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Why Are Marvel’s X-Men Comics So Terrible Right Now?

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Slayven

Member
*Points to the Avengers or Spider-books*
Spiderman can't help but be great, and we going to act like Avengers was always hot? They were in the shit bucket right before heroes return, and then again right before New Avengers relaunch
It seems like they pissed off a lot of the super stars that ran over to Inage. That's on a general level too, not just the X-Men.

There's been a serious exodus of talent as of late. I don't really agree with the point made in one of the excerpts in the OP - that they have great talent on the X-books that just isn't putting things together. They have D-C list writers on these. I don't want to be mean, but when the best one is a book by Bendis, what does that tell you?

Yeah but they are bringing in a lot of new blood outside of comics which is surely needed
 
X-Men '92 has been good so far. Hopefully The Death of X leads to the rumored relaunch of X books.

Marvel relaunches everything, all the time. You can almost set your watch to it.

Amazing Spider-Man, Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2009, Silk, Spider-Gwen.

That Marvel has built an entire (successful) goddamn line off of Spider-Man is amazing, no pun intended. There is a thrust and point to each book, while also fitting within a larger line-wide context.

The X-Books don't have that. They have no hopeful drive, no clear direction, no compelling leads, and for the most part, no unique character.

I am happy that people enjoy Marvel's Spider-Man output, but to me it really does feel like Dan Slott dumped all his action figures on the page. Echos of clone saga, where I stopped reading the first time, I guess.

his books have zero character. Only the broadest of personality differences for his huge interchangeable cast, only a modicum of narrative momentum in his huge, decompressed 60+ issue "epics". He's Brian Michael Bendis if he picked up a science book.

I thought I was the only one who didn't dig Hickman's Marvel output, it just read like overwritten nonsense. Manhattan Projects is dope, though.
 
I feel like X-Men books wont be good again until people in the comics stop being delusional & say the 3 magic words...

I think Ewing could fix them though.
 
X-Line up is like the Los Angeles Lakers. Great from late 70s-early 90s, then wack until early 2000s with the new superstars came on, stayed relevant throughout the decade before peaking near the end, then all their superstars left and now they turrible. They got a bunch of young guys on the line-up that management hope develop into superstars one day.
 

Sandfox

Member
It seems like they pissed off a lot of the super stars that ran over to Inage. That's on a general level too, not just the X-Men.

There's been a serious exodus of talent as of late. I don't really agree with the point made in one of the excerpts in the OP - that they have great talent on the X-books that just isn't putting things together. They have D-C list writers on these. I don't want to be mean, but when the best one is a book by Bendis, what does that tell you?
Bendis isn't writing any X-books and I wouldn't call writers like Lemire C-D list.
 
Are Marvel/DC comics in general profitable these days, or do they exist solely as marketing tools for the films?

DC Rebirth sales are destroying current Marvel books with the exception of Civil War II and Star Wars. Now we don't know how the numbers will be in the next coming months but DC is slowly gaining back some traction they lost with the New 52. In terms of what the comics serve, there both marketing tools for movies and standalone products that exist in it's own comic universe.
 
Briefly got into some of the older X-Men comics like a year ago, but as I read more on the wiki about the current storylines I kinda just bailed on the series. Is
professor x
alive again yet, and is cyclops still being a dick?

edit:

its what happens when you kill off the main character(Cyclops) with no one to fill the void.

oh
 

ElNarez

Banned
Bendis isn't writing any X-books and I wouldn't call writers like Lemire C-D list.

I would.

All of his team books, and I am including Justice League United in this, have been bad-to-average.

He's only A-List when compared to Dennis "Avengers Arena and Avengers Undercover" Hopeless and Cullen "Aquaman, Sinestro, a whole mess of super-bland stuff" Bunn.
 

Squire

Banned
Hickman was our savior. Can hardly believe some posts.

Yeah but they are bringing in a lot of new blood outside of comics which is surely needed

Absolutely! Is X-men getting that new blood though? Doesn't seem like it.

Bendis isn't writing any X-books and I wouldn't call writers like Lemire C-D list.

