remember what happens between issue 50 (the culmination of the awful Celestials story) and issue 60 (1st X-Factor Extinction Agenda issue) ? I can't (apart from the annual (5) that preceedes X-Factor 60). I'll be in London next week so I'm digging those issues out of the long box and see what they're like.

After Extinction Agenda we get the Portacio issues which are good stuff and lead into the Muir Island saga.

[legios]

Dec 19, 2009 14:50:31 GMT Philip Ayres said:

The earlier stuff is great - Mutant Massacre -> Fall of the Mutants. It looses steam a little after that, but the fall really is at Inferno where the great will they won't meet the X-Men and all the Scott/Madeline/Christopher plot threads are resolved and the title loose Walt Simonson at the same time.

I think my favourite story arc is Cyclops' "assisted nervous breakdown". He goes off the rails in a way that is very appropriate for the character, and it is one of the more interesting things that I have seen done with the character over the years.

The title does run into a problem of identity once they establish ties with the X-Men again. Mostly because of the editorial requirement for mutant angst pretty much seems to pigeonhole the books into the same general playing field and doesn't really leave it room to manuever.

(an aside: do you think the UXM were killed of/sent to Australia in UXM 226 just to put off the inevitable meeting with X-Factor ?)

Off the top of anyone's head can they remember what happens between issue 50 (the culmination of the awful Celestials story) and issue 60 (1st X-Factor Extinction Agenda issue) ? I can't (apart from the annual (5) that preceedes X-Factor 60). I'll be in London next week so I'm digging those issues out of the long box and see what they're like.

As I recall this sees some mucking around in the tunnels with the Morlocks. The introduction of Crimson - a villian who appears to have been intended to recur but instead vanished into the ether and an Archangel solo story that I rather like in terms of exploring the character a bit. That's just off the top of my head and it is something like a decade and a half since I last owned the issues so I could well be wrong.

After Extinction Agenda we get the Portacio issues which are good stuff and lead into the Muir Island saga.

Not a big fan of the Muir Island stuff myself. I just has such a vast number of characters in it that it feels very crowded.

Karl

[Philip Ayres]

Your summary of 51-60 still rings no bells !

Isn't there a huge flaw in the Muir Island story with Colossus suddenly just being there ? IIRC I think it *looks* like he arrived with X-Factor (he's possibly in the background of the scene where they meet Prof X - Collosus having been reunited with him in UXM 279)

Muir island is a big rush job to round everything off before the X-Men 1 relaunch anyway.... As well as cutting Portacio's X-Factor off it also stops the Claremont/Lee UXM run which is the best set of issues on the titles since..... well probably since Paul Smith left ! *

Yeah I like those Cyclops issues. 17 & 18 rocked my world when they came out. My comic shop never got 17 and I had to pick it up from the paper shop distribution a few months later.

13 & 14 are great too it's a shame the reproduction of them in Essential X-Factor v1 is so poor.

* people slag Lee, Portacio and Liefield off but they forget how poor the three X-Books were art wise before they turned up. Liefield especially, New Mutants was just so much poo before he came along and sprin cleaned the title.

[Philip Ayres]

It appears as if one of my favorite X-Men is back.....

Issue 522 (reprinted in the Nation-X HC) has Shadowcat back from the dead. Yeah, yeah, yeah, big deal, like she was going to stay dead for long.* But who does Cyclops call to deal with Magneto ? Cecilia Reyes ! I'd read she'd been killed in Neverland but if she hasn't where's she been ?

Great character with lots of unfulfilled potential. Here's someone who's got the Mutant powers but doesn't want to live a life of adventure but keeps getting sucked in. Put her in the science team with Madison Jeffries and Doctor Nemesis and we're laughing.

* Second Coming Spoiler:

SPOILER: Click to show

Book is now open on how long till Nightcrawler's return BTW. I've got a few quid on it being a double that's died as an attempt to de"chuck austin" him.

[Andy Turnbull]

SPOILER: Click to show

X-Men vs Vampires book, wouldn't put it past them to have Kurt brought back as a vamp and leading that team...

