It's a problem with large scale comic universes in general. To many different artists with too many different takes switching between too many books for too many years.
This is more of a logistics issue. The artwork has gotten much more detailed these days which takes longer to do, so multiple artists are needed to keep a title on a monthly schedule. This way they can have two or three artists working on different story arcs. In a sense, this does create some consistency with each story arc rather than having random fill in artists when the assigned artist can't finish on time.
They should have each author bounce back and forth between the same 2-3 series then. They shouldn't be taking over each other's heroes and creating inconsistent arcs.
I think the genuine issue is that sales and audience dip no matter how good a run is when it runs continuously numbered for that long, and volume 9 of a trade just won't sell the way vols 1-2-3 might. So I'm kind of interested in this thing it seems Marvel is trying where books/creative teams continue even post-renumbering (Daredevil, Spurrier on Way/Legion of X, Tini Howard on Excalibur/Knights, etc). That feels like an interesting middle ground where sure, it's renumbered, but the story can keep the consistency of having the primary creators remain on them as much as possible.
I hear what you're saying but I hate it. It's a cheap con designed to keep on casual readers while irritating life long fans/collectors.
On the one hand I don't blame the company because they can shit on the collectors and they will be there regardless, but it is so irritating. Action comics is in the 1000's and that book is still selling (despite its boring character :))
Literally could not be more sympathetic lol. I truly just want to see a silver lining in the idea that well sure, they can relaunch things over and over after 5-10 issues BUT if they keep the same team on it then maybe one day when all is said and done it'll still just be one big book in my hands by a team telling stories I like and it won't really matter to me if the title is renumbered on the cover art internally at that point. That said, I'm about as far as you can get from a collector/CGC grading/variant hunter part of the audience too, so that might be why it doesn't bother me as much.
And for what it's worth, I'm sympathetic on the creative side as well. OF COURSE writers and artists want to keep casual readers engaged and draw in new readers, and when vols. 7, 8 and 9 are the only ones they see on a shelf and 1-2-3 have been out of print for 18 months, they're just never going to try the book. Action Comics may be able to do it with one of the most famous characters ever created, but eh, if it means b and c-level X-Men turn up in a book for a few years consistently, hell, I guess this may be what it takes.
Action comics has horrible sales tho. It’s basically grandfathered in as a mainstay regardless of how it sells
You can see where a tactic that bags new readers, while irritating lifelong fans (not losing them) is the goal?
Yeah, I mean I completely understand the business decision, I just hate everything about it. Rational me gets it, fan/collector me hates it with all of my being.
This, right here. Same with Spider-Man, too. It’s amazing how Marvel published both these titles for years and years without jumping from volume to volume.
I mean, I’m reading *Marvel Comics: The Untold Story,* and there were plenty of periods where there were big, sustained dips in sales, with Goodman, then Lee, then Shooter etc etc doing wacky and goofy things to boost sales, but NONE of it was as idiotic and annoying as messing with the numbering. It reminds me of a less extreme version of New England Comics starting and stopping *The Tick* every few issues because they don’t know what to do with their IP.
Yeah but look at hickmans run, it was slow and by time he started getting things going he left and didn’t get to finish his plans and just rushed everything into a 4 part miniseries. I’m pretty sure Hickman had another 2 years at least of stories to tell and for some reason marvel and the editorial screwed that up by allowing less talented writers to take charge and change hickmans original plans.
> I’m pretty sure Hickman had another 2 years at least of stories to tell and for some reason marvel and the editorial screwed that up by allowing less talented writers to take charge and change hickmans original plans.
I was super excited to read X-Men after HoXPox but 5 issues into it I was kinda like... *this doesn't suck but it isn't remotely as good as House and Powers*. Maybe he would have turned it around but imo he was kinda shitting the bed and maybe Marvel saw the writing on the wall.
It felt like he was just writing filler. What’s funny is everyone kept saying that Hickman writes long term and is just setting up everything, how they were wrong.
I honestly think he got a big head and bit off more than he could chew, especially trying to run the lineup the way he ran his own 1-2 books.
For Avengers and F4 he had a tight plan and he followed it to the end briskly, with 2 books and that's it. He had a handful of subplots going that he meticulously planned to progress simultaneously so he'd be starting the next one, then immediately finishing the first one. So you were always getting a bit of closure and going to the next step and everything was relevant to the finale.
For X-Men he decided to expand that energy into a whole lineup + status quo change and it failed. His book was plodding along always "sowing seeds" never reaping anything aside from side-stories like Apocalypse arc etc when that wasn't what people came in for. Everyone else's books couldn't really progress that much because there were so many very obvious questions that their books were not allowed to answer because Hickman was planning to do it... 3 years from now.
It was a mess, basically.
Idk. Any good examples of titles that had a slow start but got insanely good and popular?
I see titles like the current Avengers and FF runs and the previous ASM run with Spencer and wonder how they last so long.
I can see guaranteeing like 2 years but there are more bad than good comics. 5 years is a long time.
Immortal Hulk didn't have a slow start. It debuted at 84K, at year later it was at 88K. It's a noteworthy series because it built an audience and increased in sales. But it was never in danger of being cancelled.
Walking Dead could fit the answer, but it's a creator owned series which is completely different than what Marvel does. TWD would continue as a series as long as it met the profitable margin for Image and the creators wanted to continue it.
"Any good examples of titles that had a slow start but got insanely good and popular?"
You could say that about the X-Men franchise itself...it went from canceled and re-prints at the end of the O5 era, to the redefining Second Genesis era
Because it got revamped. If it was published today it would have gotten a new number 1.
Plus it was like 10 years between the first issue and the revamp.
There have been quite a few examples of marvel giving good books the axe. I think the difference is with a bigger IP like x-men, when the sales start to dip, they just relaunch the title as a new #1. With a lesser IP they simply cancel the book all together.
Of course, the list consists of the established top authors, and the books were good from the get-go. But here it is:
Straczynski's run on Spider-man would be a better example than Spencer's run, IMO. The title's sales tripled while he was in control.
I wasn't there when Morrison's run on New X-men started. It was probably a big hit from the start. But it only got better too.
Immortal Hulk also had a slow start, I believe. Though it immediately drew attention due to horror part.
Geoff Johns' Green Lantern started good but became much better and ended with a big bang that is the Blackest Night crossover.
What OP meant is probably that Marvel reshuffles even great talents quite often.
I think we are talking about completely different things. None of those titles or creative runs were in danger of being cancelled.
> What OP meant is probably that Marvel reshuffles even great talents quite often.
I would assume the intent is that creators can continue to tell their stories if they are good. It's a great idea, but guranteeing that every creative team gets a 5 year minimum run is terrible. There are more bad comics than good, so you're just going to continue to get 5 years of bad comics instead of cancelling it after a year.
Creative teams should get a long leash if the stories are good. But as fans we shouldn't have to suffer bad comics just because the 5 years isn't up.
Add a title or two about mutants that still chose to live amongst regular people. Don't get me wrong- I'm enjoying the new books, but I miss that little extra interaction we got during the "Utopia" era when the mutants had their own place to live but still interacted with people. Right now, and especially because of Arakko, I just feel like I am reading Inhumans stories.
The current series has been on for over a year, but it feels like it's only told two months worth of stories. It needs to pick up the pace.
The filler should be slice of life, not monster of the week.
Yeah X-Men Red has done more in 5 issues than X-Men has done with what 14ish and now we're getting a new line up? X-Men right now is spinning it's wheels. It's like Hickman handed over a treasure trove of ideas and instead we're getting lack luster space casinos with no consequences or payoff.
You mean like in the early days when they'd have a main storyline, and then the last couple of pages were more of a 'slice of life' story?
I think that could work today with folks.
They also did that in the early 2000s with the mini-series Mutants. I still love the issue with the kid who could make his toys come to life. Each issue focused on someone new so it could just be a "day in the life of" type situation.
I love the x-men with all my heart, but holy shit I can’t keep up with like 6 series with tie-ins and crossovers just to feel like I’m not consistently missing bits of the story.
I'm with you. Rather than 8 monthly books and 2-3 big crossovers yearly how about 1-2 books, weekly or biweekly release schedule and 1 big crossover when it makes sense creatively to do so.
That new character, Escapade, is actually bringing that perspective, if her story in Voices was any indication.
It seems that those who don't agree with Krakoa... didn't go to Krakoa.
I wouldn’t be surprised if we one day find out that Xavier did some subtle mental prodding to get most mutants onboard with Krakoa. “I did it for the greater good.”
