The state of the X-men

[Alpha Trion]

I've been pretty frustrated with the franchise for a while now. We have an excellent set of writers on the books: Gillen, Carey, Aaron, Remenderm, DnA and Wells before them have all done great things. But it feels like editorial is just throwing out horrible idea after horrible idea that these writers are left to try and work with. Schism felt so forced and silly. Suddenly after all these years, Wolverine's lost his stomach for putting kids on the front line?

A big contributing problem is the publishing schedule itself. How do these stories fit together? I have no idea. Aaron did a 16 issue story in Wolvy's solo book that goes some way towards explaining his new feelings re: the kids, but it's last issue (which leads directly into Schism #1) came out the same time as the last issue of Schism. There are so many titles featuring nearly the same cast of X-Men, but they don't seem to reflect each other. Clearly Archangel is going to be taken off the playing field somehow in the excellent Dark Angel Saga's conclusion, but this story's been taking its merry time and meanwhile the rest of the franchise has moved on. So we get stuff like characters awkwardly trying to talk about Warren in Regenesis and Uncanny #1 without saying what exactly happened to him.

And what the hell is the point of Adjectiveless and Astonishing? The franchise does not need two continuity-lite books by semi-mediocre writers. Gischler's X-Men Team-Up has yet to produce a good read and I dropped Astonishing like a flesh-eating baby the moment Daniel Way turned up.

Uncanny X-Force has been consistently excellent though, which I couldn't have imagined coming off the back of the awful Kyle/Yost run. To anyone not reading any X-books, I can't recommend this one enough. It's also probably the most standalone series going now.

[Dead Man Wade]

Suddenly after all these years, Wolverine's lost his stomach for putting kids on the front line?

Yeah, that really didn't make a whole lot of sense. Jubilee and Shadowcat have been front and center for all sorts of mayhem, and Logan never had any problem. A bunch of kids volunteer to protect their home at a time when there isn't a single team of X-men on site, and suddenly he goes all weak-kneed? Seems to me that Wolverine, of all people would understand the nature of necessity.

And what the hell is the point of Adjectiveless and Astonishing? The franchise does not need two continuity-lite books by semi-mediocre writers.

Adjectiveless has yet to offer any reason for its existence beyond seeing how many books they can have running at one time before the inevitable mass cancellation. Astonishing, I haven't read consistently since Ellis' run, but I don't really see a point to it anymore. Every character in that book is being handled better elsewhere.

Uncanny X-Force has been consistently excellent though, which I couldn't have imagined coming off the back of the awful Kyle/Yost run. To anyone not reading any X-books, I can't recommend this one enough. It's also probably the most standalone series going now.

Uncanny X-Force has been one of the most pleasant surprises in some time. Remender has turned out a book that is endlessly entertaining, with characters that are engaging and funny. K/Y's run on X-Force was largely crap, which I only continued reading so that I could say I'd done so. It was a chore, whereas Uncanny is something I actively look forward to.

SO. The read-through continues. Have now finished Uncanny and X-men/Legacy. Began New Mutants a day or two ago, but this one is slow going, as returning to the days of Claremont after re-reading every tiresome retread is torture.

I tried reading them concurrently for a while, but decided to leave that largely for crossovers. Reading like that got to be too big a headache.

[Cyberstrike nTo]

IMHO X-Factor is not on the best x-title it's the best damn book Marvel publishes. David avoids most the crossover nonsense but when he's forced to use it he works his storylines into the crossovers and doesn't burden the reader with tons of pointless recaps and exposition he tells you what need to understand the story and figures most readers are either reading the rest of the crossovers, read about it on the internet, or both.

Sometimes he does stories that actually feels like he's commenting on the crossover or event. He had one issue where the team is investigating a possible vampire and one of them makes a crack something to effect: "I wonder what would happen if mutants got into war with vampires?" the reply was "Yeah, like that will ever happen!" and this was shortly after Curse of the Mutants had finished.

He also takes a character like Jamie Maddox and makes him a a great leader (I mean if you told me back in the 90s that this third string character would be the star of the best books on the market and one the best characters in the Marvel Universe I would have I laughed) who is VERY flawed, and screws up and you like the guy. He's one of the few mutants to have the guts to stand up to BOTH Cyclops and Wolverine.

[relak]

About the crossover events peeve: lol that's why i stick to buying the collcted hardcover editions for X-men instead of following any one series

It's so much easier to read that way