Old Man Logan isn't an X-book? Either way, I was referring to Dalej saying that was the best one currently.

Lemire is OK. I really don't think calling him C-list is out of step. Very mixed work from what I've read. Though I would say the same for Bendis, now that I think about it.
 
Spiderman can't help but be great, and we going to act like Avengers was always hot? They were in the shit bucket right before heroes return, and then again right before New Avengers relaunch


Yeah but they are bringing in a lot of new blood outside of comics which is surely needed

Yeah but the new blood aren't on any major titles, with the exception of Black Panther of course. Idk if Marvel will trust a new blood to fix the X-Men.
 

Sandfox

Member
I would.

All of his team books, and I am including Justice League United in this, have been bad-to-average.

He's only A-List when compared to Dennis "Avengers Arena and Avengers Undercover" Hopeless and Cullen "Aquaman, Sinestro, a whole mess of super-bland stuff" Bunn.

I never called him A-list, and he most certainly isn't D-list lol. Also, I'm not just looking at his team books when talking about him as a writer.

Hickman was our savior. Can hardly believe some posts.



Absolutely! Is X-men getting that new blood though? Doesn't seem like it.



Old Man Logan isn't an X-book? Either way, I was referring to Dalej saying that was the best one currently.

Lemire is OK. I really don't think calling him C-list is out of step. Very mixed work from what I've read. Though I would say the same for Bendis, now that I think about it.
Lemire is writing Old Man Logan, not Bendis.
 
The X-Books are fucking garbage, probably the worst they've ever been as a whole. Back in the 90s, if the 2 main series weren't cutting it, Generation X, X-Factor and eventually X-Force were hitting it out of the park. Now you've got Extraordinary, Uncanny and All-New which are mind-numbingly dull. I've never been less hopeful for the X-Line as a whole. Not a single breakout book to read above the others, not a single interesting plotline. Let's all just hope Death of X is a complete reboot of the whole franchise.

The talent just isn't there now. Years ago you could have Coipel, Bachalo and Anka as main artists, now we have Mark Bagley and Greg fucking Land. In terms of writers it's just as bad. I don't think Cullen Bunn or Jeff Lemire have ever impressed anyone with a superhero work, yet they're the best we have, lmao. It's jut sad to read these garbage books.
 
The X-Books are fucking garbage, probably the worst they've ever been as a whole. Back in the 90s, if the 2 main series weren't cutting it, Generation X, X-Factor and eventually X-Force were hitting it out of the park. Now you've got Extraordinary, Uncanny and All-New which are mind-numbingly dull. I've never been less hopeful for the X-Line as a whole. Not a single breakout book to read above the others, not a single interesting plotline. Let's all just hope Death of X is a complete reboot of the whole franchise.

The talent just isn't there now. Years ago you could have Coipel, Bachalo and Anka as main artists, now we have Mark Bagley and Greg fucking Land. In terms of writers it's just as bad. I don't think Cullen Bunn or Jeff Lemire have ever impressed anyone with a superhero work, yet they're the best we have, lmao. It's jut sad to read these garbage books.

Land has always drawn X-Men comics. Not saying he's the best, he's garbage, but he's mostly been an X-Men artist like Bachalo. I never liked Anka. Way too stiff. I like that Bachalo is branching out though. It's strange (heh) seeing his art style on a book that isn't X-Men related.

Also Lemire's Green Arrow impressed everyone and he's at least doing good work on Old Man Logan.
 

Parallax

best seen in the classic "Shadow of the Beast"
The ballad of RightClops gave us Beast getting his soul snatched by the Watcher

its amazing how the rightclops meme picked up on a lucky shot, but beast was dumb as hell bringing past mutants to the future. he should know time travel=bad
 

Mafro

Member
The last X-book I really enjoyed was Aaron's Wolverine and the X-Men before Avengers vs X-Men completely derailed it and it never recovered its quality after that. The last truly great one was Remender's Uncanny X-Force. Haven't bought any team X-books since Bendis' reign of terror completely killed my interest in them. I thought the first arc of post-Secret Wars Old Man Logan was ok, I'll probably pick up more issues of that whenever it's on sale on Comixology.