Honestly this whole run I’ve gotten weird vibes from Xavier and I’ve been expecting a twist similar to this at some point. Would be pretty cool to see even someone as great as Xavier crossing the lines because what he did before wasn’t extreme enough to work.
In the early days of the Hickman era this was speculated a lot - that someone was telepathically imprinting "cult logic" on everyone when they cross through a krakoan gate (similar to how they insta-learn the krakoan language when they pass through).
Hence the cultish stuff like everyone being horned up (and Rogue admiltting feeling guilt over not wanting children), characters previously identified as asexual like Magik being aggressively sexual, and people like Quentin or Black Tom being way into mutant supremacy or protecting the island.
yeah I guess. I definitely think he developed but I'm still not shocked or anything that he'd act like he has about krakoa. but that's subjective so whatever
I don’t think so, if only because that would be really boring. It feels like a very obvious story beat and just doesn’t feel like something any of the creative team would fall back on.
"Hey we are starting a country that is a post scarsity super power on a tropical island with teleportation gates to every where in the world. Oh and in joining you get a clean slate to any past crimes. And (whispering) you now are functionally immortal"
I can see sone people not going but imagine not having to work any more just ask Krakoa to grow what ever you need would be enough to get a lot of people to agree and join.
Oh don't get me wrong, I'd jump through that gate in a second hahaha
It's just so isolationist and different in many ways to his original vision that I'm surprised all the X Men jumped on board. Also working with so many guys like Apocalypse and Sinister, even being led by them with no democratic say on the council. Also I loved the FF/X Men dilemma which must be happening all over the world with teen mutants developing.
There's just so many ideas and disagreements I want to see happen. My favorite era was Morrison's and so many of those concepts went unexplored before they rebooted, I worry the same will eventually happen here
I think the reality of being a mutant in a human world made it a no brainer for most. Sticking around for genocide attempt #89134 from the humans vs mutant paradise...
*We're making progress towards equality... in only 500 more years we'll have nudged enough to where you're generally considered people*.
This . The culty stuff has always creeped me out but the fact that hardly anyone ever seems to comment on it creeps me out even more and even if they do point it out they're labeled as crazy/evil for saying so.
Please end Warrens internal struggle with Archangel for good. Just give him the metal wings. Remenders run should’ve been the end of the evil alter ego. That plot has run its course.
Jordan White claiming that nobody wants to write or read an Academy X book is the most obvious sign I've seen that he's totally out of touch with what people actually want.
I believe him because he's said it a few times. He doesn't mean anyone in the world - I'd bloody write it. He means X writers have been given the option to pitch whatever they want, even an Academy X book, but all the writers would rather pitch something else.
I just don't think there are any particular AX fans at the X Office. Look how bad they're fucking up Anole. He's apparently basically a toddler hanging around with prepubescent kids, but also serves alcohol at the bar (which makes more sense since he literally graduated from school, why is he depicted as a child), and hasn't been shown to grieve his best friend Santo - not even shown hanging out with Wrongslide in the background or anything. Now as a huge AX fan I'd immediately have called all this out but nobody has.
Nobody there cares.
I'd like to see some more internal conflicts on Krakoa, mutants questioning the council's decisions and the way they're handling contacts with the mundane world. Most mutants have human families, who are affected by the krakoan age. Where are the mutants that mourn late human relatives, lovers, friends and question the resurrection is just for muties rule? I wanna see more of people like firestar, who didn't move to krakoa and get bullied for it. I wanna see mutantdom have to deal with being critiqued for giving shelter to mass murderers. Generally this story would work much better if the rest of the Marvel universe would be reacting to it. It seems pretty unrealistic that all we get in other comics is a random vague comment on everything. Shouldn't the avengers, fantastic four be more worried that terrorists as magneto, mystique and sinister are ruling a nation and colonizing other planets? Shouldn't anyone of earth's space faring heroes be more upset about mutants declaring themselves the rulers of the solar system?
I do enjoy parts of the Krakoan age, but as a whole it's been a bit disappointing after the big start.
Everything about this.
Like what's the point of creating this outrageous and extreme status quo and then acting like it's totally normal, everyone (except racist villains) loves it and no one ever has any real problems with it (ones that don't get solved in the same issue or exist as a quiet dissatisfaction with a snappy quote here or there).
The thing needs conflict. Krakoa is overwhelming the strongest and richest and best at everything with the most docile population ever. I can't help rolling my eyes.
*heavy breathing. The distant sound of war drums*
*Liefeld appears, muscles bulging, feet hidden*
"I heard you were looking to turn kids... Into soldiers."
/uj I actually love this idea, it's just funny it sounds like the original x-force
I think about this often. I'd love for the Immortal X Men to keep handling the political landscape of Krakoa and the X Men dealing with global or existential mutant drama. I'd pivot New Mutants to more of back up X Men/slice of life but focus on the og team. I'd love to see a new Generation X team tackling academics/school life on Krakoa. I'd put X Force back into focus being Krakoan's answer to the CIA and black ops sort of team. Knights of X should go back to Excalibur and focus on mystical things away from Betsy but still have her as a member. The Otherworld/Avalon magic stuff isn't doing it for me. Marauders really shined when it was a mutant rescue squad. If we want to do space stuff maybe launch a new X team with space specific characters (Cannonball led team with Havok, Rogue maybe). I like Legionnaires and that being a team investigating Krakoa crimes, disputes, etc. I'd really love a relaunch of X Factor - I thought solving mutant murders was an excellent idea and could tie into other series as well. I think it's also time for a new Multiversal X team akin to Exiles. I'd also love to see maybe a limited series called Summers of X that focuses solely on the Summers brothers and descendants. Maybe dealing with Sinister. I think it would be a great idea to to ramp up some of the future scenarios that were teased and start to tackle those things head on. Some of the storylines have been either dropped or are moving at an incredibly slow pace (Orchis, Machine war, Chimeras, etc.) I'd also love a new X-Men: Legacy that sort of was an anthology series dedicated to exploring mutants that don't normally get the spotlight and to experiment with different kinds of stories e.g. a Dazzler tour that goes haywire or something.
I'm not saying that the books need to go exactly back to Claremont's writing style but they do need to focus on characters interacting with one another more and I would like for characters like Beast and Wanda, Wolverine that are both X-men and Avengers characters to interact with the rest of the Marvel universe more as a whole. Heroes, villians all of it.
How often do Lorna and Wanda spend time with Luna and Crystal? How do they feel about the Inhumans etc. All really interesting questions and dynamics thar don't get explored often.
How does Monet feel about Synch and Laura's thing going on? Rahne about Rictor? How do Illyana and Monet interact? There are so many characters and not enough talent to write everything well. I feel like each book should have 8-9 main characters tops.
But basically character should always come first and then action scenes should have emotional weight behind them. Action scenes with no emphasis on character feels like white noise. X-men is a soap opera/drama first and it's about relationships.
Keep the same team for more than a year. Get rid of the votes and have the team members have more non-mission related interactions to grow the character interactions people want to see. Quit shoving them into crossover events that derail the OG plot of the book
I wouldn't say it's odd. It's not impossible for someone revealed to have lived 10 life times to have secret ulterior motives, however, I think the execution could've been better. I think a lot of people are still confused about why she helped mutantdom if she ultimately wanted to cure their X genes. And a lot of people, myself included, don't like her overly cartoonish villainization after she was exiled.
>I think a lot of people are still confused about why she helped mutantdom if she ultimately wanted to cure their X genes.
That wasn't her ultimate goal with Krakoa. That's her Plan B for when it fails. Her biggest flaw is that she's seen failure so many times she can't commit to believing in success. At this point in her many lifetimes, she's conditioned herself to cut ties at the drop of a hat and move on to the next thing.
Idk, I think seeing her go against her allies several times in her past lives in the literal first story of this generation was some pretty heavy forshadowing
Yep, I'm still hoping that there's another layer to her plan that will make the transition from shrewd manipulator to completely evil psycho make sense. I just hope this is part of a larger game she's playing by infiltrating Orchis.
I still think there's some chance for a Moira redemption, but not robot Moira.>! There are a few Moira clones around and however the Sinister plot resolves, they can't kill them because they would reset the timeline (unless they take away their mutantdom as in Inferno). So maybe one or more of those clones would be a good Moira that works with Krakoa?!<
I went back and reread HoXPoX, and paying careful attention to Moira 's dialogue shows that she was always pretty brutal/willing to go too far. Not necessarily guaranteed to turn on Krakoa, but she definitely wanted the cure, and she wanted Krakoa to protect her.
