Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities X-Men

I am growing closer and closer to making a decision regarding getting both X-Men titles. While sometimes I enjoy the titles (X-Men more than Uncanny, lately), I'm starting to wonder what the heck is the point.

Between the Classic issues, TPBs, and monthly collecting, I have a 98% complete run of Uncanny and X-Men from the debut of the "All-New" team (rivalled only by my 95% complete Legion 1958-today. Don't be too impressed, most of it is in archive form). I've been rereading them from the beginning (I'm up to about 1986 now), and I'm really depressed about how much I cared for those characters and how little I care for them now.

Is it because I started reading during the Claremont era? Is it because the modern comics are so much more....modern? Were those comics really that much better than they are now? Should I drop the X-Titles (I' ve already given up on everything but the core two titles and X-Treme, which I'm even closer to dropping)? Any similar stories of woe?

It was hard to do, because I too was a huge X-fan for many years, but I stopped collecting all X-Titles regularly a few years ago. They just weren't the same anymore. I think it all started to go downhill when they branched out into multiple titles. It began to fracture the franchise, I think, and the creators they brought onboard did nothing to enhance the mythos.

In the last 3 or 4 years, I think I've purchased less than 2 dozen issues of any X-Title, and in some cases it was more for the art than the story (the Jiminez issues come to mind).

AFO Boy, with my father and uncle, I co-own every issue of Uncanny X-Men and X-Men, and have read them all strait through. That being said, I have to say that I'm very dissapointed with the X-titles most of the time. I keep hoping that the new team will take over and make the books good again, but so far it's been very unsatisfing for a few years in a row.

I really don't have any advice, I know I'm going to check out the new creative teams. But we'll just have to see...again...

I think part of the big breakdown in the X-Men franchise (creatively at least) is that they stopped seeming like a tight-knit group of misfit heroes. When the "new" X-Men came around, they had no idea what to do with 13 X-Men -- now there are dozens running around and you never know when which character is going to appear aside from the main handful.

With so many characters, it's been almost impossible for them to explore any real character dynamics that are lasting or effective. Now there's a main plot or arc and any character dynamics are simply hints of what was created a dozen years ago.

I actually think it was handled fairly well during the early and mid-90's. 6 X-Books. 5-6 members per team. For a while, at least, it worked. I didn't even mind the huge crossovers every couple of years.

I had a collection that started in the reprint era but sold the giant sized issue ages ago. I think what I've got left goes from the Moses Magnum story through the team splitting up into way too many books. It all just got too much for me and I dropped them except for the ocassional book to 'look in on' them.

When Ultimate started I thought it was a great way to start over with characters I loved without having to read 99 books a month. The series has had its up and downs but its still on my pull list and will probably be the only X book I'll keep collecting. Although, I am tempted to see what Joss Whedon is going to do with Astonishing X-Men.

Oh, so is that was Joss is doing? I am so there.

As for the X-Men, can't help you there. Still, if you don't mind it not being comic books, X-Men: Evolution?

I'm starting to believe that the X-Titles need a little Scourging, along the lines of the vigilante who cleaned out so many Marvel villains back in the mid-80's. There are so many characters, so much overlap of characters between the titles, and so many different creators doing so many different things that I don't even know who's who anymore.

It's funny that a couple of you are talking about the splintering being one of the problems, because I'm just now getting to the Asgardian Wars era, when things were happening in New Mutants, Kitty and Wolverine mini, the Wolverine mini, etc. that affected what was happening in the core title. It's vaguely irritating.