That whole side of the universe needs to just be completely rebooted and start again. Schism was the beginning of the end.

Marvel comics in general are suffering from a talent exodus and X-men are a super low priority
The post-Secret Wars relaunch is the worst it's been in about a decade I'm my opinion. My pull list went from 10 to about 3. They've lost too many of their top writers over the past few years and don't have good enough talent replacing them.

The problem is that Hickman sucks the fun out of everything he touches.
Wrote one of the all-time great Fantastic Four and Avengers runs, plus two of the best crossover events Marvel have ever done, so no.
 
Your favorite Black Panther writer, Coates, digs the shit out of Hickman's portrayal of T'Challa in New Avengers.

WHAT NOW?
 
of all the artists to keep on X-Men...Greg Land. And Mark Bagley ol lightly toasted wonder bread/water without any ice ass...
 

amanset

Member
Wrote one of the all-time great Fantastic Four and Avengers runs, plus two of the best crossover events Marvel have ever done, so no.

You quoted me saying he sucked the fun out of everything he touches.

Your view of the runs are different to mine, but surely you can see that the humour/fun went AWOL? Yes, he had wild big ideas but the dryness of it just bored me.
 

Mudcrab

Member
Marvel's had a brain drain across all their titles, it's just that much more sever on the X-side of things..

You quoted me saying he sucked the fun out of everything he touches.

Your view of the runs are different to mine, but surely you can see that the humour/fun went AWOL? Yes, he had wild big ideas but the dryness of it just bored me.

Please.

7RjEbf3.jpg

Funniest shit this side of "I'm With Stupid"

Your favorite Black Panther writer, Coates, digs the shit out of Hickman's portrayal of T'Challa in New Avengers.

WHAT NOW?

The poets will always let you know.
 

kswiston

Member
You quoted me saying he sucked the fun out of everything he touches.

Your view of the runs are different to mine, but surely you can see that the humour/fun went AWOL? Yes, he had wild big ideas but the dryness of it just bored me.

You have to realize you are a minority opinion on FF when it is widely considered the best or second best run on that book in like 30 years.
 
For me, Marvel comics in general are a shadow of their former selves. I thought this was something that was accepted across the board, hense the need to stir up the pot first with controversial storylines, then the current diversity push to gain new readers?
 

Mafro

Member
You quoted me saying he sucked the fun out of everything he touches.

Your view of the runs are different to mine, but surely you can see that the humour/fun went AWOL? Yes, he had wild big ideas but the dryness of it just bored me.
Nope there was still plenty of humour to go with the serious stuff. I'd much rather that than every character being a snarky prick which seems to be commonplace these days, especially in Bendis books.
 
Right, I forgot about Greg Land. Every time I want to get back into X-Men and I check out a titlte that looks interesting, the artist is always fucking Greg Land. Nothing against the guy, but I wish he never touched an X-Men title. Does Witchblade still exist? If so, he would be a perfect fit and I would never have to look at his art ever again.
 
For me, Marvel comics in general are a shadow of their former selves. I thought this was something that was accepted across the board, hense the need to stir up the pot first with controversial storylines, then the current diversity push to gain new readers?

Pushing for diversity isn't some hot topic. Every comic company needs to push for diversity.
Right, I forgot about Greg Land. Every time I want to get back into X-Men and I check out a titlte that looks interesting, the artist is always fucking Greg Land. Nothing against the guy, but I wish he never touched an X-Men title. Does Witchblade still exist? If so, he would be a perfect fit and I would never have to look at his art ever again.
Witchblade is done but it had a lot of cool artist that drew better than Land.

JA2tTnj.jpg


Land on Witchblade is an insult. Even Zenoscope artist are above him.
 

Mudcrab

Member
For me, Marvel comics in general are a shadow of their former selves. I thought this was something that was accepted across the board, hense the need to stir up the pot first with controversial storylines, then the current diversity push to gain new readers?