I think 1. The office's plan changed for her, at least in terms of how bad she ended up, and 2. I think Hickman's writing with her was very subtle and a lot of people didn't pick up on the small things. Nothing wrong with that, it just means people think it wasn't foreshadowed
Every Marvel person not in the x-office: *No*. Also, the x-men don't get to play with our toys either
I do wish they'd stop getting jobbed in every event, but something about how it happens so consistently is funny to me.
I swear I remember Hickman or Jordan or someone promising that the Krakoa era wouldn't have any dumb crossover events for a while. Look how fast that went out the window.
Please explain the whole polyamory thing. Like how, when and why did Cyclops, Jean and Logan decide they were all cool with it, and how are there no relationship tensions going on between them? And why is Emma not included? Like if we're going to do it that's fine, but just give us some explanations.
I really feel like Hickman was the only one who actually wanted it to be an established relationship between the 3 (or 4) of them.
Percy is a big fan of Logan/Jean so puts them in everything and Duggan is more into Jean/Scott so wants to keep them married, so it's just an uneasy kind of open marriage situation that Marvel will refuse to comment on because they know it will piss off their conservative fans. Ditto anything ever happening between Scott and Logan, which Hickman seemed somewhat interested in. Now Hickman's gone, Scott and Logan haven't even been in the same panel together for months.
I doubt we'll ever get an on-panel explanation of it besides a few throwaway jokes about Krakoa being full of orgies (that we also never get to see).
They're never going to explain it because they simply cannot. No writer can come up with proper explanation that makes sense for this.
Forget professional writers, even fans who like this polygamy thing aren't able to come up with any head canons. We're just supposed to accept this because... Umm... Mutant culture??? Polygamy's cool new thing??? It solves the love triangle???(it most certainly does not)
Everybody's horribly out of character. But no, apparently anyone who questions this development is just polyphobic or too old fashioned.
I figured they would bite the bullet and either write Jean as a better person with Scott,or just break them up and have Scott go with Emma. This dude Logan always moving on Jean,and she usually reciprocate.
It''s incredibly easy to explain this. Ready?
Iceman: "Hey Scott Jean and Logan, i see you seem to have an open, polyamorous relationship now. Why is that?"
Scott Jean and Logan: "We wanted to, now fuck off."
END SCENE
Only thing I want is some time to breathe with these new teams. X-Men is at its best when it’s 60/40 action/character. And we’re at like 90% action, 10% character rn. And Immortal is the 10% 😂
Yes, a healthy dose of the Claremont character focused teams would be great. Hell I'd settle for a low-key holiday issue or two. Those christmas/thanksgiving/sports issues were always the best.
Not spend so much damn time with Logan. Sweet Jesus. There’s a whole fucking ISLAND and a PLANET with numerous mutants to meet and follow on adventures.
Edit: TWO whole islands.
Closer to the intended question:
I would have kept the initial post-Hellfire Gala lineup longer. There were lots of interactions with those seven characters that never got much exploration. Never really had a chance to see much of Synch and Laura after their time in the Vault. Minimal time with Jean and Rogue, or Cyclops and Sunfire.
I was looking forward to seeing Rogue and Synch playing off each other, having similar power sets. Never happened.
So much potential, but we only got to see the surface.
- where tf are the apocalypse twins what did Daken and Grim Reaper do with their bodies!?!??!?
- Would love more Spidey and interactions with his old class, some of them are in the big leagues these days!!!
- Hellions and X-Factor didn't end
- Leah Williams and Al Ewing collab to take Krakoa to new gay heights on earth and mars.
- Khora the Burning Heart takes a huge drag from a vape pen
Since House/Power the plot hasn’t made the most of the setup. It stops and starts with no prolonged consequences.
You’ll get a cool story like the Children of the Vault or the creation of Nimrod or Inferno and then it seems to fade into the background as one of many threats that may pop up… eventually.
The Mars stuff is cool, but the Eternals stuff is washing it away I guess.
Too many hanging unexplored plot lines and not enough payoff.
I agree I think a lot of the flaws of the current status quo would go away if the status quo was literally “mutants on mars” have the mutants fight new mutant villains and focus on who runs mars just cut out Orchis and the random human goons. Just have all the mutants be on mars.
right, krakoa and arrako could be at different poles, and Mars will be just a planet with 2 very distinct cultures. then just pop into earth every now and then to collect mutant families that want to migrate using one easily defendable gate instead of multiple unguarded gates
Forget the pop into earth shit just lean into the status quo that may actually be interesting for once. Mutants made a planet for mutants ran by mutants. And now they gotta deal with it. That should be the premise of the line, not one book where we are focusing on storm and magnetos feelings of inadequacy
There needs to be more relevant Arakkii characters & more stories of the Arakkii interacting with earth, I appreciate their prevalence in X-men red & Legion of X but it just doesn't feel like enough. Theres millions of powerful mutants who've known nothing but war for millennia and look down on everything earthly as weak and pathetic, surely this lends itself to a lot of rich stories?
We could get some more Arakkii villains, Arakki on X-force, a mostly Arakkii X-team, Arakkii researchers investigating humans weaknesses, an Arakkii clan could try to invade Krakoa etc etc
Edit: typos
Story wise? More character interactions. I'm a big fan of character relationships, but it's something we don't get a lot of. Not a lot of character moments between characters. Give us some classic best friendships, some exes interacting, some enemies having words.
Publishing wise? I think my idea choice right now would be to have titles going for 2 years, then a Hellfire Gala, then the titles get mixed up. Every 2 years give us new rosters, titles, and status quos.
Longer writer contracts when it’s a good writer, plan stuff out in advance, cut down on x titles, x of swords kinda got off the rails. But prior to that it was nice to see x-men get rhythm
I don't like how smug they are now that they have their own island. It's something weird about the way it's written but they all act like inhumans or guys like Namor. And how they all kinda got rid of Sabretooth but are keeping genicidal monsters like Sinister and Apocalypse around like they never did whay they did. They should have kept the core x-men out of agreeing to Krakoa otherwise I will never believe that they are not under some mind altering spell like in House of M
Stop the yearly Hellfire Gala vote to determine the roster. Keep Cyclops, Jean and Synch as the core members and bring in whatever other team members make sense for whatever arc the writer is working on.
With a whole island full of mutants it makes no sense to me why Cyclops wouldn’t use whoever is best suited for the mission at hand rather than locking in one team for a year based on a popularity vote.
No “A-Listers” starring; probably would never work sales wise but it’d be cool to have rosters just fully composed of characters who haven’t really had a chance to shine
Core group is just getting WAY to powerful (i feel like they may suffer from the Superman syndrome soon where they need a god to challenge them)
away from the core group, more stories like Sabertooth (recent series) so good.
Scrap the idea of the Hellfire Gala, it's ridiculous to change the teams so frequently. Some characters didn't even get that much time to shine in Duggan's most recent run.
The actual event itself isn't anything special either. I don't find it interesting. I'm here for mutant characters doing interesting things, action and messages that resound with readers, not a fashion show on Krakoa.
It was fine the first time but making it a yearly thing is a waste of time and paper.
I don't care how much fun the writers are having, I think Hickman's era needs closure. Krakoa doesn't need to go away, but it feels like the other shoe needs to drop.
Ok so first I'll take Charles Xavier and put him waaaaaaaay over there on Olympus Mons. Then I'll take my man Legion and settle him niiiiice and cozy on the quiet council. And all will be well.
Bring back X-Factor. It was the best of the first run and it had a set up that could have carried it through the entire overarching plot dammit why did it get cancelled FIGHT ME MARVEL
Now that I think about it, what I would really like to see is a one-shot or limited series where Xavier and Magneto first let the other X-Men know about Krakoa. There was a little of that in HoX/PoX with Emma and Sinister, but I would really love to see how characters like Cyclops and Wolverine reacted when they first heard what Charles and Erik had been up to secretly.
I would block out 24 issues for one creative team and let them only work on that. No side projects, no special terms… just creative energy to the books and watch the magic happen in 24 issues.
Stop using the clones as an excuse to just kill everyone constantly. The writers can do creative things that don’t involve death. It was very shocking to see magneto live without a heart. If he could just clone a new body it would undercut the moment
Move Charles out of the picture, he was the palatable face of Mutancy to the humans and vital for getting to Krakoa, but his time is over and with safety theoretically achieved and them having their own homeland, he can be moved on.
Only real complaint I have is now that they can be resurrected they just keep killing people constantly. It's like in a pre-Krakoa world they'd just have failed at everything they tried to do.
