I was perusing the titles this week at my local comic shop when I came upon a new book called "What If...Uncanny X-Men". I'm game. So I picked it up and flipped through it. The description of the original Marvel story that was being "What Iffed" was not familiar to me. I don't think I missed much. Turns out there was a second team of X-Men at Krakatoa and a third Summers brother, Vulcan, who was on that team. The team was wiped out except for Vulcan, who now hates and blames Xavier. I was lost. I don't believe this in uncommon amongst comic readers today.

In fairness, I stopped reading the X-Men years ago because I thought there were too many X-Books, too many characters, etc and what made them unique and uncanny was neither anymore. And I LOVED the X-Men.

But the X-Men are by far the largest, single comics success story of the last thirty years. JB was one of the largest factors in their meteoric rise. I stopped reading X-titles years ago and only pick up a book if their is a new team on board that interests me, think Morrison. I only stay on board if the team delivers, think Whedon, Byrne.

Are the X-Men victims of their own success? In an effort to capitalize on their success, did Marvel kill the (creative) Golden Goose? What happened to the X-Men?

(This should be good......)

I find all of the current X-books (with the exception of First Class) to be impenetrable.  There's no way for me to talk myself into jumping into the quagmire.

The notion, tho, that much of what has gone wrong with the X-Men (and, indeed, many other characters) springs from too many fans-turned-pro with too little editorial control (or self-restraint!) is one I have made many times. Superhero comics these days read more like upscale fanzines than any sort of truly professional publications.

What happened to the X-Men is yet another example of "What sounds cool" overriding what makes sense in terms of who the characters are and what the core concepts are.

Everyone is so concerned about "continuity" when it comes to history and events, but as soon as somebody has a "cool idea" continuity of characterization goes right out the window!

It doesn't matter that Mystique, Emma Frost, and Sabretooth (!!!) have tried to KILL the X-Men countless times. It just sounds so "cool" to think of them being part of the team, fighting side by side with Cyclops and Wolverine! Fuck consistent character behavior! Just put them in the books! The "fans" will love it! 

QUOTE: Worth noting, I suppose, that a not-too-dissimilar cry was heard in fandom when GIANT-SIZED X-MEN 1 was published.

But wasn't GIANT-SIZED the first new material in more than 4 years?  If fans had a problem with it, they had only themselves to blame.  Or am I misunderstanding something (again)?

As to the out-of-character handling of Magneto -- a year or so before this turned up in the books Chris and Weezie gave and interview, and when the question was posed "What are your plans for Magneto?" Chris said "Oh, he's going to become a teacher at the school!" followed by a parenthetical (laughter). I read this and thought Uh oh. I knew from experience that those words, having passed Chris' lips, would not fade away until they came to pass, however inappropriate that might be.


*In some instances some tweaking was required. Chris had wanted Nightcrawler to be revealed to be devoutly Jewish. Roger and I pointed out that this was unlikely for a character who was a German of his (then) age. Later, Kurt became devoutly Catholic. Potay-to, potah-to?