The reality is Marvel has zero answers for the talent drain of the last few years, no more Hickman or Fraction or Brubaker or Remender or Gillen or King, and definitely none of the ideas that came with them.

Who we got left? Ewing, Aaron, and Coates on one book?
 

tabs2002

Member
They killed Jean, Wolverine, Professor X. Cyclops is MIA. Kitty left

And the X-Men don't seem to be a priority for Marvel at the moment.
 

Mafro

Member
Right, I forgot about Greg Land. Every time I want to get back into X-Men and I check out a titlte that looks interesting, the artist is always fucking Greg Land. Nothing against the guy, but I wish he never touched an X-Men title. Does Witchblade still exist? If so, he would be a perfect fit and I would never have to look at his art ever again.
Really annoys me that he's on Uncanny X-Men because I was actually semi-interested in the new run of that due to the line up and premise being a bit like Uncanny X-Force, but his art put me off.
 
The reality is Marvel has zero answers for the talent drain of the last few years, no more Hickman or Fraction or Brubaker or Remender or Gillen or King, and definitely none of the ideas that came with them.

Who we got left? Ewing, Aaron, and Coates on one book?
I would add Waid, Spencer and Wilson.
 
Witchblade is done but it had a lot of cool artist that drew better than Land.

Land on Witchblade is an insult. Even Zenoscope artist are above him.

Ok, I take it back. How about Greg Land as a back-up artist for Tarot, Witch of the Black Rose? I'm sure Jim Balent would appreciate the help and they would be a good team I'm sure.

Yes, I just mentioned Tarot for some reason. I don't read it, I swear!

Really annoys me that he's on Uncanny X-Men because I was actually semi-interested in the new run of that due to the line up and premise being a bit like Uncanny X-Force, but his art put me off.

Yeah, same. I just checked out the first issue on Marvel Unlimited a couple of days ago and as soon as I saw his name I closed the app.
 

Sub_Level

wants to fuck an Asian grill.
After Days of Future Past came out, I subbed to 4 different Xmen comics. I let them all expire lol

Since I was on Marvel Unlimited, I did read Rick Remender's X-Force which was pretty cool tho.
 

TaterTots

Banned
I stopped reading after Joss Whedon's and John Cassaday's run on Astonishing X-Men. I haven't enjoyed what I've seen.
 
The reality is Marvel has zero answers for the talent drain of the last few years, no more Hickman or Fraction or Brubaker or Remender or Gillen or King, and definitely none of the ideas that came with them.

Who we got left? Ewing, Aaron, and Coates on one book?
Why does everyone think Gillen left? He still has two issues of Darth Vader left and he said he has a new unannounced Marvel book on the way.
 
Really annoys me that he's on Uncanny X-Men because I was actually semi-interested in the new run of that due to the line up and premise being a bit like Uncanny X-Force, but his art put me off.

The funny thing is that he's not the worst thing about that book.
 

Mudcrab

Member
Why does everyone think Gillen left? He still has two issues of Darth Vader left and he said he has a new unannounced Marvel book on the way.

Right on the Star Wars side of things and we'll have to wait and see what that Marvel book actually is first before getting our hopes up.
 
Bendis's run started OK but it was clear he lost his entire motivation somewhere after the first few months.

It's definitely a meandering franchise with no direction whatsoever. Its a shame too because both Extraordinary and Uncanny have great lineups... The thing is X-Men has always had a "core" book where the best writers and artists go, which set the direction and plot for the rest of the franchise, and right now they don't have that.

The reality is Marvel has zero answers for the talent drain of the last few years, no more Hickman or Fraction or Brubaker or Remender or Gillen or King, and definitely none of the ideas that came with them.

Who we got left? Ewing, Aaron, and Coates on one book?

Yeah this is the problem with ANAD Marvel in general. That and the fact that for some dumb reason Marvel decided to publish MORE books even as their talent is stretching so thin.
 

mjc

Member
I'd agree with the blame landing on a talent leak. Marvel hasn't been able to replace the creative juices lost when Hickman/Fraction/Brubaker left.

Talent turnover is common anyways, give it a few more years and there'll be another stable of solid writers.
 
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