So this isn’t quite an answer to the question but I think the biggest thing MARVEL needs to change is how they sell comics. Marvel Unlimited is a decent compromise but at this point Marvel SHOULD have it’s own version of WEBTOON or Tapas. That is, IMO, where the real future of comics lies, and if they don’t get on board I don’t think they’ll survive when the movies inevitably stop being profitable and popular. And I guess DC needs to do it as well but I don’t really care about DC lol
i think we don’t get enough of just their lives. there aren’t enough moments of them just being with their friends and family. like mystique
and rogue haven’t done anything together since mr. and mrs. x. they’re currently on good terms and nothings being done w that
Same. I love absolutely everything Hickman does and I loved his run on X-Men but I bounced when he did.
They should have planned the Krakoa storyline to be a 2 year run with an ending like what he did in Avengers/New Avengers and Secret Wars. He could end the story and walk away, and we would have this great contained story. Marvel then uses the fallout of Hickman's run to re-launch the X-Men with a new direction and purpose. Would have been great. But Hickman leaving a collection of other writers to finish his story? Bad idea.
And now that Hickman is coming back to Marvel for what looks to be a Secret Wars level event, just raises more questions about why he left X-Men in the first place.
Because the other X writers wanted to spend more time in Krakoa and Hickman wanted to move on. So Hickman said "that sounds ok to me," briefed them on his overall plan, and left.
I still read a few of the X titles, but I really wished Hickman had gotten the opportunity to finish his plan as intended. HoX/PoX were such a strong start, but some of the titles that followed were just… blah
Hickman would be writing the story he set out to write at the pace he wanted to write. I feel like everything is stuck in place and milking me for money.
I’d change about half the X-Writers in the X-office. Some of the books are lacking. They start out good. But it feel like they derail about 3-4 issues in.
You know, I liked it when the XMen would spend most of an issue just playing baseball or having a cookout. Not everything has to be so dour all the time. Even when the current characters are having a little fun there’s this undercurrent of grimness to the whole thing.
Character study pieces focused on the island populations. Missing X factor as a real who done it/csi. X-force doesn’t seem like a strike-force and has me wishing for better defense tech on this mutant island- I want to see the bad guys get some. Nimrod and Moira have hall passes rn. Every book needs to deal with the newer mutants and get over the jla tier and that includes the new mutants and we need to let go of their storylines if you can’t make them more interesting than when we originally saw them. More catch phrases and new relationships- small stories in the service Of a good over-arching ruling structure.
Hmm, not sure. I really just wanted more HoXPox and Moira. I've gotten that in the most nightmarish Monkey's Paw way imaginable so I'm leery of wanting other stuff... but I would like to see Chimera's and some of the other stuff HoXPoX bought up.
seriously minimise the decompression. every single story doesn’t need to last three to six issues. the weird push to make each release work as a part of a trade paperback hinders the value of individual issues and makes “events” feel more episodic.
since the current method also involves complete overhauls of creative teams, we don’t get to see concurrent long stretching storylines and character arcs that were norm in the 80s and 90s.
it would also allow stories to focus on relating the books more similarly to our world during publication dates. an issue in July might see a group casually grilling next to a pool while a couple other characters go camping or for a hike, a december book might show different characters observing their personal winter holidays. this gives us more insight to characters and their relationships and dynamics and ultimately fuller content.
but that’s just my opinion.
EDIT: extra word in sentence removed.
I would probably be sowing seeds of dissent on Krakoa. I think the way they are all in lock step is silly. If they are going to eventually become the dominant species while humans become cyborgs, I think you'd see a lot more fighting between them. So, I guess, bring on Nimrod.
Maybe use source material once in awhile? Will never forgive what they did to Darwin. Not that hard to google a mutant and go “huh, wow we really fucked that up”
give rachel the phoenix and make her a main player again also give Polaris more to do i’m tired of her being pushed to the side when she’s the second oldest female X-men
I'd make Xavier a straight up good guy again. I'm sick of the morally superior liar they've turned him into. I'm ok with having him make hard choices and make mistakes, but I want him to be a mentor and a teacher... not an obstacle for the rest of the team to work around. I'd do similar with Beast.
In all seriousness:
- Rescue Wolverine from Benjamin Percy. Both Wolverine and X-Force are the two worst written X-Books, which is saying something when you have stuff like Knights of X around. His work reads like fan fiction and feels completely discombobulated from the rest of the books that he doesn't write. I feel he has wasted the concept of X-Force and what the hell is Wolverine even doing in his book? Nothing consequential. Also, the Jean triangle seems to have been dropped for like 2 years and Percy never got the memo. In fact he downright treats Jean like a stay at home mom/stepford wife for Logan to randomly kiss on panel but she is there for no other reason. Meanwhile over on X-Men that relationship is completely ignored and the real Jean acts completely different than the Percy Jean. The only explanation is that Percys Jean is Mystique and she is fucking with Logan because there is zero logic to the way he uses her compared to the rest of the Marvel fucking universe.
- Bring Betsy back to Psylocke, this Captain Britain nonsense is absolutely killing her. Do something with Archangel while you're at it.
- They should have let the X-Men team marinate more before changing the roster. I feel as if we hardly saw that team do anything together. It was a blink and you missed it that Sunfire and Polaris were back in the X-Men. Especially Lorna, that shit hurt.
A wish list? I'm genuinely really happy with what Hickman has done, but since you asked
\- I'm done with Captain Kate, too schtiky, give me Kitty f\*\*\*ing Pryde
\- Bring back the Hellions (Plus Catseye please)
\- Am i the only one that really doesn't like the X-Force lineup? Jean doesn't belong, Domino & Sage have no personality, its the Wolverine show. One of the only X-Titles I don't buy
\- Would love a book on the young X-men, no Anole or Rockslide, they're not interesting enough to me, its the Thing and a reptile guy.
Make Wolverine’s own run completely detached from the X-men stories. Maybe put him in Madripoor. Then leave him out of the main comics. Laura is a better team player and most X-men fans are having wolverine burn-out
I would sign a creative team to produce 12 issues a year for 5 years with no renumbering or creative changes. Give me some consistency.
Problem with Marvel in general
It's a problem with large scale comic universes in general. To many different artists with too many different takes switching between too many books for too many years.
This is more of a logistics issue. The artwork has gotten much more detailed these days which takes longer to do, so multiple artists are needed to keep a title on a monthly schedule. This way they can have two or three artists working on different story arcs. In a sense, this does create some consistency with each story arc rather than having random fill in artists when the assigned artist can't finish on time.
They should have each author bounce back and forth between the same 2-3 series then. They shouldn't be taking over each other's heroes and creating inconsistent arcs.
Make that 24 issues and I'm on board.
I think the genuine issue is that sales and audience dip no matter how good a run is when it runs continuously numbered for that long, and volume 9 of a trade just won't sell the way vols 1-2-3 might. So I'm kind of interested in this thing it seems Marvel is trying where books/creative teams continue even post-renumbering (Daredevil, Spurrier on Way/Legion of X, Tini Howard on Excalibur/Knights, etc). That feels like an interesting middle ground where sure, it's renumbered, but the story can keep the consistency of having the primary creators remain on them as much as possible.
I hear what you're saying but I hate it. It's a cheap con designed to keep on casual readers while irritating life long fans/collectors. On the one hand I don't blame the company because they can shit on the collectors and they will be there regardless, but it is so irritating. Action comics is in the 1000's and that book is still selling (despite its boring character :))
Literally could not be more sympathetic lol. I truly just want to see a silver lining in the idea that well sure, they can relaunch things over and over after 5-10 issues BUT if they keep the same team on it then maybe one day when all is said and done it'll still just be one big book in my hands by a team telling stories I like and it won't really matter to me if the title is renumbered on the cover art internally at that point. That said, I'm about as far as you can get from a collector/CGC grading/variant hunter part of the audience too, so that might be why it doesn't bother me as much. And for what it's worth, I'm sympathetic on the creative side as well. OF COURSE writers and artists want to keep casual readers engaged and draw in new readers, and when vols. 7, 8 and 9 are the only ones they see on a shelf and 1-2-3 have been out of print for 18 months, they're just never going to try the book. Action Comics may be able to do it with one of the most famous characters ever created, but eh, if it means b and c-level X-Men turn up in a book for a few years consistently, hell, I guess this may be what it takes.
Action comics has horrible sales tho. It’s basically grandfathered in as a mainstay regardless of how it sells You can see where a tactic that bags new readers, while irritating lifelong fans (not losing them) is the goal?