Andy

[Philip Ayres]

CBR's Top 50 X-Men

[The Doctor]

X-Men family tree:

www.bleedingcool.com/2011/01/16/the-x-men-family-tree-by-joe-stone/

-Ralph

[legios]

Amusing. And frighteningly accurate.....

Karl

[Andy Turnbull]

The only Professor X story idea we ever get:



Andy

[The Doctor]

So true.

-Ralph

[Andy Turnbull]

Yup.

Andy

[legios]

As an X-Men fan of long-standing I have to say..... that is absolutely on the money, and also hilarious.

Karl

[Philip Ayres]

Schism: Good idea or Civil War reheated for the X-Men?

[Andy Turnbull]

Good idea.

The X-books have been meandering for far too long, such a massive line with no direction to speak of so it's about damn time. Who knows maybe the relaunched Uncanny X-Men or whatever they decide to call it might regain top spot once more.

Andy

[Philip Ayres]

I can't make my mind up. I'm only reading 2 X books at the mo - X-Force (new version isn't nearly as good as Kyle & Yost's) and X-Factor.

[The Doctor]

I'm so uninterested in the x-books the last few years it would take having an interesting creative team change to get me back on board, to be honest.

-Ralph

[Philip Ayres]

I'm wondering if it's editorial rather than creative that's at fault....

[Andy Turnbull]

Editorial.

The "No More Mutants" thing was a huge millstone around the neck of the X-books.

Andy

[The Doctor]

My problem is the lack of clear premise. 'Protecting those who hunt and fear them' is a simple killer premise I can get behind.

-Ralph

[Philip Ayres]

Schism is upon us, I'm wondering what that will do to things....

[The Doctor]

Hopefully a simple premise.

-Ralph

[Philip Ayres]

I think the 2 main X-Men books after will have a more distinctive feel in comparison to each other

[The Doctor]

They've been quite insular since Morrison's run and not making much effort to broaden appeal outside the fanbase. It's no wonder Avengers have taken the sales the X-books used to get. What I hope for is a big push to make X-Men exciting, edgy and relevant again. I actually think resting it and bringing it back with a bang would do it the world of good. Imagine no x-books for 6 months then a big push. That would grab attention.

But all I see is a muddled ad campaign for Schism which fails to communicate why anyone should care who isn't already reading,and Uncanny X-Men being cancelled...only to return the very next month.

I only get annoyed because X-Men has the potential to be a truly exciting cutting-edge comic. Modern and fresh. While I have enjoyed some x-books here and there as enjoyable tosh it was only when Morrison was writing it that I got a 'five minutes into the future' feel.

-Ralph

[Philip Ayres]

Yeah, the potential is just wasted with the title being treated as a cash cow that's there to be milked, milked and milked again.

We can criticise Brand New Day for what it did but the buzz is that ASM hasn't been that good in years. I shortly hope to report on this matter first hand.

I'm tempted to follow it's example, cancel all the different X-Men comics and have one title on a near weekly basis.

[The Doctor]

Not a bad idea.

I haven't bought an issue of ASM since the reboot of One More Day/BND as I find that a big-turnoff. Voting with wallet. Comics run in cycles so I'm just waiting until that's undone!

-Ralph

[Philip Ayres]

Feb 19, 2008 13:28:49 GMT Philip Ayres said:

Good point about House of M. When I was growing up X-Men was about change and bringing new characters in....

And what's probably been the best bit of the X-Men the last few years? The science team with a whole bunch of new characters - either new new or new to the X-Men. They're all over the X-Books and are easily the best thing in them.

[Philip Ayres]

Jul 14, 2011 21:39:22 GMT The Doctor said:

Not a bad idea.

I haven't bought an issue of ASM since the reboot of BND as I find that a big-turnoff. Voting with wallet. Comics run in cycles so I'm just waiting until that's undone!

-Ralph

I need to scratch an itch about this... See Here

[Andy Turnbull]

Picked up the first issue of Schism via the Ipad app.

Decent enough and a promising start. Avoid the Prelude to Schism mini at all costs, has SFA to do with the Schism story.

Andy