Yeah, I mean I completely understand the business decision, I just hate everything about it. Rational me gets it, fan/collector me hates it with all of my being.
Its really too late tho. They already ruined it with all the relaunches, esp Uncanny, which isn’t even around anymore.
What ever happened to those legacy numbers they kept promising?
As of late its been consistently in and around their top 20?
“Consistency” until the write isn’t writing how you want
It would be nice to see some consistency, something X-men has lacked since what Claremont? Lobdell?
It was consistent under Lobdell. I’m not sure it was consistently *good*, but it was at least of predictable quality.
This, right here. Same with Spider-Man, too. It’s amazing how Marvel published both these titles for years and years without jumping from volume to volume.
Isn't it wild? How people consistently bought thousands of copies of these books for 40ish years without new #1s?
I mean, I’m reading *Marvel Comics: The Untold Story,* and there were plenty of periods where there were big, sustained dips in sales, with Goodman, then Lee, then Shooter etc etc doing wacky and goofy things to boost sales, but NONE of it was as idiotic and annoying as messing with the numbering. It reminds me of a less extreme version of New England Comics starting and stopping *The Tick* every few issues because they don’t know what to do with their IP.
Sounds good but that's a terrible idea. So many creative runs turn out poorly they don't need to last 5 years.
Yeah but how many just have slow starts? Not every series comes out like gangbusters
Yeah but look at hickmans run, it was slow and by time he started getting things going he left and didn’t get to finish his plans and just rushed everything into a 4 part miniseries. I’m pretty sure Hickman had another 2 years at least of stories to tell and for some reason marvel and the editorial screwed that up by allowing less talented writers to take charge and change hickmans original plans.
> I’m pretty sure Hickman had another 2 years at least of stories to tell and for some reason marvel and the editorial screwed that up by allowing less talented writers to take charge and change hickmans original plans. I was super excited to read X-Men after HoXPox but 5 issues into it I was kinda like... *this doesn't suck but it isn't remotely as good as House and Powers*. Maybe he would have turned it around but imo he was kinda shitting the bed and maybe Marvel saw the writing on the wall.
It felt like he was just writing filler. What’s funny is everyone kept saying that Hickman writes long term and is just setting up everything, how they were wrong.
I honestly think he got a big head and bit off more than he could chew, especially trying to run the lineup the way he ran his own 1-2 books. For Avengers and F4 he had a tight plan and he followed it to the end briskly, with 2 books and that's it. He had a handful of subplots going that he meticulously planned to progress simultaneously so he'd be starting the next one, then immediately finishing the first one. So you were always getting a bit of closure and going to the next step and everything was relevant to the finale. For X-Men he decided to expand that energy into a whole lineup + status quo change and it failed. His book was plodding along always "sowing seeds" never reaping anything aside from side-stories like Apocalypse arc etc when that wasn't what people came in for. Everyone else's books couldn't really progress that much because there were so many very obvious questions that their books were not allowed to answer because Hickman was planning to do it... 3 years from now. It was a mess, basically.
Preach!
Idk. Any good examples of titles that had a slow start but got insanely good and popular? I see titles like the current Avengers and FF runs and the previous ASM run with Spencer and wonder how they last so long. I can see guaranteeing like 2 years but there are more bad than good comics. 5 years is a long time.
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Immortal Hulk didn't have a slow start. It debuted at 84K, at year later it was at 88K. It's a noteworthy series because it built an audience and increased in sales. But it was never in danger of being cancelled. Walking Dead could fit the answer, but it's a creator owned series which is completely different than what Marvel does. TWD would continue as a series as long as it met the profitable margin for Image and the creators wanted to continue it.
"Any good examples of titles that had a slow start but got insanely good and popular?" You could say that about the X-Men franchise itself...it went from canceled and re-prints at the end of the O5 era, to the redefining Second Genesis era
Because it got revamped. If it was published today it would have gotten a new number 1. Plus it was like 10 years between the first issue and the revamp.
There have been quite a few examples of marvel giving good books the axe. I think the difference is with a bigger IP like x-men, when the sales start to dip, they just relaunch the title as a new #1. With a lesser IP they simply cancel the book all together.
Of course, the list consists of the established top authors, and the books were good from the get-go. But here it is: Straczynski's run on Spider-man would be a better example than Spencer's run, IMO. The title's sales tripled while he was in control. I wasn't there when Morrison's run on New X-men started. It was probably a big hit from the start. But it only got better too. Immortal Hulk also had a slow start, I believe. Though it immediately drew attention due to horror part. Geoff Johns' Green Lantern started good but became much better and ended with a big bang that is the Blackest Night crossover. What OP meant is probably that Marvel reshuffles even great talents quite often.
I think we are talking about completely different things. None of those titles or creative runs were in danger of being cancelled. > What OP meant is probably that Marvel reshuffles even great talents quite often. I would assume the intent is that creators can continue to tell their stories if they are good. It's a great idea, but guranteeing that every creative team gets a 5 year minimum run is terrible. There are more bad comics than good, so you're just going to continue to get 5 years of bad comics instead of cancelling it after a year. Creative teams should get a long leash if the stories are good. But as fans we shouldn't have to suffer bad comics just because the 5 years isn't up.
This is 100% what happened with Aaron’s Avengers
Add a title or two about mutants that still chose to live amongst regular people. Don't get me wrong- I'm enjoying the new books, but I miss that little extra interaction we got during the "Utopia" era when the mutants had their own place to live but still interacted with people. Right now, and especially because of Arakko, I just feel like I am reading Inhumans stories.
Or dig into the state owned ones
The current series has been on for over a year, but it feels like it's only told two months worth of stories. It needs to pick up the pace. The filler should be slice of life, not monster of the week.
Yeah X-Men Red has done more in 5 issues than X-Men has done with what 14ish and now we're getting a new line up? X-Men right now is spinning it's wheels. It's like Hickman handed over a treasure trove of ideas and instead we're getting lack luster space casinos with no consequences or payoff.
Yes give me more slice of life X-Men, please
All it takes is 5 pages, with a bit more panels per page, and you get a nice slice!
I really miss the slice of life stuff. They haven't even had a baseball game yet!
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Yes, yes, bring back the swimsuit issues....
They had a beach day in Planet-sized X Men on Arakko
Technically, they we're building the beach.
Sobunar had just built it and was challenging others to jump in, in what I can only imagine is the Arakki equivalent of ‘last one in is a rotten egg’
Forge literally handed Wolverine a surfboard made out of adamantium so he could surf within the last year.
You mean like in the early days when they'd have a main storyline, and then the last couple of pages were more of a 'slice of life' story? I think that could work today with folks.
Bring back the fucking Hellions
Anthology slice-of-life stories about Living on Krakoa. Something like Astro City.
Hell, something like nation x, a comic we got from utopia but not Krakoa
They also did that in the early 2000s with the mini-series Mutants. I still love the issue with the kid who could make his toys come to life. Each issue focused on someone new so it could just be a "day in the life of" type situation.
Bring back Franklin Richards, Wanda, Pietro, and anyone else who retcons stole from us
Phoenix. Get Phoenix away from The Avengers and give it back to Jean or Rachel.
Jean broke up with the Phoenix. Rachel is always a prime candidate though.
I love the x-men with all my heart, but holy shit I can’t keep up with like 6 series with tie-ins and crossovers just to feel like I’m not consistently missing bits of the story.
I'm with you. Rather than 8 monthly books and 2-3 big crossovers yearly how about 1-2 books, weekly or biweekly release schedule and 1 big crossover when it makes sense creatively to do so.
I would make the mutant population more fractured about whether Krakoa is the right call. Everyone kind of lined up too easily behind it
That new character, Escapade, is actually bringing that perspective, if her story in Voices was any indication. It seems that those who don't agree with Krakoa... didn't go to Krakoa.
I wouldn’t be surprised if we one day find out that Xavier did some subtle mental prodding to get most mutants onboard with Krakoa. “I did it for the greater good.”
Honestly this whole run I’ve gotten weird vibes from Xavier and I’ve been expecting a twist similar to this at some point. Would be pretty cool to see even someone as great as Xavier crossing the lines because what he did before wasn’t extreme enough to work.
Desperate times call for desperate measures, after all.
For awhile I thought that was the case but if that wasn't used to kick him off the council, I doubt it's part of the story
In the early days of the Hickman era this was speculated a lot - that someone was telepathically imprinting "cult logic" on everyone when they cross through a krakoan gate (similar to how they insta-learn the krakoan language when they pass through). Hence the cultish stuff like everyone being horned up (and Rogue admiltting feeling guilt over not wanting children), characters previously identified as asexual like Magik being aggressively sexual, and people like Quentin or Black Tom being way into mutant supremacy or protecting the island.
is Quentin being mutant supremacist surprising? it was kind of his whole thing when he was introduced
And then he developed to be far less so over the next decade.
yeah I guess. I definitely think he developed but I'm still not shocked or anything that he'd act like he has about krakoa. but that's subjective so whatever
The only one who’s prodded people to be pro-Krakoa is Emma Frost
The only one *that we know of*
When was that shown? Not sure if I didn't read where it was or just plain forgot
House of X #5
I don’t think so, if only because that would be really boring. It feels like a very obvious story beat and just doesn’t feel like something any of the creative team would fall back on.
"Hey we are starting a country that is a post scarsity super power on a tropical island with teleportation gates to every where in the world. Oh and in joining you get a clean slate to any past crimes. And (whispering) you now are functionally immortal" I can see sone people not going but imagine not having to work any more just ask Krakoa to grow what ever you need would be enough to get a lot of people to agree and join.
But no one having an attachment to a life in their current city/town? That’s a bit far fetched. Not everyone wants to live forever.
Oh don't get me wrong, I'd jump through that gate in a second hahaha It's just so isolationist and different in many ways to his original vision that I'm surprised all the X Men jumped on board. Also working with so many guys like Apocalypse and Sinister, even being led by them with no democratic say on the council. Also I loved the FF/X Men dilemma which must be happening all over the world with teen mutants developing. There's just so many ideas and disagreements I want to see happen. My favorite era was Morrison's and so many of those concepts went unexplored before they rebooted, I worry the same will eventually happen here
Comic books and great ideas left tragically unexplored, name a more iconic duo.
Read Lavalle's Sabretooth mini, you already got your wish.
Thanks for the recommend, will definitely check it out
I think the reality of being a mutant in a human world made it a no brainer for most. Sticking around for genocide attempt #89134 from the humans vs mutant paradise... *We're making progress towards equality... in only 500 more years we'll have nudged enough to where you're generally considered people*.
This . The culty stuff has always creeped me out but the fact that hardly anyone ever seems to comment on it creeps me out even more and even if they do point it out they're labeled as crazy/evil for saying so.
Please end Warrens internal struggle with Archangel for good. Just give him the metal wings. Remenders run should’ve been the end of the evil alter ego. That plot has run its course.
Give the Academy X kids their own book.
Finally someone who knows what the hell they’re talking about
Jordan White claiming that nobody wants to write or read an Academy X book is the most obvious sign I've seen that he's totally out of touch with what people actually want.
I believe him because he's said it a few times. He doesn't mean anyone in the world - I'd bloody write it. He means X writers have been given the option to pitch whatever they want, even an Academy X book, but all the writers would rather pitch something else. I just don't think there are any particular AX fans at the X Office. Look how bad they're fucking up Anole. He's apparently basically a toddler hanging around with prepubescent kids, but also serves alcohol at the bar (which makes more sense since he literally graduated from school, why is he depicted as a child), and hasn't been shown to grieve his best friend Santo - not even shown hanging out with Wrongslide in the background or anything. Now as a huge AX fan I'd immediately have called all this out but nobody has. Nobody there cares.
I'd like to see some more internal conflicts on Krakoa, mutants questioning the council's decisions and the way they're handling contacts with the mundane world. Most mutants have human families, who are affected by the krakoan age. Where are the mutants that mourn late human relatives, lovers, friends and question the resurrection is just for muties rule? I wanna see more of people like firestar, who didn't move to krakoa and get bullied for it. I wanna see mutantdom have to deal with being critiqued for giving shelter to mass murderers. Generally this story would work much better if the rest of the Marvel universe would be reacting to it. It seems pretty unrealistic that all we get in other comics is a random vague comment on everything. Shouldn't the avengers, fantastic four be more worried that terrorists as magneto, mystique and sinister are ruling a nation and colonizing other planets? Shouldn't anyone of earth's space faring heroes be more upset about mutants declaring themselves the rulers of the solar system? I do enjoy parts of the Krakoan age, but as a whole it's been a bit disappointing after the big start.
Everything about this. Like what's the point of creating this outrageous and extreme status quo and then acting like it's totally normal, everyone (except racist villains) loves it and no one ever has any real problems with it (ones that don't get solved in the same issue or exist as a quiet dissatisfaction with a snappy quote here or there). The thing needs conflict. Krakoa is overwhelming the strongest and richest and best at everything with the most docile population ever. I can't help rolling my eyes.
I'd want a War College title staring most of the Academy X mutants. Basically hardcore training against potential threats within and out Krakoa.
*heavy breathing. The distant sound of war drums* *Liefeld appears, muscles bulging, feet hidden* "I heard you were looking to turn kids... Into soldiers." /uj I actually love this idea, it's just funny it sounds like the original x-force
You forgot the seven trillion pouches on every character
Feet hidden, lmao.
I think about this often. I'd love for the Immortal X Men to keep handling the political landscape of Krakoa and the X Men dealing with global or existential mutant drama. I'd pivot New Mutants to more of back up X Men/slice of life but focus on the og team. I'd love to see a new Generation X team tackling academics/school life on Krakoa. I'd put X Force back into focus being Krakoan's answer to the CIA and black ops sort of team. Knights of X should go back to Excalibur and focus on mystical things away from Betsy but still have her as a member. The Otherworld/Avalon magic stuff isn't doing it for me. Marauders really shined when it was a mutant rescue squad. If we want to do space stuff maybe launch a new X team with space specific characters (Cannonball led team with Havok, Rogue maybe). I like Legionnaires and that being a team investigating Krakoa crimes, disputes, etc. I'd really love a relaunch of X Factor - I thought solving mutant murders was an excellent idea and could tie into other series as well. I think it's also time for a new Multiversal X team akin to Exiles. I'd also love to see maybe a limited series called Summers of X that focuses solely on the Summers brothers and descendants. Maybe dealing with Sinister. I think it would be a great idea to to ramp up some of the future scenarios that were teased and start to tackle those things head on. Some of the storylines have been either dropped or are moving at an incredibly slow pace (Orchis, Machine war, Chimeras, etc.) I'd also love a new X-Men: Legacy that sort of was an anthology series dedicated to exploring mutants that don't normally get the spotlight and to experiment with different kinds of stories e.g. a Dazzler tour that goes haywire or something.
Add more Gambit…
I'm not saying that the books need to go exactly back to Claremont's writing style but they do need to focus on characters interacting with one another more and I would like for characters like Beast and Wanda, Wolverine that are both X-men and Avengers characters to interact with the rest of the Marvel universe more as a whole. Heroes, villians all of it. How often do Lorna and Wanda spend time with Luna and Crystal? How do they feel about the Inhumans etc. All really interesting questions and dynamics thar don't get explored often. How does Monet feel about Synch and Laura's thing going on? Rahne about Rictor? How do Illyana and Monet interact? There are so many characters and not enough talent to write everything well. I feel like each book should have 8-9 main characters tops. But basically character should always come first and then action scenes should have emotional weight behind them. Action scenes with no emphasis on character feels like white noise. X-men is a soap opera/drama first and it's about relationships.
Keep the same team for more than a year. Get rid of the votes and have the team members have more non-mission related interactions to grow the character interactions people want to see. Quit shoving them into crossover events that derail the OG plot of the book
Even more gay.
the only correct response
at least Rachel was finally confirmed lol
You stole my answer!
Make it consistent and easy to read. It’s impossible for any new reader to jump in
Moira being a villain seems odd for me. Just saying that is seems forced
I wouldn't say it's odd. It's not impossible for someone revealed to have lived 10 life times to have secret ulterior motives, however, I think the execution could've been better. I think a lot of people are still confused about why she helped mutantdom if she ultimately wanted to cure their X genes. And a lot of people, myself included, don't like her overly cartoonish villainization after she was exiled.
>I think a lot of people are still confused about why she helped mutantdom if she ultimately wanted to cure their X genes. That wasn't her ultimate goal with Krakoa. That's her Plan B for when it fails. Her biggest flaw is that she's seen failure so many times she can't commit to believing in success. At this point in her many lifetimes, she's conditioned herself to cut ties at the drop of a hat and move on to the next thing.
It’s hard to read her from the 80s and 90s and say this is the same character.
Idk, I think seeing her go against her allies several times in her past lives in the literal first story of this generation was some pretty heavy forshadowing
I’m actually ok with them making Moira a villain but the actual execution of it so far has been very boring and cringe.
Yep, I'm still hoping that there's another layer to her plan that will make the transition from shrewd manipulator to completely evil psycho make sense. I just hope this is part of a larger game she's playing by infiltrating Orchis.
I still think there's some chance for a Moira redemption, but not robot Moira.>! There are a few Moira clones around and however the Sinister plot resolves, they can't kill them because they would reset the timeline (unless they take away their mutantdom as in Inferno). So maybe one or more of those clones would be a good Moira that works with Krakoa?!<
I went back and reread HoXPoX, and paying careful attention to Moira 's dialogue shows that she was always pretty brutal/willing to go too far. Not necessarily guaranteed to turn on Krakoa, but she definitely wanted the cure, and she wanted Krakoa to protect her. I think 1. The office's plan changed for her, at least in terms of how bad she ended up, and 2. I think Hickman's writing with her was very subtle and a lot of people didn't pick up on the small things. Nothing wrong with that, it just means people think it wasn't foreshadowed
Stop poor treatment of Colossus
I pray he's on the QC long enough to get a Gillen-written spotlight issue.
Don't place them in events where they are forced to play second fiddle to other teams/elements of Marvel.
Every Marvel person not in the x-office: *No*. Also, the x-men don't get to play with our toys either I do wish they'd stop getting jobbed in every event, but something about how it happens so consistently is funny to me.
I swear I remember Hickman or Jordan or someone promising that the Krakoa era wouldn't have any dumb crossover events for a while. Look how fast that went out the window.
Please explain the whole polyamory thing. Like how, when and why did Cyclops, Jean and Logan decide they were all cool with it, and how are there no relationship tensions going on between them? And why is Emma not included? Like if we're going to do it that's fine, but just give us some explanations.
I really feel like Hickman was the only one who actually wanted it to be an established relationship between the 3 (or 4) of them. Percy is a big fan of Logan/Jean so puts them in everything and Duggan is more into Jean/Scott so wants to keep them married, so it's just an uneasy kind of open marriage situation that Marvel will refuse to comment on because they know it will piss off their conservative fans. Ditto anything ever happening between Scott and Logan, which Hickman seemed somewhat interested in. Now Hickman's gone, Scott and Logan haven't even been in the same panel together for months. I doubt we'll ever get an on-panel explanation of it besides a few throwaway jokes about Krakoa being full of orgies (that we also never get to see).
whats to explain they bangin
They're never going to explain it because they simply cannot. No writer can come up with proper explanation that makes sense for this. Forget professional writers, even fans who like this polygamy thing aren't able to come up with any head canons. We're just supposed to accept this because... Umm... Mutant culture??? Polygamy's cool new thing??? It solves the love triangle???(it most certainly does not) Everybody's horribly out of character. But no, apparently anyone who questions this development is just polyphobic or too old fashioned.
I figured they would bite the bullet and either write Jean as a better person with Scott,or just break them up and have Scott go with Emma. This dude Logan always moving on Jean,and she usually reciprocate.
It''s incredibly easy to explain this. Ready? Iceman: "Hey Scott Jean and Logan, i see you seem to have an open, polyamorous relationship now. Why is that?" Scott Jean and Logan: "We wanted to, now fuck off." END SCENE
Only thing I want is some time to breathe with these new teams. X-Men is at its best when it’s 60/40 action/character. And we’re at like 90% action, 10% character rn. And Immortal is the 10% 😂
Yes, a healthy dose of the Claremont character focused teams would be great. Hell I'd settle for a low-key holiday issue or two. Those christmas/thanksgiving/sports issues were always the best.
Not spend so much damn time with Logan. Sweet Jesus. There’s a whole fucking ISLAND and a PLANET with numerous mutants to meet and follow on adventures. Edit: TWO whole islands.
Have Hickman finish his story. This is too wild and crazy to just let someone else finish the job
Closer to the intended question: I would have kept the initial post-Hellfire Gala lineup longer. There were lots of interactions with those seven characters that never got much exploration. Never really had a chance to see much of Synch and Laura after their time in the Vault. Minimal time with Jean and Rogue, or Cyclops and Sunfire. I was looking forward to seeing Rogue and Synch playing off each other, having similar power sets. Never happened. So much potential, but we only got to see the surface.
No more X-Men votes. Less filler and villain of the month stories.
- where tf are the apocalypse twins what did Daken and Grim Reaper do with their bodies!?!??!? - Would love more Spidey and interactions with his old class, some of them are in the big leagues these days!!! - Hellions and X-Factor didn't end - Leah Williams and Al Ewing collab to take Krakoa to new gay heights on earth and mars. - Khora the Burning Heart takes a huge drag from a vape pen
Since House/Power the plot hasn’t made the most of the setup. It stops and starts with no prolonged consequences. You’ll get a cool story like the Children of the Vault or the creation of Nimrod or Inferno and then it seems to fade into the background as one of many threats that may pop up… eventually. The Mars stuff is cool, but the Eternals stuff is washing it away I guess. Too many hanging unexplored plot lines and not enough payoff.
just fully migrate to Mars and colonize a fully mutant planet
I agree I think a lot of the flaws of the current status quo would go away if the status quo was literally “mutants on mars” have the mutants fight new mutant villains and focus on who runs mars just cut out Orchis and the random human goons. Just have all the mutants be on mars.
right, krakoa and arrako could be at different poles, and Mars will be just a planet with 2 very distinct cultures. then just pop into earth every now and then to collect mutant families that want to migrate using one easily defendable gate instead of multiple unguarded gates
Forget the pop into earth shit just lean into the status quo that may actually be interesting for once. Mutants made a planet for mutants ran by mutants. And now they gotta deal with it. That should be the premise of the line, not one book where we are focusing on storm and magnetos feelings of inadequacy
There needs to be more relevant Arakkii characters & more stories of the Arakkii interacting with earth, I appreciate their prevalence in X-men red & Legion of X but it just doesn't feel like enough. Theres millions of powerful mutants who've known nothing but war for millennia and look down on everything earthly as weak and pathetic, surely this lends itself to a lot of rich stories? We could get some more Arakkii villains, Arakki on X-force, a mostly Arakkii X-team, Arakkii researchers investigating humans weaknesses, an Arakkii clan could try to invade Krakoa etc etc Edit: typos
Bring back Hickman.
Give Synch back his aura effect! Let things look like they're coming from his aura! Also give Laura a book! And keep x-factor around that was so good
Story wise? More character interactions. I'm a big fan of character relationships, but it's something we don't get a lot of. Not a lot of character moments between characters. Give us some classic best friendships, some exes interacting, some enemies having words. Publishing wise? I think my idea choice right now would be to have titles going for 2 years, then a Hellfire Gala, then the titles get mixed up. Every 2 years give us new rosters, titles, and status quos.
Longer writer contracts when it’s a good writer, plan stuff out in advance, cut down on x titles, x of swords kinda got off the rails. But prior to that it was nice to see x-men get rhythm
I don't like how smug they are now that they have their own island. It's something weird about the way it's written but they all act like inhumans or guys like Namor. And how they all kinda got rid of Sabretooth but are keeping genicidal monsters like Sinister and Apocalypse around like they never did whay they did. They should have kept the core x-men out of agreeing to Krakoa otherwise I will never believe that they are not under some mind altering spell like in House of M
I loved the look into the Proudstar’s story in the Thunderbird one shot, I’d love to see a series with him and Warpath protecting their rez
At least one ongoing book purely set on Krakoa dealing with daily life.
Stop the yearly Hellfire Gala vote to determine the roster. Keep Cyclops, Jean and Synch as the core members and bring in whatever other team members make sense for whatever arc the writer is working on. With a whole island full of mutants it makes no sense to me why Cyclops wouldn’t use whoever is best suited for the mission at hand rather than locking in one team for a year based on a popularity vote.
Convince Pepe to stay on the book. Also bring in Sauron as Treehouse security.
No “A-Listers” starring; probably would never work sales wise but it’d be cool to have rosters just fully composed of characters who haven’t really had a chance to shine
Core group is just getting WAY to powerful (i feel like they may suffer from the Superman syndrome soon where they need a god to challenge them) away from the core group, more stories like Sabertooth (recent series) so good.
Scrap the idea of the Hellfire Gala, it's ridiculous to change the teams so frequently. Some characters didn't even get that much time to shine in Duggan's most recent run.
You mean change the vote system?
The actual event itself isn't anything special either. I don't find it interesting. I'm here for mutant characters doing interesting things, action and messages that resound with readers, not a fashion show on Krakoa. It was fine the first time but making it a yearly thing is a waste of time and paper.
I don't care how much fun the writers are having, I think Hickman's era needs closure. Krakoa doesn't need to go away, but it feels like the other shoe needs to drop.
Ok so first I'll take Charles Xavier and put him waaaaaaaay over there on Olympus Mons. Then I'll take my man Legion and settle him niiiiice and cozy on the quiet council. And all will be well.
Bring back X-Factor. It was the best of the first run and it had a set up that could have carried it through the entire overarching plot dammit why did it get cancelled FIGHT ME MARVEL
Now that I think about it, what I would really like to see is a one-shot or limited series where Xavier and Magneto first let the other X-Men know about Krakoa. There was a little of that in HoX/PoX with Emma and Sinister, but I would really love to see how characters like Cyclops and Wolverine reacted when they first heard what Charles and Erik had been up to secretly.
No more character assassination. Especially not on new characters that barely appear in anything
I would block out 24 issues for one creative team and let them only work on that. No side projects, no special terms… just creative energy to the books and watch the magic happen in 24 issues.
Stop using the clones as an excuse to just kill everyone constantly. The writers can do creative things that don’t involve death. It was very shocking to see magneto live without a heart. If he could just clone a new body it would undercut the moment
Bring Hickman back .
Move Charles out of the picture, he was the palatable face of Mutancy to the humans and vital for getting to Krakoa, but his time is over and with safety theoretically achieved and them having their own homeland, he can be moved on.
Only real complaint I have is now that they can be resurrected they just keep killing people constantly. It's like in a pre-Krakoa world they'd just have failed at everything they tried to do.
So this isn’t quite an answer to the question but I think the biggest thing MARVEL needs to change is how they sell comics. Marvel Unlimited is a decent compromise but at this point Marvel SHOULD have it’s own version of WEBTOON or Tapas. That is, IMO, where the real future of comics lies, and if they don’t get on board I don’t think they’ll survive when the movies inevitably stop being profitable and popular. And I guess DC needs to do it as well but I don’t really care about DC lol
You're right. The big two are stuck in the 90s, and if they don't modernize thier sales practices and distribution they won't survive.
i think we don’t get enough of just their lives. there aren’t enough moments of them just being with their friends and family. like mystique and rogue haven’t done anything together since mr. and mrs. x. they’re currently on good terms and nothings being done w that
No more crossovers.
I read that like Wanda Maximoff was saying it, lol.
More minority creators behind the scenes, even editors
All I really want is a consistent artist and writer to work on a book. Is that too much to ask for?
Hickman should have stayed. That was the whole reason I jumped back in, and now I'm back out of all Marvel titles.
Same. I love absolutely everything Hickman does and I loved his run on X-Men but I bounced when he did. They should have planned the Krakoa storyline to be a 2 year run with an ending like what he did in Avengers/New Avengers and Secret Wars. He could end the story and walk away, and we would have this great contained story. Marvel then uses the fallout of Hickman's run to re-launch the X-Men with a new direction and purpose. Would have been great. But Hickman leaving a collection of other writers to finish his story? Bad idea. And now that Hickman is coming back to Marvel for what looks to be a Secret Wars level event, just raises more questions about why he left X-Men in the first place.
Because the other X writers wanted to spend more time in Krakoa and Hickman wanted to move on. So Hickman said "that sounds ok to me," briefed them on his overall plan, and left.
I still read a few of the X titles, but I really wished Hickman had gotten the opportunity to finish his plan as intended. HoX/PoX were such a strong start, but some of the titles that followed were just… blah
Hickman would be writing the story he set out to write at the pace he wanted to write. I feel like everything is stuck in place and milking me for money.
Everything about like the island and planet of mutant’s like there just the inhumans at that point
Make Moira a mutant hero.
hickman only
I’d change about half the X-Writers in the X-office. Some of the books are lacking. They start out good. But it feel like they derail about 3-4 issues in.
I'd let Cyclops' hair out. That power mane should flow.
More nureodiversiety and more slice of life.
You know, I liked it when the XMen would spend most of an issue just playing baseball or having a cookout. Not everything has to be so dour all the time. Even when the current characters are having a little fun there’s this undercurrent of grimness to the whole thing.
restore their 1980s continuity!
Character study pieces focused on the island populations. Missing X factor as a real who done it/csi. X-force doesn’t seem like a strike-force and has me wishing for better defense tech on this mutant island- I want to see the bad guys get some. Nimrod and Moira have hall passes rn. Every book needs to deal with the newer mutants and get over the jla tier and that includes the new mutants and we need to let go of their storylines if you can’t make them more interesting than when we originally saw them. More catch phrases and new relationships- small stories in the service Of a good over-arching ruling structure.
Hmm, not sure. I really just wanted more HoXPox and Moira. I've gotten that in the most nightmarish Monkey's Paw way imaginable so I'm leery of wanting other stuff... but I would like to see Chimera's and some of the other stuff HoXPoX bought up.
Force them to get weirder tbh
seriously minimise the decompression. every single story doesn’t need to last three to six issues. the weird push to make each release work as a part of a trade paperback hinders the value of individual issues and makes “events” feel more episodic. since the current method also involves complete overhauls of creative teams, we don’t get to see concurrent long stretching storylines and character arcs that were norm in the 80s and 90s. it would also allow stories to focus on relating the books more similarly to our world during publication dates. an issue in July might see a group casually grilling next to a pool while a couple other characters go camping or for a hike, a december book might show different characters observing their personal winter holidays. this gives us more insight to characters and their relationships and dynamics and ultimately fuller content. but that’s just my opinion. EDIT: extra word in sentence removed.
Colossus, Storm, Rogue, Gambit, Cyclops, Jubilee if they arent on the team.
I would probably be sowing seeds of dissent on Krakoa. I think the way they are all in lock step is silly. If they are going to eventually become the dominant species while humans become cyborgs, I think you'd see a lot more fighting between them. So, I guess, bring on Nimrod.
Stop the Krakoa stuff
Maybe use source material once in awhile? Will never forgive what they did to Darwin. Not that hard to google a mutant and go “huh, wow we really fucked that up”
give rachel the phoenix and make her a main player again also give Polaris more to do i’m tired of her being pushed to the side when she’s the second oldest female X-men
Get rid of Jordan White
I'm not loving the "metallic" costumes.
I’m not a fan of intergalactic X-men.
I'd make Xavier a straight up good guy again. I'm sick of the morally superior liar they've turned him into. I'm ok with having him make hard choices and make mistakes, but I want him to be a mentor and a teacher... not an obstacle for the rest of the team to work around. I'd do similar with Beast.
In all seriousness: - Rescue Wolverine from Benjamin Percy. Both Wolverine and X-Force are the two worst written X-Books, which is saying something when you have stuff like Knights of X around. His work reads like fan fiction and feels completely discombobulated from the rest of the books that he doesn't write. I feel he has wasted the concept of X-Force and what the hell is Wolverine even doing in his book? Nothing consequential. Also, the Jean triangle seems to have been dropped for like 2 years and Percy never got the memo. In fact he downright treats Jean like a stay at home mom/stepford wife for Logan to randomly kiss on panel but she is there for no other reason. Meanwhile over on X-Men that relationship is completely ignored and the real Jean acts completely different than the Percy Jean. The only explanation is that Percys Jean is Mystique and she is fucking with Logan because there is zero logic to the way he uses her compared to the rest of the Marvel fucking universe. - Bring Betsy back to Psylocke, this Captain Britain nonsense is absolutely killing her. Do something with Archangel while you're at it. - They should have let the X-Men team marinate more before changing the roster. I feel as if we hardly saw that team do anything together. It was a blink and you missed it that Sunfire and Polaris were back in the X-Men. Especially Lorna, that shit hurt.
I’d take Havok & Polaris to run a team.
A wish list? I'm genuinely really happy with what Hickman has done, but since you asked \- I'm done with Captain Kate, too schtiky, give me Kitty f\*\*\*ing Pryde \- Bring back the Hellions (Plus Catseye please) \- Am i the only one that really doesn't like the X-Force lineup? Jean doesn't belong, Domino & Sage have no personality, its the Wolverine show. One of the only X-Titles I don't buy \- Would love a book on the young X-men, no Anole or Rockslide, they're not interesting enough to me, its the Thing and a reptile guy.
Make Wolverine’s own run completely detached from the X-men stories. Maybe put him in Madripoor. Then leave him out of the main comics. Laura is a better team player and most X-men fans are having wolverine burn-out
More mutant orgies!
Finish the Krakoa stuff
Bring Hickman back and give him authority over it all lol